Where it lives

Site administration → Reports → Virtual Slate reports

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Reports → Virtual Slate reports settings

Who can see it

Controlled by capabilities, described under Who sees what below

On this page: the dashboard tabs, the reports, capabilities, settings, scheduled tasks, step-by-step tasks, privacy and questions we get asked.

What it gives you

Four dashboard tabs (overview, user, course and time), each built from tiles, charts and tables that open on demand. The time tab appears only where the time tracking plugin is installed. Behind them sit 22 advanced reports with their own filters and downloads, covering course resources, SCORM, grades, completions, certificates, assignment submissions, quiz attempts, forum participation, resource usage, cohorts, attendance, H5P, teacher activity, time on task, competencies, learning paths and grade distribution.

The dashboards and the advanced reports are licensed differently, which is the first thing to understand.

What is included, and what is licensed

Your level applies to the site as a whole and is set in the site's configuration rather than on the settings page. Where a figure on that page appears to have no effect, it is being held to your level's limit, and the setting description states that limit.

Who sees what

Every report answers the same question the same way, so a user's view is consistent across all of them. Each user lands in one of four levels, decided by the capabilities their role holds:

When a user's view is restricted, the page says so, above the tab on the dashboard and above the filters on a report. That notice matters more than it sounds: a manager reading "412 active users" with no notice would reasonably conclude the site has 412 active users rather than 412 in their courses.

Three details follow from the way these levels work:

• The Overview, User, Course and Time tabs are for the site-wide level only. A course-level user who opens one lands on the Advanced reports tab instead. An own-level user lands on the My learning page, which is linked from the Reports section of their profile.
• A course-level user opens the advanced reports within their own courses. Each report holds only those courses and the learners enrolled in them, and the Cohort and Group filters list only what belongs to them. Holding report/vslate:view alone opens nothing.
• Learning path completion follows the same rule in its own way. A path has no single course, so a course-level user sees a path that includes at least one of their courses, and within it only the learners enrolled in their courses. The Conditions column can still name the path's other courses.

The My learning page

A user at the own level sees a single page, My learning, instead of the dashboards. It opens with the line "Your own progress across the courses you are enrolled in. Nobody else's learning appears here, and this page reports only on you."

• Four figures. My courses (with how many are completed so far), Courses completed (as a share of their courses), Activities completed (out of the activities that have completion tracking) and a fourth figure: Time spent learning where the time tracking plugin has measured time for them, otherwise Active days in the last 30 days.
• Two charts. My activity (last 30 days), their page views per day, and My course progress, completed against in progress.
• The My courses table. One row per enrolled course with Completion %, Activities completed, the date Completed (or Incomplete) and Last access. A course without completion tracking reads Not tracked.

How current the figures are

The dashboards read overnight summaries rather than scanning the activity log when you open them. In practice:

• Each dashboard tab states a "Data as at" time beneath the period selector. Today's activity appears after tonight's run. Counts of people, courses, enrolments and completions are read live, so they are always current.
• A rebuild can be forced by anyone holding the refresh capability, with a minimum interval between runs so it cannot be used to overload your own site.
• Rebuilding a day is safe to repeat: the day is rebuilt from scratch, so running it twice does no harm. A day whose logs have already been purged keeps its existing summary rather than being blanked.

Three retention periods, and the difference between them

Confusing these is the most common misunderstanding about this feature, so it is worth being precise.

The first two being separate is the useful part. Once a day has been summarised, its logs are no longer needed for reporting, so a site that purges activity logs after 90 days can still show years of trend, because a handful of small summary rows per day survive a log purge that removes millions of rows.

Downloads and exports

Two different things share one word.

• Download writes out the rows your filters have selected: all of them, not just the page on screen. It uses the Download table data as control under the table, which appears only for holders of report/vslate:export, whatever your licence level. A download leaves no audit record.
• Export, where the analytics level applies, queues the report to be generated in the background and records who exported what. It needs the same capability.

Export opens a confirmation first, stating which report, how many rows your filters have selected, which filters are in force and which columns will be written. Queuing a large export should be a decision rather than a surprise. Use it for anything large: it runs outside the web request, so it cannot slow the site down for everyone else.

Downloads and exports for spreadsheets (CSV, Excel and ODS) protect whoever opens the file. A cell that begins with =, +, - or @ would be treated as a formula by the spreadsheet, and so would one that begins with a tab or a carriage return, so it is written with an apostrophe in front, which keeps it as plain text. Numbers, including negative ones and percentages, are written as they are, and so is a cell holding only a dash. JSON files are not changed.

