When the Edit Mode is in the on position, Moodle allows you to change the order of the topic blocks in your course by dragging a block to a new location. If you click and hold on the "cross-hairs" icon in the top-left corner of the block that you want to move, you can drag that block up or down in the course, dropping the block to a new location above or below other existing blocks:
As you are moving the block, its contents appear as a lighter "ghost" version in its new location, giving you a sense of when you can let go of the mouse to finalize the move process.
Unfortunately, when there are many items within the topic block, it can be very difficult to judge the location of the "ghost" version within the course as you are moving the block, making it hard to determine when to "let go" of the block to drop it into its new location.
If you are finding it difficult to move topic blocks around in your course, you can temporarily turn off the AJAX functionality that underlies the various "drag-and-drop" features of Moodle. With AJAX turned off, you can move blocks up and down one position at a time, clicking on up and down arrow icons to change the order of the blocks in the course. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to move topic blocks without AJAX:
- In order to turn AJAX off, you first need to turn the Edit Mode off for the course. If Edit Mode is currently on, click on the switch in the top-right corner of the page that toggles Edit Mode between on and off:
- The switch that allows you to turn off AJAX functionality is part of your individual Moodle profile. Within the course whose topic blocks you want to re-order, find the Administration block on the left-hand side of the page. At the bottom of the Administration block is a "My profile settings" link. Click on that link to expand the "My profile settings" section, and then click on "Turn ajax off":
- Click on the Edit Mode toggle again (in the top-right corner of the page) to turn Edit Mode back to the "on" position. As you hover your mouse over the topic areas in your course, you may notice that "Add a resource" and "Add an activity" are now separate menus (at the bottom of the topic blocks). As you move your mouse to the top-right corner of those topic blocks, you should see single or double vertical arrows, depending on the position of the block within the course. In other words, your first topic block (below the zero block) will have a single down arrow, since it can only be moved down in the order of blocks. Your second topic block will have up and down arrows, since the block can be moved in either direction.
- To re-position a topic block in your course, move your mouse to the top-right corner of that block, and click on the arrow for the direction in which you want the block to move:
- You may need to continue clicking on the up or down arrows until all the blocks are in the desired order.
- When you have finished re-ordering the blocks, scroll back to the top of the page, and click on the Edit Mode switch to turn it back to the "Off" position.
- On the left-hand side of the page, at the bottom of the Administration block, click on the "My profile settings" link again to expand that section, and click on the link to turn AJAX back on:
Please contact ITEC if you have any questions about re-ordering topic blocks in your course or if you have any general questions about using Moodle to enhance your teaching.