Navigating around moodle sites
There are a number of ways of moving around a course and some of the commonest and easiest ways are briefly discussed below.
Using the breadcrumb trail
The easiest way to move around moodle is to select the links within the 'breadcrumb trail' positioned below the course title at the top of each page. A breadcrumb trail is a type of text-based Web site navigation that breaks the site into links of categories and sub-categories allowing major categories of information to be linked in a range of sequential order. Breadcrumb navigation is displayed to the user, so they can easily see exactly where that Web page is located within the Web site. This type of navigation is very common, especially to commercial Web sites. Breadcrumb trails in Moodle are typically very clear to understand as courses and resources are organised is a simple and logical way. For those unfamiliar with the concept of a breadcrumb trail, the following example and notes will make this clearer.
Example breadcrumb trail:
- The first element CSMoodle refers to the whole moodle site. Selecting this will take you back to the moodle home page which contains the complete list of moodle course sites.
- The second element CS604 is a short name that refers to the current course site. Selecting this will take you to the homepage of your course.
- The third element Resources refers to the type of resource or activity you are viewing. Selecting this will display a list of all the Resources for the course.
- The final part Project part A (assessed) is the title of the resource or activity currently being viewed and has a different colour to indicate this.
The above is only one example of how the breadcrumbs menu may appear and it will be different for each course. Keep an eye on it as you navigate around your own course, you will notice it change to reflect your current position.
Using the jump menu
Another method for navigating can be found in the header of some resource and activity pages.
This jump menu is a handy way to quickly move to another area of a course. Clicking the drop down list will allow you to select from a complete list, in topic order, and navigate directly to your selection.
The Next and Previous buttons either side of the jump menu will take you back and forth between the activities and resources in the order by which they appear in the menu.
Using the Activities menu
Many course sites (but not necessary all courses) will feature an Activities menu side-block. This menu provides quick links to the different tools and resources within your course site. Selecting a particular activity type will generate a list of all the instances of that particular activity. From the list, you can jump to the specific instance. The listing will usually contain a short description to remind you of the purpose for each activity instance.
Using your web browser buttons to navigate
Finally, it is possible to navigate between pages using the navigation buttons on your web browser. However, this is not recommended. You will obtain more consistent results by using the navigation options directly within the moodle site and course pages.