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{{Help files}}
{{Courses}}
{{Course admin}}
A teacher, or other user with the [[Capabilities/moodle/course:update|update course settings capability]], can change course settings in ''Administration > Course administration > Edit settings''.
 
Course settings control how the things appear to the participants in a course. It is the first page viewed after creating a course.  It can be edited through the '''settings''' link in the [[Administration block]] menu.  This page has links to other pages that may describe a setting in more detail. Different versions of Moodle may not have all the settings listed below.


==General==
==General==
[[Image:generalsettings1.gif]]
===Category===
A Moodle administrator  or course creator may have set up several course categories.


For example, "Science", "Humanities", "Public Health" etc
===Course full name===


Choose the one most applicable for your course. This choice will affect where your course is displayed on the course listing and may make it easier for students to find your course.
This is the name of the course. It is displayed as a link on course lists on the [[Front page]] and on the [[Dashboard]] and in reports.  It is also used in the browser title bar when the course is viewed.


===Full name===
The capability [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changefullname|moodle/course:changefullname]] controls whether a user can edit the course full name.
The full name of the course is displayed at the top of the screen and in the course listings. More advanced users can use [[Page_content#Creative_examples|HTML code]] to add an image.


===Short name===
===Short name===
Many institutions have a shorthand way of referring to a course, such as BP102 or COMMS. Even if you don't already have such a name for your course, make one up here. It will be used in several places where the long name isn't appropriate.  The most common use is in the navigation bar that is at the top of most pages.


[[Image:Assignment nav trail.jpg|The underlined part is the course Short name.]]
Many institutions have a shorthand way of referring to a course, such as BP102 or COMMS.  Even if you do not already have such a name for your course, make one up here.  It will be used in several places where the long name is not appropriate, such as the Navigation block.
 
The capability [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changeshortname|moodle/course:changeshortname]] controls whether a user can edit the short name field.
 
By default, only course full names are displayed in the list of courses. However an administrator can enable short names to be displayed too if required by ticking the checkbox in ''Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Courses''.
 
=== Course category===
 
The site administrator may have created course categories to help teachers and students find their courses easily.  Course categories may be reflected in the [[Navigation block]].
 
The capability [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changecategory|moodle/course:changecategory]] controls whether a user can edit the course category.
 
===Course start date===
 
This setting affects the display of logs and the weekly format topic dates.
 
If you use the "Weekly" course format, the start date will appear in the first section of the course. For example selecting 27 July, will display "27 July - 2 August" in the first section (when default display is selected for that section). 
 
This setting will have an effect on the display of logs. This will be the earliest possible date the log activity will display.
 
This setting will '''not''' affect courses using the 'social' or 'topics' formats.
 
:''TIP:'' If your institution runs on a weekly schedule, you may want to consider setting the start date for courses on the first day of the week, like a Monday. Please note that the 'first day of the week' is set by the [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Translation_langconfig langconfig file] of your [[Language]], and might be different from the default Monday of the English language pack.
 
:''TIP:'' In general, if your course does not have a real starting date then set the date to yesterday and use the availability setting to reveal the course to students. 
 
:''TIP:'' See self enrolment course settings to prevent students from entering the course before a certain date/time.
 
===Visible===
 
Here you can "hide" your course completely. It will not appear on any course listings, except for managers, course creators, teachers and any other users with the [[Capabilities/moodle/course:viewhiddencourses|view hidden courses capability]]. Even if students try to access the course URL directly, they will not be allowed to enter.
 
The [[Capabilities/moodle/course:visibility|hide/show courses capability]] controls whether a user can hide a course.
 
Note: In earlier versions of Moodle, this setting was named 'Course availability'.
 
=== Course ID number===
 
The ID number is an alphanumeric field.  It has several potential uses.  Generally, it is not displayed to students.  However, it can be used to match this course against an external system's ID, as your course catalogue ID or can be used in the certificate module as a printed field.
 
The capability [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changeidnumber|moodle/course:changeidnumber]] controls whether a user can edit the ID number.
 
==Description==
{|
|[[File:coursesummary.png|thumb|500px|Description settings expanded by default]]
|}
 
===Course summary===


The above example has the short course name, "Features".  The short name also appears in the subject line of email messages that are part of the course.
The summary appears on the course listings page.  This field is searched when searching for a course and also appears in the Course/Site description block.


