Understanding Moodle course formats

Did you know Moodle has different course formats each with strengths and weaknesses?In some organisations trainers might be given a ‘template’ course (or blank course) ready for each new course they start.  In other situations teachers may have freedom to select the format of the course themselves.

The standard course formats available in Moodle (easily changed by a teacher in the course settings) are:

• • Weekly format – great when you have a clear start and end date within a course
  • Topic format – great when you have a sequence of different subject areas
    • Both the Weekly and Topic course formats allow you to set the format to ‘Show only one section (or ‘Show all sections’)
  • Social format – design around one main ‘social’ forum that is displayed on the main page. Social format is useful for situations that are focussed on conversations (and may have no other content).
  • Single activity format – only has one section and allows the teacher to add one activity only to the course.  Useful for a course with a single SCORM object for example.

Did you know there are also plugin course formats that can be added to Moodle by the site administrator?  We will examine some of these in a future post 🙂

Moodle course formats documentation:

https://docs.moodle.org/34/en/Course_formats

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Stuart Mealor

Managing Director at HRDNZ

Stuart is interested in all things e-learning, with specific interests in Moodle, e-learning strategy, and business development.His experience in education over 30 years, MBA in International Business, and knowledge of e-learning systems implementation, together with graphic design background, give him a unique skill set for e-learning projects.

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