This is not a Government of Canada website
The purpose of this website is to provide a working example of the WET-BOEW-GCWeb theme created by TNG Consulting Inc. together with the Government of Canada for Moodle software . Demo courses are only available in English however multi-language courses are supported.
Giving Moodle a face lift with themes
You can add or remove blocks from the side in a theme. However, more advanced themes enable you to also add block content to the content section of a page, above and/or below the normal Moodle content. Some themes even enable you to place multiple blocks across the content area of a page to make them look like they are in columns.
Many themes are based on Bootstrap 2 (like Clean) or Bootstrap 4 (like Boost) which is now the standard. Why is this important? When you are adding HTML content to your site, whether it is in a block or a page, you can take advantage of Bootstrap components like "Hero unit" (or Jumbotron in Bootstrap 4 components) and grids for page layout. Why would you want to do this instead of just using your own HTML/CSS coding? Because these have been designed so that they scale well on mobile devices (called responsive design). If you are just learning HTML and CSS, you can find Bootstap code snippets for Moodle to help you get started. These may require modifications depending on the version of Bootsrap your theme is based on.
This isn't the same Moodle you used to know!
Here are 35 examples of sites that demonstrate custom looks for Moodle:
- https://moodle.org/
- https://institutdeformation.ca/
- https://training-formation.phac-aspc.gc.ca/
- https://learn.unitedforwildlife.org/
- https://moodlestage.imtg.com.au/moodle/
- https://coaching.moodle.com.au
- https://www.vle.cam.ac.uk/
- http://vle.cardinalallen.co.uk/
- http://2013.imoot.org/
- http://www.birlacenter.com/college/
- https://elearning.autism.net
- https://moodle8.camhx.ca/moodle/
- https://learn.cawst.org
- https://cfaenligne.com/
- https://courses.ecuad.ca/
- https://train.go2hr.ca/
- https://gwcampus.hospemex.com
- https://iwchamilton.ca/classroom/
- https://journeylmsservices.com
- https://khabech.com
- http://server2.time2evolve.net/~ilearnin/moodle/
- http://elearning.mosaicbc.org
- https://www.mytrainingcourses.ca
- https://mytraining.openschool.bc.ca/
- http://groundschool.principalair.ca
- http://psychiatryqbank.com/moodle/
- https://elearning.rnao.ca
- https://securitytrainingnow.com
- https://smarterlearning.ca/moodle/
- http://torontoeschool.com/
- http://yl2.sd53.bc.ca/moodle/
- https://ols.apicollege.edu.au/
- http://learningoptions.com.au/moodle/
- https://learn.taferiverina.edu.au/
- https://www.mymatt.com.au/courseware/
If you've been looking over the themes I've recommended so far, you may have even start to recognize the theme used on some of these sites. You can find many more examples of Moodle sites on the web by going to https://moodle.net/sites/. While most look like they are, as you put it, from the 1990s, every once in a while you will come across a modern looking site.
How to detemine the Moodle theme used on a site...
Curious? You can often figure out what theme a particular Moodle site is using by viewing its HTML source code in your web browser and searching for the word "theme". Keep searching until you find a word near it that looks like it could be the name of a theme. It may appear once or many times. Note that Bootstrapbase is not the name of the site's theme but it does tell you that the theme is based on Bootstrap.
Have you come across a Moodle website whose theme really impressed you? Share a link in the forum!