- Moodle
- Totara
Designer
Say goodbye to boring courses.
- Basic free
- Pro from €199 / year
Key feature 01 / 05
Course types
Four course configurations: Flow displays sections as stacks of tiles for smaller courses, Kanban as columns on a board. Normal gives full control over the look of each section, Collapsible adds sections students can expand or collapse.
Key feature 02 / 05
Section layouts
Not all sections and activities in a course are equally important. Choose cards, lists, text links or circles per section — even in the same course. Pro adds multi-column layouts and section width.
Key feature 03 / 05
Styling options
With Pro, style sections and activities with colors, background images and GIFs, and apply masks. Activities can display a different image upon completion — cleverly used, a great tool to gamify courses.
Key feature 04 / 05
Section overview
A clear, comprehensive table of contents for all course sections, generated automatically. Pro adds a customizable section card layout, purpose-defined activity icons and section type labels.
Key feature 05 / 05
Course header
Display relevant information above the course: progress, dates and the teacher(s), with options for messaging or direct contact. Pro adds tags, custom fields, styling and progress donuts.
Designer at a glance
More than just design
Hero activities stay accessible from the secondary course navigation, and course prerequisites turn courses into programs.
Everything about Designer
Overview
The award-winning course format
Designer gives teachers a variety of layout and design options for their courses. It was built on the assumption that not all sections and activities in a course are equal or equally important — so teachers can choose different layouts for activities and sections, even in the same course. From minimalist micro-courses to multi-course programs: mix and match.
But Designer is more than just design. A section overview provides a clear table of contents for all sections, a course header displays progress, dates and the teacher(s), hero activities are accessible anytime from the secondary course navigation, and course prerequisites make it easy to create programs.
Management summary
Value, cost and rollout on a single page. Export as PDF for your committee.
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Course types
Flow, Kanban, Normal or Collapsible
Stacks of tiles for smaller courses, columns on a board, or full control over the look of each section.
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Mix & match
A layout per section
Cards, lists, links or circles — different layouts for activities and sections, even in the same course.
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More than design
Overview, header and programs
A table of contents for all sections, a course header with progress and teachers, and prerequisites for programs.
Features & pricing
Sections as stacks of tiles, or as columns on a board.
Flow displays sections as stacks of tiles — the dedicated course type for concise courses with a limited number of activities. Kanban brings the clarity of a Kanban board into the course and displays sections as columns.
Full control over sections; optionally collapsible by students.
Normal offers maximum flexibility and lets educators fully customize the appearance of course sections. Collapsible builds on it and lets students expand or collapse sections.
Text links, list or cards, combined within the same course.
Not all sections and activities in a course are equal or equally important. Teachers choose a layout per section: text links for large sections, a list with generous space for fewer activities, or cards with more activities per row.
A vertical or horizontal circles layout.
Columns per viewport; width in pixels, full-size or boxed.
Define the number of columns per viewport so layouts are optimized for mobile use. Content and container width can be set in pixel values or as full-size and boxed layouts.
Colors, images and GIF animations for activities, sections, course.
Background and text colors for activities and sections, plus custom background images and GIF animations for activities, sections and the whole course.
Conceal parts of an image or make them partially transparent.
Distinct images mark completed activities and sections.
To illustrate the progress in a course, activities and sections can display a different image upon completion. Cleverly used, this is a great tool to gamify courses.
Availability, access count and due, overdue or completion badges.
Each activity can show its availability status, how often it has been accessed, and dynamic badges that communicate urgency. Teachers choose exactly which elements are displayed.
‘Open’ or ‘review’ links on activities.
A purpose per activity that does not have to match its type.
A clickable table of contents, generated for each course.
Key activities as tabs in the secondary course navigation.
Important “hero” activities are accessible anytime from a dedicated tab in the secondary course navigation. Teachers control where hero activities are displayed within the course.
Styled section cards and section type labels in the overview.
A section card layout with numerous styling options, including the visibility of section titles and summaries and redirects for unavailable sections. Section type labels add an extra label to section headers.
Progress bars; with Pro also donuts and own calculation.
Course and section progress bars in the course header. Pro adds progress donuts for sections and courses and a configurable progress calculation.
Enrollment and due dates; profiles with messaging or contact.
Text and background colors or images.
Course tags, custom fields and selected user profile fields.
Subcourses displayed and organized as prerequisites.
Designer's course prerequisites turn a main course into a program of activities and courses, with its subcourses displayed and organized as prerequisites.
Enrollment in subcourses with the main course; optional groups.
Participants are enrolled automatically in the relevant subcourses when they register in the main course. Optionally, groups are created automatically for participants transitioning from the main course to subcourses, for more organized management and tracking.
Relative start and due dates for courses and activities.
The status of the video progress bar, directly in Designer.
Learning progress of the Subcourse activity, a plugin by Catalyst IT.
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Product videos
Use cases & screenshots
Engagement
Increase learner engagement
Activities can display a different image upon completion — cleverly used, a great tool to gamify courses. For smaller courses, the Flow course type displays sections as stacks of tiles.
User experience
Enhance user experience
Choose different layouts for activities and sections, even in the same course, and give learners a clear, comprehensive table of contents for all course sections.
Onboarding
Simplify onboarding
A course header displays progress, dates and the teacher(s), and course prerequisites make it easy to create programs consisting of activities and courses.
Tech & compliance
Running it
Requirements
Moodle 4.4 to 5.2 (Designer 1.8).
Installation & updates
Basic and Pro are installed with the Moodle plugin installer, as described in the installation guide.
Reviewing it
Data protection & hosting
Your data stays in your Moodle. Designer runs entirely inside your Moodle site and stores its data in your Moodle database and file storage, on your own server. bdecent does not run a cloud service for it, and the plugin never contacts bdecent: no licence checks, no telemetry, no usage tracking. Access is controlled by Moodle roles and capabilities, so only the people you authorise can see or change it. Designer stores no personal data (declared through Moodle's Privacy API).
Accessibility & license
Designer is built with Moodle's own template system and the Bootstrap components of Moodle's standard theme Boost, so it follows your theme's colours and fonts. Icons and controls come with screen-reader texts. We have not published a formal WCAG audit yet — if something gets in your way, tell us and we will fix it. Released under GPLv3, like Moodle itself.
Part of two bdecent solutions
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Solution · Design
Courses that look like they were made for you
Layouts, styling and page building that give Moodle your own look.
Awards
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Reviewers' ChoiceMoodle award