The generated file is deleted after seven days by default. The record of who exported what is kept indefinitely and outlives the file it describes, deliberately. That record is your audit trail.

The Report exports page lists the 100 most recent exports with Virtual Slate report, Format, Status, Rows, Requested, Delivered as and Download. Site administrators see everyone's and an Owner column. Delivered as reads Not delivered for an export you queued yourself, and Link, Attachment or Link and attachment for one a schedule sent.

Scheduled delivery

A saved report can be delivered daily, weekly or monthly. Save the report first: a saved report stores the filters in force including the named period, so a report saved as "Month to date" reopens a month later showing that month, not the dates it happened to mean on the day you saved it. A schedule built on it covers that period each time it runs. A Custom range stays the dates you chose.

A scheduled report holds what the schedule's owner may see. A schedule owned by a course-level user holds only their courses, whoever receives it. The reverse is also true: every recipient receives the owner's view, even someone whose own access is narrower and who could not open that report themselves. The owner decides who receives it, so choose recipients with the same care as you would when sending the file yourself.

• Recipients with an account on the site receive a link, and their permission to view the report is checked again at the moment of sending. Somebody who has changed role stops receiving it without anyone having to edit the schedule. The link opens the Report exports page, where the recipient can fetch that one file. They see no other export, and the link stops working if they lose access.
• Recipients without an account receive the report as an attachment, because a link into the site would be no use to them. This requires the enterprise level and is restricted to the email domains you have listed. Until at least one domain is listed, nothing can be delivered outside the site.
• One recipient failing never stops the others and never switches off the schedule. The report still reaches everyone it can, and your administrators are told which addresses did not receive it and why.
• A report that cannot be produced is different. After five failed or skipped runs in a row the schedule switches itself off and tells its owner. A run is skipped when the owner is no longer active or can no longer open the reports.

When a report declines to draw

Reports have an on-screen ceiling, 5,000 rows by default. Above it the report declines to render and, where the analytics level applies and you hold the export capability, offers the export instead. This is deliberate: a page attempting to draw 44,000 rows does not fail cleanly, it hangs.

If you see that notice, either narrow the filters or take the export, which contains every row. Without the export capability or the analytics level, narrowing the filters is the only route.

Settings worth understanding

These are all the settings on Virtual Slate reports settings, under the labels shown on that page. Changing them needs moodle/site:config. Where the analytics level is not enabled, the page says so at the top.

Hiding what you do not want shown

Tiles, charts, panels and whole reports can be hidden for your site by anyone holding the configure capability. Two things are worth knowing. The configuration records what is hidden rather than what is shown, so a tile added in a future release appears by default rather than being invisible until somebody finds a setting they have never seen. And hiding a report also refuses it by direct link, so a hidden report is genuinely hidden rather than merely absent from the menu.

The dashboard tabs

Open the dashboards from Site administration → Reports → Virtual Slate reports → Overview report. Most tiles follow the Period selector. Total users and Total courses are running totals and do not. The tables beneath the charts start closed and fetch their rows when you open them. The site remembers which tables you keep open, per person and per tab.

Four terms need a definition. Returning users are people active in this period and in the period immediately before it. Stickiness is average daily active users as a share of everyone active across the period. Dormant courses have learners enrolled and no recorded activity in the period; empty courses are left out. Mobile app time is an estimate from the log and is never added to measured time.

Every tab also has a toolbar: Saved reports, Report exports and Scheduled reports for those who hold the capability, Documentation, and Configure for those who may change what everyone sees. Documentation opens the same help text as the About this report button on each report.

The Reporting documentation page has a contents list down the side: The dashboards, How the reports behave and Advanced reports. Each entry says what the report shows, where the data comes from, how the figures are calculated and what to watch for.

Most counts on a tab link to a page listing the people or courses behind them, with a Download table data as control for holders of report/vslate:export. The three Learners needing attention lists, for example, show Full name, Email address, Enrolled courses and Last login, 50 to a page.

The reports

The names below are as they appear on the Advanced reports tab. Where a report's own page has a longer heading, it follows in brackets.

Filters sit in a collapsed Filters section at the top of each report. Click Apply to run them and Clear filters to remove them. What is in force is shown on a Showing line above the form. Period offers Any time, Default, Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Month to date, Previous month, Last 90 days, Year to date, Last year and Custom. Custom reveals Start date and End date, and an end date includes the whole of that day.