===ID number===
The capability [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changesummary|moodle/course:changesummary]] controls whether a user can edit the course summary.
The ID number is an alpha numeric field.  It has several potential uses. Generally it is not displayed to students.  However, it can be used to match this course against an external system's ID, as your course catalog ID or can be used in the certificate module as a printed field.


===Summary===
===Course summary files===
The summary of the course is displayed in the course listings.
[[Image:generalsettings2.gif]]


===Format===
An image (and if allowed by the administrator, other file types) may be attached to the course summary. They will be accessible by anyone from outside of the course just like  the course name and/or summary. Only users with [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changesummary| moodle/course:changesummary capability]] are able to upload/change course summary files.
[[Image:generalsettings3.gif]]
''Note that if this is not allowed by the administrator, then no box will appear to upload course summary files''.


By default, only jpg, gif and png file types are allowed as course summary files. An administrator can change the allowed file types in ''Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Courses''.


A Moodle course may use one of the following formats:
==Course format==


*Weekly format - The course is organised week by week, with a clear start date and a finish date. Moodle will create a section for each week of your course. You can add content, forums, quizzes, and so on in the section for each week. If you want all your students to work on the same materials at the same time, this would be a good format to choose.
(These settings are collapsed by default.)
*Topics format - Very similar to the weekly format, except that each "week" is called a topic. A "topic" is not restricted to any time limit. When you create a course using the topics format, you start by choosing the number of topics you will cover in your course. Moodle then creates a section for each topic. If your course design is concept-oriented, and students will be working through a range of concepts but not necessarily according to a fixed schedule, this is a good choice.
{|
*Social format - This format is oriented around one main forum, the Social forum, which appears listed on the main page. It is useful for situations that are more freeform. They may not even be courses. For example, it could be used as a departmental notice board.
|[[File:coursefomat25.png|thumb|500px|Course format settings expanded]]
*[[LAMS|LAMS course format]] (Moodle 1.6 onwards) - The Learning Activity Management System is an open source LMS which allows teachers to use a flash based authoring environment for developing learning sequences. LAMS has been integrated with Moodle to allow teachers to develop LAMS activities within a Moodle course. This course format makes LAMS central to the course, only displaying the LAMS interface. If you are interested in using LAMS, check with your system administrator to see if they have installed and configured LAMS. Very few institutions use LAMS as it duplicates much of the Moodle functionality.
|}
*SCORM format (Moodle 1.6 onwards) - The Sharable Content Reference Model (SCORM) is a content packaging standard. SCORM packages are self-contained bundles of content and javascript activities which can send data to Moodle about the students score and current location. Moodle can use SCORM packages as a content type (see [[SCORM/AICC module]]), or as a course format. If you have a large SCORM object you want to use as an entire course, then you can select this course format and students will only be able to interact with the SCORM object, not the rest of the Moodle tools.
*Weekly format, CSS/no tables (Moodle 1.6 onwards) - The CSS / No Tables variant of the Weekly format displays the Weekly course format without using tables for layout. This improves the accessibility of the format, but older browsers have trouble displaying it correctly.


===Number of weeks/topics===
===Format===
This setting is only used by the 'weekly' and 'topics' course formats. In the 'weekly' format, it specifies the number of weeks that the course will run for, starting from the course starting date. In the 'topics' format, it specifies the number of topics in the course. Both of these translate to the number of "boxes" down the middle of the course page.


===Course start date===
See [[Course formats]]
This is where you specify the starting time of the course (in your own timezone).
 
===Number of sections===


If you are using a 'weekly' course format, this will affect the display of the weeks. The first week will start on the date you set here.
This setting is only used by the 'weekly' and 'topics' course formats.  In the 'weekly' format, it specifies the number of weeks that the course will run for, starting from the course starting date.  In the 'topics' format, it specifies the number of topics in the course. Both of these translate to the number of "boxes" down the middle of the course page.


This setting will not affect courses using the 'social' or 'topics' formats.
If the number of weeks/topics is changed for an existing course so that the number is less than the number of course sections containing activities (for example the course contains activities in 3 sections and the number or weeks/topics is set to 2) then when editing is turned on section(s) at the bottom of the course page will be shown with the title 'Orphaned activities'.


