at the top-right corner of the topic section). So, when a student clicks an item in this menu only the desired topic section is displayed. (see image for illustration of such a menu)
Yes there are quite a few ways to address that. If you search in the course format forum you should find some discussions and links to contributed collapsed topics course format. Without contributed code, however, my simple approach is to put in an html block on the right or left column the names of the topics as links to the topics in 'single view mode' (which is what you get if you click on at the top-right corner of the topic section). So, when a student clicks an item in this menu only the desired topic section is displayed. (see image for illustration of such a menu) 
at the top-right corner of the topic section). So, when a student clicks an item in this menu only the desired topic section is displayed. (see image for illustration of such a menu) 
I really like this idea. I think I'll give this one a try to see how it turns out.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot.
Hi
There are various contributed blocks that will build the required navigation for you. YUI Course Files Directory Tree and Course Menu. In addition to this use of modules like Book and Lesson help avoid placing too much content within the main course page.
Peter
There are various contributed blocks that will build the required navigation for you. YUI Course Files Directory Tree and Course Menu. In addition to this use of modules like Book and Lesson help avoid placing too much content within the main course page.
Peter
Yes, we have used the course menu block for several years! You do have to install it, but the menu is created based on the content you add. That part is automatic! I will also say that moodle 2.0 has a very nifty navigation bar, so things will be much different in a few months!
atw
atw
I've been looking at this (in moodle2), and Course Menu is now essentially redundant thanks to the Navigation block.
I also noticed that, when you use the Collapsed Topics course format, if you haven't explicitly set a name for a topic, then topicname appears in the Course Menu instead of Topic 2 etc. So am of the view Collapsed Topics + Navigation block is more effective IF you set names for each topic.
Avoiding the scroll of death: I like the menu block option. Add a menu block and the links in it are constructed from the section titles.
This does require adding something at the server level, but does not require users to know anything very special and is a lot easier then creating HTML blocks.
This is a brief video I had made last week:
The distinctiveness of this is a 'single section' format as well that does NOT display the section 0 material on every page.
This also keeps things simple: one layer of navigation.
My ideal is two. Side and top:
================PAGE 1==PAGE 2==PAGE 3==PAGE 4=============
.MENU: |
.. |
.Item 1 |
.Item 2 |
*Item 3*|
.Item 4 |
But I have not seen a simple version of this.
I can give a login to my Moodle site if anyone wants to lok at this in practice.
This does require adding something at the server level, but does not require users to know anything very special and is a lot easier then creating HTML blocks.
This is a brief video I had made last week:
The distinctiveness of this is a 'single section' format as well that does NOT display the section 0 material on every page.
This also keeps things simple: one layer of navigation.
My ideal is two. Side and top:
================PAGE 1==PAGE 2==PAGE 3==PAGE 4=============
.MENU: |
.. |
.Item 1 |
.Item 2 |
*Item 3*|
.Item 4 |
But I have not seen a simple version of this.
I can give a login to my Moodle site if anyone wants to lok at this in practice.
Interesting technique.
Here you can see another related technique. The menu link of the currently displayed topic section is highlighted. This is done by css. The element containing the link in the menu is identified. In the topic section there is a label with a style definition that assigns a background color and bold font to that menu element. This label is otherwise content-less and hence invisible. The background color is applied to the menu item only when the topic section is displayed.
@Itamar and others.
I posted here http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=153776&parent=696051 the Section Menu for 1.9.
There is now some code for 2+ to do the same thing from Lei Zhang. I have listed the links in GitHub here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=168810#p743586
To clarify: NO coding/HTNL required by the user, and creates a simple version of your code with links to each section.
-Derek