Teaching Tune-Up to Start Your Semester: Moodle Updates Plus Generative AI Tips

Welcome back to fall semester 2025! August is here, and we are bringing you up to speed on key Moodle changes and providing tips for using generative AI tools like Google Gemini to start off a smooth semester. We’ve also got previews of workshops that will help you tune-up your Moodle courses and build your AI fluency.

What’s New in Moodle?

Course Layout and Navigation

• The “general section” now appears only on the main course page, not above every section within your Moodle course. In the course format settings “Show all sections on one page,” it is collapsible like other sections.
• TIP: If you used the top/general section previously to keep students informed on each course page about important course information, consider moving that to a “Commonly Used Resources” Text Block in the Block drawer.

Declutter with Subsections

• You can now add subsections within Moodle sections to group together resources and activities, i.e., an “Additional Resources/Readings” section with articles for students to review.
  • In the course format “Show all sections on one page,” subsections are collapsible for cleaner views.
  • In the course format “Show one section per page,” subsections show progress indicators and help students track content more easily.
• TIP: If you are interested in adding a subsection, try it out and then check the “Student View” of your course and how navigation works. If students are using the next/previous navigational links, they may miss a subsection.

Managed Content Block

• The Student Services and Testing Services blocks are now part of a Managed Content block, accessible in the right sidebar Block drawer.

Critical Tool Re-Linking

• If you copied course content from a previous academic year or from a Projects or Outreach space, links from tools like Panopto, PlayPosit, or Gradescope will be “broken” and need to be re-linked. 

Panopto Links

Panopto video links that were copied over from previous course versions may no longer function correctly if they were created with the Pantopto LTI tool. These videos will be flagged with a red warning message with details about the impacted video and the action required to repair it. To re-link impacted videos, you can follow the steps in this Knowledge Base article.

Other Tool Links

You’ll see a message in the activity description if re-linking is needed for any other tool. To re-link impacted tools, follow the steps in this Knowledge Base article.

Start Your Semester with AI Assistance

Use a generative AI Chatbot like Gemini to kick off your semester more efficiently and with some new resources for students. Chatbots enable you to upload or copy/paste resources like syllabi, textbook chapters, lecture notes, and more, giving the bot the context it needs to help you refine and create course materials and communications. With your personalized course context, the chatbot can assist you in creating helpful resources to get your semester off to a strong start. These prompt ideas can help you get started:

Draft a welcome message or syllabus summary for students.

• Write 3 versions of a warm welcome message for [Course Name] with 3 learning highlights. Use the attached syllabus to create the welcome message and the highlights.
• Summarize this syllabus in 150 words to use in a Moodle announcement.
• Rewrite this formal syllabus paragraph in a more conversational tone for first-year students.

Refresh your learning objectives to improve clarity, alignment and student understanding.

• Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to rewrite these objectives as measurable outcomes.
  • Check out this Bloom’s Taxonomy Revisited with Integrated Generative AI 
• Give me 3 versions of this objective, one for each of these levels: Understand, Apply, Analyze.
• Rephrase these learning objectives into reflective questions students can use for self-assessment.

Generate examples of class activities.

• Give me 3 business ethics scenarios on workplace discrimination.
• Create an in-class example to demonstrate Newton’s Second Law in a first-year physics course.
• List 3 example errors a student might make when solving this equation, for discussion.

Revise course announcements for tone.

• Rewrite this announcement to sound more conversational and encouraging.
• Make this reminder sound urgent but supportive.
• Shorten this message while keeping a friendly tone.

Brainstorm assessments or discussion prompts.

• Create 5 discussion prompts for a module on urban sustainability.
• Write 4 multiple-choice questions based on this reading and include rationales.
• Create 3 ways this independent [topic] writing assignment could become a group assignment. Include the parameters for group responsibilities, considerations for what will need to be added or deleted when moving from an individual assignment to a group assignment.

Think of AI chatbots as creative teaching assistants always ready to help you ideate, draft, and refine. Just remember to review and adapt what you get from a bot to fit your voice and confirm accuracy. Learn more about AI @ NC State and explore our new AI Fluency workshop series all semester long on Wednesdays afternoons.

Have a wonderful fall 2025 semester!