PermissionsSettings for each permission capability:InheritThis is the default setting. If a capability is set to inherit, the user’s permissions remain the same as they arein a less specific context or another role where the capability is defined. For example, if a student is allowedto attempt quiz questions at the course level, their role in a specific quiz will inherit this setting. Ultimately, ifpermission is never allowed at any level, then the user will have no permission for that capability.AllowThis enables a user to use a capability in a given context. This permission applies for the context that the role gets assigned plusall lower contexts. For example, if a user is assigned the role of student in a course, they will be able to start new discussionsin all forums in that course (unless a forum contains an override with a prevent or prohibit value for the capability).PreventBy choosing this you are removing permission for this capability, even if the userswith this role were allowed that permission in a higher context.ProhibitThis is rarely needed, but occasionally you might want to completely deny permissions to a role in a way thatcan NOT be overridden at any lower context. An example of when you might need this is when an admin wantsto prohibit one person from starting new discussions in any forum on the whole system. In this case they cancreate a role with that capability set to “Prohibit” and then assign it to that user in the system context.Conflict resolution of permissionsPermissions at a “lower” context will generally override anything at a “higher” context (this applies to overridesand assigned roles). The exception is PROHIBIT which cannot be overridden at lower levels.If two roles are assigned to a person in the same context, one with ALLOW and one with PREVENT, then ALLOW will win.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 49
Special exceptions Note that the guest user account will generally be prevented from posting content (eg forums, calendar entries, blogs) even if it is given the capability to do so. Locations for overriding permissions ••Front page context: Administration > Front Page settings > Users > Permissions ••Course category context (when used):Category > Administration > Permissions ••Course context: Administration > Course administration > Users > Permissions ••Module context: (from the chosen module) Administration > Module administration > Permissions ••Block context: (from the chosen block) Administration > Block administration > Permissions ••User context: (from the user’s profile) Administration > Roles > Permissions Ability to override permissions Users who have the capability moodle/role:override allowed or the capability moodle/role:safeoverride allowed) can override permissions for selected roles (as set in Allow role overrides). The default manager role has the capability moodle/role:override allowed, and can override permissions for all other roles. The default teacher role has the capability moodle/role:safeoverride allowed, and can override permissions for the roles of non-editing teacher, student and guest. Enabling non-editing teachers to override safe permissions ••Access Administration > Site Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles. ••Edit the non-editing teacher role and change the capability Capabilities/moodle/role:safeoverride to Allow. ••Click the button “Save changes”. ••Click the tab “Allow role overrides” (in Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles). ••Check the appropriate box(s) in the non-editing teacher row to set which role(s) they can override. Most likely it will just be the student role (you don’t want non-editing teachers to be able to override managers), so check the box where the non-editing teacher row intersects with the student column. If preferred, a new role for overriding permissions may be created and selected non-editing teachers assigned to it. Overriding permissions for selected students Sometimes a teacher will want to override permissions for selected students. Typically they will assign a student a role locally. For example, assign a student as a non-editing teacher. However, managers can override specific permission in a role. This does not create a new role. It modifies an existing specific role and affects all users assigned to that role in the context. Sometimes the administrator (or someone with the permissions to) will create a new role. For example, the administrator will copy all the student permissions to a new role, then change specific permissions. The teacher then assigns specific students to this role without having to worry about checking off the correct role permissions. STANDARD ROLES Manager role The default Manager role enables users assigned the role to access courses and modify them, as well as perform certain administrative level tasks related to courses, users, grade settings, etc. Unlike the administrator role, the Manager role is a ‘real role’, whose capabilities you can edit, but is similar to Administrator (but much safer to use) due to its broad default powers. As a normal role, like Course Creator or Teacher, while the Manager role has almost very many capabilities by default, you can edit that role if you choose. (The way permission checks work in the Moodle code is that there is a function called has_capability. For admins, has_capability will always return true, no matter how the roles are set up. Thus there is no way to edit what permissions an Administrator has.)50 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
Adopting a best-practice based on the Principle of Least Privilege suggests that Administrators should normally use a Managerrole, and not use an Administrator account, similar to the way you are recommended not to log into Linux as root.The Manager role therefore allows a site Administrator to give very powerful roles to others who areassigned a Manager role, but without having to give them a full Administrator role.Assigning the role of Manager at the Site levelYou can give someone the Manager role site wide (to enable them for instance to add new users) by going to Settings>SiteAdministration>Users>Permissions>Assign system roles, selecting the Manager role and moving over your chosen user.When you do so, users in that role will have access to only some of the items in Site administration. They do not haveaccess to areas such as Security, Server, Plugins, Appearance, or Advanced Features, which are reserved for those in the••Site administrators group. They have access to most of the tools for User, Course and Grade system settings and tools. Notes:••Some of these can further restricted by editing specific capabilities of the role, e.g., create users, upload users from a file, manual enrolments, managing cohorts, language customisation, et cet.••Manager has access to Front page same as with other courses (as it is technically a course).••Manager has access to most system level reports but not the Configuration report.