TABLE OF CONTENTS
How to Change your Course Format
In Moodle, visit your course.
- Click Settings.
- Scroll down and click Course Format to expand the section and view your options.
- Choose a Course Format.
- Scroll down and then click Save and Display to view your course.
A Word of Warning:
It's best to decide on a course format before getting your course organized because changing formats can have unintended consequences when it comes to images used to decorate tiles or grid formats. If you upload images for your tiles and then switch to grid format, your images will disappear and you'll need to upload them again.
Course Format Options:
Custom Sections (Formerly called "Topics")
In the Custom Section format, the course is organized into sections that can be given topical headings. Each section displays its contents (activities, resources), but can be collapsed by the user. This is our default course format. This is great to use if you expect course content to be completed in a linear order or when scaffolding concepts where the students are building upon the knowledge from earlier topics. A user can collapse them by clicking on the arrow before the topic name to hide content that is completed or not needed at the moment. This helps simplify navigation for the user.
Collapsed Topics
The Collapsed Topics course format solves the "Scroll of Death" issue in long courses. It functions similarly to the Custom Sections format. However, with this format, all topics start out closed, and the student clicks to expand only the topic(s) they want to see. All sections except zero (the General section at the top of your course) have a toggle that displays that section. In the image below all topics are displayed as closed.
Grid
Grid is simple topics-based format that uses a grid of user-selectable images rather than a list. When a grid topic is clicked, the topic contents are displayed in a pop up window. Images can be uploaded by the instructor to suit the theme of the course. 
Tiles
Tiles format is similar to Grid but with a modern twist. Tiles displays course topics as "Tiles". For each tile, the instructor can choose an icon from a predetermined set or upload a background photo. When the tile is clicked, the topic content is displayed under the tile with an animated transition. The layout adapts to different screen sizes and orientations. Within each tile, activities can also be set to display as "sub-tiles". Progress indicators can also be easily displayed throughout the course. For an example of a progress indicator, see the Navigating Moodle tile in the image below.
Onetopic
The Onetopic format turns your topics into a series of tabs at the top of your Moodle course page so that users can click on the tab to go to a particular topic. Use the "Tabs view" drop down menu in Course Format settings to set the tabs to display vertically on the side of the page or with arrows that allow you to scan through topics if you have more topics than will fit in one row (otherwise the topics will show in multiple rows.
Onetopic does not work well if you have long topic names because the entire name will not show. You can also customize the tab background color and font color by going into the topic settings and scrolling down to the options. If you choose to change the colors, make sure that you check the color contrast to make sure it meets accessibility requirements.
