Metacourse: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:21, 10 August 2021

What is a metacourse?

A meta course is a course that is "with" or linked to one or more courses for its student enrolment (enrollment to some). Adding or subtracting participants in a metacourse can only be done from the courses it is linked to. The linked courses push enrolment information to the metacourse(s) every time cron is run. There are many uses for a metacourse.

The course meta link option must be turned on by the site adminstrator. Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins > Course meta link. The standard package default is to hide this feature.

Concept note: When using a meta course, Moodle calls the courses it is linked to child courses. Some people like to think of them as parent courses. In any case a meta course has a kinship with one or more non-meta courses when it comes to enrolment.

In the simplest form, a linked course only needs to contain just the Students who are to be enrolled in a meta course. There do not need to be resources, assignments, or wikis, etc., just the Students in the linked course. In the simplest form, a meta course cannot enroll Students, but will have resources and activities for students in the linked courses.

Created - a child course and a meta course.	Associating one child course and one meta course.

Examples: one "child" course (a course linked to a meta course) can be associated with many meta courses. Or one meta course can have many child courses associated with it. Both the child courses (non-meta courses) and the meta courses are independent and can be recycled many times, that is, each can be associated with many of the other. {| class="wikitable" align="center" |-

!

2 child courses and a meta course.

!

1 child course and 2 meta courses.

!

3 child courses and 2 meta courses.

|}

Creating a meta course

For information on how to create a metacourse, see [Course meta link plugin] and see this screencast How to make a metacourse in Moodle 2.0

Tips and Tricks

Example Procedure for Experimenting with Metacourses

In this example, there are 2 sections of students in the "Parent" course: "Section 001" and "Section 002". Students are enrolled in the section courses.

Turn Metacourses on by going to Site administration -> Plugins -> Enrolments -> Manage enrol plugins and enabled Course meta link.
Created the following courses:
1. Parent
2. Section 001
3. Section 002
Enroll users into Section 001 and Section 002. Leave Parent enrollment empty.
Go to Parent course. Go to Settings -> Course admin -> Users -> Enrolment methods. On that screen, add method "Course Meta link" and choose Section 001. Repeat steps for Section 002. If you look at participants for the parent course, you will see the users from Section 001 and 002.
If you log-in as a student from section 001, you will see section 001 and parent in your course listings. If you want only students to see the parent course, then go to:
1. Site Administration -> Courses -> Add/edit courses. Choose the category for the section 001 course. Find the course section 001. Click the eye icon to hide the course.
2. OR search for the course from the home page logged in as site admin. Click the eye icon to hide the appropriate courses.
Repeat above for section 002. If you log in as a student, you can't see/search for section 001. However, an admin can still see/search for these now hidden child courses. The will be grayed out to indicate that they are hidden.

Draw a map of your courses

Get an oversized piece of paper (A3 or 11"x17'), draw boxes for courses and give them names. Add lines to connect the boxes to show relationships. Label the meta courses (alternatively, color the meta course boxes). Add arrows to the lines so you will know where enrolments come from. This is a great tip from the Business Uses forum.

Groups do not transfer

Meta course enrolments do not transfer groups from the and enrolment does not happen immediately, but occurs next time the cronjob runs.

Transfer of roles

By default all role assignments from child courses are synchronised to meta courses. However, the "Roles that are not synchronised to metacourses" setting in Site administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins > Course meta link > Settings enables administrators to exclude particular roles.