Each report has a toolbar at the top right: Export (for holders of report/vslate:export on the analytics level), Save this report (on the analytics level), About this report and Documentation. Four reports, Course completions, Course activity completions, Assignment submissions and Quiz analytics, show a summary bar above the table. It counts every row the filters have selected, not just the page on screen.

Capabilities

Assign these through roles in Site administration → Users → Permissions → Define roles. Site administrators hold all of them automatically. Four sit with nobody by default, because they change the reports for everyone or send data unattended.

Anyone with moodle/site:config also sees every user's saved reports, exports, schedules and alert rules, and may edit or delete the saved reports, schedules and rules. That oversight does not come from any of the capabilities above.

Scheduled tasks

You can review or change these under Site administration → Server → Tasks → Scheduled tasks. Tasks marked "analytics" do nothing on a site without that level, and keep their schedule in case the level is enabled later.

Three more jobs run once when asked, on the next cron cycle: generating an export after Queue export, rebuilding the summaries after Refresh now, and running a schedule after Run now.

Step by step

Save a report

1. On the Advanced reports tab, click the name of the report.
2. Open Filters, make your choices and click Apply.
3. Click Save this report in the toolbar above the report.
4. The Save current report form opens. Enter a Name and check that Virtual Slate report is correct.
5. Tick Shared if everyone who can view reports should see it. Leave it unticked to keep it to yourself.
6. Click Save this report. You see "Report saved." on the Saved reports page.

The Saved reports page lists your own saved reports and the shared ones, 50 to a page, with Name, Virtual Slate report, Owner, Shared, Created and the actions Open, Edit saved report and Delete. Site administrators see everyone's. Save current report at the top opens an empty form.

A saved report keeps every filter in force: Course, Cohort, User, Group, Enrolments, Learning Path and the period. A named period is kept by name, and a Custom range as its dates.

Schedule a report

1. Check that Enable scheduled reports is on in the settings. The Scheduled reports page warns you if it is off.
2. Save the report you want to send.
3. On any dashboard tab, click Scheduled reports, then New schedule.
4. Choose the Saved report. You can choose your own or any shared one.
5. Choose the Format: CSV, EXCEL, ODS or JSON.
6. Choose the Frequency and the Hour of day. These default to Daily and 06:00.
7. For Weekly, choose the Day of week. For Monthly, choose the Day of month, from 1 to 28, so that the day exists in every month.
8. Add people under Recipients. The list offers people who hold report/vslate:view at site level, up to 500, site administrators and the schedule's owner.
9. On the enterprise level with a domain listed, add outside addresses under Recipients outside this site, one per line.
10. Leave Enabled ticked and click Save changes. You see "Schedule saved."
11. Click Run now on the new row to test it. This queues the schedule for the next cron cycle, and it then sends the report to the recipients for real.

The list shows 50 schedules to a page, with Next run, Last run and Last status, which reads Sent, "Sent, some recipients failed", Failed or Skipped. Deleting a saved report also deletes every schedule that uses it.

Add an outside recipient domain

1. Go to Site administration → Plugins → Reports → Virtual Slate reports settings.
2. In Permitted recipient domains, enter each domain on its own line, for example client.com.
3. Click Save changes.
4. Open a schedule. Recipients outside this site now appears, with the permitted domains stated beneath it.

This needs the enterprise level; without it the setting states that addresses will not receive reports. The match is exact, so list each subdomain you want. The list is read again at every send, so a domain you remove stops receiving reports at the next run, and your administrators are told about the addresses that missed out.

Create a threshold alert

1. Check that Enable threshold alerts is on in the settings.
2. Go to Site administration → Reports → Virtual Slate reports → Threshold alerts and click New alert rule. Someone without access to Site administration opens /report/vslate/alerts.php on your site instead.
3. Enter a Rule name.
4. Choose what to Watch: Learners with no activity, Average completion rate, Active users or Completion rate for one course. The form defines each one.
5. Set Alert when the value goes to below or above, and enter the Threshold. For a percentage, use 0 to 100.
6. For Learners with no activity and Active users, set Look back (days). It defaults to 14.
7. For Completion rate for one course, choose the Course. Only courses with completion switched on are offered.
8. Choose who to Notify. You must choose at least one person.
9. Leave Enabled ticked and click Save changes. You see "Alert rule created."

