Hi, we haven't found a feature in Moodle to help us with our needs, maybe you could help us find it or solve the problem by different means?
I will explain our situation:
We have courses which have all the same format: 12 lessons divided in 3 units of 4 lessons each. The lessons follow a weekly schedule, but not strict. There are times in which the week gets extended and others in which it is shortened.
For each lesson there is a forum, in which people participate during the week that the related lesson is current. However, sometimes, at the teacher's discretion, two forums overlap for a day or two.
All forums need to be hidden at the beginning of the course and they have to open automatically at certain dates (at the beginning of the time allocated for each lesson). At the end of a lesson's time (usually one week), the forum needs to be closed to new additions, but it shouldn't be hidden from the students. It is a valuable reference for subjects discussed during the course. At the end of the course, therefore, 12 forums have to be available for consulting but closed to new interventions. I couldn't find a tool in Moodle to set automatically the opening date of each forum.
Meanwhile, a different behavior is expected from the rest of the course resources. A whole unit (for lessons) must be available to the student at the beginning of the course, while the following two must be completely hidden. After a month or so, with the beginning of lesson 5, both the forum n# 5 and the whole second unit must be made available for the students. However, the resources of lesson 1 shouldn't dissapear or be hidden, they are also resources that the students consult from time to time. 2 months more or less after the beginning of the course, at a certain date fixed previously, the third unit must be made available automatically, while the previous two must remain in their place for consultation.
However, I haven't found an utility in moodle to open resources or forums automatically at certain fixed dates, only the "eye" which must be operated manually. I hope my question has been understood.
The way moodle course formats are now, I couldn't choose weekly format because the weeks are fixed, they don't allow for manual changes to lenghten or shorten the week. I need to choose the topics format. In the topics format, I would choose a course with 3 topics, each topic a unit comprising 4 lessons? so the teacher could open the whole unit with just one click in the "eye". However, I would like the 3 forums that come after the first of each unit to open automatically at certain dates, and to remain hidden until then, is this possible in Moodle?
Thank you.
Fabian