Missing course sections option

Missing course sections option

by Heather P -
Number of replies: 6

Hello

I'm in a Moodle 3.3

I've tried two different themes (clean and adaptable) and when I go to edit the course settings in the course format section I do not have an option called number of sections.

The documentation still reads like that option should be there - should it be or have we got issues?

In the admin pages for setting up course defaults it is there and it says maximum is 52.

I've just discovered a course has gone up to 66 sections even though we have max set to 52. Is this potentially a disaster in the making as I didn't think it was meant to go above 52?

Is this right for a Moodle 3.3 or are we broken?

Thank you.

Heather

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In reply to Heather P

Re: Missing course sections option

by Davo Smith -
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Number of sections was an option in the past, but it is no longer there.

The number of sections is now defined by the number of sections that have been created (rather than having a separate number that may not reflect the actual number of sections that exist and led to 'orphanded' sections that had numbers higher than the 'number of sections' defined for the course).

I don't believe there is a hard limit on the number of sections that can be added by teachers to a course (but I could be wrong, I haven't checked the code).

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In reply to Heather P

Re: Missing course sections option

by Gareth J Barnard -
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See: https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Course_homepage - also this has nothing to do with themes, it is a course format thing.  With '52' also see: https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Course_settings#Site_administration_settings.

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Missing course sections option

by Heather P -

Hi

thank you. So let me get this straight, there is now no limit to the number of topic boxes in a course. We are no longer constrained to no more than 52?

On one of the links you have supplied it does say:- 

'Site administration settings

An administrator can set course default settings in Administration > Site administration > Courses > Course default settings.

The maximum number of weeks/topics may be set for all courses on the site. The default value is 52.'

I am the admin, and I have set that - 52. Seems to have no impact whatsoever. If that is how it is meant to be then I'm happy and all is well, I was just surprised by it and didn't want to set myself up for a huge disaster somewhere down the line.

For info - I tried a different theme because in the past they always said if something didn't work, fall back to the standard theme in case it was the theme messing something up, hence I tried more than one theme just in case.

Thank you

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Missing course sections option

by David Le Blanc -

Thank you for posting this Gareth.

I see the elimination of the option for the instructor/designer to specifically determine the number of sections to display as a step backward. Instructors will occasionally choose to post certain course activities off-screen to simplify the course presentation. Activities posted in an off-screen section could remain accessible but not visible on the course page. It's unfortunate that this option has been eliminated. black eye

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In reply to David Le Blanc

Re: Missing course sections option

by Mary Cooch -
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Hello David. The option of which you talk has not been eliminated but has been made to work better. Please see the documentation and accompanying video about Stealth activities

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