As I'm hearing about exciting new features and improvements for version 1.5, I was wondering if anything will change in the area of user management. The other day I decided I wanted to split one of my classes in two different groups and I realized the process was much more cumbersome I had expected. This is a class where all the students attend one lecture session (and there are announcements and learning materials related to that session) but only a subset of the students attend a "practical" session (with announcements, forums and materials specific to that session).
I know, the smart thing would have been to create two different courses from the very beginning. In this case was lack of thinking on my part, but in some and for whatever reasons a need might arise to be able to create a subgroup from the members of the class that has access to specific information or activities not available to the rest. Independently of other considerations (as, for instance, if the 'group' function might be the best choice in these cases) what I found difficult was to separate the specific students I wanted to group together from the rest.
When you go to 'students' in the 'administration' block you get the familiar two colums with the left column containing the students currently enrolled in the course and the right column with all the students enrolled in all the courses in your Moodle. Since the students are ordered by their first name it becomes rather difficult to find the ones you are looking for. I don't know about your countries, but there are certain first names here that are extremely popular. You can imagine how difficult it would become to find Mary Jones if you had 10 different Marys in your class (and 7 Jennies, and 10 Johns, etc).
If these lists where designed in such a way that one were able to sort them by last names, for instance, student administratio would become much easier. If instead of having to click on the student's name and then click the arrow pointing right every time, one could select (by clicking radio buttons or in some other way) all the students that we want to move and once they are selected they could all be moved at once, then it would become even easier.
I don't know. It's just an idea. I don't know if other people who manage large groups of students have found themselves in this situation. If it is not too difficult to do from a technical point of view, this would be a very welcome improvement.
Josep M.
Some of the issues raised already exist.
To display by surname log in as admin and go to admin >> variables and look for fullnamedisplay. If you change this to surname + first name it will have the desired effect for sorting but this will effect the whole site, everywhere where names are displayed.
For multiple section of names when assigning groups you can hold the ctrl key down on a windows machine and click as many names as you wish before moving them into a group.
As for activities displayed based upon group then this would be extremely useful. I would use this for extension activities for those students who would benifit and also supporting materials for children with SEN. You could use seperate groups in forums but that doesn't quite cover it.
To display by surname log in as admin and go to admin >> variables and look for fullnamedisplay. If you change this to surname + first name it will have the desired effect for sorting but this will effect the whole site, everywhere where names are displayed.
For multiple section of names when assigning groups you can hold the ctrl key down on a windows machine and click as many names as you wish before moving them into a group.
As for activities displayed based upon group then this would be extremely useful. I would use this for extension activities for those students who would benifit and also supporting materials for children with SEN. You could use seperate groups in forums but that doesn't quite cover it.
Hi Josep,
I have been in your shoes before. Let me tell how I have solved these issues.
First of all, I think you are confusing two issues. One is groups, their setup and use (permissions, activity restriction etc.). The other is adding students to the course. Let´s start by this one.
Administration>Students:
You use this page to enroll new students into the course. Yo do not need to enter this page to setup groups or do anything of what you describe. You are right that it is a mess to select some particular student to enroll, from a very long list. You can use the "search" box.
At ULPGC we have disabled this link for teachers. All enrollments are managed centrally from the database. With new version 1.5 this will be much more easier, if your university has an LDAP server.
Group management:
To setup groups and distribute students to them, you use the People block: People>Groups, and "Activate edition" button.
You can select people from "unassigned" column and move to the desired group. Again, students are sorted by first name, but you can select several at once with "control-click". It would be nice to be able to sort this list by first/last name as an option, and I think it could be very easy to implement: just to sort the array of students. I am now engaged with several other "improvements" for next term (cuatrimestre) at ULPGC, to be ready by Feb, 21th. Please, remember me this issue after that date.
In the meanwhile, there is an "auto-assignment" feature developed by Gustav Delius (IIRC). By allowing students to do the work by themselves, you only need to enter by the end of the "group-selection" period and check all is correct. May be a save of teacher-load. Just search Group forum for the group auto-assignment feature.
Restricting resources/activities for groups :
The philosophy of Moodle is against keeping things private: social constructivism basement, isn't it? But there are ways to do what you want.
For announcements, discussions etc within a group, you can simply use a Forum instance in "separate groups" mode. And post messages only to the "practical" group. All students will see a link to this forum in the course main page. But those not assigned to the special "practical" will see an empty forum if they follow the link (you may include a "description" informative for all "practical" and "non-practical" students).
The students assigned to the "practical" group will see you postings, and will be able to discuss among them, within the group. You can even use the forum to post selected readings or material as post attachments.
For announcements e-mailed to "practical" group students, simply have them subscribed to a "separate groups" forum.
