{"id":602,"date":"2024-09-20T13:12:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T13:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/?p=602"},"modified":"2024-09-20T13:12:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T13:12:42","slug":"a-new-year-a-new-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2024\/09\/20\/a-new-year-a-new-look\/","title":{"rendered":"A new year, a new look!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Over the past couple of months, in preparation for the new <em>academic<\/em> year, I have been supporting staff across the Lancaster Medical School (LMS) and the Division of Health and Research (DHR), to redesign their Moodle pages. The aim has been to create more attractive spaces, that are easier to navigate and more engaging for learners.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Last year, while still working in ISS, I led the Moodle User Experience (UX) Project. We did a student survey as part of the project and we got 273 responses. 82% of respondents were undergraduates and 18% were postgraduate taught students. 139 students said that a good Moodle space was a well-organised one and in many of the free-text responses they mentioned the need for images and colour to make the spaces more visually appealing. Overall, students like Moodle but just find the way content is uploaded difficult to navigate. When asked if Moodle was easy or difficult to use, 83% of students found Moodle easy to use or had a neutral impression of it as \u201cneither easy nor difficult\u201d. \u00a0As part of the UX project, we also surveyed staff. Like the students, staff also want to see more attractive Moodle spaces with more colour and images. So enter\u2026the \u2018one section per page\u2019 layout.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">I have written about this layout before but, over the past few weeks, I have moved several LMS and DHR Moodle spaces to this new layout and want to share with you all the \u2018new look\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Some of the spaces that have undergone this transformation (or are currently undergoing it) include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">MBChB Hub<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Year 4 Primary Care<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Medicine Year 4<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Medicine Year 5<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">407: Mental Health: Theory, Research and Practice<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">DHR Autumn Academy<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">MBCHB101: Problem Based Learning Year 1<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_603\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-603\" style=\"width: 411px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-603\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/09\/MBCHB-Hub-Screenshot.png?resize=411%2C460\" alt=\"A snapshot of the MBChB Hub Space\" width=\"411\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/09\/MBCHB-Hub-Screenshot.png?resize=268%2C300&amp;ssl=1 268w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/09\/MBCHB-Hub-Screenshot.png?w=735&amp;ssl=1 735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-603\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The newly reorganised MBChB Hub space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_604\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-604\" style=\"width: 408px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-604\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/09\/Year-4-Primary-Care.png?resize=408%2C534\" alt=\"A snapshot of the Year 4 Primary Care Moodle space.\" width=\"408\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/09\/Year-4-Primary-Care.png?resize=229%2C300&amp;ssl=1 229w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/09\/Year-4-Primary-Care.png?w=656&amp;ssl=1 656w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 408px) 100vw, 408px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-604\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A snapshot of the newly reorganised Year 4 Primary Care Moodle space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">How do you set this up?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Before changing settings and choosing images, consider the organisation of material on your Moodle page. Try to have a clear welcome section at the top with introductory materials such as a handbook, learning objectives etc. This section should not be over-filled though and consideration needs to go into whether some of the material should be on the Moodle space, in a Moodle hub space or even in the Lancaster Student Portal instead. Then group materials into larger sections with sub-headings created using the \u2018text and media area&#8217; activity. Folders in Moodle, although a good way to group materials, can mean that students can\u2019t quickly find what they are looking for so avoid using too many of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">To get the \u2018one section per page\u2019 layout, you need to have the following settings under the \u2018course format\u2019 section of your Moodle page settings:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Course format: topics<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Course layout: one section per page<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Once you have chosen the above options, click \u2018save and display\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">To add the summaries:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Click the three dots menu next to the topic\/section you wish to add a summary too.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Type in your summary. For example, the summary could be some information on what students can find in the section or a \u2018to-do\u2019 list for the week.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">To add images, choose high quality, landscape images for the best results. These could relate to the topic or subject material or just be high quality photos from around the Lancaster campus.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Click the image icon.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Choose a picture from your file explorer. You can add in information about the \u2018Author\u2019 and the licence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Click \u2018upload file\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Untick \u2018auto-size\u2019 and the best size that I have found is 262wx143h (in pixels).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">The default option for the image alignment is \u2018top\u2019, I would recommend leaving this.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Click \u2018save image\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Once done, click on the image again and change to \u2018left alignment\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Then click \u2018save changes\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">A full-video explaining how to set up the above, can be found here:<\/span><\/p>\n\n<!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/estream.lancaster.ac.uk\/Embed.aspx?id=80728&amp;code=e8~FvzpV2mHr7G7oOM6UCkFFW8cBDFRV4\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">How else can you improve a Moodle space?