Captivate - Moodle & attempts

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Melanie Scott -
Number of replies: 6
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Glad to help.  I'm not sure what you mean by side menu (is it a block?  The new side nav bar from Boost? Maybe a picture to show what you mean?).  If it is already disabled, they shouldn't see it.  You might try looking at it as a student (login to a student account)--it could be the issue is resolved for students but YOU still see the stuff because of your permissions.  And, you can change student permissions to not see things as a last ditch effort. 

Yes, I think CSS or PHP changes could probably do it but I'm entirely out of my depth on those topics.  I know they exist.  That's about it.  You could always try out some different themes and see if a different theme might be more to your liking--there are lots of custom themes and many are pretty slick.  They're easy to install and use--you could install them and then just apply them to a course (not the whole site) to see if they work for you.  Some require more set up than others (but those are sometimes the coolest ones).

In reply to Melanie Scott

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Dick Coppus -

Hi Melanie,

The project was on hold for a while. And I had some time to breath, but the client came back with more requests.
Maybe you have any idea how to do this as i'm really getting lost with settings in Moodle. I changed the name of the uploaded eLearning and had to change it in 3 locations to make it show. Guess their is a story behind it, but I don't get it smile


Here are a few questions remaining:
- Can I change my text in the eLearning, things such as the registration text, courses we would like to name eLearnings etc.
- I now have a header image but when I click on a course that page has no header image anymore. How can I make sure it shows everywhere?
- Login as a quest should not be visible. How can I hide this?
- Students can now see a list of other students and I don't want them to see this. I went through all the settings and delete students form permissions but I still see the participants list.
- When someone enters the site and is not logged in, you only see courses in the left hand menu. This is perfect but on the right of it we would love to show some text to explain what this portal is for and what people can do here. Is it possible to have text here?
- A user can enter the course in preview mode. We don't want that as the user can already practice. Can you disable preview mode?
- A student still sees events in the top menu bar. But they can also create events. I also changed all the permissions but still they can make events. So the client said that it is okay if the Admin places events here and students can see it. So I placed a event as admin but it didn't appear in the student events list. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
- Recent changes is visible for students and we want to hide it. Also this I can not find
- In the user profile you have things such as User Picture, Additional names, Interests and Optional. Can we remove these from the profile?
- In the user profile section you have a box "Miscellaneous" it shows blog entries etc. Can we remove this?
- Also the site pages keep showing up in locations. Can we make sure that these are removed everywhere?

Sorry for the big list with questions. Please let me know if you can help and want to help ofcourse.

In reply to Dick Coppus

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Melanie Scott -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

I totally get that.  I have days (weeks...months) like that.  smile  I think most of these are not actually about scorm...but who's checking? (this might be when Dan says, I am...)

1. Can I change my text in the eLearning, things such as the registration text, courses we would like to name eLearnings etc.

The short answer is yes.  But I think you are looking for something more specific, like, how? and I'm not sure where you want that text to be changed.  In Moodle (Whole site or Course)?  In Captivate (as a whole course thing, like a preference, or throughout)?  Maybe give an example of what you have and what you want.

2. I now have a header image but when I click on a course that page has no header image anymore. How can I make sure it shows everywhere?

Where is your header?  Do you mean a Moodle site brand that doesn't show up when the scorm opens in a new window (you might think you want that...but it can be bad...maybe put the brand on your captivate)? Or do you mean in Captivate?  Is the header part of a Master slide?  Sometimes text on masters doesn't display right. Is it part of your preferences?

3.Login as a quest should not be visible. How can I hide this?

?  Login as guest? I'm hoping.  Go to Site Administration-> Plugins->Authentication scroll down, change guest login button to Hide.  I think this should take care of your problem.

4. Students can now see a list of other students and I don't want them to see this. I went through all the settings and delete students form permissions but I still see the participants list.

This might be a couple of questions.  Are you talking about the logged in users block?  If you remove student permission to see logged in participants, they can't see it.  You can see it because, as far as Moodle is concerned, you are God...not a student.  You can see anything.  Switch to student role or login to a student account (I have at least one 'test' student for just this purpose) to see how it displays or doesn't.  Depending on the activities or options available, you might not be able to completely block students from seeing other students (like forums).  Or if it is the block you're talking about, you could always disable the block entirely (hide it in the Site Administration->Plugins->Blocks area. I'd resist the urge to uninstall, just hide it).

5. When someone enters the site and is not logged in, you only see courses in the left hand menu. This is perfect but on the right of it we would love to show some text to explain what this portal is for and what people can do here. Is it possible to have text here?

Nearly anything is possible.  Just go to the front page (site home) and Edit Settings.  You can put anything you want in the front page.  It's a course, after all. 

6. A user can enter the course in preview mode. We don't want that as the user can already practice. Can you disable preview mode?

