Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -
Number of replies: 16

Im simply trying to allow self enrollment in Moodle 2.72 and its turning into a nightmare.

I have read the enrollment documentation.

I gone into the course concerned and made the required settings (see below)

SELF ENROLMENT

Self enrolment
Custom instance name
Enable existing enrolmentsHelp with Enable existing enrolments
  Yes  No 
Allow new enrolmentsHelp with Allow new enrolments
  Yes  No 
Enrolment keyHelp with Enrolment key
Unmask
Use group enrolment keysHelp with Use group enrolment keys
  Yes  No 
Default assigned role
  Manager  Teacher  Non-editing teacher  Student 
Enrolment durationHelp with Enrolment duration
Time Time unit  weeks  days  hours  minutes  seconds  Enable
Notify before enrolment expiresHelp with Notify before enrolment expires
  No  Enroller only  Enroller and enrolled user 
Notification thresholdHelp with Notification threshold
Time Time unit  weeks  days  hours  minutes  seconds 
Start dateHelp with Start date
Day  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  Month  January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December  Year  1900  1901  1902  1903  1904  1905  1906  1907  1908  1909  1910  1911  1912  1913  1914  1915  1916  1917  1918  1919  1920  1921  1922  1923  1924  1925  1926  1927  1928  1929  1930  1931  1932  1933  1934  1935  1936  1937  1938  1939  1940  1941  1942  1943  1944  1945  1946  1947  1948  1949  1950  1951  1952  1953  1954  1955  1956  1957  1958  1959  1960  1961  1962  1963  1964  1965  1966  1967  1968  1969  1970  1971  1972  1973  1974  1975  1976  1977  1978  1979  1980  1981  1982  1983  1984  1985  1986  1987  1988  1989  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008  2009  2010  2011  2012  2013  2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019  2020  2021  2022  2023  2024  2025  2026  2027  2028  2029  2030  2031  2032  2033  2034  2035  2036  2037  2038  2039  2040  2041  2042  2043  2044  2045  2046  2047  2048  2049  2050  Hour  00  01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  Minute  00  05  10  15  20  25  30  35  40  45  50  55  Calendar Enable
End dateHelp with End date
Day  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  Month  January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December  Year  1900  1901  1902  1903  1904  1905  1906  1907  1908  1909  1910  1911  1912  1913  1914  1915  1916  1917  1918  1919  1920  1921  1922  1923  1924  1925  1926  1927  1928  1929  1930  1931  1932  1933  1934  1935  1936  1937  1938  1939  1940  1941  1942  1943  1944  1945  1946  1947  1948  1949  1950  1951  1952  1953  1954  1955  1956  1957  1958  1959  1960  1961  1962  1963  1964  1965  1966  1967  1968  1969  1970  1971  1972  1973  1974  1975  1976  1977  1978  1979  1980  1981  1982  1983  1984  1985  1986  1987  1988  1989  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008  2009  2010  2011  2012  2013  2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019  2020  2021  2022  2023  2024  2025  2026  2027  2028  2029  2030  2031  2032  2033  2034  2035  2036  2037  2038  2039  2040  2041  2042  2043  2044  2045  2046  2047  2048  2049  2050  Hour  00  01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  Minute  00  05  10  15  20  25  30  35  40  45  50  55  Calendar Enable
Unenrol inactive afterHelp with Unenrol inactive after
  Never  1800 days  1000 days  365 days  180 days  150 days  120 days  90 days  60 days  30 days  21 days  14 days  7 days 
Max enrolled usersHelp with Max enrolled users
Send course welcome messageHelp with Send course welcome message
Custom welcome messageHelp with Custom welcome message



And finally I have wandered through the self enrollment admin panel and set it to these settings... There are now a bazillion settings so the chances I have got this right in order to work are vanishingly small.....

So could anyone tell me which of the dozens of settings is causing me to STILL get the maddening message "Guests can not access this course, please try to log in." 

Which defeats the whole point, right. Yes Moodle 2.x is a million times better than 1.9 but I long for the usability and user friendliness of 1.9 when this was way, way friendlier.

SELF ENROLMENT

The self enrolment plugin allows users to choose which courses they want to participate in. The courses may be protected by an enrolment key. Internally the enrolment is done via the manual enrolment plugin which has to be enabled in the same course.

Require enrolment keyenrol_self | requirepassword
Default: No

Require enrolment key in new courses and prevent removing of enrolment key from existing courses.

Use password policyenrol_self | usepasswordpolicy
Default: No

Use standard password policy for enrolment keys.

Show hintenrol_self | showhint
Default: No

Show first letter of the guest access key.

Enrolment expiration actionenrol_self | expiredaction
Keep user enrolledDisable course enrolment and remove rolesUnenrol user from course
Default: Keep user enrolled

Select action to carry out when user enrolment expires. Please note that some user data and settings are purged from course during course unenrolment.