••Manager has the ability to assign other users as a site wide Manager••Also, a Manager has the ability to edit the role of Manager itself - to disable this, you could prohibit the Create and manage roles moodle/role:manage capabilityAssigning the role of Manager at the Category levelThe Manager role can also be assigned in the context Category rather than site wide.Do this if you want someone to be able to have access to all the courses in a single category andmanage them, but do not want them to have access to any of Site administration tools.Assign this as follows: Site administration > Courses > Add/edit courses > (select a category) >••Edit this category > Settings block: Assign roles > Manager > (select user) Add Notes:••Category-level manager is assigned to a specific category. To manage more than one category, assign them that role in each category separately••Thay can manage any sub-categories beneath the category they are assigned, create new subcategories and move courses. They can create courses in the their assigned categories••They will not have as many capabilities as a site-level manager. Certain capabilities can only be applied in the system context (via a system role)••They can only login as another course participant of a course in their category, and browse within that course only ••Tip: Some commands are in the Settings blocks. Managers must “Turn editing on” in order to have Edit category and Add category links or buttons both in Settings and on the main content area. The screenshot on the left is a view of the Administration block for a Category level Manager with Editing turned on, showing the Edit this category and Add a sub-category commands:Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 51
Course creator role A user assigned to the role of course creator can create a course. If the setting “Creators’ role in new courses” is left as default (teacher), then the course creator is enrolled as a teacher in any course they create. They can then edit the course settings and enrol other users. A course creator can also view hidden courses. The role of course creator could typically be assigned to a master teacher, department head or program coordinator. Creating a course The “Add a new course” button can be found at the bottom of the page listing all courses. When a course creator creates a course, they are automatically enrolled in the course as a teacher, or ••whatever role is set in Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > User policies. Notes: ••If a user is assigned the role of course creator in the course category context, the “Add a new course” button only appears when the course category contains at least one course. ••Course creators are not automatically assigned the role of teacher in a course they have not created, even if it is in a category where they have course creator rights. Deleting a course There is no user interface for course creators to delete courses they have created, however they can do so by editing the URL of the course from http://yourmoodlesite.net/course/view.php?id=N to http://yourmoodlesite.net/course/delete.php?id=N (replacing ‘view’ with ‘delete’). Role assignment A user may be assigned the role of course creator as a system role (in Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Assign system roles) or in the course category context. Role permissions If you require a course creator to have additional permissions, it is recommended that the Manager role is used, rather than changing the course creator role permissions. Otherwise, allowing additional capabilities for the course creator role may result in course creators having access to courses which they have not created. The role of course creator is ONLY intended for enabling users to create courses; it is not intended for enabling users to edit existing courses! Teacher Teachers can do anything within a course, including changing the activities and grading students. Non-editing teacher A non-editing teacher can to view and grade students’ work within a course, but cannot alter or delete any of the activities or resources. This role might typically be given to a classroom assistant for example. Student ••A user with the Student role in Moodle can participate in course activities and view resources but not alter them or see the class gradebook. They can see their own grades if the teacher has allowed this. ••When a student first joins Moodle they see all available courses. Once they have enrolled or been enrolled into at least one course they then only see their own courses in the My Courses section of the navigation block or via the My home52 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
link.••A student’s view and navigation in Moodle will be different from the course teacher’s or from students assigned to a different group.••Administrators and Teachers determine how a student enrolls, and what they can do or see in a Moodle site. These permissions can vary with each course or with any of Moodle’s many kinds of activities. For example, in some contexts, students may correct or grade other students’ work, be encouraged to explore everything in a course and interact with other participants. In a different context, the student maybe guided upon a closely defined path, with minimal interaction with others.GuestMoodle has a built-in “Guest account”. Visitors can log in as guests using the “Login as a guest”button on the login screen and enter any courses which allow guest access. In addition, logged-in users can enter any courses which allow guest access without being required to enrol.Guests ALWAYS have “read-only” access - meaning they can’t leave any posts or otherwise mess up the course for real students.They cannot:••Post in forums••Edit wiki pages••Participate in a chat••Take quizzes••Submit assignments••Add glossary or database entries or comments••Receive any scores or grades (because of the read-only access)This feature can be handy when you want to let a colleague in to look around at yourwork, or to let students see a course before they have decided to enrol.If you want guests to be able to take quizzes, or any of the other activities listed above, and have considered the securityimplications, you can create a visitor account, say with username = password = visitor, for everyone to share.Enabling guest accessTo allow guests into courses on your Moodle, see the section on Enrolment Methods.Skip login page for guest accountAll users will be automatically logged in as guests if you enable Auto-login guests in Administration > Site administration >Users > Permissions > User policies. The standard login page is displayed after users visit page that requires real user login.Authenticated userWhen any user logs in, they are automatically assigned the role of authenticated user. A user will have additional roles aswell as the authenticated user role according to where they are in Moodle, such as a teacher or a student in a course.By default, authenticated users have permission to edit their own profile, send messages, blog and do other things outside of courses.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 53
