Shortening the List of Courses in Moodle

For the last eighteen months, the default setting in Moodle has been to leave courses available to students even after the semester is finished. As a result, the list of available courses keeps growing. This has led to concerns from both students (see this article in the Technician) and instructors about finding their current courses in the list. The LMS Steering committee, made up of DELTA staff and campus partners, has initiated a plan to shorten this list for students and make active courses easier to find for instructors.

On March 24^th, DELTA will make systematic changes to the availability of Moodle courses to students. Every course that was delivered in a semester prior to Spring 2011 will be made unavailable to students unless the instructor requests that it be kept available. This will have the following effects:

• Courses will no longer appear on the Moodle course list for Students or Guests.
• Courses will no longer be accessible via direct link to Students or Guests.
• Courses will still be available to Teachers, Designers and Teaching Assistants, but they will appear below courses that are available and they will be gray.
• Courses can be made available again at any time by any Teacher or Designer in the course. (See https://delta.ncsu.edu/get_help/faq/solution.php?solution=3712 for instructions.)

There are some common questions about this process listed below and if you have other questions you can contact LearnTech (learntech@ncsu.edu; 513-7094) or post your questions as comments below this article.

Q: Is this just a one-time thing or are there plans to do this again in the future?

A: There are not currently any plans to do this again in the future. The newest version of the WolfWare Toolbox, released March 12^th, gives instructors a way to set the date at which they want their course to become unavailable to students. The default setting will be the end of the semester. We are also working on a more flexible system for allowing instructors to give students access to past courses without displaying them in the Moodle course listing.

Q: What were the criteria for selecting the courses to make unavailable?

A: Every Moodle course that is for an R&R section and for a semester prior to Spring 2011 was initially selected to be made unavailable. Other courses, such as playspaces, courses for special projects, courses for training and courses for extension purposes, will not be affected. Instructors can request that their course be left available by contacting LearnTech (learntech@ncsu.edu; 513-7094).

Q: Will this impact any of the student-submitted content I have in my course?

A: No. The course will maintain all data and materials just as it is now. All this operation will do is affect the availability of the course for students (they won’t be able to get to the course) and the ordering of the course list for instructors and support staff (courses that are unavailable to students will be listed below those that are and will be gray).