Restoring a meta course

When restoring a meta course with the option "deleting the course first", you will notice that the enrolments that were used by the course previously are now gone. In order to re-link the course, navigate to the new course and select the link "Child Courses" from the "Administration" block on the main course page and re-link the course to its parent.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-A '''metacourse''' is just like any other course except that it automatically enrolls participants from other "child" courses.  Metacourses inherit their enrollments from these other course(s) instead of having students added manually. This feature can populate many metacourses from one course with normal enrollments or one metacourse from many courses with normal enrollments.
+==What is a metacourse?==
-For example, a course is used as the central enrolment point for a programme of study.  Each time a student enrols in (or unenrols from) this course, they are automatically enrolled/unenrolled from any metacourse(s) associated with it, which would contain the programme's sub-units.
+A '''meta course''' is a course that is "with" or linked to one or more courses for its student [[Enrolment|enrolment]] (enrollment to some). Adding or subtracting participants in a metacourse can only be done from the courses it is linked to. The linked courses push enrolment information to the metacourse(s) every time [[Cron|cron]] is run. There are [[Metacourse examples of use|many uses for a metacourse]].
-Please note that metacourse enrolments do not preserve groups and enrolment does not happen immediately, but occurs next time the [[Cron|cronjob]] runs.
+The course meta link option must be turned on by the site adminstrator.
+''Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins > Course meta link''.  The standard package default is to hide this feature.
-==Metacourse setup==
+''Concept note:'' When using a meta course, Moodle calls the courses it is linked to '''child''' courses. Some people like to think of them as parent courses.  In any case a meta course has a kinship with one or more non-meta courses when it comes to enrolment.
-Teachers are able to choose whether a course is a metacourse via the "Is this a metacourse?" (yes/no) menu option in the [[Course settings|course settings]]. In Moodle 1.5 and 1.6, if a meta course is chosen, the [[Students|students]] page changes from listing/searching for students to listing/searching for courses.  In Moodle 1.7 "Child courses" appears in the teacher's administration block.
-If you choose 'metacourse' when you set up a new course, then instead of seeing the assign roles page after saving the settings, you will see a list of courses to shoose from. The students from any that you choose will be added to the metacourse automatically.
+In the simplest form, a linked course only needs to contain just the Students who are to be enrolled in a meta course. There do not need to be resources,  assignments,  or wikis, etc., just the Students in the linked course.  In the simplest form, a meta course '''cannot''' enroll Students, but will have resources and activities for students in the linked courses.
+{| class="wikitable" align="center"
+|-
+![[Image:simplemetacourse0.png|thumb|left|200px|Created - a child course and a meta course.]]
+![[Image:simplemetacourse1.png|thumb|left|200px|Associating one child course and one meta course.]]
+|}
-==Metacourse examples==
+Examples: one "child" course (a course linked to a meta course) can be associated with many meta courses. Or one meta course can have many child courses associated with it. Both the child courses (non-meta courses) and the meta courses are independent and can be recycled many times, that is, each can be associated with many of the other. {| class="wikitable" align="center"
-Metacourses may be used in a variety of ways:
+|-
+![[Image:simplemetacourse2.png|thumb|left|200px|2 child courses and a meta course.]]
+![[Image:simplemetacourse3.png|thumb|left|200px|1 child course and 2 meta courses.]]
+![[Image:simplemetacourse4a.png|thumb|left|200px|3 child courses and 2 meta courses.]]
+|}
+==Creating a meta course==
+For information on how to create a metacourse, see [[https://docs.moodle.org/20/en/admin/setting/enrolsettingsmeta Course meta link plugin]] and see this screencast [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA5QcTb13no&feature=player_embedded| How to make a metacourse in Moodle 2.0]
-* '''Scenario 1:''' X is a metacourse with Course 1 through 4 as normal courses with standard student enrollments. Students enrolling on these courses are automatically enrolled onto Metacourse X.
+==Tips and Tricks==
-[[Image:Metacourses1_en.jpg|Standard Metacourse Usage|center]]
+=== Example Procedure for Experimenting with Metacourses ===
+In this example, there are 2 sections of students in the "Parent" course: "Section 001" and "Section 002".  Students are enrolled in the section courses.
-For example, a math teacher or department has 2 algebra and 2 geometry courses. The teacher or department wants course for each of these subjects. But they also want a generic space where they can post things for all of the students in all of their courses, perhaps including compulsory work for all students.  By making algebra 1 & 2 and geometry 1 & 2 as each as part of a Math metacourse, they achieve this goal.