Examples of using roles Give a student forum moderator rights How: Assign the role of non-editing teacher in the module context, via the “Locally assigned roles” link in the forum administration section of the Settings block. •• Enables a user to edit or delete forum posts, split discussions and move discussions to other forums •• Consider assigning this role to two students, and guiding them in learning to facilitate a forum together; for example, they can share the “coverage” of the Forum on certain dates. Enable a student to grade assignment submissions How: Assign the role of non-editing teacher in the module context, via the “Locally assigned roles” link in the assignment administration section of the Settings block ••A form of peer assessment/evaluation ••Similarly, enable a student to grade essay questions in a quiz Give a student the rights to approve database module entries How: Assign the role of non-editing teacher in the module context, via the “Locally assigned roles” link in the database administration section of the Settings block ••Enables a user to approve, edit and delete database module entries ••Similarly, give a student the rights to approve glossary entries Allow a student to clean up saved chat sessions How: Assign the role of non-editing teacher in the module context, via the “Locally assigned roles” link in the chat administration section of the Settings block. ••Allows a user to delete chat logs for conversations which don’t go anywhere ••Allows a user to save chat logs for a longer period of time ••Allows a user to put together group chat sessions Create an archive forum How: Override the student role in the module context, via the “Permissions” link in the forum administration section of the Settings block and remove the capabilities to start discussions and reply to posts. ••In an archived forum, students may no longer start new discussions, nor add replies, but may still read all the discussions ••Similar uses: Archive database, glossary or wiki54 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
Enable students to rate forum postsHow: Override the student role in the module context, via the “Permissions” link in the forumadministration section of the Settings block, and allow the capability to rate forum posts••A formative assessment••Peer evaluation••See Forum permissions for more details••Similar uses: Enable students to rate database or glossary entriesAllow students to unenrol themselves from a courseHow: Override the student role in the course context, via the “Permissions” link in the Courseadministration area of the settings block and allow the unassign own roles capability••Useful for taster courses, revision courses and any other courses which are optionalHide a block from guests How: Override the guest role in the block context, via the “Permissions” link in the block administration area of the Settings block and prevent the capability to view blocks A similar use would be to hide a block from studentsRole settings 55User policiesThe following settings may be changed by an administrator in Administration>Siteadministration> Users > Permissions > User policies.Role for visitorsUsers who are not logged in to the site will be treated as if they have the role specified here, grantedto them at the site context. The role of Guest is the default and the recommended setting forstandard Moodle sites. The user will still be required to login to participate in an activity.Role for guestThis option specifies the role that will automatically be assigned to the guest user. This role is also temporarilyassigned to non-enrolled users when they enter a course that allows guests without password. Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com
Deny Guest Access to a site altogether Go to Site administration> Plugins> Authentication> Manage authentication and there is a switch there that allows you to turn the Guest Access button off altogether. Default role for all users It is recommended that the default role for all users is set to Authenticated user. To set it to a custom role, ••the custom role must be assignable in the system context and have role archetype set to none. It is not recommended that the default role for all users is set to student. Auto-login guest ••If not set, then visitors must click the “Login as a guest” button before entering a course which allows guest access. If auto-login guest is set, the guest login button also needs to be set to show (in Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Manage authentication), even though visitors won’t necessarily use it. Hide user fields The following user fields appear on users’ profile pages. Certain user fields are also listed on the course participants’ page. You can increase student privacy by hiding selected user fields. Description, city/town, country, web page, ICQ number, Skype ID, Yahoo ID, AIM ID, MSN ID, last access, My courses and first access and groups ••User fields on users’ profile pages are hidden from all users with the capability moodle/user:viewhiddendetails not set. ••User fields on the course participants page are hidden from all users with the capability moodle/ course:viewhiddenuserfields not set. Show user identity Any of the following fields may be shown to users with the capability moodle/ site:viewuseridentity when searching for users and displaying lists of users. ••ID number ••Email address ••Phone number ••Mobile phone ••Department ••Institution This setting is useful for sites with a large user base, where the likelihood of users with the same name is high. Locations where user identity fields are shown are as follows: ••User selectors (Assign roles in some places, groups, forum subscribers) ••Browse list of users ••Course participants ••Grader report ••Quiz reports ••SCORM reports ••Assignment submissions ••Course completion report ••Activity completion report ••Enroling users56 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
••Select only one or two fields that are mandatory at your institution. Do not select more than two fields or tables become very wide.Maximum users per pageYou can choose here the maximum number of users to be displayed when searching in courses, groups,cohorts etc. The default is 100 but if your Moodle site is very large you can increase the number here.Enable GravatarGravatar (an abbreviation for globally recognized avatar) is a service for providing globally unique avatars.An administrator can enable the use of gravatars in Administration > Site administration > Users >Permissions > User policies. If a user has not uploaded a user picture, Moodle will check whether the user’semail address has an associated gravatar and if so, will use the gravatar as the user’s picture.Gravatar default image URLIf gravatars are enabled, an alternative default user picture may be specified. The options are:••A gravatar default image - by entering a code such as mm. See https://en.gravatar.com/site/implement/images/ for codes of other gravatar default images.••A specified image - by entering the image URLIf the field is left empty then the theme’s default user picture is used.Unsupported role assignmentsUnsupported role assignments are role assignments in contexts that make no sense for that role, such as••the course creator role in the course or activity context, or the teacher role in the user context. Prior to Moodle 2.0, there was no ‘Context types where this role may be assigned’ setting in the edit role form: any role could be assigned in any context. When upgrading a site from Moodle 1.9, any role assignments in contexts that make no sense for that role are listed as unsupported role assignments in Settings > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Unsupported role assignments.In general, it is safe to delete all unsupported role assignments. In doing so, the worst that canhappen is for a user to be unassigned a custom role; no other data loss will occur.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 57
