The M in Moodle stands for Modular, and one of the great benefits of Moodle is that if its many standard features aren’t enough for you, you can search over a thousand additional plugins to find what you need – for free!
Quick overview on Quiz
Happily, the Plugins directory is very well organised so if, for example, you are a fan of the powerful Quiz module, it’s easy for you to sift through the different question types, formats, reports and more. Did you know, for example, that you can require students to agree to a plagiarism statement before they begin a quiz, in a similar way to assignments? You can do this with the “honesty check” quiz access rule plugin.
Extending the power of the teacher with Availability conditions
Recent improvements in availability conditions have encouraged developers to contribute in this area too. Perhaps you have a course accessed by users with different native languages and you want an easy way to restrict activities in each language. Did you know about the Restriction by language plugin which lets you do just that? Read more about availability condition plugins here.
Update your course format
Most Moodlers are happy with Moodle’s standard weekly or topics course format, but if your users are particularly keen on Facebook or Twitter and you think having a more social media-like course might motivate their learning, you can have just that with the Socialwall course format. Explore the many useful contributed course formats here.
Gamification for engaging courses
Along with the social side of learning, gamification of courses is very popular these days. Did you know you can add a Level Up! block, allowing students to gain experience points and level up in their courses? Check out other handy blocks here.
What else is on offer?
A ‘local plugin’ is one that doesn’t fit into a particular area such as quiz or block. Did you know there is a local Moodle welcome plugin which sends a welcome message to a new user and alerts the admin at the same time when a user creates an account? Being made to feel welcome when you first join a course is good for your motivation, and it’s yet another example of how Moodle plugins support successful learning.
