Their website says “Moodle is a learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments.” To us students, moodle is a one-stop place to get all of our course information. Professors will post the course outline, important dates and information and supplementary materials. Sometimes a Prof will even post practice quizzes or tests and their slides from the lectures. (Although most times the slides are only an abbreviated version, so attending class is still important.)

How to Use Moodle

1. Before you begin you need to know the classes you are in (best to know the course number, not just name) and the moodle passwords that your Profs would have given out on the first day of classes. You can ask the Prof for this password if you are picking up the class after the first day.
2. Go directly to the Brandon University Moodle to the website moodle.brandonu.ca

OR

Go to the Brandon University website at www.brandonu.ca. Under the blue heading ‘Student Resources’ click on the ‘Moodle Log In’ link

3. To the left hand side of the screen there is a place to ‘LOGIN’. Type in your user name and password. This will be the same username and password for your brandonu email and what you use to access your student information and course changes.
4. The screen will flash as it logs in and it will look very similar to what it did before.
5. In the middle of the screen there is a section called ‘Course categories’, search for your class in this list. If you have the course number, the first two digits of the course number (before the period) are the department. (i.e. 62.171 means that it is in the Math and Computer Science department because the first two digits of the course number is 62). If you do not have the course number, just scroll through the list and find your department. Click on the department.
6. A list of the courses offered in that department will be displayed. The courses are listed in numerical order by the last three digits of the course number. Find your course and make sure it is the right course. Sometimes two of the same course are being offered in the same terms, so make sure it is your Prof in the square brackets behind the course name. Click on the course.
7. The screen will change and a brief description of the course will display. Below the description is a field to type in the ‘enrolment key’ or the moodle password. Type it in as your Prof said to; the field is case sensitive (meaning it will recognize a difference between uppercase and lowercase letters).
8. The screen will change again and you will be viewing the moodle page for the course. You have successfully logged in.

Navigating Moodle

So now that you have logged in to your courses it’s time to navigate and learn how to use moodle.

From the ‘My Home’ screen (a selection along the left hand side of the screen):

Under ‘Navigation’

• My Profile: Here you can view your profile and see what it looks like to other users.
• My Courses: Here you can view all the course that you are enrolled in on moodle. (Note: You cannot drop a course on moodle. Unfortunately if you register for it on moodle and then drop the course, you have to keep getting notifications from moodle about it.)

Under ‘Administration’

• Edit Profile: Here you can edit your profile. You can add a picture and change your name as it is displayed to others. Don’t change your name too much (like from John Smith to ebreezy or something, the profs and lab instructors need to know who you are).

Under ‘My Courses’

• A list of your course are displayed. Click on a course to view that specific moodle page.

In your course

• Along the right hand side of the screen you will see ‘latest news’ posted about the course and ‘upcoming events’. Some examples of things that would be posted here would be class cancellations and upcoming tests.
• Along the left hand side of the screen you will see that there are many other choices below your course in the ‘Navagation’ section. There is also a place to see if any grades have been entered for your course under ‘administration’. Below that under ‘online users’ you can see who has logged in and viewed the same course as you.
• In the middle of the screen: This is the good stuff. Here you will find a copy of your course outline. The lecture slides, important dates, quizzes and etc. will be posted here.