Moodle 4.0 allows site admin to group courses into categories. A typical Moodle course category’s URL uses the following format:
https://yourmoodlesite.com/course/index.php?categoryid=1 (the number at the end of the URL corresponds to the course category’s id)
In our latest premium Moodle theme Edutor, there is a frontpage categories section where the site admin can add and configure up to 20 category blocks and link them to the existing course categories. It’s the perfect section to showcase and provide quick links to your top course categories.
To configure the section you need to go to: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Edutor > Frontpage Categories
Basic Settings
You can add a section title and a call-to-action button at the end of the section.
Category Blocks
You have the option to add up to 20 blocks. Each block contains a name, description, an image and a link.
By default, Edutor theme displays up to five category blocks per row on large screen devices (eg. desktop/laptop) but you have the option to display 3, 4, or 6 blocks per row via the theme settings below:
Six blocks per row
Five blocks per row
Four blocks per row (with descriptions)
Three blocks per row (with descriptions)
Free Icon Images
Below are some useful sites where you can download free icon images:
Edutor is our latest premium Moodle theme developed and designed for corporate training and university learning sites. In release v1.3 we added new theme settings for site admin to fine tune the display of the Front Page Featured Section slider. Prior to Edutor v1.3, the number of visible pane blocks in the sliders were dictated by the theme. From Edutor v1.3, site admin will be able to configure how many pane blocks are visible based on different screen sizes.
You can find the new settings here: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Edutor > Frontpage Featured Section General
Site admin will be able to make the display of the visible pane blocks respond to different user devices. Also the maximum number of blocks visible to users on large devices (screen size 1200px and up) can be set to 6 instead of 5 (default).
Below are some visual examples to show the display options on a mobile phone (portrait view) and a larger desktop/laptop.
X-Small devices (portrait phones, less than 576px)
In our latest Moodle 4.x theme Edutor you have the option to add a CTA (Call-To-Action) section to the frontpage. You can use this section to promote your courses by backing them up with stats and benefits to the learners. In this tutorial we will show you how to configure and customise the section to look like our demo site.
To configure the section you need to go to: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Edutor > Frontpage CTA Section
General Settings
You can add a section heading, content and imagery.
Data Boxes Settings
You can add up to 4 data boxes (optional) to show some stats to your site visitors.
Benefit Boxes
You can list up to 6 benefits to explain how your courses can benefit learners and why they should choose learning with your organisation.
You can create and upload your own icon images instead of using the default Google Material Design icons.
Design Customisations
You can change the default section background colour using the colour picker or entering a colour hex code.
Want to use an image with a transparent background similar to our demo? Just find a free stock image on PixaBay and Unsplash and use PhotoRoom to remove the background. Make sure you select the “transparent” background option before downloading.
Want to add some design element to the image? We have created a Photoshop template (included in the theme zip file) you can use to create eye-catching imagery. Just drop your desired stock image to the PSD template and you’re good to go.
Adding a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section to your Moodle site’s landing page is a great way to provide useful information to visitors about your organisation and courses. A well-written FAQ section can also bring new traffic to your training site and build trust. Our latest Moodle 4.x theme Edutor is perfect for building your corporate training site and you have the option to add a customisable FAQ section on the frontpage.
In this tutorial we will walk you through the section settings and teach you how to create professional imagery to make your Moodle site stand out.
Section Settings
To configure the FAQ section, go to: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Edutor > Frontpage FAQ
Add Q&As
You can add up to 10 Q&As. If you have a dedicated FAQ page you can use this section to list your top Q&As and then link the section to a dedicated FAQ page.
Design Customisations
You can change the section background colour and upload an image to the section.
You can find free high-quality stock images on PixaBay and Unsplash to use in the section. We have included a Photoshop design template in the Edutor theme zip file you can use to create well-designed images as shown below.
FAQ Section Photoshop Design Template
Design Example One
Similar to the figure used on our theme demo this example uses an image with a transparent background.
Our brand new Moodle Theme Edutor is specifically designed for corporate training and university online learning. It has a modern design and the overall look and feel is highly customisable. It can quickly transform a functional Moodle 4.x site into a professionally designed training and learning platform.
First impressions matter and a great first impression is vital to an online training/learning site. Configuring Edutor theme’s hero section with the right hero images and copy can empower your site to make a visual impact to captivate your target audience.
In this tutorial we will show you how to configure Edutor’s hero section for a corporate training site. The hero images we used here are different from the ones we used on our theme demo site. You can see that it’s very easy to customise the section to reflect your organisations’ branding and identity.
