Development:Anonymous Users

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Template:Moodle 2.0

Objective

To allow users to switch into an anonymous mode when using certain activities eg when posting to a forum, so that the user's real identity cannot be ascertained by other non-privileged users.

The anonymity of the activity will depend upon:

1. Module settings;
2. User profile settings

Scenarios

There are 3 possible scenarios for an activity:

1. Teacher sets an activity to run in "Anonymous Mode". Using the example of a forum, all users who post to the forum will do so anonymously;
2. Teacher sets an activity to run in "Optional Anonymous Mode". In this scenario moodle will check the user settings to see if they have enabled anonymity;
3. Teacher sets an activity as "Not Anonymous".

User Profile

Proposed new settings in a user's profile:

Field	Type	Description
anonymous_name	text	User can enter an anonymous name they would like to use. This field may be disabled depending on global settings