Course Welcome Message - modify sender

Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Graeme Norman -
Number of replies: 10

Hello,

I have had to set "Send Course Welcome Message" to "No" because the sender of the emails is no longer with us. I wish to change the sender to someone else.

After much searching I still cannot find where the identity of the sender of the welcome message is determined or coded.

We are using Moodle 1.9.3 (Build: 20081017)

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

GN

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In reply to Graeme Norman

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Worth Bishop -
What role did the previous sender have? Teacher, administrator? Have you tried changing the name of the course teacher? Or administrator?

Seems like one of those should do it...
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In reply to Worth Bishop

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Graeme Norman -

Hello Worth,

The sender of the Course Welcome Message has the role of Administrator. We have 6 Administrators, including me.

I've been looking for a place where I can nominate who the sender of these messages is, but it hasn't appeared yet.

I am loathe to change too many details as I don't want unforseen events to spoil my day. If possible I wish to simply switch the sender of the message from one person to another.

If it's not too much trouble, could you describe how to change the name of an Adminstrator, as that may be exactly what needs to be done?

Thankyou.

GN

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In reply to Graeme Norman

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Worth Bishop -
Hmm. Here are a couple of thoughts, before we change the erstwhile admin's name:

- Is it possible that this individual was assigned the role of "Admin" for a specific course or courses? If that's the case, you can unassign the individual in the relevant courses via the "Assign roles" screen in the Administration block within the course.

- Have you looked at the Course Managers settings (Appearance=> Course Managers) to see whether this has an effect on the "From" line?

Changing the admin's name is done by editing their profile (Administration=>Users=>Accounts=>Browse list of users=>[filter for name]=>[click name]=>Edit profile).

Now, having said all that, I'll go experiment with some of these settings just to determine definitively how to fix this...
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In reply to Worth Bishop

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Worth Bishop -
Okay, having run several tests, it appears that the welcome e-mail is going to come from the teacher assigned to the course, if there is one.

If there is no teacher assigned to the course, the welcome e-mail comes from the original site administrator, regardless of whether another administrator has been assigned to the specific course as "Administrator".

The Course Manager settings only determine the names displayed in the course listings and have no effect on the welcome e-mail.

So...if the individual who left was the original administrator for the site, it appears that editing that user's profile is the only option. The challenge here is, subsequent users assigned "admin" rights cannot edit the original admin user's profile.

It would appear at that point that your only options are:

1) Assign teachers to all courses so the welcome messages come from them. (A workaround which leaves the main problem in place.)

2) Log in as the admin user you are trying to modify, if possible. You can then alter the profile.

2.1) If you do not know that user's username, but have access to the site's config.php file, you can find the username there. (Probably won't help unless you happen to have the password, which is unlikely if you don't already have the username.)

2.2) If you do not have the password for the user's account, but have access to the underlying database, you can alter the password directly in the database (as well as the user's name, etc.). There are several posts in the forums about how to reset the admin's password - a little tricky, since it's encrypted, but the posts explain it - you'll have to search, I don't have a link handy...

2.3) If you haven't access to the database, nor the ability to log in as admin...well it seems to me you're kind of stuck with option 1 unless you can contact the admin who left and solicit his/her help.

Good luck!

-
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In reply to Worth Bishop

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Graeme Norman -

Hello Worth,

Thankyou very much for spending time looking into my problem, I really appreciate it.

I think I will assign teachers to every course as you have suggested. The other suggestions you have made may have to wait for another day, but they have certainly given me some options to persue.

Thanks again,

GN

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In reply to Graeme Norman

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Chad Outten -
Picture of Testers
AFAIK, the welcome message default sender is the first teacher added to said course. or else sender defaults to the primary admin. why not delete or un-assign 'old user' from course or update their user profile to reflect another teacher or admin?
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In reply to Chad Outten

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Graeme Norman -

Hi Chad,

Thankyou for your suggestion, it seems that is what needs to be done. Do you think deleting or changing the profile of the original administrator will have any unforseen impacts in other areas of the Moodle, or am I being too cautious?

GN

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In reply to Graeme Norman

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Chad Outten -
Picture of Testers
G'day Graeme! I wouldn't get nervous. But I'd still recommend you get a backup before doing anything!

Worth outlines some available options. It reads as though this is the primary admin account, so other admins will not be able to edit this profile. In order of preference, I reckon your best bets are:

1. if the 'old' admin still has a mailbox, you know it & can access it - try use the 'Forgot password' function to retrieve it.

2. access to your moodle database, either directly via mysql(?) or phpmyadmin

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Administration_FAQ#I_have_forgotten_the_admin_password

3. try the changepass.php plugin

http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=2529

fyi - to mitigate all the above, what i do is simply use the primary admin account to create other admins, then keep a safe record of the primary admin login & be certain not to give it to anyone!

Good luck

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In reply to Chad Outten

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Paul Westeneng -

I encounter the sameproblem.

My idea is to assign a side wide teacher role to one of the administrators (the one I want to see in the welcome message). I'll be back to let you know the result.

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In reply to Paul Westeneng

Re: Course Welcome Message - modify sender

by Sebastian Wz -

Old thread, but anyone who feels that it would be helpful to be able to specify the welcome email sender should vote for MDL 29110.

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