Hero Image Previews
Slide One Example
Slide Two Example
To configure the section you need to log in as a site admin and go to the theme settings page: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Edutor > Frontpage Hero Section
General Settings
You can configure the general settings of the section in the first part of the page. You have the option to display your organisation’s logo above the hero slideshow content area to emphasise your branding identity. You can also add a video play button to play a promo video (YouTube or Vimeo) in a modal window.
Hero Slideshow Settings
You can add up to 6 hero slides and each slide can hold a hero image, content, and a Call-To-Action button.
We highly recommend you resize your hero image’s width to be around 1600px for optimised display. To reduce site loading time it’s also a good idea to compress your hero images before uploading to the section. There’re free online sites you can use to compress images for web (eg. iloveimg.com and tinypng.com).
Add Slide 1
As you can see in the screencast below, the colour of the CTA button is customisable. You can change its default colour to work with your hero image.
In our example, we set the slide 1 CTA button’s background colour to be #e51470 which echos with the uploaded hero image’s accent colour.
Tip: you can add HTML code in the slide heading field to create desired line break as shown in the screencast below.
Add Slide 2
Comparing slide 2 with slide 1 you can see that different hero images can give your site different looks.
Photoshop Template
Want to create impactful hero images similar to the ones we used in our live demo and this tutorial? You can get the original Photoshop design template in the theme zip file.
You can change the colours and replace the stock images to suit your branding and make your site truly bespoke!
Are you running a training course on Moodle? Do you want to issue digital course certificates to students for completing your course or for simply participating? In this tutorial we will show you how to dynamically generate a PDF certificate right inside of a Moodle course.
Download Moodle’s free plugin “Custom Certificate”. To install the plugin from the downloaded zip file, you need to log in to your Moodle site as a site admin and go to the “Install Plugin” page: Site administration > Plugins > Install Plugins.
Alternatively, you can ask your IT support to upload the uncompressed plugin folder “customcert” to the site server. The correct path on the server is: Your Moodle site > mod > customcert
Step 2
Go to your desired Moodle course and add a “Custom Certificate” activity as shown in the screencast below.
Step 3
After adding the certificate click the “Save and display” button. Now you can start customising your certificate by clicking the “Edit Certificate” tab in the tabbed course nav bar.
You need to set the width and height of the certificate. If you’re going to use a background for the certificate design, you need to make sure the aspect ratio of the width and height value is the same as your background image’s ratio. Otherwise your background image will look distorted. To work with the certificate background images we want to use, we set the width as 200mm and height as 140mm in the settings page (see figure below).
Step 4
Now you can start designing and customising your certificate by adding static and dynamic elements (eg. background image, student name, course name, text etc).
List of elements you can add to the certificate:
After adding the elements:
Note: You should add a background image first so other elements are layered on top of it.
Add background image:
Note: you must upload an image first, save it then go back to select the uploaded image in the “Image” dropdown menu as shown below.
Add student name (dynamic value):
Add text (static):
Add image:
Change design:
You can change the design of the added elements in the “Reposition elements” page as shown in the screencast below.
Step 5
Click the “Save and preview” button to save your changes and preview the generated PDF certificate.
Once you’re happy about the certificate design you can then go back to the activity settings page and configure “Restrict access” so you can issue students certificates based on certain criteria.
Certificate restrictions:
If you want Moodle to email your students copies of their available certificates automatically, please make sure you only set the email settings to “Yes” after you have completed creating the certificate in Step 4. Otherwise your students might receive incomplete certificates.
Certificate email example:
Certificate Global Settings
You can find all of the global settings for the Custom Certificate module under the Plugins tab: Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Custom certificate settings
Site admin can create global certificate templates and upload certificate design images so course teachers can access them to speed up the certificate creation process.
Want to learn more about “Custom Certificate” and explore all the possibilities you can implement? You can find detailed plugin documentation here.
Moodle 4.x is finally here. It has a brand new look and contains lots of sought-after UX features and improvements. Now you can add a responsive custom menu which stays in the header area for desktop and mobile devices. In Moodle 3.x the custom menu is not responsive and Moodle displays all the menu items in the footer area as a flat list (in mobile view).
Custom Menu In Moodle 4.x
The screencast below was taken from our Moodle 4.x demo using the Edutor theme.
As the screen viewport decreases in size, the custom menu will generate a “More” dropdown menu to hold all the menu items which are not able to fit in the space. When in mobile view, Moodle 4.x uses the mobile menu to hold all the custom menu items.
