At the beginning of each new academic year TEL receives many Moodle queries from staff – here are the top five that we’re asked:

Q1) I cannot see my unit(s) on my Moodle Homepage, why not?

A1) Are you a new member of staff or have you recently taken over the unit? Has the unit changed name/code and has it had a Moodle presence previously? These are some of the reasons you may not be able to see a unit on your homepage, to help us resolve the issue for you we will require some details about the unit(s) – the unit title and/or the unit code, the level of the access that you require for the unit(s), and your username. With this information we can add you to the unit or create a blank unit (or clone an existing one) for you to build.

Q2) My students are not attached to my unit, why not?

A2) Students are added to units in Moodle by mapping course codes and registration instances, or unit codes and attendance groups against Student Records. We do not manually add students as such access will not update should they change their units of study.  Let us know if you are missing students and we will try to see if we can resolve this problem for you or bring it to the attention of your course administrators if a change needs to be made in Student Records.

Q3) I can see my students are attached to my unit, but they are saying that they cannot see the unit, why not?

A3) It could be that your unit is still hidden from student view.  

To unhide your unit, go to the unit, click on the Administration tab, click on Edit settings, click on the drop down arrow in the Visible box, click on ‘Show’ scroll down and click on ‘Save and display’.  Once your students have refreshed their Moodle page, students should be able to see the unit.  If students still cannot see the unit, please supply the unit’s details and we will investigate to see if we can resolve this issue.  

It’s also important to remember that units ending in JAN stay hidden from student view until January, so you’ll see the students on the unit, but the students won’t see the unit on their homepage.

Q4) My colleague needs access to my unit, can I add them myself?

A4) Yes you can – click on the Administration tab, click on Users, then click on Enrolled users.  On this page click on the Enrol users box, a small box will appear, first assign the role you wish your colleague to have from the drop-down menu, then type their name in the search box and click on search. Find the person and click on the Enrol button next to their names, then click ‘Finish enrolling users’.  When your colleague refreshes their page or logs into Moodle the unit will appear on their homepage.  With Lecturer access you can give a colleague a ‘Lecturer’, ‘non-editing Teacher’ or ‘Guest’ role, you cannot assign the ‘Student’ role.

Alternatively, complete the Moodle Request form on the Self Service portal and we’ll add new users for you. See our Using Service Desk for your TEL Queries blog for more information.

Q5) Some students can see my unit but other students cannot. I have more than one unit code attached to it, is this the reason?

A5) Yes, Moodle only attaches the first unit code automatically, other unit codes within the title will need to be cohort synced once each year. For this to happen, please email the unit details to elearn@port.ac.uk and we’ll cohort sync the code(s) to the unit.