However, one place this setting will have an effect is the display of logs, which use this date as the earliest possible date you can display.
The number of weeks/topics may be set to 0, so that only the top general section is displayed on the course page and there are no numbered sections.


In general, if your course does have a real starting date then it makes sense to set this date to that, no matter what course formats you are using.
By default, the maximum number of weeks/topics is 52, but an administrator can set a different maximum number which will apply to all courses on the site (see below).


===Hidden sections===
===Hidden sections===
This option allows you to decide how the hidden sections in your course are displayed to students. By default, a small area is shown (in collapsed form, usually gray) to indicate where the hidden section is, though they still can not actually see the hidden activities and texts. This is particularly useful in the Weekly format, so that non-class weeks are clear.


If you choose, these can be completely hidden, so that students don't even know sections of the course are hidden.
This option allows you to decide how the hidden sections in your course are displayed to students.  By default, a small area is shown (in collapsed form, usually grey) to indicate where the hidden section is, though they still cannot actually see the hidden activities and texts.  This is particularly useful in the Weekly format, so that non-class weeks are clear, or if you have quizzes you don't want your students to see.


===News items to show===
:''TIP:'' If you choose, these non-available items can be completely hidden, so that students do not even know  that sections or an activity in the course are hidden.
A special forum called "News" appears in the "weekly" and "topics" course formats. It's a good place to post notices for all students to see. (By default, all students are subscribed to this forum, and will receive your notices by email.)


This setting determines how many recent items appear on your course home page, in a news box down the right-hand side.
===Course layout===


If you set it to "0 news items" then the news box won't even appear.
The Course layout setting determines whether the whole course is displayed on one page or split over several pages. The setting currently applies to the topics and weekly core course formats and contributed collapsed topics course format only.


===Show grades===
Teachers choose from the dropdown whether they wish to "show all sections on one page" in the familiar scrolling format, or "show one section per page".  
Many of the activities allow grades to be set.  By default, the results of all grades within the course can be seen in the Grades page, available from the main course page.


If a teacher is not interested in using grades in a course, or just wants to hide grades from students, then they can disable the display of grades with this option. This does not prevent individual activities from using or setting grades, it just disables the results being displayed to students.
If one section per page is selected, the course page is abbreviated to a list of links to individual sections. If an individual section is shown, next and previous sections may be accessed via links above and below the section.


===Show activity reports===
{|
Activity reports are available for each participant that show their activity in the current course. As well as listings of their contributions, these reports include detailed access logs.
| [[File:one section per page course format.png|thumb|Course page for course using one section per page course layout]]
| [[File:Single_section_page.png|thumb|Individual section of a course using one section per page course layout]]
|}


Teachers always have access to these reports, using the button or tab visible on each persons's profile page.
Visit the School demo site course [http://school.demo.moodle.net/course/view.php?id=37 The Types of Sport] to see the "Show one section per page" course layout in action!


Student access to their own reports is controlled by the teacher via this course setting. For some courses these reports can be a useful tool for a student to reflect on their involvement and appearance within the online environment, but for some courses this may not be necessary.
For further details plus screenshots, see blog post [http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2012/05/08/moodle-2-3-section-per-page/ Moodle 2.3 – Section per page] by Gavin Henrick.


Another reason for turning it off is that the report can place a bit of load on the server while being generated. For large or long classes it may be more efficient to keep it off.
==Appearance==


===Maximum upload size===
(These settings are collapsed by default.)
This setting defines the largest size of file that can be uploaded by students in this course, limited by the site wide setting created by the administrator.


[[Image:Changeupload.jpg]]
{|
|[[File:appearancecourse252.png|thumb|500px|Appearance settings expanded]]
|}


It is possible to further restrict this size through settings within each activity module.
===Force theme===


===Is this a meta course?===
If the site administrator has allowed the teacher to set a course [[Themes|theme]], this pull down menu will appear with a list of themes on the site.  Teachers can use this to choose a different look for the course from the rest of the Moodle site.
A [[Metacourses|metacourse]] automatically enrols its participants from other courses.  For example, for every course that is a "child" of the metacourse, all students in the child course are enroled in the metacourse.


