Basic User Guide

Basic User Guide

Thank you for joining us on OpenPlato.

Here you will find some basic information on the platform, how to navigate it and to make the most of it. OpenPlato is based on Moodle and you can  find extensive documentation through docs.moodle.org and a quick guide for students here. We are currently running Moodle v3.11.x. We will be creating user videos in the future which will provide more guidance.

Briefly…

From the site home you will find highlighted courses and news. You can access all courses in the catalogue by clicking the “See all courses” button which displays all publicly available  courses. Some courses will be open and self-paced, and others have specific dates at which they will be available, for example those that have an element of classroom-based learning or those moderated by teachers for a specific period of time.

Metadata for our learning resources are mostly following RDA recommendations, but also includes country/region (of origin) to indicate where a resource may have been created and, by implication, that they are relevant to that country, regardless of the language that the resource is made available in. Additionally, there are course categories based on open science initiatives and specific themes.

Login and Profile

We are soon going to implement EOSC AAI (authorisation and authentication infrastructure) so that you will be able to login to OpenPlato using the same credentials that you use to access any other EOSC service or data. This will mean that OpenPlato is also part of EOSC and will have resources directly relevant to EOSC included in its broader catalogue If your  institution is not part of  EOSC AAI use of a private email address is also possible. However, for ease of use and access we recommend using EOSC AAI where possible since this provides single sign-on to so much more than OpenPlato.

We strongly recommend that after creating an account you check your Profile page (accessed from the top right of the page where you can see your name), and adjust the time zone to your location. This will ensure that any time specific courses will reflect the correct time for your location.

Please note that the main purpose of creating a login is for you to have the ability to resume from where you left off in a course and to be awarded badges and certificates. OpenAIRE has a strict privacy policy for all services, with a minimum amount of personal data collected by OpenPlato to enable login. Your data will never be shared with any third parties!

Dashboard

This is your personalised space. After logging in (or first registering!) you will be redirected here so that you will only see content that is most relevant to you. For example, a course that you have enrolled onto or which you have started and that you want to resume.

This page is customisable and will allow you to manage multiple courses as well as view announcements, interact with teachers and your peers. Use the following button to click and drag.

Course Navigation

Once you have enrolled onto a course from the course’s description page you will be able to access and view it. You will see different things for different courses but generally you will likely see topics and activities which are the basic components of each course. There might also be announcements for you to get the latest information and many other features for you to explore.

For more information on any given page that you are on there is context specific help at the bottom of every page with the “Help and documentation” link.