Front page The front page is the initial page seen by someone reaching a Moodle site after or before a login. Typically a student will see courses, some blocks of information, displayed in a theme. In the Navigation bar and Navigation block it is called “Home”. A combination of site policies, user authentication and front page settings determine who can get to the front page. And once they get there what they can see and what they can do. In many ways, a Front Page has similar features and functions to those in a Course. For example, Activities, Resources and Blocks can be added to the Front Page to give it different looks. Front page settings The following settings may be changed by a site administrator in Administration > Front page settings > Edit settings: Full site name This name appears at the top of every page above the navigation bar. Short name for site The short name appears at the beginning of the navigation bar as a link back to your site front page. Front page summary This summary can be displayed on the front page using the course/site summary block. Front page and Front page items when logged in The centre of the front page can display any combination of the following: news items, a list of courses, a list of enrolled courses, a list of course categories, a list of categories and courses, a course search box or none. The order is determined by a combination box.58 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
It is possible to create one setting for anyone who gets to the front page without logging in to the Moodle site,and another look for only those who have logged into the Moodle site. There are two combination boxes. The image on the left shows the first Front Page settings dialog - what visitors will see before they log in.The image on the right shows a second front Page settings 59dialog - what Authenticated Users will see when logged in.An alternative option for logged-in users is My home,covered later in this section. My home can be set inSite administration > Appearance > Navigation.Maximum category depthThis specifies the maximum depth of childcategories expanded when displaying categoriesor combo list. Deeper level categories will appear as links and user can expand them with AJAX request.Maximum number of coursesThis sets the maximum number of courses displayed on the site’s front page in course listings.Include a topic sectionThis adds a topic section to the centre-top of the front page. When editing is turned on, resources••or activities can be added to the topic section, in the same way as on a course page. The label resource can be used to add text or an image to the centre-top of the front page.News items to showThis setting only applies if the front page is set to display news itemsor if you are using the Latest News block (show on the right). Comments per page Each course may include a Comments block which allows user comments to be displayed. The commnts per page setting controls the number of displayed comments. Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com
Default front page role The default front page role enables logged-in users to participate in front page activities. It is recommended that it is set to “Authenticated user on front page (frontpage)” role. It should never be set to Guest. For sites which do not have a default front page role (because they upgraded from 1.9), it is recommended that the administrator creates a new role with front page archetype, resets it to default and then sets it as the default front page role. Front Page roles As in a course, you can assign users roles just in the context of the front page. This is different from the default Authenticated User on Front Page role found in front page settings. As a security issue, usually only administrators can modify the front page, other users do not. It is possible to upload users as students in the front page with a csv file using the site short name as ‘course1’ field, student in ‘role1’ field (and, if needed, chosen group name in ‘group1’ field.) Front Page backup You can back up the front page, similar to a Course backup. Front Page restore As in a course, you can restore a backed up version of the front page. Front Page questions Question bank and Quiz The Question bank is accessible from the Front Page. For example, if “topic” is checked in the front page settings, you can add a Quiz module activity. LAYOUT: CENTRAL AREA, COURSES OR CATEGORIES? A Moodle site’s front page can be reconfigured from the default standard to give it a different layout or change how it functions. This is a major decision: what is it you want in the centre of your front page? You can have a list of categories, a list of categories and courses, or neither. A label with a table full of images works just as well. The issue is always the same: what looks good? Depending upon the changes, this can be either a simple or a more complex process. A custom theme may have a unique front page format. Here are some examples using the formal white standard theme: Clean look, topic checked, no blocks The standard Moodle page format of Blocks on the left and blocks on the right is not always appropriate. The site administrator can change this basic format by simply deleting or hiding blocks that can be seen by users. Navigation can be placed on the dock. The two column format The administrator may decide which blocks should appear on the front page and move all of them to the left or right ••side. This format allows you to decide what you want in the centre, and where you want the blocks, left or right. It is possible to force a block column to assume a specific width. For example, placing an image of 400 px in a block will force that column to 400 px.60 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
The clean lookSome sites want an uncluttered look. A site administrator or designer may wantto start with the most basic look and then add features.••As a site administrator, turn on editing and hide or delete all blocks that can be seen by teachers or students on the front page.••Then go to the Site administration block> Front Page> Front Page settings and:••Set the “Front page” list to None, None, None, None.••Set “Front page items when logged in” list to the same.••Check the box for “Include Topic section” and “Save”.Block settings Each block has a number of configuration settings that you can change. This screen shot shows the Navigation block settings. See Managing blocks for more details.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 61
