Getting Started with Moodle

Getting Started
•Logging In
•Entering Your Email Address
Viewing a Course
•Navigating Your Course’s Homepage
Personalizing Your Account
•Updating your Profile
•Uploading a Picture
•Viewing Your Profile
•Changing your password
•Logging out
Using Moodle
•Posting a Message in a Forum
•Editing a Message in a Forum
•Replying to a Message in a Forum
•Uploading a File
•Checking Your Grades
 Logging In

Click on this button if you forget

your username or password.

You will be entering your username and password here. Your account username is the first letter
of your first name followed by all the letters of your last name (all in lowercase) For example, Jose
Garcia would have a username of JGARCIA. You must use lowercase letters. Your password is
“changeme” without the quotes. After you login, you can change your password to something more
secure, and to your choosing.

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 Navigating Your Course - Outline Block

This is the main page of your course. Your course may be set up in the Topic outline format—like
the course shown—or your course may be set up in a Weekly outline format. Use the scroll bars on
the right to view the entire contents or any part of your course’s homepage. Most of the items located in
this section are links that lead to course assignments, forums, journals, resources, surveys, quizzes,
chats, etc.
You can easily tell when text is a hyperlink by moving your cursor over the text, and you will see the
text change color, and the cursor arrow will change into a symbol of a pointing finger on a hand.
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 Navigating Your Course - Activities Block

The Activities block located either on the left or right of your course homepage, allows for quick
access to available course assignments, forums, journals, resources, surveys, quizzes, chats, etc.

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 Navigating Your Course - People Block

The People block located either on the on the left or right of your course homepage, allows you to
view the Participants in your course, including your instructor’s profile, as well as other students and
their profiles. Click on Participants to see a list.

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 Navigating Your Course – Breadcrumbs & Jump to
The breadcrumbs navigation bar, located on
the upper part of your screen, is available in
most Moodle screens. Click on the links to
move from one screen to another. For
example, we are currently in Books, and you
can click on OTL-1 to return to the course
page, or @ONE to return to the site main page
This is often the fastest way to navigate
back in your course.
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The Jump to box is another way
to navigate from one part of the
course to another. Click on the
pull-down arrow at the right of
the box to see the selection of
destinations, and use the scroll
bars to move up and down
through the selections
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 Updating Your Profile - Page 1

To update your Profile, click on the Edit Profile link, in the Administration block. The Administration
block may be located either on the left or right of your course homepage.

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 Updating Your Profile - Page 2

Here you may change your first name, last name, email address, email properties, your city, write a
brief description about yourself, list other contact information and upload a picture. You may need to
scroll down to view all of the options. In the Email digest type and Forum auto-subscribe pull down
menus, you may choose how you receive all email messages in this course, including those from
classmates. Once you have finished editing, click on the Update profile link at the bottom of the page.
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Updating Your Profile - Page 3 Your Email Address

You will edit your profile by clicking on Edit profile in the Administration block.
Insert your email address here. You will not be able to use your Moodle account
without inserting an email address. Please ensure that your email address is
valid, that you have typed it correctly and that it is NOT full. Your instructor and
classmates will use this email address to communicate with you. If you do not want
your email address to be visible, you may select “Hide my email address from
everyone” in the pull down menu for Email display.
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 Uploading a Picture - Page 1

To upload a picture, click Edit profile in the Administration block, then scroll down until you see the
contents above. The default picture for every Moodle user is the “smile face”, shown above. To upload
a different picture, click on the Browse link and search for a picture located in a folder on your
computer. The picture must be in JPG or PNG format (ie the names will usually end in .jpg or .png).

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 Uploading a Picture - Page 2

Click on the picture that you would like to upload. Once the picture is selected,
click on Open.

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 Uploading a Picture - Page 3

After selecting the image, the location and filename will appear in the text box.
The final step in uploading a picture is to click on Update profile.

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 Viewing Your Profile

I’m a Cabrillo College Student.

Here is the updated Profile. You can view your profile by clicking on the Participants link in your
course homepage and clicking on your image, or you can select profile from the Edit Profile link’s
homepage. Notice you can also Change password and see and reply to Messages.
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 Changing your password - Page 1

To change your password, click on the Change Password link, in the Administration block. The
Administration block may be located either on the left or right of your course homepage.
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 Changing your password - Page 2

In this screen, you may change your password. Next, enter your new password twice. In case
You must first enter your current password you forget it, your new password will be emailed
here. to the email address in your Profile

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 Logging Out

When you are ready to log out of your Moodle account, click on Logout either on the upper right side of
the screen—as shown here—or at the very bottom of the screen.
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 Posting a Message in a Forum - Page 1

To post a new message in a forum, click the
Add a new discussion topic button.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this forum,
click on this link, which toggles between
Subscribe to this forum and Unsubscribe to
this forum. If you are not sure what to choose,
click on the yellow circle with the question
mark.
When you subscribe to a forum, every post is
emailed to the email address in your Profile. If
you are unsubscribed you will not receive any
emails as a result of forum posts.

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 Posting a Message in a Forum - Page 2

Read the information about reading, Include a Subject Write your topic
writing, and asking good questions for your forum information in the
using the links provided. post. space provided.

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 Posting a Message in a Forum - Page 3
You can choose if you want
to subscribe to this forum
and receive email copies of
posts made in this forum. If
you are not sure what to
choose, click on the yellow
circle with the question
mark.
When you are finished You can attach files to your
writing your forum messages. Click the Browse button
posting, click on the to find the file that exists on your own
Post to Forum button computer that you want to attach.
so your post gets saved Double-click the file. The filename will
and posted in this now appear in the text box to the left
forum. of the Browse button.
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 Editing a Message in a Forum
After you click the Post to Forum button, you will
see a message that says “Your post was
successfully added. You have 60 minutes in
which to edit your post.” To edit or delete a
posting, click on the message you posted. If the
60 minutes have not elapsed, you will see three
links at the bottom of the message: Edit, Delete,
and Reply. If it is after the 60 minute deadline, the
only link you will see is Reply.
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Edit link: Allows you to edit your entry
before it becomes “permanent”.
Delete link: Allows you to delete your entry.
You will be prompted to confirm your choice
before deletion.
Note that you cannot edit or delete a
posting after someone else has replied to it,
or if the 60 minute edit time has elapsed.
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 Replying to a Message in a Forum - Page 1

Once course participants

have posted messages in You can also view the
the forum, you can view To view the Profile of the message and any replies
the message by clicking person who posted the to that message by
on the subject of the message, click on their clicking on the number of
message. name. replies.

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Replying to a Message in a Forum - Page 2

When you view a

message, you will see a
Reply link at the bottom of
the message. Click the
Reply link, if you would
like to reply to that
message.
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 Uploading a File for an assignment
Once the filename appears in the
The information about text box, click on the “Upload this
the assignment will be file” button. Please note that the
provided as well as any maximum size of an uploaded
date restrictions. file has been set to 1 MB.
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If an assignment requires
you to submit a file, first
click on the Browse button
to find the file you want to
attach. Double-click the
file. The filename will now
appear in the text box.
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 Checking Your Grades — Page 1

To check your grades, click on the “Grades” link., in the Administration block. The Administration
block may be located on either the left or right of your course homepage.

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 Checking Your Grades — Page 2

Your score (grade) for each assignment is the

bottom set of numbers. This student has no The total possible points is the upper set of
grades for the first three assignments yet. To numbers.
view an instructor’s comments, click on the
individual assignment’s link, located above the
total possible score for the assignment.

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