The Moodle editing icons & recycle bin

This refers to Moodle 4.3 from August 2024 onward

Enabling edit mode

Step by step

To edit most things in your Moodle module (course) you need to click on the 'Edit mode' slider to enable editing. You will also need to click on the same slider to disable editing.

A number of icons will appear all over the page.

At the very top of the module page you will see a link to enable 'Bulk actions' that allows you to edit multiple items at once (see below).

Adding new topics, activities and resources

To add a new topic scroll to any of your current topics sections and use the button '+ Add topic'. A new topic will be created directly below the current topic.

To add a new activity or resource to a topic scroll to the bottom of the topic and select '+ Add an activity or resource'. This will open the 'Add an activity or resource' menu. Items added using this method will be added to the bottom of the topic section. Alternatively, you can hover your cursor between two existing items on your module page to find a plus symbol which when selected will open the 'Add an activity or resource' menu. Items added using this method will appear between the two original items. 

Editing settings of activities and resources

To edit the name/title of a resource or activity, click the 'Edit' icon (pencil) at the end of the name of the item

Click the Edit activity or resource button at the end of the line to drop down an edit menu to access other editing functions.

From this menu, you can move, show, duplicate delete the activity / resource. The options to hide and change group mode are shown in sub-menus.

When you have finished editing, you will also need to click on the 'Edit mode' slider to disable editing.

The recycle bin

Moodle has a Recycle bin from which you can restore content that has been deleted. The recycle bin can be found in the 'More' menu in the module navigation bar.

Once something has been deleted, there’s a delay (of about 5 minutes) for Moodle to prepare it, then it will be available for restore (it’s not an Undo solution).
Content is kept for 24 hours in the Recycle Bin.

Bulk actions

When you enable 'Bulk actions' two things will happen. First, checkboxes will appear along the left-hand side of topics, activities and resources.

Second, a menu banner will appear at the bottom of the module page. The banner areas is comprised of three main sections. A 'select all' option which selects all checkboxes on the module. A section for bulk processing 'availability', 'duplicate', 'move', and 'delete' actions on the items currently selected. Third, a 'close bulk actions' button.