Administration Features 

Administration Features 

This section of the manual assumes you  have   Administrator          

account permissions within Moodle (see page 6). If you have these 

permissions, the Administration block (Fig. 68) will appear on the site 

front page after login.  

There are two types of administrators; a primary admin who installs/

upgrades Moodle, and site admins designated by the primary admin. 

Site admins have the same permissions as a primary admin, except 

Fig. 68 

they cannot designate other site admins.  

X  

There can be only one primary admin, but many site admins (not a good idea) 

The following is an explanation of features available from the Administration block on the site 

front page, after login. All of these features are available from a single screen (Fig. 69) when 

you click the Admin link at the bottom of the block.  

Configuration 

Variables: Moodle's main configuration           

properties set by the primary admin during 

installation are stored in this area. These 

properties include the site language default 

and behaviors of certain features. 

Site settings: Properties that allow you to 

add a description on your site front page, set 

display features and define what teachers 

and learners are called. 

Themes: Moodle comes with over a dozen 

stock themes, including the default orange 

theme. Additionally, there are a number of 

themes that developers have contributed at 

moodle.org. This property window allows 

you to select a theme your entire site will 

use.   

Language: If you know what you are doing 

and want to change Moodle's default          

language strings, use this setting. You can 

also check to see if the language pack you 

are using (e.g. English, Spanish etc.) is up  

to date (Fig. 70). To change the wording  

that appears in a language string file (e.g. 

moodle.php), click the  Compare and edit 

current language  button. You can now  

Fig. 69 

select and edit language files directly in       

the browser, if the file you wish to change        

is set with write permissions on the server. 

Modules: Modules are used within Moodle 

when creating learning objects (e.g., Forums, 

Assignments, Quizzes etc.). This setting 

allows you to hide a module from a course 

creator, delete a module or change setting 

behaviors for a specific module. 

Fig. 70 

Blocks: Side blocks within Moodle can also 

be hidden, deleted and with a few blocks you 

can change settings.  

There are a number of custom modules and blocks that developers have created to add functionality  

to Moodle. Check Moodle.org for the latest additions. Installing a new module or block is simple, 

usually the developer will include instructions. After installing a custom module or block the  

admin must visit the Administration area (Fig. 69) to complete installation. This is done 

automatically (screen notifications) and often involves adding database tables.   

http://moodle.org 

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