Moodle activity and resource list

Activities

Chat

The chat is a very basic text-based communication tool that can be used to hold office hours, Q & A Sessions or impromptu discussions with a student or group of students via Moodle.

Choice

This a poll-like activity where instructors set one question for students with some possible options for students. This kind of activity is a great way of starting off a new topic, checking for familiarity or for getting feedback quickly. Settings allow for students to see results in real time if the instructor wants.

Choice is not receommended for multiple questions. If you would like to get feedback for multiple questions, the Feedback activity is the best for out-of-class polling or JazzQuiz for in-class polling to see live results.

Database

The database is a way for the instructor (and students) to build and organize a set of records (can be images, files, links, numbers, text). A great way to build a library of student-curated content.

Feedback

The feedback tool is similar to the quiz tool in that it is a way of asking different types of questions without assigning a grade to it. It is typically used to collect feedback from students. It may be helpful in collecting feedback on teaching or getting feedback on learning (for example with an online "minute paper"). Instructors can choose to let students submit feedback anonymously in the settings. 

Forum

Text-based discussions where students can upload files, share links and work in groups. Lots of tips and examples on our Using discussion forum page.

Glossary

With the glossary tool, students collaborate on a creating a database of glossary entries throughout the course. Students contribute definitions to coure terms and concepts and can  comment on each other’s definitions. In this type of activity they are participating in developing meaning making as a group and deep learning and student engagement can increase.

H5P interactive content

H5P is a plug in that allows instructors to create a variety of interactive activities for practice. These inlcude interactive videos, drag and drop, fill in the blank, arrange the blocks of text in order, identify a hotspot in an image, dictation, and many more. View examples of all activity types on the H5P web site.

Currently, it is not possible to assign a grade for these activities in Moodle through the Gradebook.

JazzQuiz (replaces Active Quiz)

JazzQuiz is a live polling tool that you can use during class time to run a pre-planned or improvised quiz. JazzQuiz will create a report of which students participated and how many students answered each option, but the report does not indicate individual responses; therefore, it cannot be used as graded activity.

Journal

Despite what its name might suggest, Journal is not a place where students go to add multiple entries. Rather, it is a space for students to write once and refine their entries over time based on feedback from the instructor; it is designed to offer a feedback loop between the instructor and student on a single piece of writing. This activity is ideal for sharing and giving feedback on a potential thesis of a paper or other small pieces of text that instructors might want to provide feedback on or facilitate an iterative process. 

Lesson

This is a branching activity, which is built on a series of pages where students are asked to make a choice at the bottom of each page. The pages can include text images and embedded content.

Quiz

Quiz can be used formally or with informally as practice without counting the grade. There are many question types available and options to customize the set up. The main benefits of Quiz is the automatic grading feature. For many question types, inclusing short answer, the quizzes can be graded automatically. Instructors can manually mark other question types when needed. 

Another useful feature of Quiz is that it can provide students with feedback as needed. Each question has the option to provide students with text feedback (which may contain links) to explain why that particular answer is wrong or give them a hint. This ability to provide immediate feedback can help students clarify their understanding.

Student folder

This activity enables students to upload a file to Moodle in the folder. It can be used in many ways. For example, it can be a way for students to share resources with each other, but it is particularly useful in facilitating peer review. There are settings that can control whether files should be vetted by the instructor.

Wiki

The wiki tool is designed to be a collaborative set of pages created by students. Unfortunately, this tool is not as intuitive or user-friendly as other similar tools. The main advantage to using wiki for collaboration, is that students' privacy is protected.

Workshop

The Moodle Workshop Tool automates the peer review process. You can have student randomly peer review one another. Students receive a grade based on the feedback of their peers. They also receive a grade on how well they peer review others. The system will also randomly assign people work to peer review. There are lots of configuration settings that the teacher can use to control how the peer review process will work.

YuJa Enterprise & YuJa Media Chooser 

YuJa is the Concordia publishing platform where instructors can produce and share videos with students securely through Moodle. You can use YuJa to share recorded lectures or instructional videos you create on your computer or mobile device. All videos will automatically be captioned and a transcript will be created. 

Through the Media Chooser, you can select specific videos to appear on your Moodle page, and you can apply ungraded YuJa quizzes to those videos to make the learning experience more interactive through multiple choice and short-answer questions throughout the video.

Resources

URL

Add a link to an external web page.

File

Upload a file (any format) to share with students. They will be able to download this to their devices. (Note: make these as accessible as possible.)

Folder

Upload a zipped/compressed folder containing multiple files to share with students. This is an efficient way of uploading a set of files for a given week or topic to make available to students.

Text and media area  (formerly: Label)

The text and media area is used to add text, images, and embedded content to directly to your Moodle home page. It most widely used to o create headings for content, add notes and other important information.

Book

A series of pages (text and media) that are navigated through a table of contents and arrows.

Page

A web page that can include text or media. It's important not to clutter your homepage with too much text. You can use the Pages to add in your own content, or embed content from other sites.

Table of features of Moodle activities and resources

Other practical activities

Scheduler

You can set up a scheduler for various activities in your course that would require sign up. For example, students can sign up for office hours or for a presentation slot.

Group self-selection

This makes putting students in groups easier if you allow students to form their own groups. They can assign themselves to a group through this activity, which saves the instructor a lot of time!