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Welcome to this tutorial about Blocks.
Blocks are tools that let you add additional functionality to your course.
They refer to the groups of tools you see on the left and right sides of your course homepage.
Some blocks stay constant, like My Courses, but others can be turned on and off, and moved around.
This lets you decide which of the different Moodle tools you want to use
and where they are most convenient for you and your students.
By configuring blocks, essentially you’re customizing Moodle features for your course.
In this video, we’ll introduce some of the most commonly used blocks.
We’ll also show you how to add a block and move it to a different location on your course homepage.
Once you log in to the official UNC Charlotte Moodle Website,
you will see the university’s official Moodle announcements and resource links
as well as the My Courses block on the left side.
The My Courses block lists all the Moodle courses
you are either teaching or enrolled in as a student, organized in semester folders.
To access a particular course, simply click on the name of the course.
Then the course homepage displays.
When you access a Moodle course for the first time, you’ll see only these blocks:
My Courses, People, Activities, Administration, Latest News, Upcoming Events and Recent Activity.
We’ve already added a few other blocks and removed some that are rarely used.
The People block lists all the people who can access your course, including all your students registered for the course.
If you click the Participants link, participants’ profile links are displayed.
The Activities block lists all the forums, quizzes, assignments
and other activities you have added to your course through the Add an Activity drop-down menu.
Through this block, students can access all your course activities quickly.
The Administration block is where general course configuration features are located.
As a course instructor, you can choose your course format, make available your profile,
upload course files such as your syllabus, form student groups, set up the grade book, etc.
You can also backup, restore or import your materials.
The Latest News block lists all the new postings you have made to the News forum.
To learn more about the News Forum,please view the News Forum tutorial
on the Moodle Video Tutorials page of the Center for Teaching and Learning Web site.
The Upcoming Events block lists upcoming activity deadlines and events people have placed in the calendar.
The Recent Activity block lists all the new activities added to the course since your last login.
By clicking these links, your students can quickly access new course activities you’ve added.
Let’s add a new block now.
Enter the editing mode by clicking the Turn editing on button located in the upper right corner of the course homepage.
The Blocks block will appear at the bottom of the right-hand side of the homepage.
This is where all other available blocks are listed.
If you select any of these links, corresponding blocks will be displayed in your course.
We’ll add a course Calendar. So the Blocks Add … drop-down menu, select Calendar.
The Calendar is added to the right-hand side of the homepage.
Perhaps you’d rather display it on the left side. To do this, click the left arrow icon.
The Calendar moves to the left side.
Use the up arrow to move it up.
To learn more about how to use icons,
please view the Icons tutorial on the Moodle Video Tutorials page of the CTL website.
That’s a general overview of Blocks.
We hope that you’ve found this tutorial helpful
and you’ll take advantage of blocks to customize Moodle tools for your course.