===Default role===
=== Force language===
{{Moodle 1.7}}
From Moodle 1.7 onwards, a default course role, such as student, may be set.


==Enrolments==
If you force a language in a course, the interface of Moodle in this course will be in this particular language, even if a student has selected a different preferred language in his/her personal profile.


===Enrolment plugins===
The capability [[Capabilities/moodle/site:forcelanguage|moodle/site:forcelanguage]] may be allowed by the admin for users who need to override this language (for example, when testing problems in a course in a language they do not know.)
[[Image:generalsetting4.gif]]


===News items to show===


This setting allows you to choose an interactive [[Enrolment plugins|enrolment plugin]], such as [[Internal enrolment|internal enrolment]] or [[Paypal]]. If you use a non-interactive enrolment plugin, this setting has no effect.
How many news items should show the [[Latest news block]].   Set it to 0 and Latest news block will not appear.


===Course enrollable===
The Latest News block relies on the use of the associated News Forum. News posted in other forums do not display in the latest News block
This setting only affects interactive enrolment plugins, such as [[Internal enrolment|internal enrolment]] and [[Paypal]]. It has no affect at all on non-interactive plugins (e.g. External Database, LDAP). Setting it to "no" or if it is outside the specified date range will result in the student being told the course is "Not enrollable" and being returned to the front page, if they are attempting to enrol using an interactive plugin.


===Enrolment duration===
===Show gradebook to students===
This setting specifies the number of days a student can be enrolled in this course (starting from the moment they enrol).


If this is set, then students are automatically unenrolled after the specified time has elapsed. This is most useful for rolling courses without a specific start or end time.
Here you can decide whether to allow students to see the link to [[Grades|grades]] in the Administration block. If your course doesn't use graded activities, it makes sense to disable this. If grades are used and this link is disabled, students can still see their grade from the actual activity itself, such as an [[Assignment|assignment]]


If you don't set this then the student will remain in this course until they are manually unenrolled or the clean-up function to remove defunct students takes effect.
===Show activity reports===


If you have selected to manage this course as a meta course, your enrolment period will not be used.
Here you can decide whether to show students their [[Activity_report#Individual_Activity_Report|activity reports]]. Doing so places a load on the server however, which is why the setting is disabled by default.


Set this value with care - setting it when not required is a common origin of the complaint,  "my students keep disappearing after n days".
==Files and uploads==


==Enrolment expiry notification==
(These settings are collapsed by default.)
[[Image:generalsettings5.gif]]


Options to notify teacher, student and define threshold for notification.
===Maximum upload size===


===Cost===
Here you can decide the largest size of file that students can upload to a course.  The site administrator can determine [[Site_policies#Maximum_uploaded_file_sizefile |sizes available]] for the teacher to select.  
The course cost will be shown if you have selected another enrolment method except internal.


==Groups==
Editing teachers or other users may be allowed to upload files larger than the maximum size by giving them the capability [[Capabilities/moodle/course:ignorefilesizelimits|moodle/course:ignorefilesizelimits]]


[[Image:generalsettings6.gif]]
==Completion tracking==


===Group mode===
(These settings are collapsed by default.)
Here you can define the group mode at the course level. This will be the default group mode for all activities defined within that course. Learn more about [[Groups]]


Note that you don't '''need''' to change this setting to enable groups. The default setting of this and 'Force' enables each activity to have its group mode set individually.
Completion  tracking must be enabled for [[Activity completion]]. [[Course completion]] criteria may also be based upon Activity completion values found in the activity's settings.


===Force===
==Groups==
If the group mode is "forced" at a course-level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. Individual group settings in each activity are then ignored.


This is useful when, for example, one wants to set up a course for a number of completely separate cohorts.
(These settings are collapsed by default.)
{|
|[[File:coursegroups25.png|thumb|500px|Groups settings expanded]]
|}


==Availability==
===Group mode===


[[Image:generalsettings7.gif]]
Here you can define the [[Groups|group mode]] at the course level by a pull down menu. "[[Groups#No_groups|No groups]]", "[[Groups#Separate_groups|Separate groups]]" and "[[Groups#Visible_groups|Visible groups]]" are the choices. The selected setting will be the default group mode for all activities defined within that course.  The group setting can affect what users see in the participants list and who they can interact with in activities.


