Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Andrew Gates -
Number of replies: 12

Hi all,

I've created a tracker item to suggest a new option be added for when selecting the front page (ie the page users arrive at after successfully logging in).

This suggestion is that admins be allowed to specify a course page for this, instead of being limited to just the Dashboard or Site Home options.

Here's the link to the item: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-69750

I'd be interested in finding out how many other people might find this a useful improvement. 
I find the current choice of only Dashboard or Site Home very limiting and frustrating.

Thanks,

Andrew

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Maybe so. But I wonder exactly what you are thinking. When do you see the student logging in?

Others here might know exactly what you mean. But maybe you might want to add a few screenshots of how this would work, or a simple flowchart showing the logic.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Andrew Gates -
Hi Rick,

Thanks for the reply.

I've added the attached diagrams to the tracker item. I hope these might help to explain the idea.

The user would log in and then be taken to the custom page selected by the admin rather than Site Home or Dashboard. 

Cheers,
Andrew

https://moodle.org/pluginfile.php/2069566/mod_forum/post/1657219/MDL-69750-1%28PageFlow%29.jpg
https://moodle.org/pluginfile.php/2069566/mod_forum/post/1657219/MDL-69750-2%28Field1%29.jpg
https://moodle.org/pluginfile.php/2069566/mod_forum/post/1657219/MDL-69750-3%28Field2%29.jpg
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Okay, I see your desire. So, what happens if a student is in more than one course? Or at your school, is a person only allowed to be in one course?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Andrew Gates -

Hi Rick,

Most of our students are enrolled in more than one course.

The desire to divert users to a customised start page is motivated by at least two main factors:

1. the lack of flexibility of the Dashboard / Site Home

The more I think about it, the more surprised I am that it's currently not possible to land on a standard course page as a front page. This is the first page users encounter - especially new users - so it should be able to be customised extensively so it's welcoming, informative and a useful jumping off point to the content they need. 
Standard course pages provide just this capability - in contrast to the Dashboard or Site Home.

For example, for the Dashboard and Site Home, without resorting to extra css or adapting code...
a. some blocks can only be set to the right column and there is no built-in support for setting  columns or font size; not all blocks can be set to the centre area
b. blocks available on the Dashboard or Site Home are not universally available on other pages; if they are, they can't always be placed in the centre area (; so for a block showing enrolled pages for a long term user, this ends up being a block that runs down the right margin past any existing centre content)
c. if we want a list of enrolled pages that is condensed to just the links and in a small font, this is only available in user's menu > profile > course details

The equivalent to this user menu list on the Site Home or Dashboard is the Course Overview. This uses space by displaying info we don't need: in the old Course Overview this was tiles; in the newer version, using the List option, this is category and completion level.


2. the variety of our user groups

Our site is used as both a LMS and a staff intranet. Feedback from our users included the complaint that it wasn't clear once they'd logged in where to go to access the info they needed, and that there was info shown that wasn't relevant to them. For new users, this problem is worsened by unfamiliarity with the interface.

Options available in the Dashboard or Site Home don't allow easy customising of content for these user groups: tailoring access to individual items of content is possible by role in Site Home and Dashboard. 

So to use this option we'd need to create a role for each user group that would only be used on either of these two pages, and then assign each new user to one of these roles in the system context. We have around 75 user groups for 2020, not accounting for students who are in second or third years of study. Users can belong to more than one group at a time.

Also, some of our students are enrolled in courses that last only a few days. So they don't have as much opportunity to get used to finding what they need. These students can be pretty much any age.

Thanks,
Andrew


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Let me take a slightly different approach. Since your students might be in more than one course, wouldn't it be better to show students the available courses, let them pick their course of interest, have them log in if they are not yet logged in, and then take them right to the course that they picked?

There is no right or wrong logic. I am just presenting an idea to you.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Andrew Gates -

Interesting idea! You're right - that is a different approach to the situation!
A great option for when you know exactly where you want to go.

With this front page change, I guess I'm thinking more on the lines of a hub page though.
This could provide an initial landing point with current news, guidance for new users in where to find particular content, and a jumping off point to multiple pages.

Thanks

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
I am not being a wiz at any of this, just offering an idea. Take a look at my Moodle frontpage. Courses are presented. My students pick their course of interest, then log in, then are taken right to the course that they picked. Maybe your students come to your Moodle saying "I have no clue which course I am going to work in, I wish the Moodle admin would decide for me."  But don't most students know what they want to study?

Anyway, my Frontpage is just an example of a number of ways that Moodle shows its frontpage.  I am not doing anything special.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Andrew Gates -
Hi Rick,

Thanks!

I like your page - food for thought.

A couple of questions.
1. Yes our main students would know what page they want to go to. So if they want to go from the page they select off your front page to another, would they go back to the front page? As I noticed that you only have Home in your nav bar, and no courses listed in your top menu.
2. Do you have much experience with multiple languages in the one Moodle instance? Also noticed this selection in your top menu.

Cheers,
A
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
1) My students would know which "course" they want to go to, yes. If a student happens to be in more than one course, they would see their other courses in the NavDrawer. Those other courses are one mouse-click away and would not even require a login. (Maybe two clicks away if the student chose to compress the NavDrawer.) Yes, you notice only a Home in my NavDraw because you are not logged in, nor are you enrolled in any courses.
2) Yes, I provide the multiple languages menu in my top Nav Bar. I haven't tracked how many students switch languages. However, I do think that some Chinese students like to make the switch, so it does happen. These multiple languages are built into Moodle, so it doesn't take much work to do what I did.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Randy Thornton -
Picture of Documentation writers
Andrew,

I think this is a valuable idea. There are some types of sites where you want to have a single, central place for users to land, a place over which you have a lot of control. Right now, the only object that could do this is a course.

In business sites, having a single course into which all users are enrolled which serves as a general 'hub" or "commons" like course for all users is pretty common. I've built any number of sites like that, and the usual solution to this is to have a link on the real front page that users click to go to the hub course. Being able to automatically redirect would be very useful in such cases. (I usually add one of the auto-enrol plugins to help with this.)

+1 and voted up.

Randy
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Randy Thornton

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Andrew Gates -

Thanks Randy!

Can I ask: 
when you say 'I usually add one of the auto-enrol plugins to help with this', to help with what exactly?

A

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Andrew Gates

Re: Front page - allow selection of pages other than Dashboard or Site Home

by Randy Thornton -
Picture of Documentation writers
If you want all users to be in a common course, you have to get them enrolled somehow. One easy way to do this is to use one of the Auto-enrol plugins so that the user is automatically enrolled in the course when the click into the link to the course. No extra admin work or pre-enrollment needed.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)