Here’s a handy simple block that gives you a quick search option for finding courses via a block. The block is for Moodle 2.0 and up (through 2.6). According to the maintainer,
This block displays a search box on the page…[and] searches through Courses. Courses that match the search string either by shortname or fullname will be displayed, with a link through to the course page.
If Javascript is available, the block will “Find as you type”, otherwise a button will be displayed to submit the search.
Could be handy if you don’t want to open a new window or navigate using the admin panel (or are sick of the extra page loads and clicking.
Check it out and download at https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=block_quickcourselist