Beginning Administration 1 FAQ

There is always an element of frustration at the beginning of taking on a Moodle. For many of us, we are employed to do something else, but fall into this and while we have some knowledge or skills, we can often be stumped by the simple things. Not because we are not skilled, just we do not understand enough of the jargon surrounding Moodle to make it work for us.

The idea of this page is to breakdown some of those frustrations and get to simple things. For example, our understanding of permissions and Roles. The page that the Roles link is directed to explains how roles work, but it leaves out a couple of vital pieces of information. Most of us are used to logging in with an ID, as we do in Moodle. Most of us are aware that we can do things on our networks and we are limited by the permissions we gain from the Groups were belong to. Again this is pretty much the same in Moodle. The phrase "pretty much" is what is different and it is what can cause us a lot of frustrations.

In Moodle, permissions are also known as "capabilities" and they reside with the Role. The ID does not carry any permissions with it, only a Role. So stop worrying about trying to learn about permissions, concentrate on the Roles and how they work.

What many people have found is that they are trying to pushing against a door that was never shut. Not a good analogy perhaps, but it does describe what can happen when we begin Administration of a Moodle.

This page is an explanation of some things and Administrator's tips that people discover or learn from more experienced Moodlers that will, hopefully, save you time and a lot of frustration.