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Moodle Tutorials: Beginning of Semester Checklist

Beginning of Semester Checklist

1. Link your Moodle course to a course listed in BoxerOnline or Request an unlinked Moodle course site.

(See Linking Your Course to Moodle or Requesting an Unlinked Moodle Course)

2. Add any additional instructors, TAs, or other users who may need access to your site

To add users to a site,

  1. Go to the course homepage.

  2. In the Course quick links block in the upper left corner, click Participants to open the list of course participants.

  3. Then click the Enroll users button at the top right-hand of the page and then search for the user you wish to enroll.

  4. Assign the role you want the person to have

  5. Click Enroll users to complete the enrollment. 

For complete instructions on how to enroll users, see our help page on adding users.

4. Import content from a previous or other course

1. Go to the course site that you want to import into, and click on the Administration gear in the right corner of the page, select Import from the drop down menu.

2.  From the Import page, select the course you want to transfer and click Continue. If the course is not listed, use the Search box. NOTE: Only courses for which you are the instructor will appear on this list.

3. Next, you will see a page with options on what to include in the import. If you would like everything to transfer, select all four. If you would like to exclude activities, blocks, filters, or the question bank, uncheck the respective box or boxes and click Next.

4. You will then see a page that shows all of the files on your course site. Deselect any files that you do not wish to transfer and then click Next.

5. On the next page, you will be able to view everything that has transferred. If there are any mistakes, fix them at this point by clicking previous and going back to the pages before. Once you are satisfied with everything that has been imported, select Perform import.

6. Select Continue on the next page and you will be redirected to the page where your materials have been imported.

For complete instructions on how to Import content, see our tutorial on copying content.

5. Make sure your course site is not hidden (and therefore unavailable to enrolled students)

To check to see whether your site is available:

  1. Go to the course homepage.

  2. Click the Administration gear, then click Edit settings.

  3. Under the General section find the Course Visibility field (3rd field from the top). From the drop down menu for the Visible field (up/down arrows in the field right corner), select Show to make the course available to students.

  4. Click the Save and display button.

6. Update dates on Activities

It is simple to change the dates on all Activities in your course at the same time.

1. Click on the Administration gear in the right corner of the page, select More... from the bottom of the drop down menu to open the Course administration page.

2. From the Course administration page, click on the Reports tab.

3. From the Reports page, click Dates.

4. From the Dates page, you can filter your Activities by type, or Expand all (right side of the page near the top).

5. From the page that opens, you can update all dates at once. 

Don't forget to Save changes before you leave the page.

To see a detailed tutorial with images, visit the Updating Dates tutorial.

7. If you are using the weekly layout, make sure that the weeks have the appropriate start dates

To set the week dates...

  1. Go to the course homepage.

  2. Click the Administration gear, then click Edit settings.

  3. Change the Course start date to the appropriate date.

For more information on setting up weeks and topics, see our page on setting up the layout of your Moodle site.

8. You may want to contact your students and let them know that they can access course resources via Moodle course management system

You can use the Announcements Forum in your Moodle site to send an e-mail announcement to all of your students. For instructions on using the Announcements forum, see our page on adding an announcement.

For more information on how students access their Moodle sites, see our page for students on accessing their Moodle course.

9. Be sure to stop by a Moodle Workshop to review Moodle functions and learn some new skills

Learn more about upcoming workshops and events.