Moodle Essentials

Assignments allow the teacher to specify a task that requires students to prepare digital content (any format) and submit it by uploading it to the server. Typical assignments include essays, projects, reports and so on. This module includes grading facilities.

The Chat module allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion via the web. This is a useful way to get a different understanding of each other and the topic being discussed - the mode of using a chat room is quite different from the asynchronous forums. The Chat module contains a number of features for managing and reviewing chat discussions.

A choice activity is very simple - the teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of multiple responses. It can be useful as a quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic; to allow the class to vote on a direction for the course; or to gather research consent.

The Database module allows the teacher and/or students to build, display and search a bank of record entries about any conceivable topic. The format and structure of these entries can be almost unlimited, including images, files, URLs, numbers and text amongst other things. You may be familiar with similar technology from building Microsoft Access or Filemaker databases.

The directory resource can display a whole directory (and its subdirectories) from your course files area. Students can then browse and view all those files.

With this module you can survey your students with a custom survey.

This resource type allows you to link to any web page or other file on the public web. It also allows you to link to any web page or other file that you have uploaded into your course files area from your own desktop computer. Normal web pages are simply displayed as they are, while multimedia files are dealt with more intelligently and may be embedded within a web page. For example, MP3 files will be displayed using a built-in streaming player, as will movie files, flash animations and so on.
There are many options for displaying your content in popup windows, framed windows and so on.
In particular, if your resource is a web application or other type of content able to accept parameters, you can choose to send information to your resource such as the user's name, their email, the course they are currently in, and so on.

This activity can be the most important - it is here that most discussion takes place. Forums can be structured in different ways, and can include peer rating of each posting. The postings can be viewed in a variety for formats, and can include attachments. By subscribing to a forum, participants will receive copies of each new posting in their email. A teacher can impose subscription on everyone if they want to.

This activity allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary.
The entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats.
The glossary also allows teachers to export entries from one glossary to another (the main one) within the same course.
Finally, it is possible to automatically create links to these entries from throughout the course.

IMS content packages can be created and edited using a variety of content-authoring software. Content is usually displayed over several pages, with navigation between the pages. The content-authoring software produces a zip file, which can then be uploaded to your course in Moodle.
The zip file is unzipped automatically in Moodle, and the content of the package displayed.
There are various options for displaying content in a popup window, with a navigation menu or buttons etc.