Learning Tools

For a better learning and teaching experience.

Learning Tools is a Moodle plugin that offers a suite of micro-tools to enhance the learning and teaching experience. These tools are conveniently accessed via an intuitive floating action button (FAB) located at the bottom right of every course page. 

Each tool is designed to address specific, common needs — such as taking contextual notes, scheduling time to study, or resuming a course from where you left off (Pro feature). The goal is to support learners and educators with small but effective functionalities that complement existing Moodle features.

Use cases

• Onboarding new learners
• Supporting self-paced learning
• Streamlining communication
• Personalizing the learning journey

Learning Tools provides great features that are completely free. For more functionality, we offer a Pro plan.

Feature Overview

Learning Tools for learners

These tools are intended to support students, employees, and lifelong learners as they navigate courses and training materials. They provide quick access to functions that help manage tasks, revisit resources, and maintain focus — all from within the course environment.

Note: All learner tools are also accessible to teachers, though primarily designed for student use.

Course interface

A central overview for all notes created with Learning Tools. Accessible via the secondary course navigation, this interface allows learners to view, organize, search, print, and manage their notes by section or activity.

Course information

Displays the course summary and image in the floating menu for quick orientation.

Schedule learning

Allows users to create calendar entries — either in the Moodle calendar or external calendars — to plan when they want to work on specific activities or the course in general.

Focus mode

Temporarily hides blocks, headers, and navigation to minimize distractions and allow focused reading. Focus mode can be styled via CSS in the admin settings.

Notes

Create quick notes on any page, activity, or course. Notes are saved per user and context, and can be reviewed or exported at any time. The note modal can be expanded, allowing you to write side-by-side with the course content. All notes are centrally listed under My profile > Notes, including references to the corresponding course, activity, or Content Designer chapter (if applicable).

Bookmarks

Save bookmarks for courses, activities, or individual pages. All bookmarks are centrally listed under My profile > Bookmarks, with links to the corresponding course, activity, or Content Designer chapter (if applicable).

Resume course ^PRO

Automatically return to the exact location last visited in a course — whether it's a forum post, lesson page, or resource — helping users pick up where they left off.

Read more

Learning Tools for teachers

These tools support course creators, trainers, and educators by simplifying common tasks — such as onboarding learners, guiding progression, or managing communication. Instead of configuring multiple Moodle settings, teachers gain quick access to specific actions directly from the course view.

Teachers can also use learner-focused tools, such as creating notes or enabling focus mode, in their own workflow.

Invitation ^PRO

Quickly enrol users by entering email addresses. If users already exist, they are enrolled immediately. If not, and automatic account creation is allowed, accounts are created and enrolled automatically. A summary shows the result of each invitation.

Force activity ^PRO

Redirect learners to a required activity before they can continue with the course. Teachers can define a custom message explaining why the step is necessary.

Email ^PRO

Send messages to enrolled users in a course. Messages can include attachments and be filtered by role. All sent emails are logged for reference.

Custom course styles ^PRO

Add course-specific CSS directly in the settings to adjust layout, appearance, or visibility — without needing to modify the global theme.

Read more

Appearance

Admins can tailor the floating menu to fit the platform’s design and functional needs. They can define which tools are visible, adjust their order, keep key tools permanently accessible, and apply custom colors to match the brand.

Visibility control

Admins can decide which tools are enabled or hidden and arrange their order in the floating menu.

Visibility can be scoped to specific course categories, course pages only, or platform-wide. Tools can also be disabled for certain activity types — for example, hiding the menu during quizzes.

Sticky tools

Admins can mark key tools as sticky, making them permanently visible as standalone icons. This gives users instant access without opening the main menu. Once at least one tool is sticky, the menu button changes to an expandable icon, allowing access to additional tools while keeping the interface clean and focused.

Custom colors

Admins can define background and icon colors for each tool and for the main floating button. This enables color theming, visual grouping, or emphasizing specific tools based on their function.

Read more