As the university-supported VLE, Moodle complies with necessary laws, including accessibility and data protection regulations. It also has managed processes to ensure all staff and students access the right course content, takes regular backups, and integrates into key university systems such as the Lancaster University Student Information system (LUSI).

All programmes and modules are expected to use Moodle to deliver their courses, which applies even when courses primarily use in-person delivery methods. Using Moodle in this way ensures a consistent and equitable experience for students.

Other digital learning tools are encouraged, when necessary, but we expect these to be used in addition to Moodle.

Students have told us that the biggest hurdle to using our digital tools is inconsistent use between their tutors; there’s a big cognitive load to learning how each tutor has organised the files and activities on their Moodle space, which is making it hard for them to concentrate on learning.

We expect all departments and/or programmes to agree on a standardised layout for their Moodle spaces, adhere to these VLE Baseline Standards, and have processes in place to enforce this. To make standardisation easy, all Moodle spaces will use the new University Moodle template by default (coming for the 26/27 academic year).

Core module information, including learning outcomes, teaching team, assessment information, submission spaces and reading lists, should be easy for students to find, grouped together and in a consistent location across all Moodle spaces.

The general section must be kept short. Welcome messages are great to have, but they only need prominence at the start of the course. Students shouldn’t need to scroll past blocks of text every time they access the Moodle space. Remember that some students may access Moodle via their phone, which further increases the scrolling required.

Module Information, Assessment Details and Library Resources sections will be included in the university Moodle template by default.

Students have expressed a strong desire for Moodle spaces to be organised temporally, with weekly or daily sections, as this aids them in locating course materials they remember being taught at a specific time. You should avoid organising your space by event type, e.g. lectures, seminars, and lecture recordings, as this increases hunt-and-peck behaviour when trying to locate all related resources from a particular time period.

The University Moodle template will have sections that match the new semester structure, and we recommend keeping this structure intact.

Each section must have a succinct name, summary and image to introduce the week's learning to the student. You could include relevant learning outcomes so students have a clear expectation of what will be covered during this section of the course.

Students have expressed interest in more visually appealing Moodle spaces, so we recommend that you upload a decorative image to represent each section. If none are uploaded, Moodle will generate generic colour patterns instead.

Moodle spaces can become overwhelming once populated with all the resources students need for their studies. To help combat this, ensure that all activities and resources have succinct and meaningful names that allow students to locate them easily. Clearly mark where files and activities are core, recommended or optional to allow students to understand what is expected of them during the course and effectively self-direct their learning to achieve the learning outcomes.

Good Practice

• Set clear expectations for your students. Estimate how long they should spend completing an activity and make this explicit to them. For example, if they should watch a 15-minute video, state that the video is 15 minutes long. If you need them to complete an activity before their next lecture, this should be stated in Moodle and any slides from the previous lecture. Components for Learning (in text editor click Insert > Components for Learning) has numerous tools to add this contextual information in Moodle.

Giving students early access to the materials allows them to prepare before the session and plan their time effectively, letting them learn the basics and spend valuable time in the session focused on meaningful engagement, better notetaking and deeper questions. Courses that don’t create resources before the event, e.g. those using whiteboards, should provide a copy of any resources created during the event as soon as possible afterwards.

You can still make small tweaks to your resources after sharing them, if needed, but ensure you upload these as soon as possible after the session and inform the students of any changes since they last accessed.

Good Practice

• Provide course materials in their original format so students can make modifications (such as increasing text size, changing spacing, etc.) to better meet their individual needs. While PDFs are great for preserving document layout, they should be uploaded in addition to the original files.

Lecture recordings aren’t a replacement for attending lectures but have become a key resource for student learning. Having a recording can allow students to focus on understanding in class and allow them to complete detailed notes afterwards, review topics at their own pace, repeat difficult areas and revise for their exams.

When available, these recordings must be provided to students in a timely manner to enable them to be used effectively and must be captioned within 1 week of the event taking place. It’s better to publish the recording immediately, even if not fully captioned yet. You should avoid withholding recordings to improve attendance figures as this isn’t likely to work and disadvantages all students.

Good Practice

• Monitor video usage to improve learning. Reviewing the video statistics can give great insight into which topics students are rewatching the most and help you develop your teaching plan in response to their specific needs and struggles.
• Make the lecture recordings available to everyone. Sometimes recordings are made solely for those with ILSP requirements, but they’re beneficial for all and should be published for all when they exist.

Resource lists allow students to easily access your module's essential and recommended readings, broadening their knowledge and exposure to your subject area.

They reduce the time spent searching for resources, which can be better spent understanding the materials, structuring self-paced learning and preparing for lectures and seminars.

When using the university Moodle template, a link to the list will be added automatically in the “Library Resources” section.

