Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Siddharth Patel -
Number of replies: 7

Hello Moodlers!!

I have a question, which seems to be solved by lots of people in the forum, but I could not find my answer and a perfect solution post for this matter, so that I am starting a new discussion here.

I was wandering, which will be the best method to manage the courses which would have semester and trimester in them. Moodle is giving great functionality for category, sub-category and courses. But, even though there are some kind of courses where a limitation from moodle can be seen.

Assume that a course is there, which is having trimester / semester system as well as a live projects / internship part, which we can see in normal life courses.

course_tree

In above image, I have assigned a demo usage from the functionality availability from the moodle system. Make the course as a main category, semesters in sub-categories and the subjects as per the moodle courses.

  • But, when there will be more courses like this tree in the system and if tried to use the semester1 and semester2 for their names then the problem for the same category name will be there.
  • Same as, if there will be same subjects in two courses and if tried to added, then the same course name problem will be occurred.
  • When the user would want to get the result / report like course report (which is a category) or trimester wise report (which are also categories), then the problem for grading will come as there will be no course ID for them.

Is there any recommendation for this kind of scenario for the system, like which kind of structure can be used or which course format should be used?

Regards..
- Sid

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In reply to Siddharth Patel

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

I tackle this from the other side. I have categories for Semester 1 and Semester 2 and then list my individual courses under each Semester.  This allows me to hide Semester 1 once it has passed and students only see the current courses that they are in.  If your internships run all year or in a trimester, I would set up a category for that time frame and then list the internships under there. I then name the courses appropriately for each Semester (e.g. HS Spanish (F12), HS Spanish (S13) for fall and spring).

It also allows you to restore one semester at a time the following year. And once you are a couple of years down the road, it is easy to delete a semester's worth of classes when you are ready.

Emma

Attachment Course.png
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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Siddharth Patel -

Hi Emma, thanks for the reply.

This is a nice system which you have managed for semester system, but there are will not be the solutions which I've mentioned in my post like for the semester wise grading.

Also, here the internship is in another category, which will make a change for a continuty for the parent course. Here, the internship can be used as a course directly rather than making it a child category.

Also, assume that the terms which used here as semester / trimesters, are based on marks rather than time, then there will a problem as well. When the condition applied on them to be passed and send to next terms based on the result or greads rather than fall or spring.

But, from the point of view, this is a very good solution for the only time based semester.

Regards..
- Sid

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In reply to Siddharth Patel

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Colin Fraser -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

Sid, have you considered that Category groupings can be hidden/visible?  You can turn things on and off without too much effort, reset courses without anyone being aware those courses are still on the Moodle. Each Category created can contain whatever structure you deem most appropriate to that Category, so there would be no issue as to how you want to grade things. You would also not then have to resort to "child/parent" relationships inherent in metacourses as you seem to be thinking about from your first post. 

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In reply to Colin Fraser

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Siddharth Patel -

Hi Colin,

I know the properties about the course categories. I tried to search a lot about making grading in the course category, but I found for moodle 1.9 versions that it will be available in future and for 2.0+, there is no specification. So, I wanted to know that whether the Grading for Category is available in moodle 2.2 or not?

Regards..
- Sid

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In reply to Siddharth Patel

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Colin Fraser -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

Ah that is different.. AFAIK, no - but that is only to my knowledge.

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In reply to Colin Fraser

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Siddharth Patel -

ok then.

But, if meta course tried to be used, how they can satisfy the requirements?

Means, how to get the parent and child flow which we can get in the category view? Because, till I've used the meta course, they are not viewing like parent course or child course, only enrolment systems can be arranged.

Can you help to understand the metacourse role here in this course structure?

Regards..
- Sid

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In reply to Siddharth Patel

Re: Standard Course Format for Semester or Trimester system

by Colin Fraser -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

Metacourses are actually simple to follow, once you get the right perception. This Moodle Doc will help here, but to put it plainly, a meta course contains all the data, the examples, the resources, the activities. The child course contains all the enrollments. The Gradebook is associated with the metacourse, not the child course. This is the limitation to your plan, and I agree that a gradebook should be associated with a Student, but the effort that it would take to do this would be, I expect, incredible. 

As a general idea, you can, if you have the PHP and SQL skills, create a gradebook instance for every student, but that, I think would become a "system of perfection", something outside the realms of affordability and practicality.

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