Invest in the clarity of your Moodle area

Belongs to themes:

By selecting a degree programme you are able to see the general content as well as the possible degree programme-specific content.

Moodle is the most versatile online learning environment used at the University of Helsinki. It is a good choice when you want to use an interactive online platform on your course. Tips:

  • A Moodle area must have a clear structure to ensure that students do not become frustrated with searching for materials and assignments. In most cases, Moodle is based on the progress of the course so that the first section presents information about course progress, the second section the content of the first major theme of the course (e.g., the first targeted learning outcome), the third section the content of the second theme, etc.
  • Name the sections, links and other content descriptively – the navigation on the left serves as the course's table of contents. Number the content if the student goes through it in a particular order.
  • In order to keep Moodle’s home page from becoming too long, add longer texts on there own pages, files in folders and assignments together with submission statuses.
  • You can also show one sections per page in your Moodle area (see Settings > Course format > Course layout). See example: Introduction to guidance for teachers.
  • Remove/hide content and functions that are not used (e.g. the News forum, if not used).

The Moodle area should have  

  • A link to the course page with a course description and learning outcomes
  • The course progress preferably summarised on a single page: course progression, course assignments, material and how the assignments affect the course grade 
  • A discussion area for teacher bulletins and student questions – online courses also often have a discussion area for introductions
  • Links to learning material (please note copyright)
  • Assignment submission statuses with the assignment of tasks and teacher feedback on the assignments submitted
  • Links to online lectures, if any (you can create Zoom meetings in Moodle)
  • Online exams and teacher evaluation, if any
  • Completion Progress supports students’ time management, gives a visual view to proceeding on the course and helps to understand course workload, read more in MoodleDocs: Completion Progress block

More Moodle instructions and support

Images of the Moodle area

Images of the Moodle area

If a course image is used in the course, it will appear at the top of the Moodle area. It is added in the course settings (Settings tab and Course image) and if you want to remove it, it is removed in the same place. The course image will also appear in the card images on the My Courses page. Unfortunately, you cannot choose to have the image displayed in only one place, but the same image will be displayed in both. The height of the image at the beginning of the course area is 150 px.