Hour to send enrolment expiry notificationsenrol_self | expirynotifyhour
01234567891011121314151617181920212223
Default: 6

Enrolment instance defaults

Default enrolment settings in new courses.

Add instance to new coursesenrol_self | defaultenrol
Default: Yes

It is possible to add this plugin to all new courses by default.

Enable existing enrolmentsenrol_self | status
YesNo
Default: No

Enable self enrolment method in new courses.

Allow new enrolmentsenrol_self | newenrols
YesNo
Default: Yes

Allow users to self enrol into new courses by default.

Use group enrolment keysenrol_self | groupkey
YesNo
Default: No

Use group enrolment keys by default.

Default role assignmentenrol_self | roleid
StudentNon-editing teacherTeacherManager
Default: Student

Select role which should be assigned to users during self enrolment

Enrolment durationenrol_self | enrolperiod
weeksdayshoursminutesseconds
Default: None

Default length of time that the enrolment is valid. If set to zero, the enrolment duration will be unlimited by default.

Notify before enrolment expiresenrol_self | expirynotify
NoEnroller onlyEnroller and enrolled user
Default: No

This setting determines whether enrolment expiry notification messages are sent.

Notification thresholdenrol_self | expirythreshold
weeksdayshoursminutesseconds
Default: 1 days

How long before enrolment expiry should users be notified?

Unenrol inactive afterenrol_self | longtimenosee
Never1800 days1000 days365 days180 days150 days120 days90 days60 days30 days21 days14 days7 days
Default: Never

If users haven't accessed a course for a long time, then they are automatically unenrolled. This parameter specifies that time limit.

Max enrolled usersenrol_self | maxenrolled
Default: 0

Specifies the maximum number of users that can self enrol. 0 means no limit.

Send course welcome messageenrol_self | sendcoursewelcomemessage
Default: Yes

If enabled, users receive a welcome message via email when they self-enrol in a course.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

I'm far too lazy to read through all of the above, but... the only way you get that 'no guest access' message is if your user has logged in as the *guest user* (not to be confused with the unhelpfully named guest role). 

So, you have the 'login as guest' button enabled on your login page and they have clicked it. 

Disabling guest access would be a good start. See Guest_access.

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

I smiled when I read your reply Howard as normally the gripers complaint abut not enough information!

I dont have Guest Access enabled for that course  (which makes it even MORE confusing that moodle OFFERS it at all)  - so  it must be something else - so I guess someone else is going to have to read all that information and offer any pointers on why Moodle is being such a pain thoughtful

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

No! Nothing to do with enrolment, nothing to do with the course. It's a site wide setting. 

The user is logging in as guest and then trying to access the course which (as you say has guest access disabled). Hence the error message. 

Logging in as guest is exactly the equivalent of logging in with a username 'guest'. It is a specific user account. A special one but just a user all the same. 

The only way this can happen is if guest access is available on the **login page**. I can't remember if it is on by default. I rather think it is. 

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

Totally lost now. You asked me to disable guest access and it is.

But now it should be enabled? Neither works.

This was a million times easier in Moodle 1.9 - Took seconds. Now I have two long pages scrolling full of options. The chances of getting them all "just right" are likewise one in a million.

Is there a simple "teacher friendly" list of ALL the settings and where they are all hidden - and what they need to be set to - that will make this self enrollment nightmare just work

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In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

I think what Howard means is - if you click login at the top of the site page, do you get a message saying "some courses allow guest access" and a button to "log in as a guest". If so, then go to Site administration>Plugins>Authentication and scroll down to Guest log in button and hide it. See if that makes a difference.

(I presume when you say self enrolment you do mean self enrolment into a course by users who are already logged in to the site with pre-existing accounts?)

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -
Hi Mary


Thanks for the note - as I say I just get the "Guests can not access this course, please try to log in." Noting more nothing less.

What I am trying to do is

a) Have one course (staffroom - maybe more in future) where I can post to audiences so sign up and get access to the staffroom for free - for discussions. The same advert can also mention the  enrollment key - so avoid robots etc

b) They need to enter certain mandatory fields in their user profile - including photo  - location address, email mobile etc etc

c) They are then self enrolled into the staffroom which acts as  child course for 9 more metacourses aimed at training teachers - and that I can administate access to that one staffroom as a means to managing access to the other courses

d) It would be nice to set maximum numbers (and I have seen that setting somewhere) but that issue is a long way off from just getting this to work.

And thats the problem, there are now so many pages full of so many settings since using moodle 2.7 that it is nigh impossible to figure out where (and then what) all the settings need to be that are scattered all over the website to do what I want to do.

Tearing my hair out - for now Ive given up after a full saturday trying to work this out. How can this be so much more complicated now? As a reasonable technical person it worries me for the sake of moodle uptake by educators rather than techies

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

tried that and it is already set as suggested...


GUEST ACCESS

Guest access plugin is only granting temporary access to courses, it is not actually enrolling users.

Require guest access passwordenrol_guest | requirepassword
Default: No

Require access password in new courses and prevent removing of access password from existing courses.

