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Moodle Support

Activities

Activities provide opportunities for interaction and learning assessment. This page provides an incomplete list of some of the activities available on Moodle.

Some settings will be common among many activities.

This is the date which an action or submission is expected by, such as a quiz being completed or a file uploaded. A due date does not prevent students from submitting work, but it will show as being submitted late
The cut off date prevents students from submitting work or making attempts after a certain date

You can limit an activity or resource to certain people or time frames according to the settings below

    • Activity Completion: Only students who have completed or not completed a specified activity can view
    • Date: Content is only accessible after a certain date
    • Grade: Students must have a specified grade before they can view
    • User profile: Restriction is set based on a student's profile
Allows you to specify what requirements must be met before the assignment is marked as complete. This will not have an impact on grading. It is useful if using "Completion Tracking" on your course, and can also be used to restrict access to further activities. For example, if you have a forum that you do not want students posting in until they have completed an assignment, then you can enable activity completion to require a passing grade before the assignment is complete, and then restrict access to the forum to only those who have completed the assignment.
Here you can specify how you want submissions to be uploaded, if applicable.
    • Types: If online text is enabled, students can type in their response to a textbox and submit it all through the moodle course page. If file submission is selected, then they can upload a file to submit for the assignment. It is possible to have both options checked off. For example, if a student needs to write a 500 word response, then having both options would allow the student to either type in 500 words into the online text submission, or to upload a document with 500 words in it.
    • Accepted file types: Allows you to specify which file types Moodle will accept as a submission. By default they can upload all file types, but if you only want to accept certain ones you may restrict by choosing it on the list.

The assignment activity allows for students to upload multiple different types of file submissions and instructors to leave feedback and grades on them. These file types can include word documents, PDFs, video files, power points, and more. It's a very versatile activity that accommodates many different project types, including essays, video recordings, slide show presentations, excel sheets and many more. To add an assignment, first start on your course home page and follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Assignment" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

You can then start creating your assignment from the settings screen. You have control over the assignment date, visibility, submission type, notification, grades, and more. For a complete list of all settings related to assignments, use the resources below

A database is a collaborative activity that allows all participants (including students and teachers) to build a collection of different entries. These entries can be a variety of things, including text, images, URLs, voice recordings, and more. To add a database activity, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Database" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

You can then start creating the database from the settings screen. These settings give you full control over the database, and include the title, submission guidelines, whether or not submissions need approval, and more. The resources below give more information about how to set up and use the database activity

The forum activity allows for students to have discussions over an extended period of time, and can be referred back to as needed. It is a good way to not only get individual student's thoughts, but also have them engage with one another. Forums consist of discussions and replies; discussions are original posts that users can create, and replies are responses to those discussions, which are then nested underneath. The default type of forum is Standard Forum for General Use​​​​​, which allows any participant to create a discussion at anytime. You can change the forum type in the settings, and learn more about each type by clicking on the question mark next to the forum type menu.

To add a forum to your course page, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Assignment" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

Use the resources below to learn more about the settings and features of using the forum activity.

The glossary is a collaborative activity where students can all compile a list of definitions. You can control the settings to allow the entries to be automatically approved, or require you to moderate and approve each entry before it is posted. To add a Glossary activity to your course page, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Assignment" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

For more information about using the glossary, view the resources below:

H5P allows you to create interactive content for your course page, such as interactive videos, course presentations, branching scenarios, interactive books, and more. Adding an H5P activity is an excellent way to make course content more interactive, although it is a little more complicated to add to a course. Follow the steps below to learn how to add content, and check out the resources for more information. 

1. Go to your course page and enable Edit Mode by clicking the button in the top right corner. Go to the section you want to add the H5P content and click "Add Activity or Resource", and select H5P from the menu.

2. You will be taken to the settings menu where you will be required to give the H5P a name and upload a file. If you already have an H5P file saved, simply upload it in the Package File box and adjust your settings. If you have not created an H5P file, then click on the link below the package file box that says "Use the Content Bank (opens in new window) to manage your H5P files

 

3. From here you'll be taken to the content bank. Select what H5P content you'd like to add using the Add menu.

4. Follow the steps to create your H5P content, then return to the H5P settings page. You can adjust your settings on this page as you would for any other activity. 

H5P contains many different activities and ways to create interactive content. For more information on each, please refer to the following links

A lesson is content that is organized in "branches", so students are shown different content pages depending on what response they make. The content can be either text or multimedia. To add a lesson, first start on your course home page and follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select Lesson" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

You can learn more about the lesson activity and it's settings by reading the resources below

Quizzes are a very versatile tool that are great for conducting assessments and giving feedback. There are many settings that you can adjust in the quiz, including making feedback immediate, allowing multiple attempts, allowing for multiple answers, and more. There are two steps when creating a quiz: Adding the quiz to the course page, and adding questions to the quiz. 

Adding the Quiz

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Quiz" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity
  4. Name the quiz and adjust the settings
Quiz Settings
  1. Time limit: enable a countdown timer to start once the student begins the quiz. The student will only have until the end of the countdown to complete the quiz
  2. Layout: Choose how many questions can appear on each page, ranging from one question per page to 50
  3. How questions behave: Choose whether students receive immediate feedback or deferred feedback after they submit all their answers
  4. Extra restrictions on attempts: Set requirements and rules for students to make multiple attempts on a quiz

Once the quiz has been created, save and return to course page. 

Adding Questions

Click on the quiz activity you'd like to add questions to. Click on the Questions tab, and select Add in the grey box on the right.

You have the option to add a new question, or re-use a pre-created question from the question bank. To add a new question, select the question type you'd prefer and then fill out the information to create a question and hit save. You will then have this question added to the quiz you've selected.

The Wiki activity is a collaborative document where students can build pages together and documents together. It is also possible for wikis to be assigned individually. To add a wiki activity to your Moodle course, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Wiki" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

The feedback activity allows you to create your own surveys. It allows you to use non-graded questions, which makes it a better alternative to the Quiz tool for collecting evaluation information. Additionally, it is a better resource to use than the Survey activity in some cases, as the Survey activity does not allow you to create your own questions.

To add a feedback activity to your course page, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the "Edit Mode" toggle to turn on the editing function
  2. Click on the "Add an activity or resource" square
  3. Select "Feedback" from the activity picker. You have the option to star this activity for easy access in the future. Click on the information icon to learn more about the activity

Use the resources below to learn more about the feedback activity