Flexible sections format

Course formats ::: format_flexsections

Maintained by

Marina Glancy

Organises course content in any number of sections that can be nested. Each section can be displayed on the same page or on a separate page

Latest release: 8 aso

3329 sites

1k downloads

133 fans

Current versions available: 9

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This course format looks very similar to Topics format except:

sections can be added inside other sections
each section (regardless of its nesting level) can be shown either on the same page as parent or on a separate page. Teacher can change it in edit mode.
If section is displayed on a separate page, it's name is displayed as a link and on this page the link "Back to ... " is displayed

If teacher hides a section all nested sections and activities become hidden as well.

Please note that if section has both activities and subsections activities are displayed first.

On the attached screenshots the section "Quizzes" has tree subsections - "Science" and "Mathematics are displayed on the same page and "Other Uses" on a separate page. Note how course navigation looks like in this case.

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Screenshots

Contributors

Marina Glancy (Lead maintainer)

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Comments

Marina Glancy
Par, 18 Pae 2013, 8:43 AM
Hi Deirdre. No, this course format was actually made as a demonstration of possibilities of the new course formats API introduced in 2.4.
Night Owl
Hor, 20 Pae 2013, 7:41 AM
Okay, thank you. Are you using flexible format on this page? The menu to the right is just what I need.
mart van der niet
Hor, 20 Pae 2013, 8:18 PM
Very usefull plugin. But...I;ve run into a problem:
After moving some sections and subsections the top navigation
The "Back to course 'xxxx'"
seems to be gone.
Anyway to fix this?
Marina Glancy
Hin, 22 Pae 2013, 9:55 AM
Dairdre, "this page" is not a course - this is local plugin. And even if it was a course - the location of blocks is controlled by a theme. Course format only aligns the activities and affect navigation menu inside the course.

Mart, can you please write step by step what have you done and what has happened. Also can you please create an issue in tracker under Add-ones project: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB (even though there is no componenet yet for this course format). Thank you
Marina Glancy
Hin, 22 Pae 2013, 9:56 AM
Deirdre, sorry for mistyping your name
Heidi Gartenberg
Apa, 1 Hara 2013, 5:09 AM
I was wondering if there is any documentation (I searched but couldn't find) about how the module is intended to work. I have installed and setup a course with great looking and behaving nesting. Everything expands and collapses as I expected but only while editing is turned on. Once I turn editing off the expand/collapse behavior disappears. Is this intended?
Marina Glancy
Par, 2 Hara 2013, 5:25 PM
Heidi, yes it is intended. In editing mode you can choose if the section appears collapsed or expanded. I will think on how to make it more clear. Also there was a suggestion that students can personalise the expanded/collapsed mode for each section
Heidi Gartenberg
Hor, 4 Hara 2013, 3:13 AM
Thanks for clarifying Marina. Flex sections is definitely a great improvement for Moodle so thanks for that. I was so hoping for the ability to allow students to expand/collapse topics on the main course page that I somehow missed the indications in the forum posts and module description that this is not what this module does - yet. Hopefully it will be on the roadmap.
Gareth J Barnard
Par, 16 Hara 2013, 5:55 PM
Hi Marina,

Will there be a M2.5 version ready before the start of iMoot next week please?

Cheers,

Gareth
Gareth J Barnard
Par, 16 Hara 2013, 5:55 PM
P.S. If there was a GitHub published I could have a bash at making the API changes.
Marina Glancy
Mer, 17 Hara 2013, 11:21 AM
Hi Gareth, I'll do my best. The github link was published inside the version information, sorry, not very evident: https://github.com/marinaglancy/moodle-format_flexsections
Gareth J Barnard
Tū, 21 Hara 2013, 5:01 AM
Thank you Marina
mart van der niet
Hor, 25 Hara 2013, 2:44 PM
Earlier problem with navigation disappearing seems to be solved. Cause was the Decaf theme. New version of theme works fine with Flexsections!

Request: could the "Merge with parent" and "Move" buttons be separated from each other? I think I have at least 5 times mistakenly merged a section when trying to move it... (I'm a bit of a slow learner)
Natasja Bolltn
Tū, 28 Hara 2013, 10:07 PM
Hi Marina!
Thanks for the info about the Flexible Sections Format, it's almost exactly what we've been looking for for structuring our language courses.
I seem to be having two problems with it:
- As a teacher, I cannot hide/show sections, I don't see the 'eye' icon anuwhere. Is this normal? Is there something I need to change in the settings?
- I've activiated 'Activity completing' at course level and I'd like to have my students indacate manually whether they've completed an activity. , However, I don't see the 'checkbox' anywhere, is this normal? Can I move the checkbox to the left or is there an other way to make it visible?

Thank you so much for your help!
Best regards,
Natasja
Marina Glancy
Apa, 29 Hara 2013, 10:47 AM
Hi Natasja, hiding sections has just been added in the latest version. Make sure that you use it.
Activity completion must also be enabled for each individual module, this does not depend on course format.