FRONT PAGE FAQS What do we mean by the ‘front page’ of Moodle? The front page is the site home page. The front page link in the navigation block and navigation bar is called ‘Home’. When logged in, a user’s customized home page is called ‘My home’. How can I add text and a picture to the centre column? ••In Settings > Front page settings > Edit settings make sure that ‘Include a topic section’ is ticked ••In Settings > Front page settings, click ‘Turn editing on’ ••Return to the front page and click the edit icon at the top of the centre column ••Add text and a picture ••Click the ‘Save changes’ button How can I prevent activities I made on the front page being seen in the navigation block? Uncheck the box “Show front page activities in the navigation” in Settings > Site administration > Appearance > Navigation. How do I limit the number of courses that appear on the Front Page? In Settings> Site administration> Appearance> Courses, you can change the number of courses to be displayed on one page to a different number. The default is 20, but you can make it whatever you want. You can also, from Settings> Site administration> Front page> Front page settings, change what is displayed after login to show only categories. One way of resolving this issue is to replace the Course and Category list on the Front Page with a HTML block that links off to the various category pages. This keeps your courses off the front page altogether. There are a couple of ways to do this, you can have a list of Categories, in a table, or you can use a table full of icons, much the same as Moodle’s front page. Depending on the number of Categories, say 11 different subject areas and one Administration area, create a four-row, four-column table. The orderly nature of a balanced table implies an orderly site, particularly if the images linking to a Category are clear and the alt tag text says what it is linking to.62 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
MY HOMEMy home is a “dashboard” page that usually has the Course overview block in the central column (1). Thisprovides links to their courses (2) and associated upcoming activities or unread forum posts (3).Users can customise My Home (4).They are allowed to manage their Private files and Add,remove and reposition a limited range of blocks.The navigation block:••includes a My Home link (5) directly above (or below) the Site home link.••Once a regular user is logged in, the My courses link will also take them to their My Home page.DEFAULT HOME PAGEAn administrator can set My home as the default home page for all logged-in users by selecting ‘My Home’as default home page in Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Navigation.If ‘User preference’ is selected as default home page, each user needs to navigate to either the ‘HomePage’ or the ‘My home’ page then via the Administration > My profile settings click the “Make this mydefault home page” link. This option only appears on the page that is not their current default home page.Once selected, Moodle will remember which page to present them each time they log on.Users with the Site administrator role cannot set My Home as their default home page.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 63
Setting the default My home page for new users An administrator or manager (or other user with the capability moodle/my:configsyspages) can set which content (course overview, calendar, blocks) appears on the My home page for new users as follows: ••Access Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Default My home page ••Select the required blocks from the “Add a block” drop-down menu. Configure each block as desired ••Reposition blocks using the arrow icons in the block headers Adding a block to the My home page for all users An administrator can add a new block to the My home page for all existing users (not only new users) as follows: ••Turn editing on for the front page ••Add the block to the front page ••Edit where the block appears and set the page contexts to ‘Display throughout the entire site’ ••Go to the My home page and again edit where the block appears and set ‘Display on page types’ to ‘My home page’ Preventing users from customizing their My home page By default, users can modify their My home page and add blocks. An administrator can prevent this as follows: ••Go to Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles ••Edit the authenticated user role and untick the capability “Manage My home page blocks” Preventing users from adding a block to their My home page By default, users can add many blocks to their My home page. An administrator can prevent them from adding a particular block, such as the Online users block, as follows: ••Go to Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles ••Edit the authenticated user role and untick the capability “Add a new online users block to the My home page” Blocks not available on My home The following blocks may not be added to a user’s My Home page (because it wouldn’t make sense): ••Course completion status block ••Course/site summary block ••Self-completion block64 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
ThemesThemes provide a “skin” to completely change the look and feel of your site (or even an individual course).THEME SELECTORAn administrator can set a theme for the site. Different themes may be set according to ‘device type’ - default,legacy (for older browsers), mobile and tablet.Go to Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme selectorClick on “Clear theme caches” button.Then click on the “Change theme” button on the right of the current theme being used for the device.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 65
Scroll down to find the new theme. Then click the “Use theme” button next to it. Moodle will tell you it has been saved as the default theme. Check your Moodle site by going to the Moodle site’s home page. You may have to ••refresh your browser to see the new theme. The selected theme may be overridden if user, course or category themes have been allowed in the Theme settings. Theme settings An administrator can change theme settings in Settings > Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme settings. Theme list This lists the themes available for course and user themes. Leave this blank to allow any valid theme to be used. If you want to shorten the theme menu, you may specify a comma-separated list of names, though don’t use spaces (e.g. standard, orangewhite). You can preview the available themes in Administration > Site Administration > Appearance > Themes > Themes selector. Theme designer mode Turn this on if you are designing and testing themes as it will stop the themes being cached and enable you to see theme changes quickly. (You can also do this with the Clear theme cache button on the theme selector page.)66 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
Allow user themesIf the option allowuserthemes is enabled, each user may select their preferred theme on the edit profile page. All••Moodle pages will be displayed in the user’s theme, apart from courses where a course theme has been set. The user’s theme will not be available in mobile and tablet devices unless the option “enabledevicedetection” is unchecked.Allow course themesIf you enable this, then teachers will be able to set their own course themes. Coursethemes override all other theme choices (site, user, or session themes).If the option “allowcoursethemes” is enabled, each editing teacher may select their course themevia the Force theme option on the Course settings page. The course will always be displayed in the••theme specified in the course setting, with user and the site themes being overwritten. The course theme will not be available in mobile and tablet devices unless the option “enabledevicedetection” is unchecked.Allow category themesWhen enabled, themes can be set at the category level. This will affect all child categories and courses unlessthey have specifically set their own theme. Warning: Enabling category themes may affect performance,••as it will result in a few extra DB queries on each