The comparison is strict: a rule reading "below 60" does not fire at exactly 60. A rule speaks once when it crosses the line and once when it recovers. If its very first check finds it already over the line, it messages recipients straight away; if the first check finds it fine, it stays quiet. Check now runs the check at once and can send real messages. Disabling and re-enabling a rule, or changing what it watches, resets it so that the next check counts as the first. The page lists Recent firings for your rules. A rule also depends on its owner: a site-wide rule needs an owner with the site-wide level, and a course rule needs an owner with access to that course. If the owner loses that access, the rule keeps its state and sends nothing.

The Threshold alerts page lists your rules with Rule name, Watch, Condition, Scope, Last value, State (Breached, Within threshold or Not yet checked), Last checked, Enabled and the actions Edit, Disable, Check now and Delete. Beneath it, Recent firings lists each change of state with When, State, Value and Notified.

Hide a tile or report

1. On any dashboard tab, click Configure. This opens Configure reports.
2. Expand the section you want: Overview tab, User tab, Course tab, Time tab, Advanced reports tab or Advanced reports.
3. Untick what the site should not show. The tab sections group items under Figures, Charts and Tables. Advanced reports tab holds the Figures above the table, and Advanced reports lists the reports themselves.
4. Click Save changes. You see "Saved. The reports will show what you have chosen."

To bring something back, tick it again: hidden items stay listed on this page. A report whose activity or plugin is not installed does not appear here at all.

Force a rebuild

1. Open the Overview, User, Course or Time tab.
2. Click Refresh now, on the same row as the Period selector. The button appears only for holders of report/vslate:refresh.
3. Read the warning. A rebuild places heavy load on the database and slows the site while it runs, so choose a quiet time.
4. Click Continue. You see "Report refresh queued."
5. Wait for the next cron cycle. The Data as at line updates when the rebuild finishes.

The site refuses a second rebuild while one is running, and until Minimum time between manual refreshes has passed since the last one finished. The message tells you how long to wait.

Take an export

1. Open the report and apply your filters.
2. Click Export in the toolbar. The Export this report dialog states the report, rows, filters and columns.
3. Choose the Format: Comma separated values (.csv), Microsoft Excel (.xlsx), OpenDocument (.ods) or Javascript Object Notation (.json).
4. Click Queue export. You land on Report exports.
5. Wait for the message "Your report export is ready", which arrives after the next cron cycle.
6. Return to Report exports and click Download on the row.

Once the retention period has passed, the row stays and Download reads "File removed". On a report that is over the row limit, Export the full report instead queues a CSV straight away, without the dialog.

Privacy

The plugin implements Moodle's Privacy API for all the personal data it holds. All of it is exported with a data request. On a deletion request, a record that others must still be able to answer for stays with the person's name removed. What exists only to act for that person is removed.

The course and activity summaries hold totals per day and name nobody. Keep daily summaries for controls how long all three kinds of summary stay.

Reports also leave the site in two ways: a generated file attached to an email for an outside recipient, and the files people download or export themselves. Once a file has left, the retention settings here no longer apply to it.

Advanced Reporting: questions we get asked

Why does the dashboard not show today's activity?

Because it reads last night's summaries rather than scanning the activity log, which is what keeps it fast on a site with millions of log rows. Each tab states a "Data as at" time. If you need today's figures, force a rebuild, or wait for tonight's run.

Why can I only see my own courses when a colleague sees the whole site?

Your role holds the course-level reporting capability and theirs holds the site-wide one. The dashboard states the restriction when one applies, so that a course-level figure is never mistaken for a site-wide one.

The report says it will not draw and offers a download instead. Is something broken?

No. Your filters have selected more rows than the on-screen ceiling, 5,000 by default. Drawing them would hang the page, so the report declines and, where you hold the export capability on the analytics level, offers the export, which contains every row. Narrow the date range or the course filter to see rows on screen.

I set summary retention to ten years and nothing changed.

Your licence level limits it, and the setting description states the limit. The analytics level allows up to 365 days; enterprise is unlimited. The limit is set in the site's configuration precisely so that it cannot be raised from the settings page.

Can I email a report to someone outside our organisation?

On the enterprise level, and only to email domains your administrator has listed. They receive the report as an attachment, since a link into the site would be no use to them. Subdomains are not included: listing client.com does not permit mail.client.com.

A scheduled report stopped arriving for one person but not the others.

