Moodle: Course Shell Setup

Log In:

To access moodle you will need to have your AU account information, it is the same username and password as Email/Webadvisor. If you do not have this information or need to have your password sent to you again please contact itshelp@aurora.edu or dial 630-844-5790. With your account information login on the top left hand side of your screen as shown below

Course shells are not automatically created, a course shell must first be requested by accessing the "Request a new Moodle Course shell" link on the Moodle main page. When taken to the course shell request form:

1. Click on "Edit My Submission"
2. Enter your course name(s)
   • EX: BUS 3000 01 09SP or BUS 3000 S1 01 09SP
   • You can enter more than one course
   • Click Save Changes

The course request has been submitted, ITS will generaly create your course within 1-2 business days. Once the course shell has been created you will recieve an confirmation email saying your couse shells have been created. Once you log in to moodle you will see your courses listed under "My Courses" as shown below.

The courses shown as "blue" are your active courses available to students, the "gray" courses are unavailable to students.

Clicking on the desired course will take you to the "weekly outline" of your course shell.

The first things to look at in your newly created course shell are the settings for the course shell. They are located under the administration block (highlighted in red in the above screenshot).

Below are some of the options you may change under the settings link.

Full name  

This is the name of the coure, it will be filled in for you but you may change it if you wish.

Short name  

The short name will also be filled in for you.

Course ID number  

The Course ID number is the course catalog number, which will be in there by default.

Summary  

This will include the course summary.

Format  

LAMS course format SCORM format Social format Topics format Weekly format Weekly format - CSS/No tables There are two common display options for format of the course, one is weekly outline (which is default setting) or the topics outline. The difference between the two is that the Weekly outline shows dates in a weeks time period on the course shell page, and the topics option will show numbers for each section.

Number of weeks/topics

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 This setting will change the number of weeks (sections) shown in the main page, if the settings for format are changed to 'topics' this setting will change the number of topics.

Course start date  

The course start date is the setting to show when the weeks start in the main course outline, if you are going to recycle your course you will have to change this setting to reflect the new semester start date.

Day

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31  

Month

January February March April May June July August September October November December  

Year

1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Show grades

This setting hides the gradebook from students, the best way to make sure that students do not have access to the gradebook is to put this option as 'No' and make

No Yes

Force theme

This setting will alow you to change the look for the course shell. Caution: Any themes with the name xxxxxPDA will make the font very large and are meant for mobile devices.

Do not force aurora chameleon cornflower custom_corners formal_white metal oceanblue orangewhite orangewhitepda standard standardblue standardgreen standardlogo standardred standardwhite wood

Availability  

The Availability option allows you to 'turn off' or hide the course shell from your students, it will appear as 'gray' under the "My Courses" links on the main moodle page. This setting can be used while updating grades to make sure students don't have access to their grades.

This course is not available to students This course is available to students

Enrolment key  

The enrolment key is the password for your course shell, students need the course shell in order to get to your course. Click on "unmask" in your course shell to see the enrolment key. Every course will be set up with an enrolment key and by default its going to be a five digit number.

Make sure to click on "Save Changes" in order to save any changes made on this page.