An assignment consists of something that a student creates and then uploads into the course for the teacher to grade. For example, the student could do any of these:

• Write a paragraph
• Take a photograph
• Create a piece of music
• Build something and then take pictures and write about the experience
• Visit a museum and then upload pictures and a report of the visit

Sometimes, an assignment is an activity completed outside of the course. The last two items in the preceding list—building something and visiting a place—are examples of that. An assignment can also be done entirely inside the assignment activity. For example, you could have the student write a paragraph in the assignment activity and then submit it to the teacher.

Assignments are very flexible. You can allow the student to resubmit their work until they achieve a passing grade, allow the student to leave comments, give the student comments or even a file in response to their work, and even have students submit their work in a group.

A lesson is a series of web pages displayed in a specific order. Most lessons consist of several pages. The next page that the student sees might depend upon the student's answer to a question. Usually, the jump question is used to test a student's understanding of the material. Get it right, and you proceed to the next page. Get it wrong, you then either stay on the page or jump to a remedial page.

A lesson gives Moodle some of the branching capability found in commercial computer-based training (CBT) products. You can make a course consisting of just a summary, one large lesson, and a quiz.

A choice is a single, multiple-choice question that the instructor asks the class. The result can be displayed to the class or it can be kept private, known only to the student and the instructor. Choices are a quick way to get feedback from the students about the class. You can plant these choices in your course ahead of time and keep them hidden until you need the students' feedback. You can also create them quickly, whenever you need them.

The feedback activity enables you to create surveys for your students. Do not confuse this with the survey. In survey, you must choose from several pre-made surveys; you cannot build your own surveys. In the feedback activity, you can build your own poll using several kinds of questions.

The competency framework allows you to connect your activities to lists of competencies that your school or institution has developed.

The badge activity allows you to automatically generate a badge when students complete activities. They can be used to motivate students and also to publicize your course when students put their badges on their social media sites.