Most likely their permission to view the report changed. Access is checked at the moment of sending rather than when the schedule was created, so somebody who has changed role stops receiving it. Your administrators receive a message naming each recipient who did not get it and why, and the schedule itself keeps running for everyone else. The exception is a suspended or deleted account, which is left out without appearing in that message.

How long are exported files kept?

Seven days by default, then they are deleted. The record of who exported what is kept indefinitely. That is the audit trail, and it outlives the file deliberately. Your hosting configuration can shorten the retention period but not extend it.

Can we see who has exported personal data?

Yes, for exports: every one records who requested it, which report, which filters were in force and how it was delivered. The Report exports page shows the 100 most recent, without the filters. Site administrators see everyone's. Other people see their own, and any file a schedule sent them. Downloads made with the control under a report are not recorded.

We would like a report that is not in the list.

Ask us. Some are straightforward because the underlying data is already present. Anything needing a new data model takes longer, and we will say which it is.

Can a teacher open the reports?

Yes, for their own courses. Teachers hold the course-level capability by default, so they can open the advanced reports and see only those courses and the learners enrolled in them. By default they cannot download or export, because only the Manager role holds report/vslate:export. See Who sees what.

Our monthly report keeps showing the same dates.

The saved report holds fixed dates. A Custom range stays the dates you chose, and so does a report saved before named periods were kept. Open the report, choose a named period under Period, and use Save this report to save it again. A schedule built on it then covers that period each time it runs.

Resource usage is empty, or shows less than actually happened.

It reads the overnight summaries, so it needs the analytics level, and it only covers days that have been summarised. A newly enabled site shows less than actually happened until the task has caught up, and that is limited by how long your logs are kept.

A schedule switched itself off.

It failed or was skipped five runs in a row, and its owner was messaged with the last error. Common causes are an owner who has left or lost access to the reports, and a saved report whose report has since been hidden. Fix the cause, then edit the schedule and tick Enabled again.

Someone I want to send a report to is not in the Recipients list.

The list offers people who hold report/vslate:view at site level, site administrators and the schedule's owner. A teacher who holds only the course-level capability is not offered. The same rule applies to Notify on an alert, which does not add the owner.

An alert fired once and then went quiet, though the figure is still over the line.

That is how it is designed. A rule messages people when it crosses the line and once when it recovers, and says nothing in between. Its current state and last value are on the Threshold alerts page.

An alert rule stopped working, and shows an error beside its state.

Its owner has probably left or lost access to the figure it watches. The rule keeps its last state and sends nothing, so a change of owner's role cannot cause a false alarm or a false all-clear. A rule on a course with no active enrolments shows the same kind of error, because there is no rate to measure.

Refresh now says the data was refreshed recently, but nobody clicked it.

The minimum interval counts from the last rebuild that finished, including the overnight one. The message tells you how long to wait.

Course activity completions shows no rows and asks me to choose a course.

This report needs a course before it can run. Open Filters, choose a Course and click Apply.

Some cells in my export start with an apostrophe.

That is deliberate. A spreadsheet treats a cell beginning with =, +, - or @ as a formula, and a name or title somebody typed should never run as one on the computer of whoever opens the file. The apostrophe keeps the cell as plain text. Numbers are not changed, and JSON files never carry the apostrophe.

Who can open the Learners needing attention lists?

They are reached from the Overview and User tabs, so in practice from the site-wide level. Someone at the course level who opens one by its address sees only the learners in their own courses. On screen each list shows 50 learners to a page, least recently active first, with page links beneath it; the download holds everyone.

The CPD dashboard measures each person against a requirement over a period. It reads CPD earned in Moodle from Moodle's own completion records, records CPD done elsewhere as claims with evidence and approval, shows managers who is behind, and produces a printable statement for each person and cycle.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate CPD dashboard (a block and a set of pages)

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Virtual Slate CPD dashboard

Requires

Moodle 4.5

Optional partner

Team Management, for manager scope, the Team CPD page, and team and unit audiences

Scheduled tasks

None

Notifications

None. The plugin sends no email or Moodle messages

• How it works
• Switching it on
• Settings
• Capabilities and roles
• Audiences
• Site administrator tasks
• CPD manager tasks: categories, catalogue, cycles and targets
• Approver tasks
• Team manager tasks and the Team CPD page
• Learner tasks: dashboard, claims and statement
• The profile page section
• What updates totals
• Privacy
• Downloads
• Upgrading from the custom field version
• Questions and troubleshooting

How it works

You build a scheme from three things, all on the plugin's own pages. The block has no settings of its own for any of them.

