Category Archives: Access to Courses

Access to Courses, Building and Managing Courses

How to Use Course Merge Helper in Moodle

Please note: To use the Course Merge Helper feature in Moodle, you must have the role of Teacher in each course you would like to include in the merged course. If you do not have a Teacher role, you can ask another Teacher in the course to give you that role, or EAST can merge your courses for you (please fill out this form to request).

  1. On your Moodle dashboard, click on one of the courses you would like to merge.
  2. Once in the course, click Course settings at the top right (gear icon). At the bottom of the menu, click on “Create merged course shell.”
  3. In the box that says “Courses to merge,” start typing the name of the course (i.e. CHEM B200.001) and you should see courses in which you are a Teacher appear. Select the course you would like to merge, and it should then show up in blue above.
  4. To add another course, in that same box, search for the next course (i.e. CHEM B200.002). Select that, and you will see both courses in blue above the box.
  5. In the “Course full name” box, type or paste the merged course name (i.e. Organic Chemistry I Merged).
  6. In the “Course short name” box, type or paste the course short name in the following format: bmc.chem.b200.merged.f20 (or for Lab sections: bmc.chem.b200.labmerged.f20).
  7. Once you have entered that information, you do not need to change any settings below the course short name. Hit the Create button at the bottom.
  8. You should be taken out to the shell for your new merged course with the title you gave it. The original course shells will now be hidden and students will only see the merged course on their Moodle dashboard.
  9. To add a Panopto block to your merged course, please follow the directions Adding a Panopto Block to a Moodle Course. You can also contact help@brynmawr.edu if you need assistance with adding Panopto videos to a merged course.
Access to Courses

Troubleshoot Moodle Log-In Issues

General Troubleshooting Steps

If you are having difficulty logging in to Moodle, try the following:

  1. Make sure you are clicking the Bryn Mawr or Haverford button to log in, as shown in the image below. Students from other colleges (e.g., Swarthmore) enrolled in Bryn Mawr courses should use the Bryn Mawr option.

    • Only use the Login as guest option if you do not have a Bryn Mawr or Haverford userid. Guests will only be able to access courses that are guest accessible.
    • Do not use the Sysadmin login only section. It will only work for Moodle system administrators.
  2. Try logging into your college email or Bionic account with your college credentials.
    • If you can’t log in to these systems, there may be a problem with your account, password or Duo set-up.
    • Bryn Mawr users should contact theHelp Desk (610-526-7636, help@brynmawr.edu).
    • Haverford users should contact the ProDesk (610-896-1480, prodesk@haverford.edu).
    • Be sure to tell them you are having problems logging in to multiple systems.
  3. Open a private browsing window (called “incognito browsing” in Chrome) and try logging in again.
    • Need instructions for private browsing? Do a web search for “private browsing” and the name of your browser (i.e., Safari, Chrome, etc.).
    • If you can log in through a private browsing window, then your web browser has cached or saved old data that is interfering with your log-in. You can fix this by clearing your browser’s cache (search for “clear cache” and your browser name to find instructions).
  4. Open a different web browser and try logging in again (for example, if you usually use Safari, try Chrome).
    • If you can log in through a different browser, there is some incompatibility between your usual web browser and Moodle. Try upgrading your preferred browser to the most recent version. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you may need to use a different browser as a workaround until the incompatibility is resolved.

If You Are New to Bryn Mawr …

Moodle accounts and enrollments are created by Bionic. Bionic feeds data to Moodle periodically throughout the business day, but changes in Bionic do not instantaneously show up in Moodle.

IF

  • you have just been hired OR
  • you are a non-Bryn Mawr student who has just registered for your first Bryn Mawr course

AND

  • You are unable to log in OR
  • you can log in but see an error message saying you do not have a Moodle account
  • don’t see courses are enrolled in

THEN your data has not had time to sync in Moodle.

Wait a while and try logging in again, If a day passes and you can’t access Moodle, and none of the troubleshooting steps above help, then there is definitely a problem — please contact the Help Desk (610-526-7636, help@brynmawr.edu) and let us know!

Former Students, Faculty and Staff

Community members who graduate or leave the college will lose access to Moodle when their college username and password expires. For more information see Graduating Students — Account Access and Information for Departing Faculty and Staff.

Access to Courses

Enroll/Unenroll Participants in Moodle

If you have a Teacher role in a Moodle course, you can enroll other participants in it to give them access. The role you give them determines what they can do in the course. See Which Role Should I Use? below for a list of roles and what they are permitted to do.

