Creating Moodle area

When you create a Moodle area on the course page, the teacher's study administration work becomes easier and the Moodle area is easier to find. Use this method if there is no obstacle. An officer (for example, an education planner) can also create Moodle areas.

Benefits when the Moodle area is created on the course page

• Every student who is confirmed enrolled for the course in Sisu will automatically have access to the Moodle area.
  • Students can access the Moodle area after the teacher has opened/published the Moodle area.
  • The teacher does not have to add the students to Moodle themselves or ask the students to register for the course. Self enrolment and enrolment key are unnecessary. (see method 2)
  • If the student’s enrolment is cancelled or deleted from Sisu, students status will change to "suspended" in the Moodle area and they can't enter the Moodle area anymore.
• Teachers who are in Sisu as course teachers are automatically added as teachers to the Moodle area.
• If the officer creates a Moodle area, he also gets teacher's rights to the Moodle area.
• It will be possible to transfer grades from Moodle gradebook to Sisu, see Exporting grades from Moodle to Sisu.
• The students and teachers receive a link to the Moodle area to their Calendar / My Teaching page in Flamma. The link to the Moodle area is also shown on the course page.
• A new Moodle area is created for each implementation of Sisu. It enables e.g. receiving late completed components in the original Moodle area.

When should Moodle area not be created on the course page (= connected Sisu)?

• If students need to access the Moodle area before enrolments are confirmed in Sisu. 
• It is not possible to create own Moodle areas for Sisu's implementation groups and synchronise students from Sisu to Moodle. The Moodle area can only be created for one Sisu implementation / course page. If the groups don't have their own implementations in Sisu you should order a Moodle area for groups using the form (see method 2) and instruct students to self-enrol. The information of Sisu's groups is not transferred to Moodle.
• The same Moodle area cannot be created automatically for two or more Sisu implementations / course pages.

If you can't use this method, see method 2.

Instructions: Create a Moodle area on the course page and publish the Moodle area

Go to your course page, which you can find on Flamma's Teacher Page > My teaching. Log in and turn editing mode on. Click the Create a new Moodle area button. More detailed instructions: Course Pages.

The new Moodle area is created and you'll receive information about it in your email. The email also contains instructions for opening the Moodle area for students. If the creator is an administrative staff, please forward the email to the teacher.

When you have clicked the button Link created Moodle area to the course page, the Moodle area link will appear after a short delay on Flamma's Teacher role pages and on the participants' Calendar page.

Publishing the Moodle area (instructions also in the email you receive)

• Schedule a created Moodle area to open for students in course page. If you wish, you can also open the Moodle area at a time of your choice: In Moodle go to course Settings > Course visibility > Show > Save and display.
• The teacher can also edit other information in the Moodle course settings.
  • the Course full name
    • the Course full name and the Course description come in three languages if available in Sisu. Multilingualism is implemented with the Multi-language content filter. If the Course full name in the three languages is longer than what is allowed in the field, the name will only be given in the language of the course.
  • Course start date and Course end date are used for determining how the Moodle area is shown in user's My courses: Past, In Progress or Future courses. NB. These settings do not close / hide the Moodle area from students.
    • The course start date of the Moodle area is the start date specified in Sisu.
    • The course end date of the Moodle area will be the end date in Sisu plus one month. This way, the Moodle area is still on the In progress courses until the assessment, etc. is completed.

How is user data transferred from Sisu and how is it shown in Moodle?

• The changes to the list of participants in Moodle, which have been enrolled in Sisu, are made in Sisu (see Registration in Sisu). The changes are transferred to Moodle area every two hours.
• When there is a participant in Moodle with the role synced, the person has been transferred from Sisu to Moodle. The roles are displayed in Moodle under Participants.
  • The teachers of the Sisu implementation are transferred to Moodle with the roles teacher and synced.
  • If an officer creates a Moodle area on a course page, they will also be added to Moodle with the roles teacher and synced.
  • The students (confirmed enrolment) of the Sisu implementation are transferred to Moodle with the roles student and synced.
  • If there is a student in the Moodle area only with the role synced and the status is suspended, it means the student enrolment has been rejected, discontinued or deleted from Sisu. In this case, the student cannot access the Moodle area. The changes are transferred to Moodle area every two hours. The teacher can remove the student from the Moodle participants, and the student will no longer come back from Sisu when synchronizing.
  • If the student only has the role synced in Moodle, it is a Moodle area that has not yet been opened to students, and a student's registration has been cancelled, rejected, suspended or removed from Sisu. Suspended status only appears when the Moodle area is opened for students. In this case, the student cannot access the Moodle area.
  • If there is a user in the Moodle area with only the role student, it means the student has either used self enrolment or the teacher has added them to the Moodle area directly. This student has no enrolment information in Sisu for that implementation.
• The teacher can also add participants to the Moodle area directly in Moodle (e.g. visiting lecturers with limited user accounts).
• Teachers deleted from Sisu are not deleted from Moodle.
• The automatic synchronisation of enrolments from Sisu to Moodle ends one year after the end of the course. The status of the participant list will then remain in the Moodle area to what it was then.

Frequently asked questions

How can I open a Moodle area to students before their enrolments are confirmed in Sisu?

• Add a self-enrolment to the Moodle area, but be sure to inform students of any enrolment key.

