Moodle: Improving the Student Experience

The start of the academic year is an exciting time as we welcome new and returning students and staff. Moodle is used by every course and is critical to help students connect with their tutors, find their timetables and access course materials.   

We understand how stressful it is when Moodle is not available or displays incorrect information. Over the past 12 months, we have taken positive steps to tackle areas that we know contribute to students having a poor Moodle experience. 

What have we done? 

The most high-profile project has been moving Moodle to a brand-new infrastructure.  We are confident that we will no longer see Moodle crashing at peak times and that Moodle will be reliable and stable. 
 
Over the past year, we have been analysing the support requests we received at the start of the 21/22 academic year to identify where we can make improvements particularly around the accuracy of sites in Moodle. We’ve worked with colleagues in Registry, Student Systems and Digital and Technology to target 3 specific areas that persistently present inaccurate information to students within Moodle:  

1. Courses with Pathways  
2. Students who change course 
3. Courses with optional units 

Over the opening weeks of this academic year, we will gather data to measure the impact of these improvements and to identify and plan where further intervention is required. 

What can you do? 

There are other things that impact a student’s Moodle experience that are outside of our control. For example, a student may have poor wifi or a limited broadband service within their home environment. This is where teaching staff have a vital role to play in ensuring students have the best Moodle experience.  

We recommend you: 

• Check your Moodle sites early to ensure the hierarchy of unit sites is correct and the content is ready for your students.   
• Avoid using large images (especially banners/headers) or video files which can cause Moodle to be slower to load for students with slower internet connections or using mobile devices.  
• Use Panopto for videos and link to them from Moodle sites rather than posting the video file directly into Moodle. Learn how to share your Panopto videos.  
• Check your Ally accessibility indicators and make necessary updates to your content.  

Do you need help? 

We wish all our Moodle users a positive start to this academic year. If you do need help you can contact Digital Education Support through MySupport – read how to on Canvas. You can also contact your college’s Digital Learning team:  

• CCI: cci.digitallearning@arts.ac.uk   
• CCW: ccw-digitallearning@arts.ac.uk  
• CSM: csmdigitallearning@arts.ac.uk  
• LCC: LCCDigitalLearning@lcc.arts.ac.uk  
• LCF: lcf-digitallearning@arts.ac.uk  

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