page, so only turn this on if you need it! The category theme will not be available in mobile and tablet devices unless the option “enabledevicedetection” is unchecked.Allow theme changes in the URLIf this is checked then the theme may be changed by adding ?theme=theme_name (or &theme=theme_nameif there are other URL parameters) to the URL in the browser. Theme names should be in lower case with spacesreplaced by underscores, for example the theme “Formal white” should be entered as ?theme=formal_whiteAllow users to hide blocksAllows users to display and hide blocksAllow blocks to use the docksIf the theme allows it, then checking this will allow the user to move blocks to the side dock.Custom menu itemsThe setting “Custom menu items” allows you to create a drop down menu that can be displayed by themesthat support it. All themes that are provided with Moodle 2.0 support this custom menu.You are able to create the custom menu by entering custom menu items one per line into the setting. Each item is precededby a number of hyphens (-), the number of hyphens determines the depth of the item. So items that are NOT preceded by ahyphen appear on the top level of the menu (always visible), items with a single hyphen appear on a drop down menu below theprevious top level item, and items with two hyphens appear on a drop down menu below the previous first level item and so on.The content of each item is constructed of up to three bits, each separated by a | (Shift + \) character. The bits are label|url|tooltip.labelThis is the text that will be shown within the menu item. You must specify a label for every item on the menu.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 67
url This is the URL that the user will be taken to it they click the menu item. This is optional, if not provided then the item will not link anywhere. tooltip If you provide a URL you can also choose to provide a tooltip for the link that is created with the URL. This is optional and if not set the label is used as the tooltip for the menu item. Example of creating a custom menu: Moodle community|http://moodle.org -Moodle free support|http://moodle.org/support -Moodle development|http://moodle.org/development --Moodle Tracker|http://tracker.moodle.org --Moodle Docs|http://docs.moodle.org -Moodle News|http://moodle.org/news Moodle company -Moodle commercial hosting|http://moodle.com/hosting -Moodle commercial support|http://moodle.com/support Note: The custom menu does not escape characters within the label. If you want to use a special HTML character such as an ampersand you must escape it yourself within the label. eg use & instead of &. Multilanguage support You can add a language code (or a comma separated list of codes) as the 4th item of the line. The line will be then printed if and only if the user has currently selected the listed language. For example: English only|http://moodle.com|English only item|en German only|http://moodle.de|Deutsch|de,de_du,de_kids Adding other attributes to the HTML Other attributes, such as target can be added with escaped quotes: Moodle Homepage|http://moodle.org\” target=\”_blank The first escaped quote closes the href attribute, allowing other attributes to be added. All quotes for the extra attributes must be escaped as well. Do not add the closing quotation mark on the final attribute, it is added automatically by Moodle.68 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
Enable device detectionIf enabled, this feature will detect mobile and tablet devices that identifythemselves via the web browser at the time of login to Moodle.It works with the theme selector.An administrator should set which theme should be used as a default, or when a mobile (1) or tablet device (2) is detected.Device detection regular expressionsThis will allow you to customize the theme selector options. For example, you can add a customtheme for IE6 and another for Windows CE by entering the identifying expressions the browsersends and the “Return value” you want to display as the theme selectors “Device type”.Special themesSession themesMoodle offers an additional way to set a theme: session theme. This is set with the URL and lasts until youlog out. When you next login, the site/course/user themes are active again. This option is great for themetesting and works perfectly when you want to enable different themes for different situations.For example you can offer a special link for PDA users and integrate the session theme orangewhitepda in that link. Nobody needsto change any settings, you just click on that link. The session theme is called by the URL parameter&theme=orangewhitepda.The whole URL without the session theme could look like http://mymoodlesite.org/course/view.php?id=18 and with theparameter for the PDA theme like”http://mymoodlesite.org/course/view.php?id=18&theme=orangewhitepda”.In a standard Moodle installation, session themes are not active. To activate them the administrator must add theparameter $CFG->allowthemechangeonurl = true; to the Moodle config.php file in the Moodle base directory.Page themeA page theme is for special page-only themes set by code, use $PAGE->force_theme().Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 69
Theme hierarchy Here is the usual order in which themes are considered by the Moodle interface. Theme type Overwrites Display Setting type Site - all pages* saved in theme profile User Site theme all pages* saved in user profile Course Site, user and session themes one course saved in course profile Session Site and user themes all pages* temporary until logout (* except courses with the course theme set) Change default hierarchy The priority of themes can be set via the /moodle/config.php file. The order defines which theme wins when there are several set at different levels. You can set a variable called $CFG->themeorder (see config-dist.php for more details). By default it is set to: $CFG->themeorder = array(‘course’, ‘category’, ‘session’, ‘user’, ‘site’); Particular theme settings Logo, tagline, link colour, column width, custom CSS and other settings for a particular theme may be set by an administrator in Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme name. THEMES FAQS Where can I find more Moodle themes? As well as standard themes, which you will find in your Moodle installation, there are a number of free add-on themes available for download from Moodle plugins directory - Category:Themes. Don’t forget to choose the correct version of a theme for the version of Moodle you are currently using. How do I install a new theme? ••Unzip the .zip file to an empty local directory. ••Upload folder to your web server to the /moodle/theme/[Theme Name]. (Replace [Theme Name] with the name of the theme you have downloaded.) Ensure the new theme folder and its contents are readable by the webserver. Change Read and Write permissions (CHMOD) for the files and folder to 755 - Owner read/write/execute, Group read/execute, Everyone read/execute. Incorrect permissions may prevent display of the newly installed theme. ••Choose your new theme from within Moodle via Administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme selector. How do I install a new theme when using cPanel? ••Upload your new theme .zip file to your web server via cPanel. ••Then using cPanel install the new theme to your Moodle theme’s folder. The new theme will be installed into its own folder at /moodle/theme/[mytheme] (where [mytheme] is the name of your new theme. ••Ensure the new theme folder and its contents are readable by the webserver. If necessary change Read and Write permissions (CHMOD) for the files and folder to 755 - Owner read/write/execute, Group read/execute, Everyone read/ execute. Incorrect permissions may prevent display of the newly installed theme. ••Choose your new theme from within Moodle via Administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme selector70 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
