For more information: Course settings - MoodleDocs
Moodle course settings allow instructors to customize how a course appears, functions, and is accessed, including visibility, layout, and completion tracking. Although most course settings function well with their default configurations, this article explains each option and its purpose, so you can confidently customize your course when needed.
New instructors are strongly encouraged to pay particular attention to Course visibility and Course format, as these foundational settings shape how your course is presented to students.
To access course settings, instructors can navigate to the course page and select Settings from the course navigation menu. Each setting typically has a help icon that provides additional information about its purpose and usage.
General
General
The General section contains the foundational settings for your course. While several fields are managed at the administrative level, instructors can adjust Course visibility, Course start date, Course end date, and the ability to download course content. Reviewing and confirming these settings at the start of each term helps ensure your course is available and displayed as intended.
Instructors can edit
Instructors cannot edit
Course full name:
This is the course name. It is displayed as a link on course lists, on the Dashboard, and in reports.
The course's full name is determined by a Banner-based course-naming convention.
Format (subject)(course number) _ (section) _ (Term) – (Course Title)/(CRN#)
Example: MAT081_70_SP26 – Beginning Algebra/10000
Course short name:
A shorthand way of referring to a course.
The course's short name is determined by a Banner-based course-naming convention.
Format (subject)(course number) _ (section) _ (Term)
Example: MAT081_70_SP26
Course visibility:
If you do NOT open (Show) your courses to students on your own, your 16-week and 8-week courses will open automatically on the business day before the first day of classes at 4pm.
Instructors are fully responsible for opening variable start/end date courses.
Show/Hide
Hide: Courses are only viewable to the instructor. Students do not see or have access to the course.
Show: Courses are visible to anyone enrolled in the course, including instructors and students.
*Do not set courses to Show until you are ready for students to view the course.
Enable download course content:
This setting determines whether users (instructors/students) can download course content for offline viewing.
Course start date:
The course start date is set to the first day of class; however, instructors can move it earlier if they want students to view the course on their My Courses page under “In progress”, before the official start date. Otherwise, the course will be shown under “Future” until the start date if the course visibility above is set to Show.
Example Scenario:
You want the course open to students one week before the start of the semester, so they can view the syllabus and get a sense of the course's flow. The course's official start date is January 12th. On January 5th, change the start date to January 5th and set the course visibility to Show.
Course end date: (editing not advised)
The course end date doesn’t restrict student access to the course. It determines whether a course is listed as Past in My courses.
The course end date is predetermined by Banner and should not be edited.
Course ID number:
Same as the course short name. The Course ID number is used to connect external systems to Moodle.
Description
Description
You can customize how your course appears in Moodle search results.
Course Summary
Optional: A short description of the course. The content you add here will appear when users search for the course.
Course Image
Optional: Upload a course banner image here
The course image displays at the top of your course and is also displayed in My courses and in the list of available courses on the Home page.
A recommended Image size is 1920px by 250px. Experiment to find the best size for you.
Top of Course View:
Search Results View:
Course Format
Course Format
A course format refers to the layout of a course. Each format has its own set of settings.
Custom sections
Custom sections
The course is divided into customizable sections that a teacher can title. You can add content and activities to each section.
Settings
Hidden sections
Hidden sections are shown as not available: Hidden sections will still be visible to students but they will not be able to see any content in the sections.
Hidden sections are completely invisible: Hidden sections are not visible to students.
Course Layout: Course sections can be displayed on a single page or split across multiple pages.
Flexible sections format
Flexible sections format
Organizes 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
Settings
Show top section title: When enabled, the general section will have a title and will be collapsible.
Display course index: Options on how the course index (left-hand collapsible column) will be displayed. Options include Sections and activities, only sections, and do not display.
Accordion effect: Opens and closes sections in an accordion-style fashion.
Display back link in activities: Displays a link back to the section page at the top of the activity.
Onetopic format
Onetopic format
The onetopic format shows each topic in a tab.
Settings
Hidden sections:
Hidden sections are shown as not available: Hidden sections will still be visible to students but they will not be able to see any content in the sections.
Hidden sections are completely invisible: Hidden sections are not visible to students.
Hidden sections are shown in collapsed form with available message: the hidden tab will be visible but different from the others that are not, and will not allow access. In case of clicking on the hidden tab with this option, you can read a warning indicating that it is not available.
