Metacourse does not show child course

Metacourse does not show child course

by Rob Willemse -
Number of replies: 4

Hello,

I am experimenting with meta courses and encountered an issue for which I cannot find a solution. When I create a meta-course and assign a course to it I cannot access the course by clicking on the meta-course. What I do get is an form where I can setup the meta course as if it is an normal course. So when I chose 'LMS content package' at the 'Type of activity' filed I am presented with the 'Adding a new IMS content package' page when I click on the course.

For what I understand the meta-course appears not to be an empty course that is linked to a real course but it appears to be an course on itself. 

What I would like to do is to have the meta-course be like an empty shell and directing directly to course it is linked with. I have the feeling that I should choose the correct settings under 'Course format' but I do not know what to choose.

I have read the documentation about meta courses but I seem to overlook the settings where a meta-course is being directly linked.

Any help would be very welcome!

Kind regards,
Rob

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rob Willemse

Re: Metacourse does not show child course

by Melanie Scott -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

You're correct.  Meta course does not automatically provide links to child courses.  But your description makes me wonder if there is confusion about how meta-child works.  It actually works backwards from what most people expect.  Enrollments happen in child courses and then the meta courses are where the content goes.  So, you would want the links in the child courses to the metas, not the other way around (see my little graphic below).



If you want links to the meta courses in the child course, so that group of people can easily find all the courses they should complete, copy the URL for the meta course and add links to the course, either using the URL resource (most reasonable), label or maybe a page with a list of links.

All that said, you didn't mention what version you use.  If you're using 2.X, there is something called cohorts, which allows you to just add a bunch of people to the cohort and then enroll the cohort in the courses you want those people to take.  If you want a page that displays all their courses, there's My Home/My Moodle which displays all enrolled courses (or a specified number of courses, depending on user preference).  You can even set it to default users to the My Home page.  This cuts down on the number of courses and reduces some of the meta-confusion.  Of course, you may have a separate reason to want to use meta courses but, in my experience, they are really complicated and cohorts are much less so...

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Melanie Scott

Re: Metacourse does not show child course

by Rob Willemse -

Dear Melanie,

Thank you for the explanation and the effort! I completely changed around the flow of information. Somehow I assumed the hierarchy was the opposite.

But despite the clarification I am still struggling with this concept.

First some information you asked for: 

I am using Moodle 2.6.4+ (Build: 20140717)

I want to use meta courses in order to be able to sell courses at different prices. Depending on certain factors students should be able to buy courses at different prices. I could not figure out how to do this this using the Paypal enrollment method so I wanted to see if the meta courses concept would work.

What I am struggling with is where do you use the enrollment method of Meta courses? In the child or in the meta course? This is not enterily clear from this page: http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Course_meta_link. I assume that you do this in in the meta course because here you want the students who enroll in the child course.

The second thing I would like to solve is the way students are guided from a child course to a meta course. What I would like to realize is that students are presented with certain child courses (with the prices that are applicable to their situation). When they enroll they are automatically send to the meta course. 

I tried the URL link method of connecting courses but then there is another step in between the student needs to take. The pay for the course and go to the child course and then they need to click on the link to go to meta course. 

Also when the student is enrolled in the proper child course they are also enrolled in the meta course. So they see 2 courses: the child course they have been enrolled in manually or by using the Paypal enrollment method and the meta course they have been enrolled in automatically.

What I would like to accomplish is that students only see the child course and this gives them automatically and without possible confusion access to the meta course.

I am not sure if cohorts can accomplish this. If so would you be so kind to explain this process to me?

Many thanks for the patience and effort!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rob Willemse

Re: Metacourse does not show child course

by Melanie Scott -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

I know next to nothing about how paypal works.  So I have no idea how cohorts would work with your scenario.  Honestly, don't know how paypal works at all.  None of my users pay for courses...

On to the stuff I do know about.   Pretty much, so far as I can tell, everyone initially assumes the hierarchy is opposite.  I certainly did.  The meta is always the course where the content is.  The child is the course where the core enrollment is.  And the meta feature has to be turned on at the site level.

I'm guessing your payment scheme has to do with levels of courses and numbers.  Sort of like, if person A only wants to take 1 introductory course, they pay $100.  But person B wants to take 3 introductory courses and gets a "discount" of $25 per course.  They then pay $225 but need an easy way to be enrolled in all three. 

So, you create the first course (child course) and you enroll all the people who buy 3 courses (person B, for example) that you want to be enrolled in it.  Then you create the three courses (meta courses)  you want to draw enrollments from the child.  You add meta course enrollment method and select the child course.  Then the people enrolled in the child course are also enrolled in all the courses with the meta course enrollment.  Then maybe person A is manually enrolled (or some other way related to pay pal...) in the single course they paid for.

I don't know if there is a way to make the metas not visible except through the child gateway.  When I used meta courses, I never found a way.  Of course, I wanted it to work the opposite way, I wanted the child hidden and the metas visible.  I did find I could hide the child but that wouldn't work with metas because it would block student access to the courses.

Take a look at these examples:  http://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Metacourse_examples_of_use.  I think 8 -10 may be relevant to you.

I took a look around at cohorts and paypal documentation and don't see a way to do cohort assignment with paypal, as the paypal stuff seems to be enrollment method.  It looks like you're stuck with meta courses.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Melanie Scott

Re: Metacourse does not show child course

by Rob Willemse -
Dear Melanie,


Thank you very much for the effort. I seem to get a little more grip on this concept of meta- and childcourses.

The strange thing is that when I wrote the previous post when I clicked on the child course I saw the link then pointed to the meta course. When I clicked on the link the meta course was presented to me.

Today I did the same but when I clicked on the child course I immediately was redirected to the meta course. So this is what I wanted it to do. The problem is I do not know how I did this. wink

Thank you for the effort!

Average of ratings: -