Moodle Monday - hodge-podge of tips

As you begin editing your courses for Summer or Fall here are a few design and management tips.

Use the  course page as a springboard for content.  Use books and webpages for content.  
Keep the front page of your course simple so it is easily navigable for students.  Use webpages or books for content or instructions. 

Use Labels to divide/annotate your course activities and resources.  
This will help guide students through your course.   Labels can be used to mark sections, types of resources, or to annotate what students should be doing with the resources.

Don't be afraid of white space.
Often labels are difficulty to space due to the nature of Moodle's layout.  Adding hard returns before and after your text in a label will add space before and after the text on your front page. 
Ex. ( ∏ = hard return)
∏
LABEL
∏

Make the links to files self documenting.  Ex.  Course Syllabus - Adobe PDF - 130KB
Documenting files tells students what the file is, what software they will need to open it, and the size they will be downloading.   Setting an example may also help students to remember to label their files when uploading assignments.   A related strategy, when giving assignments create a document with the directions on the document and instruct students to use that downloaded file for their assignment  (think of it as a digital handout/worksheet).   If you self document the file, for example  Response Questions 3 - NAME - ENG 001,  instruct students to download the file and use 'Save As' to change the word NAME to their name before uploading the completed assignment. 

Use the Reports to keep  track of what students are doing. 
The report tool in Moodle can show you what resources students have accessed and when they have accessed it.   Use it to document student attendance and as feedback to what resources your students are taking advantage of.   Fields for which you can sort information include: Student, Date, Activity, and Action.  With this you can discover if an individual student accessed an activity and when it was accessed. 

Use images to enhance your course.
Adding images to your course helps students navigate the sections of your course.  Using carefully selected images could also help promote thinking about content.   *be sure to use copyright free images.

Sources:
http://www.slideshare.net/michelledmoore/teaching-with-moodle-best-practices-for-course-design-i-moot-11
http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Teaching_Do%27s#Do_encourage_students_to_be_security-conscious