16.4. Users User management can be one of the most time-consuming jobs for a system administrator. As your system grows, the number of users who lose their password or have difficulty creating a new account grows as well. Fortunately, there are a few tools to help make the job of user management easier. 16.4.1. Authentication In Chapter 2, we covered how to create a user account using email authentication. You created the account and Moodle sent you an email with a link to confirm your address. While this is an effective and efficient way to create new accounts, Moodle provides a number of other account-authentication methods as well. If you are in a university environment and have access to a university email or directory server, you can tell Moodle to use them to authenticate new user accounts instead. External servers prevent users from creating multiple accounts and prevent people from outside the university accessing your server when they shouldn't. Moodle provides the following account-authentication methods:
Email-based Email authentication is the default account-authentication method. With this method, users can create their own accounts. They then receive an email at the address they specified in their account profile to confirm their account.
Manual This method requires the administrator to manually create all user accounts. If you are using Moodle with a limited number of people or are synchronizing your database with a student-information system, use this method.
No authentication Users can create accounts with no external validation. Avoid using this option if you can.
Use FirstClass/POP/IMAP/LDAP/NNTP server These methods use an external server to check a user's username and password. If the name and password match the data on the mail server, an account with the same username and password is created on your Moodle site. Unfortunately, to avoid a performance bottleneck, Moodle doesn't check the password every time a user logs in. This means that if a user changes his email password on the external server, he will also need to change it in Moodle as well.
Use an external database This functions much like the other external account-authentication methods. The difference is that it uses a database of user data, such as the one in a student-information system. Once the username and password stored in the external database have been validated, you can tell Moodle to copy additional data. This is done by mapping fields at the bottom of the database-authentication screen. Each data field in the user profile has a text field next to it. Enter the name of the column in the external database that maps to the profile data field. 16.4.2. Add and Edit User Accounts Once you've configured authentication, you'll want to be able to maintain users' accounts. Below the authentication link are three other tools: edit user accounts, add a new user, and upload users.
Edit user accounts Allows you to edit the user profile of anyone on the system. Most frequently, you will use this to reset user passwords if users are unable to log in.
Add a new user Allows you to create a new user account. You must use this if you've set authentication to manual and need to add a new user. The form to add a new user looks just like the new user profile page in Chapter 2 you used to create your own account.
Batch upload users Allows you to add a number of users at once using a text file. If you have a student-information system at your institution but are unable to connect directly to the database, you may be able to export user data from the database as a text file and upload it into Moodle. The user data text file must follow a certain format. The first line contains the names of the column headers, such as username and password. Below the first line, each user record must be on one line and each column must be separated by commas. The user text file must have the following columns: username, password, firstname, lastname, and email. These columns are optional: institution, department, city, country, lang, timezone, idnumber, icq, phone1, phone2, address, url, description, mailformat, maildisplay, htmleditor, and autosubscribe. You can also enroll students in courses using the text file. In the column headings folder, list course1, course2, etc. Then in the data file, put the courses' short names in the appropriate columns. So a properly formatted course-enrollment text file would look like: |username, password, firstname, lastname, email, course1 |student1, abc123, Jane, Student, jstudent@mail.com, mdl101 |student2, abc124, Joe, Student, joe@university.edu, mdl101
The course-enrollment feature can be a handy way to enroll students in a university-wide course on how to use Moodle and other university resources. I wouldn't use the user upload feature to enroll students in their regular courses, however. It's useful to keep the user data and the enrollment data separate so you don't have to constantly reload students to change their enrollments. In the next section, we'll explore some other ways to make sure students have access to their courses. 16.4.3. User Roles Once users have accounts on the server, they need access to the courses they are taking. The first step is to enroll the user in a course. By default, students must enroll themselves in their courses. Fortunately, Moodle now includes some tools to automatically enroll students in the proper courses. But users also need to have the proper permissions once they are enrolled. Teachers need to have teacher permissions so they can build their courses. This next section explores the tools you will use to manage user enrollment and roles. 16.4.3.1. Enrollments The enrollment settings are similar to the authentication settings. You can choose between four methods of associating user data with the correct courses:
Internal Enrollment The default enrollment method. It requires students to find their courses and enroll manually. They can enroll in any course unless it has an enrollment key (see Chapter 2 for details on setting a course-enrollment key). This is an easy method to use, but it isn't very secure.
External Databases This method looks up enrollments in another database. You'll need to configure the login settings so Moodle can access the remote server. You'll then need to map the fields in Moodle to the fields in the remote database.
Flat File Like the upload users tool, this method checks for an enrollment file at the specified location. If it finds a new file, it will process the data. The file should be structured with the action, role, student number, and course's short name. There is a good example of a flat file in the flat-file instructions.
Paypal The latest enrollment addition, PayPal enrollment allows you to set up an e-commerce system so students can pay to enroll in a course. If you are running a business selling Moodle-based courses, this is an easy way to enable students to use a credit card. 16.4.3.2. Enroll students Enrolling students by hand is a tedious task. If you can, I recommend using one of the above methods to avoid this chore. But occasionally, a student or teacher will need access to a class that is not part of their regular schedule. To enroll students in a course: Click the Enroll Students link. Find the course to which you want to add students. Click the link for that course. Once in the course, click on the Students link in the course Administration panel. Find the name of the student you want to add to the course and select it. Click the left arrow to move the name to the course-enrollment box.
Of course, unless there is a good reason for you as system administrator to enroll students in a course, it's usually better to give leave the responsibility of maintaining their course rolls to the teachers. 16.4.3.3. Assign Teachers, Creators, and Admins As the system administrator, you are also responsible for adding teachers, course creators, and other system administrators. Assigning teachers to their courses is critical (unless you are using an alternative enrollment method). Otherwise, teachers will never be able to access their courses. Course creators can create courses they teach themselves, which is one way to overcome this limitation. To add a teacher to a course: Click Assign Teacher in the course Administration panel. You will then see the course category list. Click on the category that includes the course you need. Find the course that needs a teacher. Click on the teacher icon to the right of the course name. Find the course teacher in the list of system users and click Add Teacher.
The only tricky step to adding teachers is identifying the correct icon. As of this writing, the face icon is second from the left. The "assign course creators" link allows you to identify specific users as being authorized to create and teach their own courses. If you are managing a small Moodle system, this is not a bad way to go. If you are administering a small Moodle installation for your department, then enabling your colleagues to create their own courses removes you as a potential bottleneck. If the other teachers are enabled to create their own courses, they may also take more ownership in the system as a whole. If you are running a university-wide server, however, I do not recommend using this extensively. On a large installation, it can become difficult to track who is creating legitimate courses and who is abusing the system. A large number of bogus courses will clutter your system and could lead to performance slowdowns. To enable course creators: Click on the Assign Creators link in the Site Administration panel. In the right column, select the names of the new creators. Click the left arrow to add them to the creators column.
Once someone has been designated as a course creator, they can add their own courses and create new courses using the restore procedure. System administrators have unlimited authority on their Moodle server. You should limit the number of people with administrator privileges to a bare minimum. A lot of people with administrator access is a recipe for disaster since they can add accounts and courses and change site variables at will. To assign system admins: Click on the Assign Admins link in the Site Administration panel. In the right column, select the names of the new administrators. Click the left arrow to add them to the admin column.
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