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Looking beyond the start of term, there are more things that we can do to improve Moodle spaces and the resources stored in Moodle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Moodle isn\u2019t OneDrive or Dropbox. It shouldn\u2019t just be a list of Word documents, PowerPoints and PDFs! For a more engaging online learning experience, consider creating high quality videos for students to watch that include some interaction where possible. You can ask a Learning Technologist to support you in filming the material if it is something like a \u2018Welcome video\u2019 and the University also has Digital Media Engineers who are on hand to create very high-quality videos. Using the H5P activity (HTML5 package activity) in Moodle, it is possible to create an interactive video with quizzes, text boxes and other interactions popping up for students to engage with. H5P can also be used to create over 50 different content types. <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/08\/11\/making-your-moodle-space-more-interactive-with-h5p\/\">More information on H5P activities can be found in another post<\/a>. These activities can support students to engage with your Moodle space more and can support effective revision\/review.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">It is a legal requirement that the resources posted on Moodle are digitally accessible. This is something that should always be on our minds when we create resources. For more information on how to improve the digital accessibility of your Moodle course, you can read this article on <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/08\/18\/10-top-tips-on-improving-accessibility\/\">my \u201810 top tips\u2019<\/a>. One of these tips includes using Blackboard ALLY, the accessibility tool that is integrated into our Lancaster Moodle spaces, to check how accessible your resources are and use the guidance it gives to improve this if necessary. The score gauge provided by ALLY should always be green in colour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">For support with learning design and Moodle, feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.e-res.lancaster.ac.uk\/StaffDirectory\/staffprofile.aspx?id=00968016\">get in touch with me<\/a>. More training sessions on how to create H5P activities, digital accessibility and more will be forthcoming in the next couple of months \u2013 keep an eye on your emails!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past couple of months, in preparation for the new academic year, I have been supporting staff across the Lancaster Medical School (LMS) and the Division of Health and Research (DHR), to redesign their Moodle pages. The aim has been to create more attractive spaces, that are easier to navigate and more engaging for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2024\/09\/20\/a-new-year-a-new-look\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A new year, a new look!<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[22,14,20,5],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moodle","category-uncategorized","tag-accessibility","tag-improved-ux","tag-interactive","tag-moodle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/06\/26\/user-experience-what-do-students-like-to-see-in-a-moodle-space\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":0},"title":"User Experience: What do students like to see in a Moodle space?","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"June 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Digital Teaching and Learning Team are currently in the process of engaging students and staff in a range of discovery activities to find out about their experience of using Moodle. Over the past couple of weeks, I\u2019ve been conducting focus groups with students to find out more about their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The inside of the University library showing an indoor tree and students studying.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2023\/06\/SL_LancsUni_Jun22_SLV_2116_HR-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":348,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/10\/05\/moodle-users-we-need-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":1},"title":"Moodle Users &#8211; We Need You!","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"October 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"User experience is a bit of a theme in this blog and DLT would like to invite Lancaster University staff who use Moodle to complete a short survey on their experience (link to survey below!). It will not take more than 5-10 minutes of your time. We are advertising in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2023\/10\/Learning-Zone-8-002.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":547,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2024\/06\/19\/moodle-my-feedback-new-to-moodle-for-24-25\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":2},"title":"Moodle My Feedback \u2013 New to Moodle for 24\/25","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"June 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Phil Tubman - eLearning Development Officer, Digital Learning Team (ISS) Each year in the Digital Learning Team, we try to improve the Moodle experience for students and staff. During this academic year we have held focus groups with students and listened to their concerns, which overwhelmingly speak of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A module space in Moodle with the 'Feedback' tab on the secondary navigation menu highlighted with a pink box.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-14.28.13-300x186.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-14.28.13-300x186.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-14.28.13-300x186.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":723,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2025\/07\/31\/moodle-update-2025-whats-new\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":3},"title":"Moodle Update 2025: What&#8217;s New?","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"July 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Lancaster University Moodle has been updated to version 4.5 today! We were previously on version 4.3. So what\u2019s changed and how will this impact users? Some of the main improvements include: Updates to activity icons A new \u2018subsections\u2019 feature Updates to the grading table Improvements to accessibility A screen recording\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The activity picker in Moodle.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2025\/07\/Activity-Icon-Update.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2025\/07\/Activity-Icon-Update.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2025\/07\/Activity-Icon-Update.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2025\/07\/Activity-Icon-Update.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/08\/18\/moodle-training-courses-available-in-september\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":4},"title":"Moodle Training Courses Available in September!","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"August 18, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Time is flying by and the start of the new academic year is nearly upon us (eek!). Many of you are starting to look at your online teaching and learning provision and especially, your Moodle spaces. The DLT team are hosting a series of training workshops to help Lancaster University\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2026\/03\/27\/anonymous-marking-in-moodle-an-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":5},"title":"Anonymous Marking in Moodle: An Update","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"March 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Moodle now allows you to release marks to students while maintaining anonymity. Previously, staff had to reveal all student identities before releasing grades to ensure students saw both the feedback and the grade\/result. This was not ideal especially when some students required longer extensions than the norm. Moodle has now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Assignment settings in Moodle. 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