How to create courses in Moodle

When setting up courses in Moodle 2.3, Teachers can set the Course defaults for their courses to a specific configuration. This allows the teacher to use the same course settings over again without having to manually change the settings, every time the course is created. For example, if the courses the teacher creates are always going to be topical and exactly 5 sections, the teacher can set the course default format to topic and the Number of weeks to 5. The following article will explain how to change the course defaults in Moodle 2.3.

Changing the Default settings for Moodle Courses

1. Log into the Moodle Dashboard

   If setting up a course with the default settings, the course will look like the snapshot to the right.
   

2. Navigate to the Site Administration > Courses > Course default settings in the Settings.
   
3. On the Course default settings page, the Course defaults can be set to a configuration that will make the Courses easier to create. Below is a table with the Course default settings that can be changed.
   

   Course default settings Outline
   Format	The default course sections can be set to either Topics, Weekly, SCORM, or Social. The default is Weekly format
   Maximum for number of weeks/topics	The default quantity of options for the Number of Weeks and Topics setting. The default is 52
   Number of weeks/topics	This sets the default number of Weeks or Topics displayed. The default is 10
   Hidden sections	The default Hidden sections can be set to be invisible or collapsed. The default is Hidden sections are shown in collapsed form
   News items to show	Sets the default number of news items displayed. Setting the number to 0 will not display the news box. The default is 5
   Show gradebook to students	Hides or Shows the gradebook by default. The default is Yes
   Show activity reports	Allows the user activity reports to display or not to display by default. The default setting is No
   Maximum upload size	Sets the default upload sized for the course, The default is 8MB
   Course layout	Makes the default setting for the course to display the sections on one page or multiple pages. The Default value is Show all sections on one page
   Group mode	Makes groups default on courses. The default is No groups
   Force	Makes the default setting for the course to make groups a part of every activity. The default is No
   Visible	The course can be available when initially created or set to not available. The default is This course is available to students
   Force language	Sets the default Language. The default is Do not force
   Completion tracking	The default course setting can be set to tracking completion of the course or not. The default is Disabled, not shown in activity settings
   Completion tracking begins on enrolment	Sets the default course setting to begin when the user is enrolled in the course. The default is No

   In this tutorial, the following will be changed for the Course defaults.

   - Format to Topics
   - Number of weeks/topics to 5
   - Course layout to Show one section per page
   - Completion tracking to Enable
   - Completion tracking begins on enrollment to checked

   Click Save changes.

   
   
4. Now when a Course is created without changing any of the settings in the Edit Course section, the page will look like the snapshot to the right. When users enrol they will immediately be able to track their completion.
   

Now that the course defaults are set, we can move on the next topic to How to create and edit categories in Moodle.