Tips for Setting up New Moodle Courses

What is Moodle

Moodle is an open-source learning management system (LMS) that facilitates online education, enabling course creation, administration, tracking, and collaborative learning for educators and students worldwide. Moodle has been used as the official LMS in the University of Hong Kong.

What Moodle Can Do

Course Files Sharing
Moodle allows educators to share course files with students seamlessly.
Collaboration
It facilitates both student-group and student-teacher collaboration through various tools like Wikis, Blogs, and Forums.
Assessment
Moodle provides various types of assessment tools, such as quizzes and assignments.
Feedback and Survey
Beyond the typical teaching tools, Moodle allows educators to gather feedback and conduct surveys for continuous improvement.

Accessing HKU Moodle

You and students can access HKU Moodle via the “My eLearning” tab in the HKU Portal (Link). To access HKU Moodle on mobile platforms, users can download the HKU App, available for both Android and Apple iOS. Once installed, users can log in using their HKU Portal account to access Moodle functionalities on the go.

Moodle Functions that a Teacher Should Learn

Course Creation
Courses in Moodle are pre-created for teachers and students according to the centralized enrollment data from the Student Information System (SIS). Teachers can access them via the “My eLearning” tab in the HKU Portal (Link).
- Quick start: https://its.hku.hk/kb/quick-start/
- Editing content: https://its.hku.hk/kb/editing-course-content/
- Adding content: https://its.hku.hk/kb/add-course-content/
- Adding URL: https://its.hku.hk/kb/add-a-url-to-an-external-website/
Interface Editing
In the Moodle interface, you can add course resources/files and activities by enabling editing mode and through the “Add an activity or resource” function on the Moodle page.
Assessment Tools
You can set up Moodle assignments and quizzes. In particular, you should know how to review assignment submissions, download assignments, grade assignments, and provide feedback.

Assignment: https://its.hku.hk/kb/add-an-assignment/

Quiz: https://its.hku.hk/kb/quiz/

Wiki: https://its.hku.hk/kb/wiki/

Providing Timely and Structured Feedback via Moodle Enhancements (Slide deck)
Turnitin Originality Report and Feedback
Integrated with Moodle, the Turnitin assignment tool offers a plagiarism-checking feature. Teachers should learn to access the originality report for submitted assignments. You can also use Turnitin Feedback Studio for essay evaluations (YouTube playlist).
- Turnitin Assignment: (Link)
AI-ENHANCED FUNCTIONS
By utilizing AI and data analysis, you can enhance the effectiveness of your instruction and assessment.

Course tutor through ChatGPT: https://its.hku.hk/kb/chatgpt-hku-hk/

PowerBI: https://its.hku.hk/kb/moodle-powerbi/

AI text to image: https://its.hku.hk/kb/ai-text-to-image/

MCQ AI generator: https://its.hku.hk/kb/ai-questions/
Other activities
There are various kinds of resources and activities that can be created by Moodle. For more details on other activities, please check https://its.hku.hk/services/moodle-user-guides-for-teachers/.

Keep In Contact with Your Students

All announcements published on the Moodle courseware will be sent to students’ HKU Connect email accounts. Please encourage your students to check their email account for course announcements. If you have a Moodle course, you may conduct online discussions on Moodle’s forums (video) or chatroom (video) to facilitate student interaction.

Utilize HKU Libraries’ Electronic Resources

HKU Libraries has a large collection of electronic resources, including e-books, e-journals and academic articles. You can build a list of recommended readings using ReadingList@HKUL and embed the list in your Moodle course. If you need assistance, please contact librarians via Ask-a-librarian.

How to Get Help

For assistance or to learn more about Moodle’s functionalities, teachers can access online support resources (http://moodle-support.hku.hk/teacher/moodle, including hhttps://its.hku.hk/services/moodle-user-guides-for-teachers/ and https://moodle-support.hku.hk/faq-menu/). You can also contact eLearning Support Staff from ITS for help (https://moodle-support.hku.hk/faculty_staff/ or https://moodle-support.hku.hk/index/).