M00 - Navigation

Owned by rob.lee
Last updated: Aug 18, 2023 by Eliot Hoving
5 min read

Keywords: orientation, navigate, access, find, understand, structure

What is it?

Navigation in Moodle is supported by several features.


Navigation in Moodle is supported by several features including: 

The Dashboard

  1. Home / Dashboard: When you log in you will see your Dashboard which shows your latest access information.

  2. My courses: The Courses block lists and allows navigation between all of the courses in which the logged-in user is enrolled.

  3. Notifications and Messages: The notifications and messages icon will show any messages or warnings you have from within Moodle.

  4. Your Profile: Access your profile details and site preferences.

  5. Pick up where you left off: View the last content you accessed. clicking on the course or activity card will take you straight to it, for quick navigation.

  6. Courses: View the last three courses you accessed. This also shows progress so far if the activity competition is set in the course.

  7. Activities: View the last four activities you accessed.

  8. View all your courses: This takes you to the My courses page where you can easily see all courses you enrolled into.

  9. Timeline: The timeline enables students to check their course progress and view upcoming deadlines. It allows teachers to easily see activities needing grading.

  10. Feedback: The Feedback block only appears for students. It shows any feedback obtained in Moodle assessment, this may be a Moodle or Turnitin assignment or a Quiz.

  11. My Tutees: The My Tutees block only appears for staff personal tutors. It shows a list of student tuttees with a link to their profile. From a student's profile, grades can be viewed.

  12. Search Courses: This allows you to search for courses and find out the names of the Course Administrator(s) and Tutor(s) that will appear under the title of the course.

The Footer

The Moodle footer includes essential navigation links, copyright details, and other universally useful links. It neatly covers four main areas, allowing you to swiftly navigate to key pages:

  1. UCL Moodle: Here you'll find direct links to the Dashboard (Home), My Feedback report, your profile, your site preferences, and the Moodle snapshot — a repository of Moodle courses before 2021.

  2. Student help: This section provides critical study resources for students, including plagiarism and academic writing guidance, as well as accessibility support information.

  3. Staff help: This part is dedicated to staff resources. It includes Moodle and Lecturecast guides, administrative forms for course requests, and exam notifications. It also provides a link to the UCL Moodle User Group for staff.

  4. Services: This section links to LinkedIn Learning courses and the Library.

Why use it?

Using the navigation features in Moodle makes it easy to search and move between pages in Moodle, in various courses and activities. You can also use the back button to navigate, which is why it is important for accessibility, as an editor that you always open links in the same window, except if providing help information specific to that page.

Who can use it?

Everyone can use the navigation features in Moodle.

Before I start...

Using a departmental course template makes it easier for both students and staff to navigate since they will be familiar with the layout of the course from other courses they use.

Meeting the Baseline

The UCL E-Learning Baseline  suggests the following for Structure : 

  • 1.3 Include navigation aids: to help students navigate you should ensure the Course Index shows clear titles for all course sections (topics).

How do I...?

Navigate to a course?

The My courses page lists all the courses you are enrolled on as a tutor, administrator or student. Hidden courses are not visible to students and will appear to staff at the bottom of the courses list.

  1. You can search for courses using the search box at the top of the My courses page or on the right hand side in the Dashboard.
  2. Within My Courses, you also have the option to toggle between courses categorised as "In Progress", "Future", "Past", "Starred", or "All Courses".
  3. Once you've pinpointed the course you're interested in, click on the course tile/card to access it. The course homepage, which serves as the primary webpage for the course, will then be displayed. Refer to M42-M01 - Moodle course structure for more information on the layout of a Moodle course.

Navigate within a course and other areas of Moodle.

On the course homepage, you will find a 'Course Index'. This is a navigational tool that provides a structured overview of the course content. It lists all the sections and activities within the course, and you can click on any item in the index to navigate directly to that part of the course.

  

When you are engaged in Moodle activities, a breadcrumb trail will be visible at the top of the page. This feature indicates your current location within the course and allows you to navigate back to previous sections of the course or the course homepage.



  1. To return to the course homepage, click on the short course name (in the example above this is "Class and Conflict in World Cinema").
  2. The first link on the breadcrumb trail always takes you to the course homepage.
  3. The Course Index (to the left of the main content) provides links to other sections and activities in the course.
  4. When you are on the course page, you will always see the "Home" and My courses" links in the top navigation bar so you can return to your dashboard or course listings, at any point.


Further help

See Moodle docs.

If you find any inaccurate or missing information you can even update this yourself (it's a communal wiki).

If you have a specific question about the tool please contact the Digital Education team.

Caution

– None at this time.

Examples and case studies

– None at this time.

Questions & Answers

– None at this time.

Further information

– None at this time.

This information is provided by Digital Education
( https://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/digital-education-team-information ) and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0