This option allows you to "hide" your course completely. It will not appear on any course listings, except to teachers of the course and administrators. Even if students try to access the course URL directly, they will not be allowed to enter.
===Force===


===Enrolment key===
If the group mode is "forced" at a course-level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. This will override any activities that may have a special group setting.
A course enrolment key enables access to courses to be restricted to those who know the key.


If left blank, then anyone who has created a Moodle username on the site will be able to enrol in the  course.
===Default grouping===


If a key is specified, then students who are trying to enter will be asked to supply the key. Once enrolled, Students are not required to enter an enrolment key to gain access.
If [[Groupings|groupings]] are enabled, a default grouping for course activities and resources may be set.


The idea is that Teachers supply the key to authorised people using another means like private email, snail mail, on the phone or even verbally in a face to face class.
==Role renaming==


If this password "gets out" and you have unwanted people enrolling, you can unenrol them (see their user profile page) and change this key. Any legitimate students who have already enrolled will not be affected, but the unwanted people won't be able to get back in.
(These settings are collapsed by default.)
{|
|[[File:rolerenaming.png|thumb|500px|Role renaming settings expanded]]
|}
You can rename the [[Roles|roles]] used in your course. For example, you may wish to rename the [[Teacher role]] as "Facilitator", "Tutor" or "Guide". These new role names will appear within the course. For example on the participants and the override permissions pages.  


If you are using a non-interactive enrolment system (e.g., External Database, LDAP) and you don't want students who fail the initial check to be asked for an enrolment key that they won't have, set ''Course Enrollable'' to ''No''.
Please note that the site administrator may have changed the names or added new roles. These names will appear and the teacher may rename them.


===Guest access===
If you want the word for 'Teacher' to be different in all courses on the site, a site admin can edit the roles of teacher and non-editing teacher in ''Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles'' and change the custom full name there.
You have the choice of allowing [[Guest access | "guests"]] into your course or not, and if they need an enrolment key or enter without one.  


People can attempt to log in as guests using the "Login as a guest" button on the course login screen.
==Tags==
{{New features}}
Teachers  can add course tags here, either new tags or official tags. See [[Using tags]] for more information.


Guests ALWAYS have "read-only" access - meaning they can't leave any posts or otherwise mess up the course for real students.  No use information is stored for a guest.
== Site administration settings==


This can be handy when you want to let a colleague in to look around at your work, or to let students see a course before they have decided to enrol.
An administrator can set course default settings in ''Administration > Site administration > Courses > Course default settings''.


Note that you have a choice between two types of guest access: with the enrolment key or without. If you choose to allow guests who have the key, then the guest will need to provide the current enrolment key EVERY TIME they log in (unlike students who only need to do it once). This lets you restrict your guests. If you choose to allow guests without a key, then anyone can get straight into your course.
The maximum number of weeks/topics may be set for all courses on the site. The default value is 52.


==Language==
==Preventing teachers from editing course settings==
If you force a language in a course, the interface of Moodle in this course will be in this particular language, even if a student has selected a different preferred language in his/her personal profile.


==Roles==
Any/all of the following fields - course full name, short name, ID number and category, summary - may be locked to prevent teachers from editing them. To do so:
{{Moodle 1.9}}In Moodle 1.9 onwards, you can change the words for different roles in your course.


Prior to Moodle 1.7, the words for teacher and student may be changed.
#Access ''Site Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles''.
#Click the edit icon opposite the teacher role.
#Change any/all of the capabilities [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changefullname|moodle/course:changefullname]], [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changeshortname|moodle/course:changeshortname]], [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changeidnumber|moodle/course:changeidnumber]], [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changecategory|moodle/course:changecategory]], [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changesummary|moodle/course:changesummary]] from allow to not set.
#Click the "Save changes" button at the bottom of the page.


[[Category:Teacher]]
==See also==
* [http://youtu.be/19ke-cvhnug Moodle Course Settings] MoodleBites video on YouTube 
* [http://youtu.be/rg6rUuBwITo Moodle 2 Administration Courses] MoodleBites video on YouTube


[[fr:Paramètres]]
[[de:Kurseinstellungen]]
[[es:Configuraciones del curso]]
[[eu:Ikastaroaren_ezarpenak]]
[[fr:Paramètres du cours]]
[[ja:コース設定]]
[[ja:コース設定]]

Latest revision as of 06:09, 19 April 2016

A teacher, or other user with the update course settings capability, can change course settings in Administration > Course administration > Edit settings.