Use password policyenrol_guest | usepasswordpolicy
Default: No

Use standard password policy for guest access passwords.

Show hintenrol_guest | showhint
Default: No

Show first letter of the guest access password.

Enrolment instance defaults

Default enrolment settings in new courses.

Add instance to new coursesenrol_guest | defaultenrol
Default: Yes

It is possible to add this plugin to all new courses by default.

Allow guest accessenrol_guest | status
YesNo
 Advanced
Default: No

Allow temporary guest access by default.


so dispiriting.... 


D

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Yes, that. 

If you are getting that message then your users (or you) are logging is as the guest account. If so, how? If not, then something is very badly broken.

Also, are you sure you are not mixing up... Email-based_self-registration with Self_enrolment?? 

Authentication and Enrolment are frequently confused. Authentication is about logging into Moodle. You have to have an account to log in and use the site (unless you use the guest account which is pretty useless). Enrolment is about controlling access to courses *once* you have logged in.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

Hi Howard

Thankyou for your patience. Please see above what I am trying to do.

Is there nowhere with teacher-level steps on what to do? The problem here is that its like I have this huge steam engine with hundreds of valves and knobs and they all have to be set correctly and they are all in numerous different places across the admin panels.

Does my request even have a solution with simple A,B,C steps?

D

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

have turned on email self registration as suggested even though the docs seem to say this is a really bad idea (see below). More confusion. 

Also  there is what seems to be  captcha information, so again, Ido I have to invest more work figuring out how all the captcha keys work? <puts gun to head>


Common settings

Self registrationregisterauth
DisableEmail-based self-registration
Default: Disable

If an authentication plugin, such as email-based self-registration, is selected, then it enables potential users to register themselves and create accounts. This results in the possibility of spammers creating accounts in order to use forum posts, blog entries etc. for spam. To avoid this risk, self-registration should be disabled or limited by Allowed email domains setting.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Dom, I have tried to read everything within this topic, but am a little lost.  However, I thought that I would give it a shot.

1) In my moodle, I do not allow Guest Access, period.  But this is just me, my moodle is for students in my moodle and I don't want to "world" to be creating load, extensive log files, extra work for me, etc.

2) In my moodle, I use "Self-Enrollment" whereby students create their own profiles and get themselves into the course by entering an course "enrollment key" that I provide to them ahead of time (via email.)   Around 98%+ of the students have success.  For those 2%, I might have to manually enroll them for one reason or another.  This minimizes my work and makes sure that the right students get into the right courses.  I have around 400 students per year in my moodle that I manage on my own.

Is what I am doing what you want to do?   

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In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Dom. This is getting properly out of hand. 

Deep breath. What *exactly* are you trying to do? I mean in outline, not Moodle details. I'm totally lost. 

Next big question how do you want user accounts to be created? Your choice, essentially, is that they create their own accounts (email self-authentication) or you create them somehow...

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

Hi Howard

I think I stated a preferred process further up the thread. Despite the frustration, I have spent another 5 hours head scratching managed to get CAPTCHA working - although the audio capture is a bit clumsy -  (will try to delete that thread) and I have managed to fiddle around long enough to get email enrollment working too. But I still am struggling to get the next problem sorted, being able to change which self user registration fields are compulsory (red asterisk) and which are not.  Right no for example users can ignore some fields and thats not good. I also want to add custom fields (and I DO know how to do that, I think) but making default user registration fields compulsory or not compulsoary - I cant see aywhere to do that. Iknew how to do it in version 1.9 but like everything else that functionaility has been moved around to somewhere I just cant find..

THAT way, I will have email self registration and enrollment to the staff room working (apparently not ideal) but at least with capcha now working so there will be no robots.

And then I *assume* that with the staffroom acting as a daughter (Child?) course to the actually learning courses that anyone who registers and then enrolls using the enrollment key - will automatically have access to the 9 meta courses (whatever they are now called in version 2.2)

If you would like an admin account - Id be very very happy to get you one to see what i mean Howard?

D

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In reply to Dom F

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Dom - I just deleted your Captcha thread for you (having only just replied to it)

I think your plan to have them create an account and then self enrol into the staffroom and then be automatically enrolled into the other ones sounds like a good one.

The only issue I see, possibly, is with forcing them to complete certain profile fields -I have seen a bug report about this not working -here is the bug report -  MDL-46946 - It has been fixed for later versions of Moodle but not yours.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Self Enrolment in Moodle 2.x - Driving me slowly nuts

by Dom F -

Thanks Mary I was about to delete the thread.

But regarding the bug report - should I assume that our version of moodle is already orphaned? I assume that bug fixes take months (if ever) to get addressed as everyone wants their crucial bug fixed. What is your sense of how quickly bugs get fixed and whether this is one that Marti's Perth guys are going to look at any time soon?

But is the missing functionailty a bug? Or is it just that I cant find where it is and that there is (somewhere) a place I can go to turn on and off the mandatory nature of the self registration fields?


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