Book Setting in Moodle
The Book resource allows you to assemble multiple pages in a single location, and to organize them with an automatically generated table of contents. The book resource is mobile friendly and easy to print. It works very well with flow-able themes. It's convenient, particularly if you're using it for the course orientation which includes the course syllabus or an e-book text. See video.
An instructor can add a book by selecting the "Turn editing on" from the course dashboard. Next, scroll to the bottom on the module to "Add an activity or Resource. Then, select "Book". The Book resource will then be added to the module.
Books can be printed entirely or by chapter. The Book resource also allows you to have main chapters and sub chapters, but it goes no deeper. In other words, sub chapters cannot have their own sub chapters, as the module is intended to be a simple resource for instructors and students.
Adding chapters and subchapters
Titles of chapters appear as links in the table of contents to the left of your content. It is recommended to keep your titles short.
To add a chapter:
- From the Moodle course dashboard, select "Turn editing on".
- Select the Book to edit (select the book link)
- A Table of Contents block will appear on the left side of the dashboard.
- Click on the gear icon in the Table of Contents or first chapter to edit. Select the plus icon to add a new chapter. The new chapter will be inserted directly after the chapter whose title is on the same line as the red cross you click. (See below).
Note that when you select to add a new chapter, the sub chapter box is unchecked. Select this book if you are adding a subchapter. A chapter may have many sub chapters, but sub chapters cannot have further sub chapters. In order to keep this resource simple, you are limited to two levels.
You now see a chapter and a sub chapter. Because we did not elect to number chapters, the fact that the second chapter is a sub chapter cannot be seen in the table of contents. Note that you do, however, see this in the title above the content.
By the way, the items in the table of contents are neither numbered nor are they indented only because that is the option we chose when setting up the book. We can always go back and change this feature.
When you have finished adding chapters and subchapters, you can turn editing off.