Add A Custom Menu
To add a custom menu you need to go to the “Theme settings” page: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme settings
On the “Theme settings” page you can enter your menu items in the “Custom menu items” field.
If you want the menu item to open in a new browser window you can add "target="_blank at the end of the URL.
Useful Moodle Links
You can also add page links inside of your Moodle site. Below is a list of useful URLs for some popular Moodle pages:
All Courses | /course
Course Category (ID:1) | /course/index.php?categoryid=1
Blog | /blog/
Contact support | /user/contactsitesupport.php
Our latest Moodle Theme Edutor is a super modern and on-trend premium theme for sites running Moodle 4.0+. Packed with highly customisable theme settings, it’s the perfect design solution for transforming your plain Moodle LMS into a top-notch professional learning portal. Designed with higher education and corporate training sites in mind, it offers many theme options for site administrators to create front page marketing sections to promote featured courses and site content.
Among all the other configurable sections, the “Frontpage Featured Section” is specifically designed to showcase your featured courses. It combines an intuitive tabbed structure with beautiful responsive carousel sliders which enables you to promote your courses by category.
Frontpage Featured Section:
You can add up to 6 tabbed panes and each pane allows you to add an optional content area and a responsive carousel slider with up to 10 blocks.
In this tutorial we will share the HTML code snippets you can use to configure Edutor theme’s “Frontpage Promo Section” exactly like shown on our Moodle theme demo.
The Frontpage Promo Section allows you to add up to six promotional items and the added items will auto slide as carousel sliders. Each item contains a configurable content area in which you can add plain text or more advanced HTML code (see examples below). You can also upload an image and add an optional video to be displayed next to the content area for each item.
How to add the code
Go to: Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Edutor > Frontpage Promo Section You need to activate the code editor mode before enter the HTML code as shown in the screencast below.
Design One
Front View:
Theme settings:
HTML code snippet:
<p class="mb-5">Intro goes here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed ac sapien quis dolor aliquam lacinia at nec enim. Sed pulvinar fermentum eros eget bibendum.</p>
<a class="theme-card-link" href="#link1">
<span class="theme-card-content">
<span class="theme-card-title">For Learners</span>
<span class="theme-card-intro">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. </span>
<span class="arrow-holder"></span>
</span>
</a>
<a class="theme-card-link" href="#link1">
<span class="theme-card-content">
<span class="theme-card-title">For Instructors</span>
<span class="theme-card-intro">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. </span>
<span class="arrow-holder"></span>
</span>
</a>
<a class="theme-card-link" href="#link1">
<span class="theme-card-content">
<span class="theme-card-title">For Sponsors</span>
<span class="theme-card-intro">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. </span>
<span class="arrow-holder"></span>
</span>
</a>
Design Two
Front View:
Theme settings:
HTML code snippet:
<p>Intro goes here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed ac sapien quis dolor aliquam lacinia at nec enim. Sed pulvinar fermentum eros eget bibendum.</p>
<ul class="theme-checklist">
<li><i class="list-check-icon fa fa-check-circle mr-2"></i>List item example lorem ipsum</li>
<li><i class="list-check-icon fa fa-check-circle mr-2"></i>List item example lorem ipsum</li>
<li><i class="list-check-icon fa fa-check-circle mr-2"></i>List item example lorem ipsum</li>
</ul>
Want to create your own promo section imagery similar to the ones used on our theme demo? We have included the original Photoshop PSD design templatein the theme zip file so you can easily customise and export your own promo images for this section.
Edutor is our latest premium Moodle 4.x theme designed for higher education and corporate training sites. You can follow the steps below to install the theme.
Before installing the theme please make sure your site is running Moodle 4.0+. If you’re still using Moodle 3.x you need to upgrade your Moodle site first.
Step 1
After purchasing you will receive an email containing a download link to the theme zip file. Download the zip file to your computer and then unzip.
You should see two folders and a readme file as shown in the figure below. The “edutor” folder is the actual theme folder. The other folder “edutor-theme-demo-psd” contains useful Photoshop design templates for creating our demo images.
Zip File Content:
Photoshop PSD files
Hero slideshow images:
Promo images:
Teacher profile image:
Step 2
Upload the “edutor” folder to your server via a FTP program. Make sure you upload the “edutor” folder under your Moodle site’s theme folder. The correct path is: Your Moodle site > theme > edutor
Moodle 4.x is finally here. This is a major Moodle release and it contains a significant amount of UX and UI changes to meet the global Moodle community’s evolving needs. Moodle 4.x has a brand new look and it drastically improved Moodle’s overall user experience for students and educators.
