Follow these steps to help ensure that your Moodle site(s) are ready for students.
Upload your syllabus
Upload your syllabus following the instructions in our tutorial on adding files. Refer to the Course Preparation Checklist for a full list of tips and reminders for preparing your syllabus.
Taught the course before? Copy previous course content
If you've taught the course recently, and want to re-use a previous semester's Moodle content, you can import your old class and edit it for this semester. If you want to copy over only a few items from a previous semester, rather than an entire course, use the Sharing Cart block.
Using a Course Template or Pre-Developed Course? Review and Customize It
If you've added a course template or are using a pre-developed (master) course, be sure to review and customize the content for your specific class.
Using the Onsite Course Template? Learn how to upload and customize the template.
Using Turnitin? Reset your course
If you copied old Turnitin assignments into your new class, you'll need to use the Course Reset screen to ensure that previous Turnitin assignments will work with your new course.
Using Edpuzzle? Delete and re-add assignments
If you use Edpuzzle for any of your videos, you should not reuse Edpuzzle assignments that you've copied from another course. Doing so may leave some students unable to access the copied Edpuzzle assignments. Please delete any copied Edpuzzle assignments and re-add them as new Edpuzzle assignments.
This is an issue that Edpuzzle is aware of, and they're working on fixing it.
Set dates for assignments and quizzes
You can set the due dates for assignments, open/close times for quizzes, and dates for Turnitin assignments all on one page using the Dates Report.
Check links and update content
Before the course is made visible to students, review all links* and content to ensure everything is up to date and working correctly.
Click through each section of your course and check that:
- All links to external websites and resources are active and direct students to the correct page.
- Videos and multimedia files play properly and are still accessible.
- Dates, instructions, and terminology are accurate for the current semester.
- Attached documents (like PDFs and Word files) open correctly and reflect the latest course information.
*Please note that any links to Google Drive content should be updated to the newly transferred content on Microsoft One Drive.
Review course as a student
You're the teacher for your course, so what you see on Moodle doesn't exactly match what the students see. Once your course is ready for students, double-check it by viewing your course as a student. This is a good time to make sure that the correct items are visible to or hidden from students.
Make course visible to students
By default, Moodle courses are invisible to students to give you a chance to set up your course. When you're done, make your course visible.
Make welcome announcement (Email your class)
You can let the students know the course is ready by using the Announcements forum to send the class a message. A message will be sent to the Manhattan College email account of all students enrolled in the class. The announcement will also be visible by clicking on the Announcements forum itself. You must make your course visible before doing this, or the announcement will not be emailed.
Interested in exploring additional ways to design a student-friendly Moodle course? Check out our Course Guidelines & Tips for Using Moodle.