Your friendly advice column for creative course and learning design. All questions in Moodle Mentor come from real Moodlers who write in through Edit Mode — our monthly newsletter for creative course builders, designers, and tinkerers.
Dear Moodlers,
Lots of curiosity this November! This month’s mailbag has everything from creative site design and theming questions to practical Moodle Workplace how-tos. We’re exploring course templates, custom pages that welcome visitors, plugin longevity (and what to do when maintainers move on), and even the mystery of Moodle’s new Gradebook tabbing behaviour. As always, we love your questions and the thoughtful ways you’re making Moodle your own. Let’s jump in!
Quick note: Every Moodle site is a little different — version, hosting, theme, plugins, etc. — so what works in one place might not apply everywhere. When in doubt, check your settings or ask your admin.
Level up your Moodle template
Moodle Mentor says:
When you say “template,” you might mean a few different things — course templates, page templates, or your site’s theme.
If you’re talking about course templates, admins can create a template course and automatically copy its content and structure into new courses by using a .csv file for bulk course creation (via Site administration → Courses → Upload courses). It’s a great way to keep layouts and key materials consistent. For full details and step-by-step instructions, check out Course templates in Moodle Docs.
If you’re referring to the look and layout of your site — colours, header, footer, blocks, etc. — that’s all handled by your Theme. You can make small changes (like logos or colours) through Site administration → Appearance → Themes, or go deeper with custom CSS if you’re comfortable with a little coding. You can also switch to a different theme altogether or explore new ones in the Moodle Plugins directory — there are plenty of great options to match your organisation’s style.
If you’d like a full redesign without the code headaches, that’s where a Moodle Certified Partner can help bring your vision to life.
Moodle LMS vs Moodle Workplace
Moodle Mentor says:
Good question — this one comes up a lot! Moodle LMS and Moodle Workplace share the same foundation, but Workplace adds tools for organisational learning — things like:
- Multi-tenancy — give each of your divisions, departments or franchises their own full LMS platform with custom permissions.
- Dynamic rules — for automating almost anything you can think of on your site
- Programs – groups or sequences of courses.
- Certifications — Programs that need to be completed on a specific cadence, usually for compliance training.
- Team management — the ability to structure and oversee training by teams or roles.
- Advanced reporting — Everything you know and love about Report builder in Moodle LMS, but with the added bonus of data visualisation (I LOVE a chart!).
…and more! Those are just the highlights.
If you’re currently self-hosting Moodle LMS, you can’t just “turn on” Workplace, and it’s also not a version of Moodle LMS. Moodle Workplace is a separate, premium product offered through Moodle Premium Certified Partners.
The good news is, if you love the flexibility of Moodle LMS, you’ll feel right at home with Moodle Workplace. It’s very easy (on a technical level) to transition from Moodle LMS to Moodle Workplace, and this change often ends up saving site admins lots of time (thank you, Dynamic rules!). I hope you’ll get in touch with your local Partner and see if Moodle Workplace might be a good fit for your needs!
Letting Guests In: Creating a public Workplace page
Moodle Mentor says:
I’m loving these Moodle Workplace questions! So, for those of you who haven’t tried out Workplace, what Laura is referring to here is called Custom pages. This tool allows for the creation of pages of content (made up of Blocks) for different audiences — so, basically, you can put whatever you want on a Custom page.
By design, Moodle Workplace (and LMS) keeps most content behind login for privacy and security reasons. But it’s possible to make your Custom page visible without someone needing to be logged in:
- In Site administration → Users → Permissions → User policies, enable “Auto-login guests” to let visitors view public content (Note – this could have other repercussions on your site, so be sure to test, test, test!).
- In the settings for your Custom page, for the Audience, choose “Non-authenticated users” (a.k.a. Guests).
- Copy the URL for the Custom page from Appearance → Custom pages and share that URL with whomever you’d like to view the page.
Now, one of the things Moodle platforms are best at is respecting complex permissions, so if for some reason a Guest (not-logged-in user) is still not seeing the content, that may be because the content itself has permission settings that need to be adjusted.
I love Custom pages and I hope your users are loving yours too!
Tab-tastic grading (or not so much)
Moodle Mentor says:
Hannah, I have to admit — you almost had me with this one. I was testing and trying things out and saw the same thing you describe here. Luckily, Moodle is backed by an incredible community, as well as staff here at HQ who participate in those community forums, and your question has already been answered! (I’ll still explain, briefly, for our dear readers.)
The tab behaviour changed recently because of a necessary accessibility update (MDL-79057). The old version used custom tab order settings that made it easier to move down the column but created problems for people who rely on keyboard navigation. To meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, Moodle removed those custom tab indices so the tab key now follows a standard left-to-right sequence (our very own Jun Pataleta goes into more detail about this in the forum thread).
The good news is, Jun also offers a solution for using the keyboard to navigate down the page in the Gradebook! If you still prefer to move vertically, use Ctrl + arrow keys (or Cmd + Ctrl + arrow keys on Mac) — a built-in shortcut that lets you navigate up and down the grading table without clicking. I just tested this out, and it worked exactly as expected.
Accessibility is always a priority for us here at Moodle HQ, so I’ll also take this opportunity to shout out that Moodle LMS and Workplace were just certified for WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance!
When a plugin goes unmaintained
Moodle Mentor says:
Ah, the bittersweet side of open source — freedom, with a side of responsibility. When a plugin you depend on loses its maintainer, the first step is to check the plugin’s discussion page on the Moodle Plugins directory to see if others have taken up maintenance or proposed forks. You may also revisit core features and functionality, as these are constantly improving with every new version of Moodle LMS, so sometimes that plugin is no longer necessary.
If that doesn’t work, you have three main options:
- Adopt the plugin code internally — assign a developer to maintain it within your organisation.
- Commission a Moodle Certified Partner to maintain or modernise it for you.
- Look for a supported alternative that meets the same need.
And keep an eye on what’s coming next. With Moodle Marketplace launching soon — a new platform where plugin developers can showcase their work and connect with organisations looking for supported, well-maintained plugins — organisations will have a more reliable way to find and invest in the tools they depend on.
As for reassuring new plugin adopters — the plugin ecosystem is a strength, not a weakness. Moodle’s modular design means you’re never locked in. You can swap, replace, or evolve tools as your needs (and the community offerings) grow.
If you want a look at where the platform is headed, check out Setara Singh’s keynote, Strengthening our plugin ecosystem with Moodle Marketplace, from MoodleMoot Global 2025 — as our Product Manager for Marketplace Solutions, she shares a great behind-the-scenes look at how Moodle Marketplace fits into Moodle’s future vision.
Until next time…
We love seeing your creativity, curiosity, and commitment to making Moodle work for you. Keep sending your Moodle mysteries, “how do I…” moments, and teaching triumphs — they make this column possible.
