Using the Page Resource in Moodle

Summary

The Page resource in Moodle allows ease of access and use by both students and the managing faculty member.  A Page is a document that is built as a web page into Moodle, functions like a web page, and is easily accessible to all course participants.  Students do not need to have Word to open documents from a Page. They also do not need to figure out where a document from a Page downloads to and then open the document in Word or an alternative program (if they do not have Word).  

For faculty the Page resource is helpful because once you enter information in a Page, it remains in Moodle.  This means that you no longer need to remember where you've stored the "master word file" and if you wish to update the Page, you simply click on the Update tool and make the changes.  Your document is easily managed entirely from within Moodle using the Page resource editing tools.

Step-by-Step Tutorial

1. Enter your course and turn editing on.
2.  From the Add an activity or resource menu select Page under the resources list and click Add. 
3. In the Name field fill in a descriptive name for your new page.  
4. The Description field is optional but can be used to place a short annotation for your document on the course home page if you check the Display description on course page checkbox
   
   
5. The Page content field is where you will build your Page resource and their are two ways to add your content. You can copy from a Word or other document and paste into your new page.
   1. Option 1: The easiest way to bring a Word document into your new Page is to open your Word (or other) document, select all the text (Windows Ctrl A, Mac Command A). Then return to the Page Content field in Moodle and paste your information using the keyboard shortcuts for paste (Windows Ctrl + V (press the Control key and then press the letter V key) or Mac Command + V). Then click on the Insert Button.  Clean up any formatting issues to make the document appear as you would like.
      
      
      
   2. Option 2: You can also just type your document into the Page content field and format the document using the Moodle toolset just as you would in any other word processing program like Word or Pages.  To view a larger page you can either drag the lower right corner to enlarge the editing page or click on the Toggle full screen mode button   in the top right of the Moodle tool set. Remember if you toggle to full screen mode, that you need to "untoggle" to be able to return to the Add Page window to save your document.
      
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page when you have your new page pasted or built and click Save and display to view your new page or on Save and return to course to return to your course home page. 

Now all that students have do do is click on the link to your page and the document opens as a web page in Moodle.
To modify your page just click on the Update tool  for the page and make your updates.  No longer do you need to make changes in Word, delete an old Moodle version, and then upload your new version.