Bulk course creationAn administrator can upload multiple courses via text file in Administration > Site administration > Courses > Upload courses.In addition to creating new courses, this functionality may also be used to update or delete courses, or import contentfrom another course. For information on using this functionality to create course templates, see Adding a new courseEither drag and drop the CSV file or click the ‘Choose a file’ button and select the file in the file pickerSelect appropriate import options carefully, then click the preview button.Upload courses admin screenCourses successfully uploadedWhen using the web interface, use the Preview option to see if any errors were detected in the previewedrows. If you proceed with the upload and and error was detected with a course, it will be ignored.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 71
Short file example uploadcourse.csv: shortname,fullname,category,summary,enrolment_1,enrolment_1_role,enrolment_1_enrolperiod,role_student Notice there are no spaces between the items. CREATING THE TEXT FILE The text file to upload courses must be a CSV file. It accepts the following columns which are divided in two categories: Course information and Course actions. Course information fields Most of those settings are available on the settings page of a course. Please refer to Course settings for more information. Field names must be lower-case. shortname The shortname fullname The full name idnumber The ID number category The ID of the category to place the course in. This takes precedence over category_idnumber and category_path. category_idnumber The ID number of the category to place the course in. This takes precedence over category_path. category_path The path of the category to place the course in. If you want to place the course in a category named “Science- Fiction” which is located under the category “Movies”, the value to provide is: Movies > Science-Fiction. Note that the separator must be [space]>[space]. Also note that the category MUST exist, it will not be created. If you want to place the course in the top-level category “Movies”, the value to provide is: Movies visible 1 if the course is visible, 0 if hidden startdate The time at which the course starts. Please note that this value is passed to the PHP function strtotime to generate a timestamp. summary The summary of the course72 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
format 73The course format to use, this must be a valid course format plugin name. E.g. weeks, topics.themeThe theme to uselangThe language to usenewsitemsThe number of news itemsshowgrades1 to show the gradebook to students, 0 to hide it.showreports1 to show the activity reports, 0 to hide it.legacyfiles1 to enable the legacy course files, 0 not to.maxbytesThe maximum upload size of the course in bytes. Use 0 for the site limit.groupmode0 for No groups, 1 for Separate groups and 2 for Visible groups.groupmodeforce1 to force the group mode, otherwise enter 0.enablecompletion1 to enable the activity completion, 0 not to.Enrolment fieldsSome fields can be constructed to enable and configure enrolment methods. The fields must be named enrolment_[number] for the enrolment method name, and enrolment_[number]_property for its properties.enrolment_[number]The name of the enrolment methodenrolment_[number]_delete1 to delete this enrolment method from the course, if set to 1 all the other properties will be ignored.enrolment_[number]_disable1 to disable this enrolment method from the course, if set to 1 all the other properties will be ignored.enrolment_[number]_startdateThe enrolment start date. This value is passed to the PHP function strtotime().enrolment_[number]_enddateThe enrolment end date. This value is passed to the PHP function strtotime().enrolment_[number]_enrolperiodNumber of seconds, or if not a value understood by strtotime() such as “4 days”. Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com
enrolment_[number]_role The role short name enrolment_[number]_[property] Where property is understood by the specified enrolment methodNote: Example enrolment_1: manual enrolment_1_role: student enrolment_1_enrolperiod: 1 month enrolment_2: self enrolment_2_startdate: 2013-01-30 Role renaming To rename some roles, using the following pattern: role_[shortname] The new name of the role [shortname]. Example role_student: Apprentice role_teacher: Master role_mycustomrole: Jedi Course action fields Those settings take precedence over the Course process parameters. delete 1 to delete the course rename The shortname to rename the course to backupfile An absolute path to a backup file (.mbz) to import in the course templatecourse The short name of a course to import the content from reset 1 to reset the course74 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
Mandatory fieldsshortnameThis field is mandatory for every operation, with the only exception of creating new courses. Seedetails on the course process parameter Shortname template for more information.fullnameRequired when creating a new course.category, category_idnumber, category_pathOne of these is required when creating a course.Import optionsTo prevent unexpected behaviour, you have to specify what you want the tool to be able to do.Upload modeThis allows you to specify if courses can be created and/or updated.Update modeIf you allow courses to be updated, you also have to tell the tool what to update the courses with.Allow deletesWhether the delete field is accepted or notAllow renamesWhether the rename field is accepted or notAllow resetsWhether the reset field is accepted or notCourse processThis allows you to specify actions to be taken for every course uploaded.Shortname templateIf you are creating courses without a shortname, you can use this field to automatically generate ashortname. This field accepts two placeholders: %i for the ID number, %f for the summary.Restore fileA backup file (.mbz) to import in the course after create/update.Restore from courseThe shortname of a course to import content from after create/update.Reset after uploadWhether to reset the course after creating/updating it.Default course valuesThose are values that can be set in the web interface for all the fields that are not specified in the CSV file. Note thatthey are always used when creating a course, but only when specified during update (see Update mode).Increasing speedWhen importing the content of a backup file, or another course, you are advised to enable the setting keeptempdirectoriesonbackup.This will considerably speed up the process of the upload if you are importing multiple times from the same source.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 75