If you do not like the idea of posting course materials as forum attachments, the best solution is a wiki. Resources cannot be used , because they are visible by all course students. But you can setup a "group" wiki (an option in wiki creation form), and use it in "separate groups" mode (adjusting the group icon in main page, in editing mode). In this way, there will be a different wiki for each group in the course.
Again, all students will see the link in the main page. But "practical" and non-practical" students will end at a different page when entering the wiki. You, the teacher, need to select which one you want to see.
You may object that wikis are editable, and you just want to post read-only materials. OK, do not let admin permissions to students in the wiki and flag the desired pages as "read-only" . You can do that in the admin menu of the wiki.
Wikis are terrible beasts. You can use them as a "resource" in read-only mode. With the bonus of being multi-page and having unlimited binary files attached. And, in addition, you can turn them into real wikipages, student-editable, as you see fit.
Bernad Boucher has a custom modification that may permit just this, restrict activities based on groups. I have not used it. My impression is that involves major changes and it is not easy, either. But I may be wrong.
Hope that helps
regards,
- Enrique -
I have been in your shoes before. Let me tell how I have solved these issues.
First of all, I think you are confusing two issues. One is groups, their setup and use (permissions, activity restriction etc.). The other is adding students to the course. Let´s start by this one.
Administration>Students:
You use this page to enroll new students into the course. Yo do not need to enter this page to setup groups or do anything of what you describe. You are right that it is a mess to select some particular student to enroll, from a very long list. You can use the "search" box.
At ULPGC we have disabled this link for teachers. All enrollments are managed centrally from the database. With new version 1.5 this will be much more easier, if your university has an LDAP server.
Group management:
To setup groups and distribute students to them, you use the People block: People>Groups, and "Activate edition" button.
You can select people from "unassigned" column and move to the desired group. Again, students are sorted by first name, but you can select several at once with "control-click". It would be nice to be able to sort this list by first/last name as an option, and I think it could be very easy to implement: just to sort the array of students. I am now engaged with several other "improvements" for next term (cuatrimestre) at ULPGC, to be ready by Feb, 21th. Please, remember me this issue after that date.
In the meanwhile, there is an "auto-assignment" feature developed by Gustav Delius (IIRC). By allowing students to do the work by themselves, you only need to enter by the end of the "group-selection" period and check all is correct. May be a save of teacher-load. Just search Group forum for the group auto-assignment feature.
Restricting resources/activities for groups :
The philosophy of Moodle is against keeping things private: social constructivism basement, isn't it? But there are ways to do what you want.
For announcements, discussions etc within a group, you can simply use a Forum instance in "separate groups" mode. And post messages only to the "practical" group. All students will see a link to this forum in the course main page. But those not assigned to the special "practical" will see an empty forum if they follow the link (you may include a "description" informative for all "practical" and "non-practical" students).
The students assigned to the "practical" group will see you postings, and will be able to discuss among them, within the group. You can even use the forum to post selected readings or material as post attachments.
For announcements e-mailed to "practical" group students, simply have them subscribed to a "separate groups" forum.
If you do not like the idea of posting course materials as forum attachments, the best solution is a wiki. Resources cannot be used , because they are visible by all course students. But you can setup a "group" wiki (an option in wiki creation form), and use it in "separate groups" mode (adjusting the group icon in main page, in editing mode). In this way, there will be a different wiki for each group in the course.
Again, all students will see the link in the main page. But "practical" and non-practical" students will end at a different page when entering the wiki. You, the teacher, need to select which one you want to see.
You may object that wikis are editable, and you just want to post read-only materials. OK, do not let admin permissions to students in the wiki and flag the desired pages as "read-only" . You can do that in the admin menu of the wiki.
Wikis are terrible beasts. You can use them as a "resource" in read-only mode. With the bonus of being multi-page and having unlimited binary files attached. And, in addition, you can turn them into real wikipages, student-editable, as you see fit.
Bernad Boucher has a custom modification that may permit just this, restrict activities based on groups. I have not used it. My impression is that involves major changes and it is not easy, either. But I may be wrong.
Hope that helps
regards,
- Enrique -
As others have mentioned you can search for names, and also control-click to select more than one.
If someone wants to extend the interface with a radio button to toggle the sorting mode between fullname and surname, I'd be happy to include it. Send me a patch!
If someone wants to extend the interface with a radio button to toggle the sorting mode between fullname and surname, I'd be happy to include it. Send me a patch!
Thanks Darren, Enrique and Martin,
The information you've given me will make my life a lot easier. Hey, Darren, for being such a little kid, you know a lot about Moodle
. I'll remind you of the sorting functionality Enrique (but probably you'll have to remind me to remind you 
).
Josep M.
The information you've given me will make my life a lot easier. Hey, Darren, for being such a little kid, you know a lot about Moodle
. I'll remind you of the sorting functionality Enrique (but probably you'll have to remind me to remind you ).Josep M.