Moodle How To : display syllabus

The Moodle architecture allows the teacher to display the course syllabus in a visually engaging way.

We'll take a syllabus currently displayed as a web page and transfer the text chunk by chunk into appropriate sections of a Moodle course. You could do this equally well with a syllabus in MS Word format.

1. Make sure the course has the correct title and mnemonic:

   1. click Administration : Settings ...
   2. Category - Department name (from pull down list)
   3. Full name - enter course name or change if needed
   4. Short name - enter course mnemonic or change if needed

2. In the Summary area of Course Settings, add a description of the course . This might include such sections as:
   • objectives / goals
   • evaluation / grading
   • assignments / readings
   • attendance / participation
   • group work

   You can copy and paste from a web based syllabus or a MS-Word document.
   The following video clip shows how to add material to the course summary [length: 2:05]. You can use the flash controls to step through or replay parts while you complete the task in another browser window.

   This video is a fairly lengthy clip which takes you through the process of formatting the course summary [length: 6:54] with headings, indents, ordered lists, and changing font.

   See the next section for where to put the schedule.

3. You can divide your schedule up into weekly sections which can be pasted into the weekly summary boxes:
   1. Turn editing on
   2. click Edit summary icon for appropriate week.
   3. copy text from web page and paste in.

   Here's a video clip that shows adding weekly course topic headings [length: 0:48] and content into the weekly summary.
   Another video clip expands this process and also shows how to hide a week from student's view [length: 1:35].

4. You can make announcements online to your class by adding them to the News forum. All the newest announcements are listed in the "Latest news" box and every posting is automatically emailed to the class.
   

   To Add an announcement to the News Forum:

   1. Click on News Forum
   2. Add a new topic
   3. fill in Subject: & Message: to post (for example see accompanying video clip).
      Note that all students are subscribe to this forum so they will automatically receive an email message.
   4. Browse and add an attachement if desired.
   5. Save changes.
      video clip of example announcement [length: 2:20].