It's the time of year when we declutter our homes and plunge ahead into the new year. Wouldn't you like to do the same with your course page? Having content in your course is wonderful for review purposes or for when we have snow days, but managing that content is so critical as without some management your students may feel they are scrolling to infinity to find what they need. Also, important information can be missed on a page overloaded with links and text. Well, don't feel overwhelmed as Moodle has some tools that will assist you in this process, and they are very simple and easy-to-use.
First, consider the course format and adjust it so that only one module per page appears. Students click on the title of a module to open it up and then can click next to go to the next module or jump to the next module. This will make the course more compact and reduce scrolling. You can do this by going to the Administration block on the left-hand side of your course page and clicking on Edit Settings and in the Course format area select that option from the Course layout drop-down menu then click on Save and display at the bottom of the page. Note you will need to turn editing off to see the change. When editing is off you see the course as your students will.
Secondly, consider grouping files and text in some way such as using folders or books for each module and the accompanying text. Summaries for each topic or section are great, but adding them increases scrolling. Books are really nice because creating them also creates a table of contents. Books are pages that are linked and students go through them like an electronic book. They allow for any type of content to be added links, embedded video or text whereas folders only allow for files or documents to be added. More information on using folders may be found here. More information on the creation and use of folders may be found here.
Of course, if you need assistance with any of these tools or course design please contact us in the FDC. I, Janice Poston (jposton@bellarmine.edu) or Adam Elias (aelias2@bellarmine.edu) will be happy to assist you.