Prefer video? See the Enrolling Learners video tutorial for Moodle 3.8

Table of Contents:

Enrolling Participants

  1. Open your course, and select Participants in the left sidebar menu. (Don’t see the sidebar? Click the (Site navigation bars) in the top menu to display it.)

Moodle sidebar with Participants selected

  1. Click the ENROLL USERS button.
  2. Start typing the name, email address or ID number of a person you want to add in the search box beneath Select users. When the right person appears in the drop-down menu below the search box, click on that person to select them.
  3. Repeat step 3 until you have selected all of the people you want to enroll and added them to the Select users area of the dialog window. (Click the x next to a name to remove it from this section.)

  1. Under Assign role, choose the role you want to give the selected users.
  2. Click Enroll Selected Users and Cohorts.

Pro tip: Many community members have similar names or go by different forms of their names. Search for email addresses or ID numbers (which are unique) to be sure you have the right person. 

Removing Participants

  1. Repeat step 1 above to display the Participants list for your course.
  2. Find the user you wish to remove, go to the Status column, and click the trashcan (Delete) icon.
  3. Click Unenroll on the confirmation page to approve the change.

Note: You won’t be able to manually remove participants with the role of Registered Student, since these users were added through Bionic. They will be marked as suspended when they are dropped from the official Bionic course roster. To hide students who have dropped, use the Filter option above the participants list to show only Active users. 

Which Role Should I Use?

  • Use Auditor to give a participant permission to view course resources, participate in course activities, and receive grades.
  • Use Non-editing Teacher to give a participant permission to view and grade student coursework, and view students’ grades.
  • Only give a Teacher role to participants who need to do everything non-editing teachers can do AND upload, copy, edit and delete course materials and activities (Quizzes, etc.). Anyone with a Teacher role could accidentally delete or reconfigure parts of your course!

Auditors vs. Registered Students

These two roles have exactly the same capabilities: Auditors can do and see everything that Registered Students can do and see. The only difference between the roles is that Registered Students were enrolled by Bionic and Auditors were enrolled by a human.

Bionic feeds enrollment data to Moodle, but Moodle does not feed anything back to Bionic. This means that a participant’s role in a Moodle course has absolutely no effect on their registration status in Bionic. In other words:

  • Teachers can enroll a student in a Moodle course as an Auditor to give the student access while registration is being finalized.
  • That student must also officially register for the course in Bionic to receive academic credit for it.

Self-Enrollment and Bulk Enrollment Options

The enrollment methods above work best when you are only enrolling a few people at a time. If you need to enroll many participants in a non-academic course, Moodle admin can help.

  • We can bulk enroll many participants at once if you can provide us with an Excel or CSV file containing first name, last name, and college email address. Email this file to help@brynmawr.edu with the name of the course you want them to be enrolled in and the role they should be assigned.
  • We can also enable Self-enrollment for any non-academic course to enable Moodle users to enroll and unenroll themselves in it. Once this is turned on you can configure different options, such enrollment duration limit or a welcome email. Email help@brynmawr.edu for more information.

These options are not available for academic courses, where registration is controlled by Bionic.

Access to Courses

Browse Moodle Courses During Registration

Guest access will be enabled for the current semester’s academic courses during pre-registration and registration to help faculty share course information with students who have not yet enrolled.

To browse for courses:

    1. Scroll down to the Course Categories block on your Dashboard.
    2. Click Academics, then find the category for the current semester and choose a subject (e.g., ANTH.SP21, BIOL.SP21, etc.).
    3. Click on the i (information icon) in the course listing to see the name of the instructor and any summary info they’ve added.
    4. You can click on the title of a course to enter it if any of the following is true:
      • You are enrolled in the course
      • There is anopen padlock icon(open padlock icon) in the course listing, indicating guest access is on.
      • There is a key icon(key icon) in the course listing, and you have the pass code to enter the course.
Access to Courses

Courses Not Showing Up on Moodle

Academic Courses

Academic courses are created in Bionic, and data from Bionic about new courses is periodically uploaded to Moodle to create new course sites. If you aren’t seeing an academic course, please use the following troubleshooting steps to narrow down the problem:

  1. Be sure you are looking on the right Moodle site. Each of the Tri-Colleges has its own, and your courses will show up on the site of the college hosting the course:
  2. Is the course showing up in Bionic?
    • If the course is in Bionic, but not Moodle, it was probably created after we last synced data about new courses with Moodle. Please email help@brynmawr.edu and let us know which course is missing so we can upload it into Moodle.
    • If the course is not yet in Bionic, then it needs to be created there first. Please contact the Provost’s Office or your department chair.
  3. Are you listed as a Teacher or Student in the course in Bionic?
    • By default, you will only have access to Moodle sites for academic courses that you are enrolled in through Bionic.
    • If you are teaching a course, but not listed as the teacher in Bionic, please contact the Provost’s Office or your Department Chair.
    • If you are a student, and not listed in the Bionic course roster, you need to register for it; please contact the Registrar’s Office for help with registration issues.
    • If you are listed as a teacher or student in the Bionic course, but not in Moodle,
    • If you are shopping a course and want temporary access to view readings or the syllabus, ask the professor to add you as an Auditor or to turn on Guest Access in order to allow all non-enrolled students to access to the course.

Non-Course Sites

Many departments on campus use Moodle for things other than academic courses that you register for in Bionic — for example, for placement tests, orientation “courses,” programs, and advising. These courses are created manually and in most cases enrollment is controlled by the person with the Teacher role who manages the site.

  • If you need access to a site, contact the person or department that manages it and make sure they have enrolled you as a participant.
  • If you are the person who manages the site:
    • Check the Participants list if and enroll anyone not listed to give them access.
    • If they are already enrolled in the Participants list but can’t access, email send and email with the name of the participant and the name of the course to help@brynmawr.edu.
Access to Courses

Guest Access to Moodle Courses

Guest access is the mechanism for allowing people who are not enrolled in a Moodle course the ability to see what is posted in that course. For academic courses, the College recommends:

  • Enabling guest access during pre-registration and shopping periods so that interested students can view the syllabus and get a sense of readings and course assignments
  • Disabling guest access after registration has closed unless there are pedagogical reasons to leave a course open.

Contents:

What Guests Can and Can’t Do

  • Guests can see everything you have posted to the course (including readings, videos, forum posts, etc.),
  • Guests cannot participate in course activities such as Quizzes.*
  • Guests do not need to have brynmawr.edu or haverford.edu credentials.
  • Guests can be prompted to enter password if you want to limit access.

*If students need to submit assignments or take quizzes in Moodle before they have officially registered a course, please enroll them in the course as Auditors. Remind the students that they still need to register — they cannot get academic credit for the course unless they officially register for it through Bionic and/or the Registrar’s Office.

Enabling/Disabling Guest Access for a Course

You must have a Teacher role in the course to do this.

  1. Log in to your course and click Participants in the left side bar (see below).

Screenshot with Participants Link

  1. Click the gear icon in the top right and choose Enrollment Methods from the drop-down menu (see below).

Screen shot showing gear menu and Enrollment Method

  1. If  Guest access is grayed out as shown below, it has been disabled. Click the Enable/Disable button (looks like an eye) to toggle Guest access on and off.

Screen shot showing enable/disable

  1. If you want to restrict guest access to specific people, click the Edit (gear) button next to the eye and add a Password, and give this password to people who need to enter the course. We strongly recommend creating a password for courses that will be permanently guest-accessible. 
  2. When you are finished, click Save changes.

The instructions below explain how to find guest-accessible courses on Moodle. You can also copy the URL of your course from your web browser’s address bar and share it (and the course password, if you set one) with your guests. If they aren’t already logged into Moodle, they will be prompted to do so when they click on your link — people without BMC or Haverford credentials can use the Log in as guest option.

Finding and Entering Guest-Accessible Courses

The Course Overview section on your Moodle Dashboard will only show courses you are enrolled in. To find and enter guest-accessible courses that you aren’t enrolled in:

  1. Log in to Moodle. (If you do not have an account on Bryn Mawr’s Moodle site, use the Log in as guest option.)
  2. In the Course Categories block at the bottom of your dashboard, you can:
    • Browse for courses in particular categories by clicking through the links/menus.
    • Search for a course by clicking All courses and typing keywords from the full or short name in the search box.
  3. Guest-accessible courses will have an Guest access icon (looks like an open padlock) next to the title.
  4. Click on the course title to enter. If you are prompted for a password, enter the course password the instructor or course organizer gave you (not your BMC password). If you don’t know the password or the password you were given isn’t working, contact the instructor/course organizer.