Moodle Guide

Biodiversity e-Learning Platform

Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 2
Creating a course ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Adding a new course ....................................................................................................................................... 3
To edit the course description or course title ....................................................................................... 4
Making a course visible / invisible ............................................................................................................ 6
Enrollment .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Self-enrollment ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Manual enrollment: ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Course Management..................................................................................................................................... 11
Adding content to your course ..................................................................................................................... 12
To add an activity or resource.................................................................................................................. 12
Adding a SCORM package........................................................................................................................... 13
Adding a certificate of course completion ........................................................................................... 15
Activity access restrictions ........................................................................................................................ 16
Adding a survey or evaluation ................................................................................................................. 18
Adding a discussion forum ........................................................................................................................ 22
Adding a quiz in Moodle ............................................................................................................................. 24
Managing the course ......................................................................................................................................... 27
Adding or removing a minimum grade for a course ........................................................................ 27
Viewing participant grades ....................................................................................................................... 28
Course reports ................................................................................................................................................ 28
Miscellaneous ...................................................................................................................................................... 30
Viewing the course as a participant ....................................................................................................... 30
Creating bold text .......................................................................................................................................... 30
Creating an unordered list ......................................................................................................................... 30
Creating an ordered list .............................................................................................................................. 30
Creating a new paragraph.......................................................................................................................... 30
Embedding a video from YouTube ......................................................................................................... 31
Creating a course backup ........................................................................................................................... 34

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 Manually assigning a grade: ...................................................................................................................... 35
Log in as a participant: ................................................................................................................................ 36
Making a course available offline................................................................................................................. 39
Additional resources for more advanced Moodling ............................................................................. 41

Introduction
This document serves as a basic step-by-step guide on how to use Moodle to set-up an e-learning
course through the SCBD platform (Biodiversity e-Learning Platform).
This guide will walk you through the basics of:
 Setting up a course room
 Uploading course materials
 Managing a course

The current Biodiversity e-Learning Platform uses Moodle version 2.8. URL of the Biodiversity e-
Learning Moodle platform: https://scbd.unssc.org/

To create and manage courses on the Biodiversity e-learning Platform you must create a CBD
account and request that you be granted manager rights. Log in using your SCBD account.

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Creating a course
Adding a new course
1. Scroll to the bottom of the course folder and select “Add a new course”

2. Fill in the information about the course (this information can be edited at any point)
Note that the “Course Summary” is always visible on the main page of the course catalogue.

3. In addition to the general information and description the following elements are provided
when creating a new course:

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 4. There are different course formats available. Currently the majority of courses on the
platform are “Topics format”. There are other formats to use depending on your individual
needs and preferences.

5. Under files and uploads you can define the maximum upload size for files. We recommend
you leave it at the default which is 600MB

6. Make sure that you enable completion tracking. This will allow you to monitor the progress
of participants and get the statistics on course completion.

To edit the course description or course title

1. Access the category where the course is housed.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page at the left-side pane, under Administration, select “Manage
this category”

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3. Next, under the right column, scroll to the course you wish to edit and click on the “settings”
icon

4. Here you can make edits to the course’s settings including full name, short name, visibility
and summary.

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Making a course visible / invisible
1. This setting allows you to make a course visible to the students in the course room, or hide
it from students and other guests on the platform.
2. Head to the “Administration” tab for the category
3. Select “Manage this category”

4. On the Right-hand column, click on the “EYE” icon for the course you wish to make visible or
invisible

Visible

Invisible

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Enrollment

There are three types of enrollment: manual, self-enrolment, and guest access. We recommend that
self-enrollment be used. Managers and teachers can manually enroll participants into a course (see
instructions below). Guest access will allow participants to access the course and modules without
logging into the platform or having an account. Self-enrollment can be done with or without a key
(password). For closed courses, it is recommended to set a key that should be provided to
participants along with the instructions on how to enroll in the course.

1. Click “Turn Editing On” under Administration

2. Click on “Users” and click on Enrollment Methods

Self-enrollment
1. Open the “Users” tab

2. Select the option: “Enrolment methods”

3. Choose “Add method” and “Self-enrolment”

4. For closed courses add an enrolment key otherwise leave blank.

a. Unmasking the enrollment key will make it visible to you as you are writing it.

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5. After creating a self-enrolment method for participants, you have the option to add a
customized message for self-enrolled users to receive via email upon successful enrolment
in the course.
a. On the same page where you will add the enrollment key, you will find other options
related to self-enrolment of participants

The enrollment key will

allow only participants who
have the password to access
and register for the course

Enrollment duration allows

students to be participants on
the course for a set number of
days. This tool can be enabled
if necessary.

To send a course welcome

message, check the box and
enter your custom welcome
message in the text box
below. The welcome
message will be sent to
participants via email.

