Moodle: The Lesson Tool

The Lesson tool is particularly useful for automated content. It takes time to set up, but once in place can be used by students with little faculty intervention. A lesson can be small amounts of text, followed by a question that can be graded, with branches to retake the question if wrong or move on if right. Or this tool can be set up as flashcard practice. Another use would be a simulation with real choices and then possible implications from those choices. It is best to develop a lesson flowchart on paper before beginning to enter text into this tool due to the complex possibilities.

Some possible activities in a flowchart:

One-path automated content and question

Role-playing

Simulations of Case Studies

Multilearner Styles and Choices

I. Add the Lesson and its Settings

1. Log into Moodle and open the course that you would like to add a lesson to. From the OU Moodle homepage, click on the button in the top-right corner that says "Turn editing on".

Turn Editing On Button

2. Find the topic area or week where you would like to add the lesson, and click the drop down list that says "Add an activity". Select Lesson from the list. A form will appear for you to choose your setting for the lesson tool. Below are the possibilities. Click on the question marks to find out more about each setting.

Property	Recommended Setting
Name	Make it relevant to the topic of the lesson.
Timed	No
Time Limit	---
Maximum number of answers/branches	4
Practice lesson	No
Custom scoring	Yes
Maximum grade	Range is 0 to 100. Percentage of overall grade in course.
Student can retake	Yes
Handling of retakes	Use maximum
Display ongoing score	No
Allow student review	Yes
Display review button	Yes
Maximum number of attempts	2
Action after correct answer	Normal - follow lesson path: Students will go straight through lesson, following the jumps you specify
Minimum number of questions	Range is 0 to 100
Number of pages (cards) to show	Range is 0 to 100
Slide show	No
Slide show width	---
Slide show height	---
Background color	---
Display left menu	---
Password protected lesson	Yes or no
Password	Your choice. Tell your students the password so they can access the lesson.
Available	First day you would like it to be available
Deadline	Last day students can take lesson.
Tree view	No
Display high scores	No
Number of high scores displayed	---
Use the lesson as defaults	Yes if you think you will be creating more lessons with this same basic format
Visible to students	Show if you will be able to finish. Hide the lesson until you are done so that students cannot access a half completed lesson.

3. Once you have the settings the way you like them, click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom. (You can always come back and change them later by clicking the "Edit lesson settings" button in the top right corner of every page.)

II. Choosing and Adding Pages

Branch Table--This type of page acts as an index page or a choice page that has links without any questions on it.

Question Page--This type of page has room for as much text as needed and then one question. Or you can just create a series of questions, using one page per question. If you want to create a series of pages for study, much like flashcards, you would only need question pages, randomized and able to be retaken. You may import your questions.

1. Add a Question Page

Click the link that says "Add a Question Page here". Choose a question type from the tabs at the top of the form.

Give the page a title that briefly describes the question.
In the Page contents text box, type in any information you would like to share with students, including the question.
You should have three or four answers to enter in, unless you changed the setting in the "Edit Lesson Settings" page. Put the correct answer in the first answer text field, and give it a point or two and incorrect answers should go after that with 0 points, if you are grading the activity. The order of the answers will be randomized.
You can have more than one correct answer if you like, but you have to change the point value and the setting for the Jump so both correct answers will go to the same page. Make certain the student will progress through the lesson, regardless of what correct answer he/she selects.
If you have more than one correct answer and you want your students to have to answer all the correct answers, check the box at the top of the page that says Multianswer. The student will be wrong unless he/she specifies all of the correct answers.
Note how the correct answer will lead to the students to the next page, while the incorrect answer will lead the student to the same page.

Click on Save Page and Continue.
On the following page, you can also check to make sure the jumps are working correctly by clicking on the link that says "Check Navigation". You will see a tree view or index of your pages, if you said yes to tree view in the settings. If you said no then you will simply be shown the page you just created.
Continue adding all the question pages you will need.

Tree View

First Page View

questionpage

2. Add a Branch Table (Index Page or Branch Page)

If you would like to add a page without a question, you can do that as well. When looking at the Lesson page, click on the link that says "Add a branch table". These are helpful for creating Table of Contents pages at the beginning of lessons, or for creating different paths through the lesson. You still have up to 4 different paths to create, similar to the four answers for a multiple choice question, but branch tables do not have a point value assigned to them. You will still have to specify the Jumps for each button. These can always be changed later by clicking on the hand icon next to the title of the branch table.

Fill out the Page Title
Fill out the Page Content
Put in the Description, which is the name of the link, and then choose the Jump link from the dropdown menu, which is the page where the link will go.

branch

After adding a branch page, you are taken back to a view of all your pages.

3. Add a Cluster (a group of pages with one question on each page)

Go back to your pages of lessons and Add a Cluster at the end or between the existing pages.
Fill out the form and click Save Page.

Continue with making questions pages as described above.
Click on End of Cluster page.

4. Check navigation

When finished making pages, it's important to check your navigation as a student.

In oder to see this as a student would, click on Check Navigation.

You can then test your pages as a student.

Make certain that each page leads to a logical next page and that you finish cluster questions with an End of Cluster Page and the entire lesson with an End of Lesson Page.
If you need to edit the links in any of the pages, return to the homepage and click on the name of your lesson in the breadcrumb menu, which will take you back to all your pages. Find the page you want to change and click on the little hand with the pen to edit. Then change the Jump links. Test your pages again.