Backup and Restore a course A course can be saved with some or all of its parts by using the course backup. Typically, the site administrator will set a schedule of automated course backups for the whole site. A teacher with editing privileges can create a backup or download an existing backup for safe keeping, or for use on another Moodle site. SOME USES OF BACKUP AND RESTORE A teacher can use the backup and restore processes in many ways: ••Duplicating courses or specific activities in one course to another course (similar to Import) ••Updating a production Moodle site course, with material from a localhost site course ••Transferring a course to a new Moodle site. ••Creating a blank activity, save just that activity and then restore it to the course or another course one or more times. COURSE BACKUP •• To backup a course, go to Administration> Course administration > Backup •• In the initial settings, select activities, blocks, filters and other items as ••required then click the Next button. Only those users with administrator or manager permissions can choose whether to include users, anonymize user information, or include user role assignments, user files, comments, user completion details, course logs and grade history in the backup. User data includes such information as forum posts, glossary entries and so on. It also includes the relevant user accounts as well, in order that data consistency can be maintained when the backup is restored on a different Moodle site. Unfortunately, in the wrong hands, this feature can ••also cause a privacy leak and possible exploitation of the whole original site. Users with the teacher role are not able to backup user information belonging to activities, so there will be a red ••cross and padlock next to any user information. Tip: Glossary and database activity entries can easily be moved to a different course using the Export and Import entries feature without needing to backup user data.76 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
••Schema settings - Select/deselect specific items to include in backup••If desired, select specific types of activity to be backed up by clicking the link ‘Show type options’.••Then click the Next button••Confirmation and review - Check that everything is as required, using the Previous button if necessary, otherwise click the ‘Perform backup’ button••Complete - Click the Continue buttonA backup file (with distinctive .mbz extension to avoid confusion with .zip files) is then saved in the course backup area.Backup and restore from Moodle1.9 to 2.xCourses created in Moodle 1.9 can be backed up and then restored into a 2.x Moodle but blocks are••not currently restored and nor is user data (such as forum posts, grades, submissions etc) Tip: Have you apparently lost content after a restore in Moodle 2.x? Turn editing on and look for the topic headings that say “Orphaned activities”. The go to course settings and increase the number of topic sections and things will return to normal.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 77
Backup individual activities It is possible to make a copy or backup of individual activities in a Moodle course and then re-use these activities in a different Moodle site or in a different course on the same Moodle. (Note that if you wish to re-use activities within the same Moodle it might be simpler to use the Import function. •• To make a backup of an individual activity, ensure you are logged in with editing rights, as a teacher for example. •• Click on the activity you wish to backup. •• The settings block to the side will have a link Backup as shown in the screenshot: ••In the next screen, check/tick the type of item you wish to backup - in this case, just Activities. ••Click Next. •• On the next screen, check the activity you wish to backup and click Next: •• At this stage, if you wish you can rename the filename (keeping its .mbz extension). Check you have included the correct activity and click Perform backup. You will get a message saying the backup file was successfully created.78 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
••Click Continue and you will find your backup in the User Private backup area.••You can download your file from here and then restore it to a course in another Moodle site. See Activity restore for••information on how to do this. Note: For security reasons, those with the teacher role are not able to backup user information belonging to activities, so there will be a red cross and padlock next to any user information.Using the new backup format (experimental)If you have large courses you may find it useful to turn on an experimental option introduced in Moodle 2.6, ‘Enable newbackup format’ (in Administration > Site administration > Development > Experimental > Experimental settings).This option selects a different internal backup format. Without this option, you cannot back up courses larger than 4GB.You can change this option at any time. Whatever the option is set to, restore works for boththe old and new format. The option only affects newly-created backups.When you use this option, backup files still have the .mbz extension and work the same way, but there are some differences:••There is no limit on total backup size (tested with courses up to about 10GB.)••Files may be slightly smaller.••If you need to edit this type of backup file manually, you will need to rename the .mbz file to .tar.gz, instead of .zip. You may need to use different software to extract and recompress this type of file (tested using GNU tar on Windows and Linux).The new backup format is experimental, but is being used in some large sites and may be enabled as defaultin a future Moodle version. If you find problems with it, report them in the Moodle tracker.Compiled by www.HowToMoodle.com 79
COURSE RESTOREA course backup file (.mbz) may be restored from within any existing course for which you have permission. Duringthe restore process, you will be given the option to restore as a new course or into an existing course.••Go to Administration > Course administration > Restore (if you have an empty course to restore into.)••Upload the backup file, or choose a file in the course backup area or in the user private backup area, and click Restore••Confirm - Check that everything is as required then click the Continue button••Destination - Choose whether the course should be restored as a new course or into an existing course then click the Continue button••Settings - Select activities, blocks, filters and possibly other items as required then click the Next button••Schema - Select/deselect specific items and amend the course name, short name and start date if necessary then click the Next button••Review - Check everything is as required, using the Previous button if necessary, then click the ‘Perform restore’ button••Complete - Click the continue button.80 Key: Teacher view Student view Admin setting Tip
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This manual contains selected content from the Moodle communitydocumentation site at http://docs.moodle.org. We hope that this manualwill be a convenient companion to your work with Moodle. If you find thisresource useful free to distribute it in electronic or printed formats.Compiled by HowToMoodlewww.howtomoodle.com | [email protected] | 0330 660 1111 JUST ASK US
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