Great online learning doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of intentional design; aligning content, outcomes, activities, and experience. But for many educators using Moodle, that design support isn’t always available. You're juggling course editing with content creation, assessment design and learner support, mostly without dedicated learning design support. That’s where the Course Companion comes in. It brings expert support directly into your Moodle course - for educators, SMEs, and teams to improve learning experiences at the exact moment they’re building them.
Table of contents
Why learning design support matters now
Watch a short (8m23s) video walk-through to see it in action
On-demand learning design support for every Moodle editor
Simulate learner and stakeholder feedback before going live
Check alignment with visual indicators
Generate contextual suggestions for any item
Need help choosing your next activity?
Designed for individuals, teams and organisations
Works inside your Moodle course
Part of a growing platform for learning design
Conclusion
Keen to find out more?
Why learning design support matters now
Great online learning doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of intentional design: thoughtful structure, alignment with outcomes, engaging content and a strong learner experience. But for many educators and course editors using Moodle, design support can be out of reach. Most are editing courses and creating content while managing everything else, often without access to dedicated learning design support.
That’s where the Course Companion comes in. It’s a lightweight learning design assistant that works inside Moodle to help educators, SMEs and course editors improve the learning experience while they’re building it. It provides timely, contextual, and personalised support exactly where it's needed - directly inside the course.
Watch a short (8m23s) video walk-through to see it in action
On-demand learning design support for every Moodle editor
Many institutions and organisations rely on individuals or small teams to manage their courses. Some have central learning design support, but it often can’t reach every educator or team. The Course Companion offers a way to extend learning design support into every Moodle course, for every editing user, and it costs you less than a cup of coffee!
There’s no need to submit a request or wait for input. The assistant is available in the flow of your work, giving you practical advice and suggestions at the moment you're designing and editing. It’s built to support the way educators actually work, not add another layer of complexity.
Simulate learner and stakeholder feedback before going live
Knowing what learners will think about your course before it launches can save time and improve outcomes. The Course Companion can simulate the kind of feedback you might receive from learners or other stakeholders, such as academic leads or quality reviewers.
By running these simulations, you get early insights into how your course might be perceived, where confusion could arise, and how to strengthen the learning journey. It’s a fast and low-risk way to refine your course before a real learner steps into it.
Check alignment with visual indicators
It’s not always easy to tell if your course is aligned with its intended learning outcomes. The Course Companion introduces visual indicators that highlight where content supports the outcomes, and where the alignment may be weak or missing.
This gives you a quick view of where to focus your efforts and helps ensure your course remains cohesive. It’s particularly useful for quality assurance, or for communicating course progress with peers and stakeholders. You can also deep dive into any item, for immediate recommendations to improve alignment between the course contents and the intended learning outcome.
Generate contextual suggestions for any item
Every item in a Moodle course, from a file to a quiz or a discussion forum, contributes to the overall learning experience. The Course Companion lets you select any item and receive tailored suggestions for how to improve it.
Suggestions are based on context, purpose, and good design principles. Whether you want to improve clarity, interactivity or alignment, the assistant provides actionable next steps that respect your teaching goals and the course structure.
Need help choosing your next activity?
Sometimes it’s difficult to decide what kind of learning activity to add next. The Course Companion can help by making a suggestion based on what’s already in the course and what the learning outcomes are. With your permission, it can even add a new hidden activity for you to review and customise.
This feature is ideal when you’re working at pace, designing in a new subject area, or looking for ideas to improve learner engagement. It gives you a starting point and saves you time, while keeping you in control of the learning experience.
Designed for individuals, teams and organisations
The Course Companion is built for everyone who works with Moodle, whether you’re a solo educator editing your own course, part of a content team, or supporting others across a department or organisation. It gives each user their own design assistant, but also supports consistent practice across a wider team.
It also connects directly to Coursensu, our full learning design platform. With Coursensu, you can create high-quality learning designs, prepare structured content, and build course templates that can be exported into Moodle. The Course Companion extends that support even further by embedding directly into Moodle and helping you refine the experience at the point of delivery.
Works inside your Moodle course
The Course Companion integrates with your existing Moodle setup and respects your roles and permissions. It doesn’t make any changes unless you approve them. It’s designed to feel like a natural extension of Moodle, not an extra layer of tooling to manage.
You don’t need to leave the platform or upload anything to get help. The assistant is right there, working alongside you as you edit your course. It’s focused on being helpful, responsive and practical, giving you confidence that your course is progressing in the right direction.
Part of a growing platform for learning design
Coursensu has always supported the full process of learning design. From creating new designs and structuring content, to building reusable templates and aligning content to outcomes, it’s a platform made for course creation teams.
All of that content can be exported into Moodle, either as new courses or to build on top of existing ones. The Course Companion builds on this by bringing Coursensu’s learning design intelligence into Moodle itself.
We’re starting with Moodle, because it’s the most widely used learning platform in the world. But we’re not stopping there. Our integration with D2L Brightspace already supports direct export from Coursensu. And we’re actively exploring future companion support for other leading LMSs.
Conclusion
Every educator deserves access to thoughtful, timely design support. That’s the idea behind the Course Companion. It brings powerful learning design guidance into the place you need it most - directly inside any Moodle course.
The Course Companion offers a way to extend learning design support into every Moodle course, for every editing user, and it costs you less than a cup of coffee!
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