This document summarizes 17 popular Moodle modules and plugins for enhancing online courses. They include tools for web conferencing (BigBlueButton), tracking attendance, sharing content between courses (Sharing Cart), monitoring student progress (ProgressBar), allowing students to upload documents (StudentFolder), estimating time spent on a course (CourseDedication), creating custom reports (ConfigurableReports), managing task lists (Checklist), improving course navigation (CollapsedTopics and GridFormat), setting learning objectives (LessonObjectives), offline paper quizzes (OfflineQuiz), accessibility options, audio/video question types (PoodLLRecording), gamification (Level Up!), creating questions (QuestionCreationActivity), and analytics on course activity (Heat

1. The Best Moodle Modules and Plugins
Rafael Scapin, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Educational Technology
Office of Academic Development
Dawson College
May 27th, 2016

2. MoodlePluginsPage
https://moodle.org/plugins/

3. BigBlueButton
1 Big Blue Button
Free, open source, webconference system
It allows you to deliver real time
web conferencing sessions.
This allows you to share slides,
audio, video, chat, desktops,
and a virtual whiteboard. It also
provides recordings of all
sessions, so they can be
watched again at a later date.
https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_bigbluebuttonbn

4. Attendance
2 Attendance
It allows teachers to
maintain a record of
attendance, replacing or
supplementing a paper-
based attendance register
The instructor can set the
frequency of their classes
(# of days per week &
length of course) or create
specific sessions.
https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_attendance

5. SharingCart
3 Sharing Cart
The Sharing Cart is a
block that enables
sharing of Moodle
content (resources,
activities) between
multiple courses on
your site.
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_sharing_cart

6. ProgressBar
4 Progress Bar
• Shows progress in
activities/resources of a course
Colour coded to quickly see
completed/viewed
• Teachers select which pre-existing
activities/resources are to be
included
• Order by times/deadlines or course
order
Overview page for teachers showing
progress of all students
• Identify and contact at-risk students
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_progress

7. StudentFolder
5 Student Folder
With the module student
folder students can upload
documents which can be
made visible by teachers.
This facilitates publication
of student's documents in a
course and improves
exchange of knowledge.
https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_publication

8. CourseDedication
6
Course Dedication
This block allows to see the estimated dedication
time to a Moodle course by the participants of the
course.
How dedication time is estimated?
Time is estimated based in the concepts of Session
and Session duration applied to Moodle's log
entries:
• Click: every time that a user access to a page in
Moodle a log entry is stored.
• Session: set of two or more consecutive clicks in
which the elapsed time between every pair of
consecutive clicks does not overcome an
established maximum time.
• Session duration: elapsed time between the
first and the last click of the session.
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_dedication

9. ConfigurableReports
7 Configurable Reports
You can create custom
reports without SQL
knowledge. It's a tool
suitable for admins or
teachers.
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_configurable_reports

10. Checklist
8 Checklist
A checklist can be created by a
teacher (or generated from
the activities in a course) and
then the students or teachers
can check-off each item as
they are completed.
https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_checklist

11. CollapsedTopics
9 Collapsed Topics
An interchangeable topic or
week based format that solves
the issue of the 'Scroll of Death'
when a course has many topics
https://moodle.org/plugins/format_topcoll

12. LessonObjectives
10 Lesson Objectives
It displays current lesson
objectives in the side bar (to
both teacher and students) and
allows a teacher to check them
off as they are completed.
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_objectives

13. OfflineQuiz
11 Offline Quiz
Offline Quiz module adds
paper-and-pencil multiple-
choice quizzes to Moodle. In
offline quizzes students mark
answers to questions on a sheet
of paper (the answer form). The
students' answer forms are
evaluated and graded
automatically by the offline quiz
module.
https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_offlinequiz

14. Accessibility
12 Accessibility
Provides options for changing
text size and colour scheme.
Settings can be saved to persist
between sessions.
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_accessibility

15. PoodLLRecording
13 PoodLL Recording
An audio/video recording
question type for Moodle.
It uses a standalone mp3
recorder for audio and a cloud
based recording server for
video. It is also possible to
"draw pictures" as responses to
questions, using the PoodLL
whiteboard feature. Recording
from mobile devices is also
supported.
https://moodle.org/plugins/qtype_poodllrecording

16. GridFormat
14 Grid Format
A modular and visual course
format. Hides all topics and
creates a grid of icons (one for
each topic) with short titles.
Clicking on an icon brings up
the content from the
corresponding topic. It solves
the issue of the 'Scroll of Death'
https://moodle.org/plugins/format_grid

17. Level Up!
15 Level Up!
Gamifify your course!
Engage your students! Gamify
your students' learning
experience by allowing them to
level up in their courses
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_xp

18. QuestionCreationActivity
16 Question Creation Activity
The Question Creation Activity
is a graded activity where
students must create questions
in the Moodle question bank.
A teacher grades the questions.
The students get a grade for the
questions they create.
https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_qcreate

19. Heatmap
17 Heatmap
The Heatmap block overlays a
heatmap onto a course to
highlight activities with more or
less activity to help teachers
improve their courses.
https://moodle.org/plugins/block_heatmap

20. Questions

21. rscapin@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
1404
Book an Appointment
http://rscapin.youcanbook.me
Contact Me
Rafael Scapin, Ph.D.