I'm guessing this is Captivate/scorm you are talking about here.  Yes.  Go to the scorm activity settings.  Open the Appearance area.  Click Show more (always click show more!).  Change disable preview mode to yes. Because, yes, you want it disabled.  I hate preview mode.  Better: Go to Site Admin->Plugins->SCORM package and set it to yes as a default.  I just did this and I'm super excited about it.

7.  A student still sees events in the top menu bar. But they can also create events. I also changed all the permissions but still they can make events. So the client said that it is okay if the Admin places events here and students can see it. So I placed a event as admin but it didn't appear in the student events list. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

I'm not sure entirely what you're asking.  If they add events, do they add them as user, course, category or site?  I'm not sure if you can modify.  Training them to add their events only for user? I've never had a problem with this...not sure how it works.  You might post a question in a non-scorm area where not scorm people who use the calendar/upcoming events blocks can give you better info.

8. Recent changes is visible for students and we want to hide it. Also this I can not find

Recent activity?  I just delete that block.  Then no one sees it. But if you want to keep it, go to the block settings, choose Permissions. Remove the student role from the view permissions. (You could do this for the logged in users block, too).

9. In the user profile you have things such as User Picture, Additional names, Interests and Optional. Can we remove these from the profile?

Is it possible?  Yes.  Is it a good idea?  NO.  Customizing these would possibly interfere with upgrades later.  The less you hack core, the better off you are.  You might be able to hide them.  Site Administration->Users->User Policies has an area that discusses hiding profile fields. I've never done it...so I'm not sure how it works or who exactly they are hidden from (only users? everyone? no idea).

10. In the user profile section you have a box "Miscellaneous" it shows blog entries etc. Can we remove this?

It only shows blog entries if blogs are enabled.  You can shut off blogs at the site level, if you want (maybe in the advanced features area?).  I'm sure you can modify profile sections but I couldn't tell you how.

11. Also the site pages keep showing up in locations. Can we make sure that these are removed everywhere?

I'm not really following.  Are you talking about a block? If you have a block on the site page that you only want on the site page, turn editing on and go to edit settings and choose the Configure option.  Change page contexts to display on front page only.  If you mean something else, please clarify.


Geez, this is long!  Hope it is helpful.

In reply to Melanie Scott

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Dick Coppus -

Hi Melanie,

Thanks for your help! A few things I had already solved.

1. I made changes in the language packs and this works for changing text

2. I'm using the BCU theme in moodle, but it only gives me the option to place a header image on the start page. This fine. 

3. Yeah I bumped into this one also. It's now taken of. Perfect!

4. Think I solved it, but will also check the blocks. Thanks!

5. I now made thumbnails available, still need to add text. Will dive into it

6. I solved this. It was in the spot you suggested. Thanks!


7.The students should not be able to do anything with events or agenda or blog. They can only view the events but should not be able to add events themselves, same for blog etc. I did play with permissions, but couldn't solve this yet.


8. Thanks will check

9. I already told them this would not be possible. It's a free LMS to use, but you can not expect everything ofcourse  

10. WIll check it out

11. Thanks will chcek it out.

Thanks for all the help. It was a lot of text but very helpful. Thanks so much.

In reply to Dick Coppus

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Dick Coppus -

Hi Melanie,

I almost have everything setup. One thing i still can't remove.

When I log in as a student and go to my eLearning. I have the calendar in my site navigation under Site Pages. When I click on the calendar I can add a "new event". Is it possible to hide the whole calendar and events part? Events I still see in the top navigation and also shows the calendar with the option to add a new event. 

I would love to take this out for students or at least make sure that they can not add events themselves. They can look in the calendar if they want and the admin could add events or news about release dates for new courses.

is this possible?

In reply to Dick Coppus

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Dick Coppus -

Hi Melanie,

I have managed to fix almost everything. I learned loads during the last couple of days. Do have to say that the Moodle structure is a little bit unclear. Switching of navigation needs to be set on every page. I see so many people struggling with this. Loads of PHP customization tips, while you can also do it with settings, but you have to do it on a million locations smile


So I managed to switch off all. I hided the side navigation bar everywhere and also the top navigation is turned off.

Basically I just turned all the navigation settings on every page to "not show". This works. But for the profile pages this doesn't work. When i'm on a profile page as admin and under navigation click settings to "not show" navigation. It is hidden, but on a students page it still gets shown.

Any Idea how to solve this?

In reply to Dick Coppus

Re: Captivate - Moodle & attempts

by Melanie Scott -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Getting used to how Moodle structures things takes time.  I've been working with Moodle for thirteen years and I still have days when I just shrug and tell people "dunno.  'cuz it does?" when they ask why something works a particular way.

If you really don't like the nav blocks, why don't you just remove them from the default home page?  There's a lot I can manage by just poking...I'm not sure what you want it to look like...but you might put a post in a non-scorm area about specifically what you're struggling with now (I think you sound pretty squared away on SCORM).  Someone who works with dashboard stuff or themes might have more perspective.