Overview of Moodle Software

Moodle software is basically a very large database which contains user data and course data, as well as offering a suite of software authoring tools to create learning activities. The software sits on a webserver so that it can deliver services to a group of end users.

User Data

To access your Moodle site, staff, learners and other users of the system need a Moodle account, and be allocated a 'system role'. This role defines what level of access the person has to the system. Moodle records and logs all user actions within the system. This data forms the basis of reports on user activity and progress.

Course Data

It is also important to grasp that Moodle provides you with online 'pages' in which you can build activities and to which you can upload resources. Moodle calls these pages 'course pages', but on each page you can have as many or as few learning activities, topics or modules as you wish. In other words, they need not necessarily make up a whole course by your definition, but the page could just include a few learning activities. Moodle organises course pages into folders called 'Categories'. Users of the system will be given access to course pages. You will learn more about the setting up of courses and categories later on in this course.

Authoring tools

You may already be using some software tools to create learning materials and assessments. That's fine, and you will find that you can usually upload such materials into your Moodle page too. Moodle additionally provides you with tools (which Moodle calls Activity Modules and Plug-ins) which allow you to create learning activities in your course pages. For example, Moodle supplies a quiz tool for you to create quizzes using a range of question types.

You can consult Moodle.org to explore more about what Moodle provides.