Ready to upgrade your site to Moodle 4.0+ to take advantage of all of the most wanted new features and provide a better user experience to your site users? To help you get started we have compiled a list of the best Moodle themes you can use for your new Moodle 4.x site.
At the time of writing, most of the free Moodle themes are still only compatible up to Moodle 3.11. We will update the post and add the best ones as soon as they become compatible with Moodle 4.x so watch this space!
Boost is Moodle’s core theme and it has a contemporary new look in Moodle 4.0. Although the design is plain, the UX is intuitive and the UI is super clean. If you have a limited budget and just want to set up a clean yet functional Moodle LMS site, Boost theme for Moodle 4.0 is perfect for you.
Dashboard view:
Course view:
If you already have a professionally designed landing page for your main site you can simply provide a link on your main site pointing to your Moodle site’s login page. You can also force users to log in before viewing default content in your Moodle 4.0 site.
Moodle has released a new promotional video highlighting the main features in the Boost theme for Moodle 4.0 below. You can also read our blog post “What’s new in Moodle 4.0” to find out more about the changes in Moodle 4.0.
Edutor is a brand new premium Moodle 4.0 theme released in 2022. Packed with modern and on-trend design elements and features this theme is easy to customise and provides the perfect design solution for university and corporate Moodle sites. Because it’s built based on Moodle’s core theme Boost, it inherits and retains all of the best features and improvements from Moodle 4.0+ which makes it future-proof.
This theme comes with 6 classic colour schemes to get you started and the site admin can easily fine tune the colours and design via the theme settings page to make your Moodle site align with your organisation and business’ branding guidelines.
Instead of paying a design agency tens of thousands of dollars, this theme empowers you to convert your Moodle LMS into a professionally designed bespoke learning portal easily at a fraction of the cost. Even better, it has a 30-day money back guarantee so you can try out the theme before committing. If for any reason the theme doesn’t work for your site then just get in touch for a refund – no questions asked.
Maker is the best-selling boost-based Moodle theme since Moodle 3.x and it has now been upgraded to be compatible with Moodle 4.0+. This theme has been widely implemented by higher education and small to medium sized business training sites – you can read all the customer reviews on the theme details page.
Like the Edutor theme, Maker theme has a 30-day money back guarantee so it’s risk free to try it out before spending your budget.
Moove (FREE)
Moove is a popular free Moodle theme loved by the Moodle community since Moodle 3.x. Comparing this theme for Moodle 3.x and Moodle 4.x you can see Moove has gone through a major UI and UX revamp. The new theme design in Moodle 4.x is cleaner and standardised. The drastic interface changes in Moodle 4.x ensures it inherits new features from the new Boost theme. If you’re already using the Moove theme for your Moodle 3.x site and are planning to upgrade to Moodle 4.x you need to be aware of the changes. Moove for Moodle 4.x is effectively a new theme and it has little resemblance to its older versions for Moodle 3.x
Moove (for Moodle 4.x) lets site admin add four sections on the frontpage: 1) Slideshow 2) Marketing boxes (optional) 3) Site numbers 4) FAQ section
Course View:
Moove (for Moodle 4.x) inherits the new Boost theme’s layout on the course page.
Dashboard View:
Adaptable (FREE)
Adaptable is the most downloaded free Moodle theme and almost 20K Moodle sites around the world are using this theme. It provides a plethora of theme settings so if you’re looking for a free Moodle theme with the most configurable features, Adaptable is the theme for you.
It offers an impressive amount of options for site admin and if you’re willing to spend the time you can configure and modify the theme to work for your Moodle site for free. For this theme’s full potential you can check the visual layout guide here.
Adaptable Theme Settings:
Adaptable has been updated to work with Moodle 4.x. Although this theme is using Moodle’s boost theme as the theme parent it uses its own navigation system and it doesn’t inherit Boost theme’s new features in Moodle 4.0.
We have released a brand new Boost-based premium Moodle theme “Edutor” for Moodle 4.0+. You can use the theme footer content blocks to add footer menu links to your Moodle 4.0+ site. In this tutorial we will show you how to create the menu links as shown in our live demo and share the HTML code snippets used.
Log into your Moodle site as an administrator and navigate to the theme settings page: Site administration > Appearances > Themes > Edutor > Footer Area
Step 2
On the Footer Area page find the Footer Content Blocks section and enter the HTML code below. To enter HTML code in a Moodle text editor you need to activate the HTML code editor by clicking the code icon as shown below.
HTML Code Snippets
To use the code below for your site you need to update the menu name text and their links.