+# Turn Metacourses on by going to Site administration -> Plugins -> Enrolments -> Manage enrol plugins and enabled Course meta link.
+# Created the following courses:
+## Parent
+## Section 001
+## Section 002
+# Enroll users into Section 001 and Section 002. Leave Parent enrollment empty.
+# Go to Parent course. Go to Settings -> Course admin -> Users -> Enrolment methods. On that screen, add method "Course Meta link" and choose Section 001. Repeat steps for Section 002. If you look at participants for the parent course, you will see the users from Section 001 and 002.
+# If you log-in as a student from section 001, you will see section 001 and parent in your course listings. If you want only students to see the parent course, then go to:
+## Site Administration -> Courses -> Add/edit courses. Choose the category for the section 001 course. Find the course section 001. Click the eye icon to hide the course.
+## '''OR''' search for the course from the home page logged in as site admin. Click the eye icon to hide the appropriate courses.
+# Repeat above for section 002. If you log in as a student, you can't see/search for section 001. However, an admin can still see/search for these now hidden child courses. The will be grayed out to indicate that they are hidden.
-* '''Scenario 2:''' Metacourses 1-4 are linked to Y which is a normal course. Students enrolling on Course Y are automatically enrolled on Metacourses  1-4. This would be used, for example, when all five courses are intended to have exactly the same students.
+===Draw a map of your courses===
+Get an oversized piece of paper (A3 or 11"x17'), draw boxes for courses and give them names. Add lines to connect the boxes to show relationships. Label the meta courses (alternatively, color the meta course boxes). Add arrows to the lines so you will know where enrolments come from.   This is a great tip from the Business Uses forum.
-[[Image:Metacourses2_en.jpg|Upsidedown Metacourse Usage|center]]
+===Groups do not transfer===
+Meta course enrolments do not transfer groups from the and enrolment does not happen immediately, but occurs next time the [[Cron|cronjob]] runs.
-In both diagrams you can see students being enrolled normally into standard courses and then the entire student list of a course being added to the Metacourse.
+===Transfer of roles===
+By default all role assignments from child courses are synchronised to meta courses. However, the "Roles that are not synchronised to metacourses" setting in ''Site administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins > Course meta link > Settings'' enables administrators to exclude particular roles.
-* '''Scenario 3:''' One or more meta courses are used as a library of resources and activities.  For example, the English department has collected material useful in writing papers. Teachers can direct or embed a link to a specific reference about citations, or how to select a topic for a paper or suggested reading compiled by students.
+===Restoring a meta course===
+When restoring a meta course with the option "deleting the course first", you will notice that the enrolments that were used by the course previously are now gone.  In order to re-link the course, navigate to the new course and select the link "Child Courses" from the "Administration" block on the main course page and re-link the course to its parent.
-* '''Scenario 4:''' The metacourse feature can also be used "in reverse."  Say you have a Diploma program that involves courses D1, D2, D3, and D4.  In this case, you would create a "Diploma" course as a normal course (non-metacourse).  You would then designate programs D1 through D4 as metacourses (plus completing the student enrollment task under Course Administration).  When a student enrolls in "Diploma", he or she will be automatically enrolled in courses D1 through D4.
 ==See also==
+*[[Metacourse examples of use]] -  Why use a metacourse? here are many examples
+*[[Related courses block]] - contributed code that shows meta or child course relationships
 Using Moodle forum discussions:
-*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=48901 Metacourses?]
+*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=48901 Metacourses?]  Forum discussion
-*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=54389 Metacourses and Roles in 1.7]
+*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39438 Best reference for describing a metacourse] Forum discussion
-*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39438 Best reference for describing a metacourse]
+*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=89741 Assign student in course] Forum discussion
-*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=89741 Assign student in course]
+*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=156900#p686857 Confusion over meta-courses] Forum discussion
-[[Category:Teacher]]
-[[Category:Enrolment]]
+[[cs:Metakurzy]]
+[[de:Metakurs]]
 [[es:Metacourses]]
 [[fr:Méta-cours]]
 [[ja:メタコース]]
 [[ru:Метакурсы]]
-[[de:Metakurse]]

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