Good Practice

• Avoid overwhelming students with the resources. Divide them up temporally if possible and clearly mark the essential, recommended and optional resources. Use embedded reading lists to show resources in the section of the module they relate too, rather than only showing the full list.
• Don’t upload PDF resource lists or PDF readings in place of using Leganto. Using Leganto reduces time spent repeating searches and allows the library to monitor usage, copyright adherence and ensure the university has the appropriate licensing in place for your resources.

Students have told us that it can be difficult to know which resources they’ve seen before and which are new in Moodle. Activity completion allows students to see their progress through your Moodle space by marking the files and activities as “Done” once interacted with them, e.g. after downloading lecture slides, submitting their assignment, or watching a Panopto recording.

Activity completion will be enabled by default but it’s important that you check the completion criteria is sensible when adding new files or activities.

If using the university Moodle template, new resources added since the student’s last login will be highlighted when they access the course.

Good Practice

• Monitor student interaction with your resources. Moodle has [several reports] that show how students are interacting with your course. These can be used to spot areas of weakness or problems where you can intervene to improve the situation, e.g. you might notice that nobody is looking at the optional resources on your course, which might be useful for an upcoming assignment.

At the start of a module, you must post a short introduction message to students. Ideally, this will be a welcome video posted to the course page, but it could also be an announcement or text post if preferred. This is your chance to set your expectations for the module and give students the information they need to get the best start.

As the module progresses, you should provide regular updates on how things are progressing, which might include reminders of upcoming deadlines, your subject in the news, any clarifications or frequently asked questions, etc.

The “Module Information” section should list the module convenor, key teaching staff, and relevant administrators, along with details on how they prefer to be contacted and their office hours, to make it clear to students who the important course contacts are.
This should be done in addition to sharing them via any Lecture Slides, as this type of core information should always be available without downloading additional documents or files.

If using the university Moodle template, we will display Module convenors by default, but you will be able to choose which other teaching staff, administrators or other general contact to add, and should refine this list as appropriate.

Good Practice

• Putting names to faces. At the start of the module, students won’t yet know their tutor’s name and face, so to make the course more personable and aid them in remembering, you should ensure you have uploaded a profile picture to Moodle for use on the contact cards.

Keeping students updated about the course is important, but care should be taken not to send too many announcement messages. When you send a message via Moodle, students receive a copy via email, iLancaster and the Student Portal. The phone notifications, especially, can be disruptive.

Consider that students are studying multiple modules and receiving messages from central services such as Careers and Learning Development. Where possible, consider whether the students have already received the message elsewhere, whether you can combine multiple items into a single message, or whether the Student Portal News and Events System is more appropriate.

Module feedback is an important part of teaching, and you must encourage students to participate in the evaluation process using the Lancaster University Module Evaluation System (LUMES). Once your evaluation report is received, you should post a response to the feedback in the Module Information section of Moodle, thus closing the feedback loop with students. Whilst it may not always be possible to make changes in time to affect the current cohort, it’s important to show the value we gain from feedback as teachers and for future students.

If using the university Moodle template, Moodle will remind students when their module evaluation is due with a prominent banner at the top of the Moodle space.

Good Practice

• Feedback isn’t confined to LUMES, students give us feedback throughout our courses, and it’s important to recognise this too. Many departments run staff-student consultative committees throughout the year so feedback responses from these sessions should also be posted to the appropriate Moodle spaces.

All digital summative assessments must be defined in LUSI and collected via Moodle where appropriate. This ensures that submissions can be effectively monitored and that they are retained for the appropriate period of time as defined by university policy.

Use of other systems is permitted for creating submissions, but the final product must be uploaded (not linked) to Moodle to ensure continued access, e.g. a student could use Canva to create a poster, but must download their poster from Canva and upload to Moodle rather than share a link.

All substantive assessments must be defined in the “Assessment Details” section of Moodle. This includes the assessment brief, any supporting files, and the submission points and will ensure that all assessment information is collected and easy for students to find. In addition, you should ensure that links to university guidance related to plagiarism and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are linked here.

Where departments have small weekly assessments, such as worksheets, these may continue to be listed in the appropriate weekly section of the Moodle course.

If using the university Moodle template, all assignment submission points will be created in the “Assessment Details’ section by default and links to plagiarism and use of AI guidance will be included automatically.

All resources uploaded to Moodle by staff or students must be done so with permission and be appropriately referenced and or/attributed when necessary. If unsure, alternative resources should be used.

All resources uploaded to Moodle must comply with the Digital Accessibility Baseline, which defines the minimum principles acceptable under the UK Accessibility Regulations (WCAG2.2 AA Standards).

Additionally, all Moodle spaces must have a defined Accessibility contact whom students can contact if they have issues using any course resources. Unless otherwise specified, this will be the module convenor.