In the future you might consider:

• If you're using the standard enrolment in Sisu, close the enrolment early enough.
• Change the enrolment for continuous enrolment in Sisu (enrolment with direct confirmation).
• Use the method 2 and configure students to self-enrol, in which case the Moodle area is not linked to Sisu.

How can I combine two Sisu implementations into one Moodle area?

• Students from two or more different Sisu implementations / course pages cannot be connected to the same Moodle area. So you can only sync students from one Sisu implementation / course page to one Moodle area.
• If students from more than one Sisu implementation / course page are wanted for the same Moodle area, students from another implementation must be directed to the Moodle area by self-enrolment or added manually.
• To add a Moodle area link to a course page of a non-synchronised course, copy the link to the synchronised Moodle area. If you use an enrolment key for self-enrolment, also add it to the information to the Moodle link on the course page.
• Note that only the grades of synchronised students can be exported directly from Moodle to Sisu - the grades of other students must be exported to Sisu manually or using the Sisu converter, see Exporting grades from Moodle to Sisu.

How can I combine two Moodle areas for one Sisu implementation / course page?

• Students from two or more different Moodle areas cannot be connected to the same Sisu implementation. So you can only sync students from one Sisu implementation / course page to tone Moodle area.
• On the course page, you can also tell links to other Moodle areas.
• In the future, it is worth considering whether it would be necessary to make own implementations in Sisu for each required Moodle area.

Problem situations and their solutions

You can order a new Moodle area using a form. In this case, direct the students to self-enrol to Moodle or add them individually manually, as the student information is not synchronized with the study information system Sisu as in method 1. When the Moodle area is ordered with a form, grades cannot be exported directly from Moodle to Sisu.

Order form

In order to fill the order form for the Moodle course area, first login to University of Helsinki Moodle with your account.

Moodle administration creates the ordered Moodle areas within three working days (excluding holidays). Usually the area orders can be delivered within the same working day or the next. The teacher will always receive an automatic confirmation by email when the course area has been created. The email also has a quick guide for opening the course area.

When you order a new course area, you must fill in the following information:

• Course full name: The full name of the course area. The name can contain several words, special characters, spaces or characters å, ä or ö. It is recommended to name the Moodle area in, for example, the following way: “Sisu code coursefullname, term/period”, here e.g. “581328 Introduction to databases, spring 2023”. (If needed, with the teacher’s name in the end, if there are several parallel groups with there own course areas).
• Course short name: The course area short name can be, for instance, the course code, the code of the institute or an abbreviated version of the course name. Choose a short name that is recognizable for the students also. The short name is shown whenever a long name is tricky, for example in the subject field of emails sent from Moodle. The recommended maximum length of the short name is 15 characters.
  • The short name must be unique: the form will notify you if that is not the case. In that case, edit the short name, for example, by adding a year after it.
  • The short name cannot contain special characters or characters å, ä or ö, and you should not use spaces as it makes the search process harder.
• Course category: The courses are sorted into categories by faculties and independent institutes. From the drop-down menu, choose a suitable category for your course area. Courses intended for your own Moodle practice are added to the "Training courses" category. The course can only be in one category at a time.
• Summary: This is same as course summary. It is visible in the course listing which is open to everyone, including non-logged in users. In the summary you can tell, for example, the intended audience of the course, who can enrol for the course, and what is taught on the course, where, and by whom.
• Additional information: Fill in additional information regarding the course, for example the wanted language (if it is something other than what can be deduced from the name of the course). This information is only visible to the Moodle administration.

The teacher can edit all the information requested in the form (except the course category) in the Moodle course settings after the Moodle area has been created. If you need to change the category or you need additional advice for ordering the Moodle area, please contact moodle@helsinki.fi.

Opening and sharing the Moodle area to students

You will receive instructions by email at the same time as you will receive a link to the Moodle area you ordered.

The Moodle area is hidden. When you're ready to publish and open your course to students:

1. Go to the course area Settings.
2. Select Course visibility - Show.
3. Course start and end dates = time of your course. The dates do not affect access to the Moodle area, but the appearance of the course in the Course overview in My courses (In progress / Future / Past).
4. Save the changes.

Turn on self-enrolment in the Moodle area:

1. Select Participants.
2. Select Enrolment methods from the drop-down menu.
3. Enable self enrolment by clicking the eye icon on the Self enrolment (Student) row.
4. Edit self enrolment from the gear icon and set the enrolment key if you want. The enrolment key acts as a password when students log into the Moodle area for the first time. If the enrolment key is not defined, anyone logged in to Moodle can enrol to the course.
5. In the Start and End dates, you define the time for the self-enrolment to the Moodle area: Click Enable and set the time.
6. Save the changes at the bottom of the page.

See also Enrolment methods.

Distribute the web address of the Moodle area and the enrolment key to the students:

When you add the Moodle area link (and enrolment key) to the course page, the students will see the information on their Calendar page and the teacher will find the Moodle area link on their Flamma Teacher role page.

1. You can find links to your own course pages and Moodle areas on Flamma's Teacher role page.
2. Under My teaching, select the course.
3. On the course page, go to edit mode.
4. Add the URL-address of the Moodle area (and the enrolment key) to the fields reserved for them on the course page and save. Students can now see the link to the Moodle area. The enrolment key, if one is used, is shown only for the students registered for the course in Sisu.

See Instructions for Course pages.

You can copy e.g. the contents of the previous course from another Moodle area:

• Use the Import function.
• You can also use ready-made Moodle templates, see Course templates.

See also: Adding a new course.