M12 - Glossaries

Keywords: glossary, dictionary, terms and conditions, FAQ, jargon.

What is it?

A glossary is a course-specific list of terms and definitions. Entries can be linked to words that appear within Moodle, so the definition pops-up when someone hovers their mouse over instances of the word.

Why use it?

• To provide contextualised definitions for difficult course terms and avoid repeatedly answering similar questions.
• It can enable students to contribute and become familiar with course concepts.

It can be a very useful tool, for instance, where subject specific words and definitions are used 'loosely' in a given field but need to be agreed on for the purposes of group discussion – in this case a tutor may stipulate definitions within a glossary or use the tool to ask students to reach a consensus. Options include being able to moderate student entries and allowing student to comment upon entries.

Who can use it?

• Tutors can add terms.
• Students can (optionally) also add terms, with or without approval from a tutor.

Before I start...

Think about:

• Do you want student entries to be approved by default?
• Do you want to pre-populate the glossary with some terms to show students how it can be used?
• Do you have any quizzes or discussion forums in your course where you would want to turn off the auto-linking feature?

How do I set one up?

Add a Glossary quick guide

1. To add a glossary to your course, Turn editing on, then click on the Add an activity or resource link and select Glossary.
2. Enter a Name and Description (which you can display if you wish).
3. Most of the time you can leave all the option settings as they are by default. However, you should consider these important settings:
   
   • Automatically link glossary entries - if an instance of a term appears in your course it is highlighted with the option to click and see a pop-up definition).

   • Approved by default - student entries will appear immediately and don't need to be approved by a tutor first.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and display.

Caveats

• If your course contains a Moodle quiz to test student knowledge, you might want to turn off the auto-linking in just this quiz. You do this by turning off Glossary auto-linking in the quiz settings.

Examples and case studies

• Provide a 'Quote of the Day' or a random picture gallery that changes each time the page is refreshed, using the Random Glossary block. Detailed step-by-step guidance on Random_glossary_entry_block is available from moodledocs.
• A reference for common terminology contributed by staff and/or students.
• A way to display a searchable list of FAQs.
• Staff ask all students to submit their definition for a particular term and either marks the responses, or chooses the best to publish to the group.
  • Note: This requires multiple instances of the same term to be enabled in the settings.

Questions & Answers

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Further information

Glossary entries can be searched or browsed within the Glossary activity as well as set to appear as pop-up definitions whenever the term appears in texts created within a given Moodle course e.g. emails in forums and Moodle web pages (not in uploaded PDFs or Word Docs).