General

Course full name

This is the name of the course. It is displayed as a link on course lists on the Front page and on the Dashboard and in reports. It is also used in the browser title bar when the course is viewed.

The capability moodle/course:changefullname controls whether a user can edit the course full name.

Short name

Many institutions have a shorthand way of referring to a course, such as BP102 or COMMS. Even if you do not already have such a name for your course, make one up here. It will be used in several places where the long name is not appropriate, such as the Navigation block.

The capability moodle/course:changeshortname controls whether a user can edit the short name field.

By default, only course full names are displayed in the list of courses. However an administrator can enable short names to be displayed too if required by ticking the checkbox in Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Courses.

Course category

The site administrator may have created course categories to help teachers and students find their courses easily. Course categories may be reflected in the Navigation block.

The capability moodle/course:changecategory controls whether a user can edit the course category.

Course start date

This setting affects the display of logs and the weekly format topic dates.

If you use the "Weekly" course format, the start date will appear in the first section of the course. For example selecting 27 July, will display "27 July - 2 August" in the first section (when default display is selected for that section).

This setting will have an effect on the display of logs. This will be the earliest possible date the log activity will display.

This setting will not affect courses using the 'social' or 'topics' formats.

TIP: If your institution runs on a weekly schedule, you may want to consider setting the start date for courses on the first day of the week, like a Monday. Please note that the 'first day of the week' is set by the langconfig file of your Language, and might be different from the default Monday of the English language pack.
TIP: In general, if your course does not have a real starting date then set the date to yesterday and use the availability setting to reveal the course to students.
TIP: See self enrolment course settings to prevent students from entering the course before a certain date/time.

Visible

Here you can "hide" your course completely. It will not appear on any course listings, except for managers, course creators, teachers and any other users with the view hidden courses capability. Even if students try to access the course URL directly, they will not be allowed to enter.

The hide/show courses capability controls whether a user can hide a course.

Note: In earlier versions of Moodle, this setting was named 'Course availability'.

Course ID number

The ID number is an alphanumeric field. It has several potential uses. Generally, it is not displayed to students. However, it can be used to match this course against an external system's ID, as your course catalogue ID or can be used in the certificate module as a printed field.

The capability moodle/course:changeidnumber controls whether a user can edit the ID number.

Description

Description settings expanded by default

Course summary

The summary appears on the course listings page. This field is searched when searching for a course and also appears in the Course/Site description block.

The capability moodle/course:changesummary controls whether a user can edit the course summary.

Course summary files

An image (and if allowed by the administrator, other file types) may be attached to the course summary. They will be accessible by anyone from outside of the course just like the course name and/or summary. Only users with moodle/course:changesummary capability are able to upload/change course summary files. Note that if this is not allowed by the administrator, then no box will appear to upload course summary files.

By default, only jpg, gif and png file types are allowed as course summary files. An administrator can change the allowed file types in Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Courses.

Course format

(These settings are collapsed by default.)

Course format settings expanded

Format

See Course formats

Number of sections

This setting is only used by the 'weekly' and 'topics' course formats. In the 'weekly' format, it specifies the number of weeks that the course will run for, starting from the course starting date. In the 'topics' format, it specifies the number of topics in the course. Both of these translate to the number of "boxes" down the middle of the course page.

If the number of weeks/topics is changed for an existing course so that the number is less than the number of course sections containing activities (for example the course contains activities in 3 sections and the number or weeks/topics is set to 2) then when editing is turned on section(s) at the bottom of the course page will be shown with the title 'Orphaned activities'.

The number of weeks/topics may be set to 0, so that only the top general section is displayed on the course page and there are no numbered sections.

By default, the maximum number of weeks/topics is 52, but an administrator can set a different maximum number which will apply to all courses on the site (see below).

Hidden sections

This option allows you to decide how the hidden sections in your course are displayed to students. By default, a small area is shown (in collapsed form, usually grey) to indicate where the hidden section is, though they still cannot actually see the hidden activities and texts. This is particularly useful in the Weekly format, so that non-class weeks are clear, or if you have quizzes you don't want your students to see.

