My school district is going to give every seventh grade student a laptop and access to Moodle next fall... which means 150 teachers will have courses (5 each) set up in Moodle. Does anyone know how to bulk create courses in categories in version 1.9? Last I can find is for v1.7. We can't believe we will have to manually create that many courses. Any help is appreciated.
Becky - You could give the teachers course creator privileges and let each teacher create their courses. You could also try to pull in the information from your schools student information system. I have created MDL-14341 to address this issue. Feel free to vote and comment on it. I initially did it by directly manipulating the database but it is an overly complicated process. Perhaps this summer I may have some time to work on some of the code for that. Peace - Anthony
I downloaded this the zip files uploaded by Jeff Church in this thread http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=91850#p405602 and checked it out for you. Seems to work fine on 1.9. Also found where Jason Halloway had done the same thing.
Put the php file in admin, login and run it. When you run it it provides a table of values that you can use.
Probably this should be added to the modules and plugins.
I also changed the example so that it shows editingteacher for the role.
Put the php file in admin, login and run it. When you run it it provides a table of values that you can use.
Probably this should be added to the modules and plugins.
I also changed the example so that it shows editingteacher for the role.
I have been using this file successfully to create student portfolios. Here are my notes, if they are any help:
1) This file must be installed in moodle/admin. Just copy it. There is no associated table building. Call the code manually in the URL.
2) Prepare the users. You cannot assign teachers if they aren’t already on the system.
3) Prepare the category names. This script will create categories on the fly, but if you are inserting courses into existing categories, you will need to make sure they are spelled the same way. I also seem to remember that the categories you create with the script appear in the same order within moodle. So if you need them to wind up in a certain order, you should create them that way the first time. [I actually ran the script once to create a placeholder course in each category (called it tba and had a test account called tba that I used as the teacher). I went back and deleted the test courses later, or used them for other purposes. That turned out to be more trouble than I was expecting!]
4) Consider the shortname field. The script itself has a limit of 15 characters on the shortname fields. Moodle has a default of 100 characters on the shortname field. You may need to increase the shortname field in uploadcourse.php. See line 654, in the array settings. I increased mine to 26, since the courses for portfolios inherit the student’s login name. Our max login name is 26 characters.
5) Prepare the csv file. There are many settings you can use. These are pretty well commented in a table when you load uploadcourse.php. Some people have reported problems assigning certain values, like maxbytes. Check the array settings in the code for absolute parameters on each variable you are having trouble with. [Fortunately, errors are reported well and the script will not execute. So you don't usually have any problems to fix if you don't do it right the first time!]
2) Prepare the users. You cannot assign teachers if they aren’t already on the system.
3) Prepare the category names. This script will create categories on the fly, but if you are inserting courses into existing categories, you will need to make sure they are spelled the same way. I also seem to remember that the categories you create with the script appear in the same order within moodle. So if you need them to wind up in a certain order, you should create them that way the first time. [I actually ran the script once to create a placeholder course in each category (called it tba and had a test account called tba that I used as the teacher). I went back and deleted the test courses later, or used them for other purposes. That turned out to be more trouble than I was expecting!]
4) Consider the shortname field. The script itself has a limit of 15 characters on the shortname fields. Moodle has a default of 100 characters on the shortname field. You may need to increase the shortname field in uploadcourse.php. See line 654, in the array settings. I increased mine to 26, since the courses for portfolios inherit the student’s login name. Our max login name is 26 characters.
5) Prepare the csv file. There are many settings you can use. These are pretty well commented in a table when you load uploadcourse.php. Some people have reported problems assigning certain values, like maxbytes. Check the array settings in the code for absolute parameters on each variable you are having trouble with. [Fortunately, errors are reported well and the script will not execute. So you don't usually have any problems to fix if you don't do it right the first time!]
Marc - Thanks for sharing the code for the other discussion. I will try to check it out. I have added it to the tracker issue as a possible patch. Peace - Anthony
upload_course_for_1.8---v1.2.zip
This worked perfectly for me in 1.9.7.
Minor tweaks were needed for my specific course defaults.
Much thanks!
-n
This worked perfectly for me in 1.9.7.
Minor tweaks were needed for my specific course defaults.
Much thanks!
-n
In reply to Becky Keene
Using Groups for Middle School courses to reduce number of classes
by Marc Grober -
BTW Becky,
Having looked at some similar issues I had a discussion with some Middle School teachers who felt that in as much as they four classes doing the same course, it made more sense to create one course with multiple groups, one set of groups representing the physical class groupings. That made it easier for them to manage assignments, grades etc since those were done across the entire team, as opposed to doing management class by class. It also meant that when a student moved from one class to another the teacher did not have to move the student other than in the group. Another suggestion was to do the entire team as a metacourse, but I never did get the time to really ponder that one.
Having looked at some similar issues I had a discussion with some Middle School teachers who felt that in as much as they four classes doing the same course, it made more sense to create one course with multiple groups, one set of groups representing the physical class groupings. That made it easier for them to manage assignments, grades etc since those were done across the entire team, as opposed to doing management class by class. It also meant that when a student moved from one class to another the teacher did not have to move the student other than in the group. Another suggestion was to do the entire team as a metacourse, but I never did get the time to really ponder that one.