Overview of Moodle profiles

This page provides an overview of Moodle profiles. To learn more about how to update Moodle profiles, check out our detailed article (with video) about Moodle profiles in the knowledgebase: Moodle - Updating profile & preferences.

Why complete your Moodle profile?

There are lots of reasons to complete your Moodle profile. Some that we think are particularly relevant include:

• Moodle profiles help members of the learning community get to know each other.
• Moodle profiles can help humanize the online learning environment.
• Moodle profiles make it easy to get and stay in touch with members of the learning community (if email sharing is turned on).

Things to consider adding or leaving out of your Moodle profile

• Picture: It is always nice to see a variety of profile pictures in a Moodle course. Many instructors feel that the standard grey avatar that appears by default is cold and impersonal (especially when you are looking at 20+ of them!). Instead, model best practice for your students by updating your Moodle profile picture. If you aren't comfortable sharing a picture of your face, a picture of a pet, flower, car, etc. is a good compromise (and better than the impersonal grey avatar!).

• Description: This is the field where you might wish to consider including a brief description of yourself, your professional and/or academic background, your interests, etc. For instructors, a well-written description can help your students get to know you and your expertize. Encouraging your students to complete their description can help instructors identify interests and tailor learning activities and also help students get to know their colleagues and team-mates.

• Email settings: Users can choose whether or not their email displays to viewers of their profile. Instructors will probably want to share their email addresses so students can reach them easily. Remember to always use your RRU email address for all official correspondence with students.

• City/town, Country, & Description: These fields, while optional, can help make an online learning community feel more connected - even if they are spread across the globe. Students who realise they are in the same city or town may decide to meet up to chat about the course.

• Time zone: This is a very useful setting. All Moodle profiles are automatically set to UTC/GMT -8 hours (Victoria time). A user can update their time zone, and Moodle will automatically change dates and times in Moodle to the correct time for the user's time zone. For example, if an instructor in Victoria sets a forum to close at 11:55pm on Sunday, a student in Montreal will see this in Moodle as 2:55am on Monday. The same applies for the date/time that assignments are due. Note that this feature only works when you have a time-specific setting in place (i.e. It won't change times that you write in forum posts or pages).