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Manual enrollment:

1. Manual enrolment is an option for all courses but before this can be done the participant
must establish a SCBD account.
2. In order to manually enroll a participant:
o Select the (+) icon beside “Manual enrolments”

o The page (as seen below) will allow you to search for users with an SCBD account.
o You may search by name or email or the person in question.

o Next, select the participant you want to add to the course, and click “Add”

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NOTE: No automatic welcome message can be sent to participants who are manually enrolled.

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Course Management
To manage the course room and course catalogue, enter the category the courses are in, and select
“Manage this category”

Use the “Settings”

icon to make
changes to the
course description,
course title,
completion tracking,
and course setup.

Use the arrow keys to rearrange

the order of the courses as they
appear in the course catalogue

Use the “Eye” icon to hide or show

a course in the course catalogue.
Hidden courses will only appear for
administrators or managers of the
course.

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Adding content to your course

To add an activity or resource

1. On the left-hand column, select “Turn editing on”

2. Scroll to the bottom of existing activities

3. Select “Add an activity or resource”

In the settings for the activity or resource added, you can change settings to restrict access to the
activity, create minimum requirements to access the activity, add grading, or marking it complete.

Available activities:

Available resources:

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Adding a SCORM package
1. Turn editing on
2. Click on “Add an activity or resource”
3. Click on “SCORM package”
4. Begin by adding the name and description of the module.
o Optional: check the box to make the module description visible in the course room

Note: for most courses on this e-learning platform, the module will open in a new window. Make
sure this setting is configured by changing the “Display package” setting to “New window” as shown
in the image above.

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 For all courses, the grading is automatically
set to a maximum grade of 100. The highest
grade achieved by the participant is the one
that will register regardless of the number of
attempts. We recommend you set it at 70%.

The number of attempts can be configured

here too.

These aspects of the course are important in determining

how the course will be managed.

1. Completion tracking: you have the option of

allowing students to mark the module completed at
their own pace, not indicating activity completion at
all, or setting conditions for completion.
2. Require view and require grade determine the
conditions for the activity to be marked complete
3. Administrators and teachers have the option to set a
minimum score for the course

For most courses, the activity is configured such that it is

marked completed when students pass AND complete the
course with a minimum grade of 60. Students are also
required to view the activity and receive a grade in order to
mark it completed.

5. To make edits to these settings, turn editing on. Click on “Edit” and then “Edit settings” for
the SCORM package you want to make edits to.

NOTE: Making edits to activity completion after the module has been completed will risk erasing
participants’ data. For this reason, it is important to make sure the settings for the course are all
correct prior to inviting participants to begin.

Participants’ grades and tracking of their activity completion can be viewed under “Grades” and
“Reports” (further discussed later in this manual).

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Adding a certificate of course completion
1. Turn editing on
2. Click on “Add an activity or resource”
3. Click on “Certificate”
4. Add the certificate name and optionally an introduction to the certificate.

Additional certificate settings:

These settings can be turned on if you want teachers or

course administrators to be notified when a participant is
able to complete the course and download their
certificate

Change the setting on “Print date” in

order to have the date the certificate
was issued appear on the certificate.

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 Different types of certificates are already
available on the platform. These can only be
uploaded by UNSSC. Several generic ones
exist!

Adding restrictions to the certificate is important to

make sure that participants successfully complete all
modules before being able to download the certificate
(see “adding restrictions” section in this document!)

Activity access restrictions

After creating an activity or a resource, you may want to restrict access to the activity. This is
especially useful for restricting access to a certificate.
1. Turn on editing
2. Locate the activity for which you want to make changes. Click on “Edit” then “Edit settings”

3. Click on “Restrict access” and “Add restriction”

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 These are the different
restrictions that can be set.
- Setting restrictions
based on language, user
profile, date, and
activity completion
- Most commonly used is
activity completion

4. To set a user restriction based on completing a module, select “Activity Completion”

a. Students should either be obliged to complete one, more, or all of the following
restrictions in order to gain access to an activity.

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Adding a survey or evaluation
1. Turn editing on
2. Scroll to the bottom of the course page and select “Add an activity or resource”

3. Select “Questionnaire”
4. Add the name (and optional description)

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 5. Additional settings:
Setting: participants can answer this
evaluation as often as they want, once a
month, once a week, or just once.

You also have the option to copy an existing

evaluation from a different course instead
of manually adding your own content.

To add questions to the evaluation form:

1. With “Editing” on, click on the Evaluation form

2. Select “Add questions”

3. There are several types of questions that can be added

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4. To add a check box question:

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 5. To add a grid question:

The scale in this

case is 1-5
Always make sure
to add a key for the
scale

The “Possible answers” field

refers to the indicators people
are rating. Use a new line for
each new row you are adding.

