Course settings

General course settings can be edited in the block on the left Administration – Edit settings.

The text in the Course summary field is visible to all Moodle visitors even without entering the environment. This could be a brief description of the course. When a blank Moodle course is created via SIS or by updating syllabus data, the brief description of content of the course in SIS is automatically added as course summary.

To edit the course, select Administration and Edit settings.

• Course full name – the official name of the course visible to all in the course list. It is derived automatically from the SIS.
• Short name – a shortened version of the course name (usually course code) can be seen in the navigation bar of the browser. Short name is used to create a link between a specific e-course and the syllabus in SIS. It is derived automatically from the SIS.

• Course visibility – determines whether the course can be seen in the list of courses (it is a required for enrolment to the course and, for learners, also to enter the course).
• Course start date – the weekly course format will run from this date.
• Course end date
• Course ID number – an alphanumeric identifier of the course. It is generated automatically.
• Course summary – a description of the course that is visible to anyone who clicks the course name in the list of all courses (includes, for example, the topic, target group, goals, teacher, etc.). The description used in SIS is automatically added to e-courses created via SIS.
• Files – an image of 185 x 112 pixels is used as a thumbnail for the course in the block of recently visited courses on Moodle dashboard. 
• Format – Weekly format (course is organised week by week), Topics format (course is organised into topics), Collapsed topics (sections can be opened and closed, simultaneously one or more sections can be shown) and Flexible sections format (possible to create subsections, each section can be shown as open or closed). The chosen format may be changed later, if necessary.
• Hidden blocks – hidden blocks are not shown at all or shown as small grey icons.
• Course layout – it is possible to split the course content over several pages by modules (i.e., by weeks or topics).
• Force language – changes the course language according to the edited setting.
• Number of announcements – the number of announcements displayed in the Latest announcements block.
• Show gradebook to students – choose whether grades are displayed to the learner (yes) or not (no).
• Show activity reports – choose whether the learner is shown their activity log file.
• Course files – yes – there is a course file folder in the menu on the left; it is recommended you place all your course files in that folder.
• Maximum upload size – the maximum size of a file that can be added to a course at a time (recommended up to 2 Mb; can be increased during the course, if necessary).

• Completion tracking – yes – allows you to add the Course completion block to the course.
• Group mode affects the whole course: No groups  (learners are not divided into groups), Separate groups (learners cannot see the learners or activities of another group), Visible groups (learners of different groups can see each others’ activities but cannot use the tools of other groups). If studies are conducted in groups and you want to view the gradebook by groups, set a non-forced group mode (any mode). In this case a dropdown menu appears in the gradebook, in which you can filter the learners by group.

• Force group mode affects all activities in the whole course. If the group mode is not forced, the group mode can be separately determined for activities.
• Grouping – it is possible to form groups into larger groups inside a course (Administration – Users – Groups – Groupings) and set terms for using tools for those groupings.
• Role renaming. It is not necessary to rename roles in a course, because different names in different courses may cause confusion in learners.
• Tags – keywords that can be entered in the pages of the course, activities, and tools and that are displayed in the Tags block which is added to the course.