Questions about configuring Course completion

Questions about configuring Course completion

by Peter Diedrichs -
Number of replies: 4
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When using the block Course Completion Status there's quite a delay from that the student check an activity as completed (or submitt something), until this is indicated in the Course completion status block. The student gets unsure of the status.

What are the best settings in https://mymoodle.lnu.se/admin/tool/task/scheduledtasks.php, with regards to fast update vs server load?

I have attached a description of the problem/delays and our server settings, which I guess are the default settings.

Using Moodle 3.0.5

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In reply to Peter Diedrichs

Re: Questions about configuring Course completion

by Hal MacLean -

This could simply be the timing for the cron job that Moodle uses to process the completion settings... it isn't an instant thing - as a student works through a course Moodle runs a script in the background that checks for completed activities. It doesn't run all the time, but at set periods. This can be edited to be any time you like, but to edit it you need to have a good understanding of how Cron works on your server. 

You can force the script to run by going to http://your_domain_here/admin/cron.php

When you do that the script processes the data and adds the relevant parts to the various reports that are waiting for it.

Cron also manages a shed load of other jobs within Moodle - it's probably not a good idea to run it every couple of seconds... but better to explain to those waiting to get the results that it takes a few minutes... 

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In reply to Hal MacLean

Re: Questions about configuring Course completion

by Peter Diedrichs -
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Thank you Hal. Yes, to run the cron job to often would probably make the server too busy. But ten minutes is quite a long time and the info about this is not easy to reach out with to all users. They will wonder. So, what I would like to know is best practice for the server settings, and if this service will cause heavy load on the server.

The settings I find in the admin page. I wonder what the "Hour" setting is, where the default values is "14"?

I presume that ASAP under next run should be read as "as soon as possible", but what does that actually mean in this case?

course completion cron settings

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In reply to Peter Diedrichs

Re: Questions about configuring Course completion

by Hal MacLean -

Hi Peter, I hope by now that you've resolved this - apologies for the delay but I have been overseas for the past month and unable to respond.

I don't suppose there is any notion of good practice, simply because it will depend on your server specification - how much RAM, processor speeds and so on. If you are only seeing those two Cron jobs in your system then I really don't think you've got too much going on. As a comparison, I run many many more on some of my systems, and several run once a minute. I always try to spread the time of execution throughout the 24 hour period and put as many as I can into times when I know no-one will be online - early hours of the morning, for example.

Try editing your cron to run every 2 minutes and see how that goes - depending on your user numbers, server spec and how many people are logged on at any one time it could easily be managed. If you notice any appreciable slow down, change the interval to be longer. To change the settings, click on the 'cog wheel' edit icon in the table.

If you are feeling brave, try running it every 1 minute instead, although I totally understand what you say about users - for some, even 1 minute seems too long to wait!

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In reply to Hal MacLean

Re: Questions about configuring Course completion

by Peter Diedrichs -
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Thank you Hal, I'll do some testing with this!

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