TIP: If you choose, these non-available items can be completely hidden, so that students do not even know that sections or an activity in the course are hidden.

Course layout

The Course layout setting determines whether the whole course is displayed on one page or split over several pages. The setting currently applies to the topics and weekly core course formats and contributed collapsed topics course format only.

Teachers choose from the dropdown whether they wish to "show all sections on one page" in the familiar scrolling format, or "show one section per page".

If one section per page is selected, the course page is abbreviated to a list of links to individual sections. If an individual section is shown, next and previous sections may be accessed via links above and below the section.

Course page for course using one section per page course layout
Individual section of a course using one section per page course layout

Visit the School demo site course The Types of Sport to see the "Show one section per page" course layout in action!

For further details plus screenshots, see blog post Moodle 2.3 – Section per page by Gavin Henrick.

Appearance

(These settings are collapsed by default.)

Appearance settings expanded

Force theme

If the site administrator has allowed the teacher to set a course theme, this pull down menu will appear with a list of themes on the site. Teachers can use this to choose a different look for the course from the rest of the Moodle site.

Force language

If you force a language in a course, the interface of Moodle in this course will be in this particular language, even if a student has selected a different preferred language in his/her personal profile.

The capability moodle/site:forcelanguage may be allowed by the admin for users who need to override this language (for example, when testing problems in a course in a language they do not know.)

News items to show

How many news items should show the Latest news block. Set it to 0 and Latest news block will not appear.

The Latest News block relies on the use of the associated News Forum. News posted in other forums do not display in the latest News block

Show gradebook to students

Here you can decide whether to allow students to see the link to grades in the Administration block. If your course doesn't use graded activities, it makes sense to disable this. If grades are used and this link is disabled, students can still see their grade from the actual activity itself, such as an assignment

Show activity reports

Here you can decide whether to show students their activity reports. Doing so places a load on the server however, which is why the setting is disabled by default.

Files and uploads

(These settings are collapsed by default.)

Maximum upload size

Here you can decide the largest size of file that students can upload to a course. The site administrator can determine sizes available for the teacher to select.

Editing teachers or other users may be allowed to upload files larger than the maximum size by giving them the capability moodle/course:ignorefilesizelimits

Completion tracking

(These settings are collapsed by default.)

Completion tracking must be enabled for Activity completion. Course completion criteria may also be based upon Activity completion values found in the activity's settings.

Groups

(These settings are collapsed by default.)

Groups settings expanded

Group mode

Here you can define the group mode at the course level by a pull down menu. "No groups", "Separate groups" and "Visible groups" are the choices. The selected setting will be the default group mode for all activities defined within that course. The group setting can affect what users see in the participants list and who they can interact with in activities.

Force

If the group mode is "forced" at a course-level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. This will override any activities that may have a special group setting.

Default grouping

If groupings are enabled, a default grouping for course activities and resources may be set.

Role renaming

(These settings are collapsed by default.)

Role renaming settings expanded

You can rename the roles used in your course. For example, you may wish to rename the Teacher role as "Facilitator", "Tutor" or "Guide". These new role names will appear within the course. For example on the participants and the override permissions pages.

Please note that the site administrator may have changed the names or added new roles. These names will appear and the teacher may rename them.

If you want the word for 'Teacher' to be different in all courses on the site, a site admin can edit the roles of teacher and non-editing teacher in Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles and change the custom full name there.

Tags

New feature
in Moodle 3.0!

Teachers can add course tags here, either new tags or official tags. See Using tags for more information.

Site administration settings

An administrator can set course default settings in Administration > Site administration > Courses > Course default settings.

The maximum number of weeks/topics may be set for all courses on the site. The default value is 52.

Preventing teachers from editing course settings

Any/all of the following fields - course full name, short name, ID number and category, summary - may be locked to prevent teachers from editing them. To do so:

  1. Access Site Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles.
  2. Click the edit icon opposite the teacher role.
  3. Change any/all of the capabilities moodle/course:changefullname, moodle/course:changeshortname, moodle/course:changeidnumber, moodle/course:changecategory, moodle/course:changesummary from allow to not set.
  4. Click the "Save changes" button at the bottom of the page.

See also

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