6. After adding all the questions to the evaluation, these questions can be rearranged

Use this to rearrange the questions (moving

from position 1 to lower or higher)

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 7. You can change the settings for individual questions making them required or optional. A
shortcut to this is:

The green circle beside the

question means an answer is
not required. A red circle
means the answer is
required.
To make quick changes to
this setting, simply click on
the circle to change it from
green to red, or red to green.

Adding a discussion forum

1. Turn editing on (under Administration)
2. Click on “Add activity or resource”
3. Select “Forum”

4. Fill in the information about the discussion forum

5. There are different types of discussion forums that can be used based on the needs
of administrators and teachers. The most commonly used is “Standard forum for
general use”

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6. Additional settings

These are the default

settings

Different subscription options

exist for discussion forums
(Optional, forced, auto, or
disabled)
 Optional subscription -
Participants can choose
whether to be
subscribed
 Forced subscription -
Everyone is subscribed
and cannot unsubscribe
 Auto subscription -
Everyone is subscribed
initially but can choose
to unsubscribe at any
time
 Subscription disabled -
Subscriptions are not
allowed
A subscription means that
participants will be notified
about any posts via email.
Recommended: auto
subscription (courses where
teachers will be posting
important topics and
announcements on the forums)

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 Depending on the
format of the course,
activity completion
minimums can be
set. For example, it
can be mandatory in
order to complete
the activity to post
one discussion or
reply.

Adding a quiz in Moodle

1. Turn editing on
2. Click on “Add an activity or resource”
3. Select “Quiz”
4. Add information about the quiz

The timing of the quiz

can be editing for it to
open and close at a
particular time.

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 Configuring the number of attempts for the
quiz allowed, as well as the grading method
(whether the highest grade or average
grade will be registered for example)

Feedback can be added here for every grade

boundary
EG: Feedback for participants who receive a
grade of 100%, 75%, etc.

Access to the quiz can be

closed until participants
finish a certain number of
modules, for example.

It is recommended to have “Show activity as

complete when conditions are met” selected for
completion tracking especially if the quiz is
graded.

5. Click on “Save and return to course”

6. Click on the “Quiz” in the course room
7. Click on “Edit quiz” to begin adding questions

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8. Click on “Add” in the right-hand corner to begin adding questions

Three options exist to add

questions.

9. Different types of questions are available to be added and their settings can be configured
individually (similar to adding a questionnaire!)

Click on the different types of

questions to view a short
description about them in
Moodle

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Managing the course
Adding or removing a minimum grade for a course
1. Moodle allows you to set minimum grades for each module’s quizzes. This lets you set the
“passing” grade for a module.
2. On the left-side panel, under “Administration” and “Course Administration”, turn editing ON

3. Choose the module you want to edit, click “Edit” and choose “Edit settings”

4. Under Activity Completion, allow completion tracking for both “Require View” and “Require
Grade”. Set a minimum score (we recommend 70 out of 100).

5. To remove the minimum score requirement, click “Disable”

6. In the same section, you can edit course completion settings. Not only do you have to set a
minimum score, you have to click both “Passed” and “Completed” for the course to be
marked as complete when the participant opens, completes, and passes the module.

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Viewing participant grades

Under “Administration”, select “Grades”. Under “Grader report”, you’ll be able to access the
grades of all participants who have attempted the quiz.

For most courses, participants can attempt the quizzes as many times as they would like. However,
only their highest grade will registered on the transcript.

Course reports
Moodle generates various reports related to activity completion, live logs (live report on users’
access to the course), etc. In order to track activity completion, click on “Reports”, then select
“Activity Report”

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The report displays activity completion by indicating a checkmark for the activity.
o Note that activity completion requirements can be previously determined

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Miscellaneous
Viewing the course as a participant

To view the course as a participant, click on “switch role” at the bottom of the left-hand side menu.

To return to your role as “course administrator”, click on “return to my role” on your profile at the
top right of your screen.

Creating bold text

 Use <b> before the text you want to make bold, and </b> at the end of the text
(See example below)

Creating an unordered list

 Use <ul> before the text you want to order into a list (with bullet points)
 Use </ul> at the end of the text
 Use <li> to add a new list item and </li> to signal the end of the list item
(See example below)

Creating an ordered list

 Use <ol> at the beginning of the text you want to order into a list (with numbered points)
 Use </ol> at the end of the text
 Use <li> to add a new list item and </li> to signal the end of the list item
(See example below)

Creating a new paragraph

 The <p> tag is used to create a new paragraph
 Use </p> to end the paragraph
(See example below)

INPUT:

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 OUTPUT:

Embedding a video from YouTube

1. Search for and find the video you want to embed through YouTube
2. Click on “Share”, and then select “Embed”

3. Copy the information (highlighted here in blue)

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On the course website:
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Add an activity or resource”

5. Add a “Label” (under Resources)

6. Paste the information copied from YouTube into the “Label text” field.

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7. You can choose whether students can manually mark the activity as completed, or if you do
not need activity completion for this video to be on.

