Get started with Moodle 4 staff guide

Course officers are enrolled at category level as Programme Administrators or Category only Programme Administrators to help with management of a programme of modules.

Programme Administrator role

In Moodle 4, staff enrolled as Programme Administrators are directly enrolled on the modules to get access to the Modules overview block on the Dashboard and My Modules page to organise and display modules. Users in this role can:

1. star modules for quick access
2. access visible modules from the Recently Accessed Modules block.

Users in this role will receive forum, assignment and Quickmail notifications from modules so need to manage their notifications and set up email rules.

Category only Programme Administrator role

On 24th October 2023, a new Category only role was launched. Category only Programme Administrators cannot:

1. star modules for quick access
2.  access visible modules via the Recently Accessed Modules block
3. filter by academic year to find modules. 

Category only Programme Administrators must search for and access modules using option 1 or 2 below.

1. Navigate to moodle4.city.ac.uk/course/
2. Activate the Modules block on your Dashboard.

Category only Programme Administrators will not:

• receive notifications from modules, unless they are also directly enrolled on the module in another role. This means that they do not need to manage notifications. 
• display in the list of Participants on modules, unless they are also directly enrolled on the module in another role.

Review the comparison table to identify which role will best help you with your day-to-day tasks on Moodle 

 You only need to activate the Modules block once and then the block will always be available to you from the Dashboard.

1. Turn Edit mode on from the top of the page.
2. Open the Block drawer to the right of the page.
3. Select Add a block. An overlay will display with available blocks. 
4. Select the block titled Modules. The block will be added to your block drawer.
5. You can use the compass icon to drag the block to the central column of the page.
6. Select the link to All modules at the bottom of the the block to view the categories. Please note that this will display all categories and not just those categories you are enrolled on.
7. Select the category you are enrolled on and from there you can use the Search modules input field or navigate through the module cards. 

Screencast: Add Modules block to Dashboard.

1. Navigate to moodle4.city.ac.uk/course/. Please note that this will display all categories and not just those categories you are enrolled on.
2. Select the category you are enrolled on and from there you can use the Search modules input field or navigate through the module cards. 

Direct enrolment on modules means that staff in the Programme Administrator role will receive notifications about activity in each Moodle module within a category. This will result in hundreds of emails a day unless action is taken.

Category only Programme Administrators do not need to manage notifications as you are not directly enrolled on all modules within a category.

Below are the steps required to manage notifications and reduce and organise email from Moodle  

1. Switch off notifications

To reduce the amount of emails from Moodle modules that you are directly enrolled on, switch off all notifications that are not locked.

1. Open the User menu by selecting your photo on the top right of Moodle.
2. Select Preferences.
3. Select Notification preferences from the panel on the left.
4. Toggle the button to off for email and web for all options that are not locked.
5. Check the box alongside Disable notifications. This seems to disable web notifications which lecturers might enable via the Assignment or Video Assignment activity.

2. Set Forum digest to subjects

Forum posts and digests are locked on for email to ensure students receive important communication from modules. To reduce the amount of emails received from a category of modules, set your Forum digest to Subjects (daily email with subjects only) to limit to one email a day from Moodle forums.

3. Set up two email rules in outweb (email.city.ac.uk)

To manage Forum digests and assignment notifications which are not controlled from Notification preferences you will need to set up an email rule. Additionally the notification setting to disable emails generated from Quickmail (Email within in Moodle modules) does not work. You will need a second email rule to manage these emails.

• Set up an outlook folder titled Moodle notifications.
• Set up email rule 1: This rule will manage Forum digests and email notifications from Moodle Assignment and Video Assignment activities. Sender address includes: noreply@city.ac.uk and Message body includes: Are you reading this in an email? This rule will help you to manage Forum digests and email notifications from Moodle Assignment and Video Assignment activities. 
• Set up email rule 2: This rule will manage emails from Quickmail. From: noreply@city.ac.uk and subject includes: 2023-24]
  • Ensure you add the close bracket to the subject. The subject is required as some notifications from other City services come from noreply@city.ac.uk

Rule settings for Rule 1

Rule settings for rule 2

Dismiss existing web notifications

To clear existing web notifications.

1. Select the notification (bell icon) to the right of the top navigation menu in Moodle.
2. Select the tick icon to mark all your web notifications as read.
3. This will clear existing web notifications.

IT are investigating if they can change the email address that generates emails from Moodle to a unique address that is not used elsewhere at City. This would enable Programme Administrators to use one rule to manage emails from Moodle.