Students who login to Moodle on Friday, Dec. 18 will find an entirely different website than they are accustomed to seeing. That’s because Moodle (OCCC’s learning management system) is getting a brand new look, said Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) Director Glenné Whisenhunt.

The decision to make the change came about one year ago, when Moodle informed OCCC that its current theme was going to to be discontinued, Whisenhunt said.

“The whole look is going to be different,” she said. “It’s much easier to use on your phone or mobile device.”

Instead of folders, students will be able to access course content through a table of contents, Whisenhunt said. Content will open downward rather than be accessed through folders and blocks.

All of the material is the same — it’s just organized differently, Whisenhunt said. The course tools will still be available, such as the gradebook and calendar, as well as Mine Online and Quickmail links. She said the design also includes more graphics.

“It is much more modern, much cleaner,” she said. “It’s organized in a little bit more of a logical format.”

Information Technology Infrastructure Director Rob Greggs said Moodle also has been added to OCCC’s unified login system, which also includes Academic Works, Workplace Answers and student email.

The goal is to create a login system students can use to access many applications without having to sign in to each individual app, Greggs said.

Once students are signed into one of these systems, they can transition from one app to the next without having to sign in again, as long as their browser remains open, Greggs said.

“It’s a single sign-on system that we’re trying to bring more and more applications into to simplify,” he said.

Whisenhunt said students will be asked to complete a new Moodle orientation, something that is necessary due to the array of website changes.

Whisenhunt said for a long time, students have told CLT they didn’t like the way Moodle looked and functioned, but she thinks students will really like the new design.

“To me, this theme allows our students to access their course material however, whenever, wherever,” she said. “We know our students are busy. We know they don’t always have a computer but they have their phone, they have an iPad. This will make it much more user-friendly.”

The new Moodle theme will go live Dec. 18. For more information, contact Morgan Felty, Student Engagement and Moodle End User Administrator, at 405-682-7838.