block eledia coursewizard

Overview

The Course Wizard block helps authorised Moodle users create courses from managed templates and add participants or teachers to courses without using the full Moodle administration workflow.

In the German user interface the block is called "Kursassistent".

Main features:

• create a course from a managed course template
• choose course start date, visibility and self enrolment while creating a course
• add participants to an existing or newly created course
• upload participant email addresses from a CSV file
• optionally include first name and last name in the CSV upload
• add teachers in a separate teacher section with Teacher / Editing teacher role selection
• create, edit and delete reusable course templates
• create a template from an existing course
• place the block on course pages, site pages and the Moodle dashboard

If an entered email address is not known in Moodle, the wizard can create a new user account, enrol the user into the course and send an email with login data. Existing users are enrolled into the selected course.

The block brings its own capabilities:

• block/eledia_coursewizard:addinstance - Allows adding the Course Wizard block.
• block/eledia_coursewizard:create_course - Allows creating courses with the Course Wizard.
• block/eledia_coursewizard:create_user - Allows creating or enrolling users with the Course Wizard.
• block/eledia_coursewizard:change_category - Allows selecting the target category when creating a course.
• block/eledia_coursewizard:manage_templates - Allows creating, editing and deleting course templates.

Installation

1. Make sure you have all the required versions.
2. Download the Course wizard plugin.
3. Unzip it into your moodle/blocks/ directory.
4. Login to you moodle as Administrator and go to Site administration -> Notifications to trigger the installation process.
5. Go into a course and turn editing on.
6. Add the block to the course.

For more information see Installing contributed modules or plugins.

Using

The block can be added to course pages, site pages and the Moodle dashboard. Available links depend on the current context and the user's capabilities.

Create a course

Users with block/eledia_coursewizard:create_course or moodle/course:create can create a course from a template.

The create-course form allows the user to set:

• course full name
• course short name
• target category, when permitted
• start date
• course visibility
• self enrolment on or off
• template to restore

The target category is server-authoritative. A configured main category wins; if no main category is configured and the user cannot change category, the current course category is used.

After the template restore, the selected course options are applied to the new course. Manual enrolment remains available so the wizard can enrol the course creator.

Add users to a course

Users with block/eledia_coursewizard:create_user or moodle/user:create can add users to a course.

The page has separate areas:

• Participants - Email addresses entered manually or uploaded via CSV are enrolled with the configured participant role.
• CSV upload - The CSV file must contain an email column. Optional name columns are firstname and lastname. German CSV files may use vorname and name. A sample CSV template can be downloaded from the page.
• Teachers - Teacher email addresses are entered in a separate area. The user chooses the teacher role, for example Teacher or Editing teacher, before submitting.

Duplicate email addresses are processed once.

Template management

Users with block/eledia_coursewizard:manage_templates can manage templates.

Managers can:

• add a new template by uploading a Moodle backup file (.mbz)
• create a template from the current course
• edit an existing template
• delete an existing template

Templates are global, so the capability check uses the system context. When template management is opened from a course, the page keeps the current course shell and block drawer/sidebar.

Template files and descriptions are served only after Moodle login and access checks.

Administration

The plugin settings include:

• email subject and content for new and existing users
• main category for created courses
• automatic user category creation
• automatic course shortname prefix
• teacher and participant role defaults
• redirect target after course creation
• redirect target after user creation
• profile fields to copy to newly created users
• email visibility for new users
• Moodle Workplace hidden category handling when tool_tenant is installed

Credits

Matthias Schwabe Andreas Grabs

eLeDia - E-Learning im Dialog GmbH

Mail: info@eledia.de

See also

Tracker component Modules & Plugins database entry

GitHub

You can also find the code on GitHub. https://github.com/eledia/block_eledia_coursewizard

NOTE: In GitHub we use an empty master branch. The different plugin versions can be found in special branches for each Moodle version.