Summary

Profile field enrollment is a Moodle plugin that Refined Training has enhanced with the ability to enrol users, with designated values in their profile, into a course or to indicate required or recommended courses for users.

Multiple instances of an enrollment method, depending on different values in the profile fields, can be added to the same course to simultaneously:

• recommend the course to groups of users
• require enrollment for users

Click here for Moodle documentation on the basic profile field enrollment plugin.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Adding profile field enrollment as an enrollment method

To add profile field enrollment as an enrollment method in a course, the profile field enrollment needs to be enabled. Navigate to administration >>>> site administration >>>> plugins >>>> enrollments >>>> manage enroll plugins

Locate profile field enrollment in the list of options and click on the closed eye icon to enable the method.

Click settings to access the profile field enrollment settings to select a role within the course to which the profile field enrollment method is applied. In this example, an end user in the designated course role of student will be able to enroll in a course if that user has a profile field set to an expected value for enrollment. This applies to all instances of the enrollment method.

Adding profile field enrollment to a course

After profile field enrollment is enabled at the site level the enrollment method can be applied to any course. To do this navigate to the course and select course administration >>>> users>>>> enrollment methods

On the enrollment methods page, use the drop-down menu to add a profile field enrollment.

Fill in the required settings, which include:

• user profile fields - these are the fields the system will look at to reference if the enrollment method should apply. To select multiple fields, use the shift key or control key.
• expected values - these are the actual values for the profile field. These are entered in a comma separated format.

For example, select “city/town”, “system role”, and “manager” from the user profile fields, and enter the expected values of “Toronto,Sales,12” where the number 12 indicates the Manager ID.

RT TIP - This enrollment method will enrol any user whose profile matches at least one of the criteria. Users do not have to meet all three sets of criteria to be enrolled; one match will enroll the user into the course.  

Two different expected values can be added for one field. For example, for the profile field “city/town”, enter “New York,Paris” as the expected value and all users who have either location of New York or Paris in their city/town profile field, will meet the enrollment requirements.

Multiple instances of profile field enrollment can be added to a course. Refined Data Solutions recommends having a custom instance name for each profile field enrollment rule to minimize confusion for the end users on the course enrollment page. This is especially helpful when using group enrollment.

For each enrollment instance, different profile fields and expected values can be entered and separated by start date.

Manager ID

Managers and Locations are entered as ID numbers in the expected values field. The ID number of a manager or a location is found by going to the Refined Tools block on the front page and selecting managers/locations.

Hover over the name of the manager or location. In the lower left corner a URL displays with the ID number.

If planning to use this feature for a large number of managers and locations, contact support@refineddata.com for a quick ID reference report.

In this example, the URL displays ?id=12.

Note about country codes

If using “country” as a profile field for designation, the country must be entered as a two-letter code. To determine the correct two-letter code, check the associated language strings by navigating to site administration >>>> language >>>> language customization >>>> core: countries.php.  If desired, the country code can be revised in the language string.

Notice to teachers

When a user is enrolled into a course, the course teacher can receive a notification of the enrollment. Only the user(s) with the role “teacher” in the course context will receive the notification. Users who are assigned the role “teacher” at the system level will not receive the notification unless they are also assigned the teacher role in the course context.

To access the notification, navigate to course administration >>>> users >>>> enrollment methods, and select the checkbox for Notify Teacher(s)?

The course teacher (Kyle Aryan in the example below) will receive the following message:

The teacher can click on the wrapped link to see the student’s profile. This link is an improved URL that is wrapped (unlike the Moodle standard to reveal the entire URL).

Duration, start date and end date

Additional options to complete the set-up of the profile field enrollment method can be refined using three additional options:

• duration - duration designates a time period for which a user is enrolled in the course
• start date - the start date determines when the enrollment in the course can begin
• end date - the end date determined when enrollment in the course is over

Enable any of these options by selecting the enable checkbox next to each option, then set the duration (number of days or weeks, etc.) or the start date and end date.

Group enrollment

Group enrollment further expands profile field enrollment by providing an option for the end user to select into which group they would like to be enrolled. Group enrollment also allows the site administrator to set a default group into which they would like the end user to enroll. This feature allows the end user to select the group/grouping associated with a date and time that fits their needs when enrolling into a course.

To use this feature, groups and groupings must be enabled. Click here to learn more about groups and groupings. Groups/groupings can be set as a default mode in the course default settings. Navigate to site administration >>>> courses >>>> course default settings >>>> scroll to the groups section >>>> select the group mode of:

• no groups
• separate groups
• visible groups

Because there can be multiple enrollment methods for one course,  selecting a default group mode ensures that the enrollment into the course is respecting the default group mode of no groups, separate groups, or visible groups.

If no group parameter is present at the course default level, then the end user’s enrollment is set to the default enrollment for any existing groups within the course. This course default setting takes precedent only if other parameters are not present.

Group enrollment display

Navigate to course administration >>>> users >>>> groups >>>> to create new groups and groupings or to edit existing groups and groupings. The option for group enrollment displaydetermines what groups an end user can view on the enrollment page in a drop down menu format.

These display options can be set to:

• do not display groups - the end user will see no groups in the drop down menu
• display future groups - the end user will only see groups that have an associated date in the future
• display all groups - the end user sees groups in the past, present, and future

Group enrollment display enables groups to appear to the user on the enrollment page. When this feature is selected with “display future groups” or “display all groups” the user can choose which group to enroll in and will be placed into that selected group upon enrollment into the course. If “do not display groups” is selected, then no dropdown menu of groups appears to the user and the user effectively is in a “no group” state or at the default group setting at the course level. The user in still enrolled in the course, but not in a group.

Group end date

The system looks to the group end date to determine if a group has occurred in the past. Group end date is located inside the group settings and captures a date for that specific group. When the group’s expiration date is in the past and the group enrollment display is set to “display future groups” any groups with expired dates will not appear in the drop down menu to the end user.

Profile enrollment group options

When “display future groups” or “display all groups” is selected for the group enrollment display, an end user selects which group they would like to enroll in from a drop down menu. The site administrator can set a default group for users to enroll into. This default group will appear as the selected group in the groups drop down menu on the enrollment page.

To set the default group create a custom profile field enrollment. Then navigate to course administration >>>> users >>>> enrollment methods >>>> and select the custom profile field enrollment created. Scroll down to profile enrollment group options, to select how the end user should select the group to enroll within.

• allow user to select group at enrollment - allows the end user to make their own group selection
• allow only future date groups - ensure that the end user only views groups in the future and can only enroll in groups in the future
• default group - is where the site administrator can select which group should be the default option for the end user
• hide group password notice - hides the group enrollment password field on the enrollment page when the box is checked so that the end user does not have to enter a password to enroll in the course.

Notification options

Notifications can be sent to the enrolled user either prior to enrollment or after enrollment. The user notification options are two WYSWYG editors where an admin can enter a message that the user receives prior to enrollment and after enrollment.  

The message prior to enrollment appears to users on the enrollment page and the message after enrollment appears to users on a second page after enrollment is completed and confirms the user's enrollment. A button will appear directing the user to proceed to course after reviewing the message.

The un-enrollment notification reminder is an option for administrators to select a custom un-enrollment notification from a drop down of available Refined Reminders. When selected, this un-enrollment notification is emailed to the user a designated number of days prior to the enrollment end date (that is set in the enrollment duration).