Hide tabs bar: Tabs are completely hidden. To navigate between sections, use the arrows at the bottom of the page.
Visualization mode of section 0: The general section can be displayed as its own tab or before the tabs.
Use topic summary as template: This option allows the content in a topic summary to be used as an HTML template, so that resources can be placed anywhere in the content, not necessarily as sequential lists as traditionally shown in Moodle.
Show icon in resource links in summary: This option defines whether or not the resource icons are displayed when the summary is used as a template.
Tabs view: The “Tab View” option allows tabs to be placed in a vertical menu or in a single line with scrolling if there are many tabs. This reduces clutter in courses that have a large number of topics, a lot of content in the topics, or a combination of both.
Uses sections navigation: show/position of buttons for navigation to next or previous sections.
Uses course index: Use the course index bar to navigate through the sections and resources.
Tiles
Tiles
The tiles format displays course topics as "Tiles", rather than as a list. When clicked, tile content is displayed under the tile with an animated transition. The layout adapts to different screen sizes and orientations. Within each tile, activities can also be set to display as "sub-tiles". Icons for each tile can be selected from a predefined set (i.e. the teacher does not need to upload them).
Settings
Tile Icon: The icon selected here will appear on all tiles in this course by default. Individual tiles can have a different icon selected, or a background photograph, using the different setting at the tile level.
Colour for tiles: The color set here will be applied to all tiles in the course
Use sub tiles for activities: Within each tile, show every activity as a sub tile, instead of as a list of activities down the page.
Use sub tiles in top section: If selected, sub tiles will be used in top section of course as well as within all tiles. Only available if using sub tiles in the course overall. This is as the sub tiles take up a lot of room at the very top of the course. It may be better to leave this unselected, so that any items in the top section are shown in standard list format instead.
Progress on each tile: When selected, the user’s progress with activities will be shown in each tile, either as a fraction (e.g. ‘Progress 2/10 meaning 2 out of 10 activities complete), or as a percentage in a circle.
Filter Bar (outcomes): When selected, will automatically display an array of buttons before the tile screen in a course, which users can click to filter down tiles to certain ranges
Emphasise headings with coloured tab: Display a colored tab to the left of the heading in the course whenever a heading style is selected in the text editor
Collapsed Topics
Collapsed Topics
The Collapsed topics format creates a collapsible menu system which groups items by topic or week as desired.
Settings
Hidden sections
Hidden sections are shown as not available: Hidden sections will still be visible to students but they will not be able to see any content in the sections.
Hidden sections are completely invisible: Hidden sections are not visible to students.
Display Instructions: States whether the instructions should be displayed to the user or not.
Appearance
Appearance
This section is typically left at its default settings, but can be modified if desired.
Force language: Do not force, English (es_mx), English (United States) (es_mx).
Number of announcements:
The announcements forum has forced subscription set by default. Only teachers and other users with appropriate permission can post in it.
If you don’t require an announcements forum, set this to zero.
This setting also determines how many recent announcements appear in the latest announcements block.
Show gradebook to students: Allows students to view a list of all their grades in the course.
Show activity reports: Allow students to view their own activity reports via their profile page.
Show activity dates: Show activity dates on the course page.
Files and uploads
Files and uploads
Maximum upload size: The Site's upload limit is 100 MB
Defaulted to 100 MB
Completion tracking
Completion tracking
Completion tracking must be enabled for Activity completion. Course completion criteria may also be based upon Activity completion values found in the activity's settings.
Enable completion tracking: if enabled, you can set conditions for activity completion or course completion
Show activity completion conditions: Show activity completion conditions on the course page.
Groups
Groups
Here you can define the group mode at the course level. If you do not set the group mode here, you can still use groups in various activities.
Group mode
No groups
Separate groups
Visible groups
This setting will be the default group mode for all activities defined within the course.
The group setting can affect what users see in the participants list and who they can interact with in activities.
Force group mode
If the group mode is "forced" at a course-level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. This will override any activities that may have a special group setting.
Default grouping
If groupings are enabled, a default grouping for course activities and resources may be set.
Tags
Tags
Tags allow students and teachers to connect different types of content on the site. Type the tag you want in the "Enter tags" block and hit Enter. The tag will apply to to the course and will appear above the dropdown.
Resource: Tags - MoodleDocs