Restrict access to courses

Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -
Number of replies: 11

This seems more difficult then it should be.  I have varioous independant courses and users need to be generally able to only access one thus far, but this will change.  All users are manually set up  on the system and have access with a userid and password.  However I had until yesterday left the My Courses block on display which allowed a student to access other courses to which she really shouldn't have been in.  I first of all removed the block from the courses but will want to put it back eventually.  I have removed her from the courses she added herself to.  However if she types in the course url she can still gain access to the course.

I could put an enrollment key on the courses (though I don't want to) but this then forces Guest users to enrol in the course - which I don't want - in order to gain access.

I could make the course non-enollable but this prevents guest users from accessing the course.

Is it not possible to have courses where students are assigned access and do not have access to other courses?

Also my Guest users have the option to enroll, how do I remove this?  I do not want guests enrolled.

Appreciate your help on this Moodle 1.9.7 problem.

Cheers

Patrick

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In reply to Patrick Lyne

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
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Hi there. Could you just clarify some things first please;

  • you only want students to be enrolled in the courses YOU want them enrolled in?
  • You want guests to be able to see the courses (so you have open guest access?)
  • You don;t want guests to enrol? (they shouldn't be able to enrol anyway, unless they are able to create their own accounts - can they do this?)
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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -
  • Yes
  • I want guests to be able to see courses they have been given guest \access to or assigned guest roles in.
  • they can't create their own accounts but are able to enroll in courses through the course Admin block in the course.

I can make a course unenrollable and not allow guests in by selecting the option to only allow guests in with the key and clicking the enrollable No option.  But then users assigned guest access are not able to access the course either.  I would like to control which guests are allowed in manually.

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In reply to Patrick Lyne

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
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Ok -well -as one of your three items- you can stop guests from being able to self enrol by making the course admin block non-viewable by guests - click the assign roles icon above it and use the override permissions tab to prevent guests viewing the admin block.

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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -

That solves a problem I guess though l am sure they could still access this feature if they happen to know the url.  I can remove the facility to search for courses as well presumably but is still not secure.

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In reply to Patrick Lyne

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

Well even without the facility to search for courses they can still access the lot via the url - /course/index.php

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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -

By making the courses unenrollable it stops the user (guest or student of another course) from enolling which is something - even though the option is displayed.  How do prevent someone from accessing a course they have not been granted permission to view?  It seems impossible while allowing guest access.  The role of Guest seems meaningless and redundant as I cannot prevent access to course non-assigned users without also blocking those assigned Guest access.

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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -

Further info:

Currently I have made courses unenrollable and do not allow access without a key.

My Guest users are allocated userids and passwords and given access or assigned to one course as Guests - when I view them their profile it contains the option to unenroll from said course - therefore they must be enrolled as a Guest in the course since they have this option in their profile.  However when they try to access the course they are told it is unenrollable.

This just doesn't make sense to me.

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In reply to Patrick Lyne

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -

They also have a search facility which makes it nigh on impossible to have guest access and maintain control of student access at the same time - seems like it should be possible but far from obvious how. angry

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In reply to Patrick Lyne

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -

Ok finally I read somewhere that if a course allows guest access it is not possible to restrict students from accessing it.  I don't accept this is not something that can't be fixed but it seems it is not a bug but a feature.

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In reply to Patrick Lyne

Re: Restrict access to courses

by Patrick Lyne -

I have removed Guest access and created a new role Guest Student with less access than a student but is able to access an unenrollable course they are enrolled in.  Not ideal as they appear in the gradebook and not sure how to remove this but best compromise.

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