8. Select “Save and return to course”

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Creating a course backup
Course backups can be used either as a precaution when making changes to the course, or to copy
an existing course.
If you are creating a course backup in order to create an identical course, it would be best to back
up the existing course without including the information of current users.

1. Click on “Backup”

2. The first step (Initial settings) looks at aspects of the course you want to include in the
backup

Depending on whether or not

you choose to use the backup to
set up an identical course, if you
want to create a course backup
just in case, you can choose to
back up enrolled users and their
data.

3. The second step looks at whether or not you want to back up user data. You can choose to
back up user data for the different lessons and activities

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Manually assigning a grade:
1. Select “Grades”
2. Open the “Grader report”
3. Locate the participant you want to make a grade change for and click on the “Pencil” icon

4. If you want to make a change to their grade in Module 3, for example, click on “Override All
/ None”. Checking this box will allow you to make manual changes to the grade.

The “Exclude” option will

allow you to exclude the grade
from the total grade for the
course

The “Override” option means

that the grade manually
entered will override any
automatically generated
grades. If the participant re-
attempts the module, their
grade will not register unless
the box is unchecked.
5. Edit the value in the “Grade” and then save the page.
6. The manually entered grade will appear on the Grader report but the cell will appear
orange

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Log in as a participant:
Logging in as a participant can be useful to get a better sense of what the participant can see. This is
useful for troubleshooting.
1. Under Administration on the left-hand side panel, scroll to Site Administration and select
“Users”

2. Under “Users”, select “Accounts”

3. Select “Browse list of all users”

4. In this page, you can search for the user you are trying to log in as

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This is the total
number of accounts
on the platform

Here, you can search for

the name or email of the
participant This refers to the last
time this participant
logged into the portal

5. Search the name of the participant (or their email) and hit “Enter”
6. After searching the name, the list of users will come up. Click on the name of the participant
you are searching for.

7. You will be able to see a list of the courses the user is enrolled in. In the bottom left corner,
select “Log in as”.

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 Clicking here will
allow you to log in as
the user.

8. The platform will redirect you to the home page. You will be able to view courses, modules,
and all activities just as the user would be able to see them.

The name of the user you

are viewing as

9. In order to get out of this viewing setting, you need to log out of the platform, and then log
in again.

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Making a course available offline
Participants in some countries often have trouble accessing the modules due to Internet
connectivity issues. For this reason, the modules can be uploaded for offline use.

For this, you will need the original zipped SCORM packages for the modules you want to upload.

1. Turn editing on
2. Scroll to the bottom of the course page and click on “Add an activity or resource”
3. Add a Folder

4. Update the title and description (see sample below)

5. Upload the SCORM package zip file

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 Click here to begin
to upload files

You can rename the files to

correspond to each module

6. You can choose to not indicate activity completion for this activity
7. Click on Save and return to course

When you open the folder, it should appear like this:

Participants can download and run the course offline:

1. Download the zip file by double clicking on the file
2. Unzip the file
3. Double click on story_html5 to run the module (it will launch in your Internet browser)
a. To run the module on a Mac, try story.html or story.html5
A guide on how to run the course offline exists and should be uploaded alongside the modules.

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If when attempting to download the file it the link appears to be broken, delete the SCORM package
for the module and re-upload it.

Additional resources for more advanced Moodling

 A comprehensive Moodle online guide on using Moodle 2.8
https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/About_Moodle_FAQ
 Setting up a quiz in Moodle 2.8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NtwSvM3LMw
 Additional information on enrolling users in Moodle 2.8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJApkOlRM1E
 Additional resources on using Moodle 2.8 as a teacher
https://moodle.cnc.bc.ca/pluginfile.php/2/course/section/13/Moodle2_8%20manual.pdf
o This guide has some useful information on the Gradebook in Moodle 2.8, and on
adding an assignment!
 Additional information on features available in Moodle 2.8
https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/New_features
 Manually editing a grade or overriding an existing one
https://www.umass.edu/it/support/moodle/manually-edit-grades-and-grade-overrides-
moodle
 Brief e-learning handout
http://ceulearning.ceu.edu/pluginfile.php/9061/mod_resource/content/9/e-
learning%20handout_moodle%203.2.pdf?forcedownload=1
 E-Learning handout on Discussion Forums
http://ceulearning.ceu.edu/pluginfile.php/42641/mod_resource/content/4/Teacher%20G
uide%20-%20Forums%20-%203.2.pdf?forcedownload=1
 E-Learning handout on Assignments
http://ceulearning.ceu.edu/pluginfile.php/102865/mod_resource/content/3/Teacher%20
Guide%20-%20Assignments%203.2.pdf

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