• CPD categories are the professional body's headings, such as Ethics or Clinical. They are optional.
• CPD catalogue lists everything that earns CPD and what it is worth. An item is a Course (completing the course earns it), an Activity (completing one activity in a course earns it) or External (the person records it themselves).
• CPD cycles set the period and the requirement, such as 1 January to 31 December, 40 points. The screen says "cycle" where this guide's glossary says "period".

Each person then has a ledger of entries, drawn from three sources:

• Course items: read from Moodle's course completion records, dated when the course was completed. Only people in the item's audience earn them.
• Activity items: read from Moodle's activity completion records (complete or complete with a pass grade), dated when that completion record last changed. Only people in the item's audience earn them.
• Claims: stored by this plugin, dated with the date the person entered.

Course and activity CPD is never copied into the plugin. An item therefore covers people who completed the course before the item existed, and anything that changes the completion record changes the ledger.

How a person's standing is worked out

A person's standing compares their entries with the requirement of one cycle.

• What counts: entries with a status of earned or approved, dated from the cycle's start to the end of its last day, whose validity has not run out. The date decides the cycle, and nothing carries over.
• What is shown apart: pending claims, as "pending approval". They are not added to the total.
• The measure: points if the requirement has points, otherwise hours. This is the main figure shown. If both are set, hours are still a requirement.
• The cap: an external item's Maximum hours per cycle limits the hours counted from that item. Points from the excess hours are dropped in proportion.

Switching it on

1. Make sure the feature is enabled for your site. Lingel Learning does this for you, so if you cannot find the block or its pages, ask your usual Lingel Learning contact.
2. If you want Team CPD, or team and unit audiences, ask them to enable Team Management as well. Without it, there is no Team CPD page and no team or unit audiences.
3. Check the settings, then give out the capabilities.
4. Build the scheme: categories, catalogue items and at least one cycle.
5. Add the block where people will see it, and decide whether to turn on the profile section.

Settings

Go to Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Virtual Slate CPD dashboard. This page needs moodle/site:config, which the Manager role does not hold by default. A Manager can still run the scheme from the cog menu.

These settings only control display and evidence uploads. Periods, targets and what counts are set on the scheme pages.

The page has three parts. Manage the CPD scheme links to CPD catalogue, CPD categories, CPD cycles and Documentation. Dashboard display and Claims hold the settings below.

Evidence files must be PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, DOC or DOCX. You cannot change this list in the settings.

Capabilities and roles

The four CPD capabilities below are checked in the system context, so a role must be assigned at site level through Site administration → Users → Permissions → Assign system roles. Holding one in a course or category does not open these pages. Site administrators have them all.

What each job needs

Scope: whose CPD a person sees

Everyone with view sees their own CPD. Viewing others and approving use the same scope:

• Team Management installed: members of teams the viewer manages, plus people currently placed at organisation units they head or beneath those units.
• The viewer also holds block/vslate_team_management:manageteams: everyone. Manager holds this by default, so a default Manager sees the whole site.
• Team Management not installed: everyone. The capability alone decides, so a site without it cannot restrict a viewer to a team.

Audiences

Cycles (Applies to) and catalogue items (Offered to) use the same four choices. After choosing anything but Everyone, you must pick the group in Which. If you leave it empty, the form shows "Choose which." and does not save.

Site administrator tasks

Add the block

1. For everyone's Dashboard, go to Site administration → Appearance → Default Dashboard page and turn editing on.
2. Add the block Virtual Slate CPD dashboard.
3. People who have already personalised their Dashboard keep their own copy until you press Reset Dashboard for all users. Resetting also removes changes they have made.

The block can go on any page, once per page, and has no settings of its own. It always shows the viewer's own CPD, even on a course page, and shows nothing to guests. It contains:

• the person's picture and name, and email if set;
• their current standing, in brief;
• View details, which opens the dashboard;
• Record CPD, if an external item is offered to them;
• Team CPD, for people with viewotherscpd on a site with Team Management;
• a "waiting for approval" button with a count, for approvers, when claims are waiting.

With Show CPD entries in the block on, the person's five most recent entries are listed between their standing and the buttons.

Give out the roles

1. Go to Site administration → Users → Permissions → Define roles.
2. Edit or create a role, and allow the capabilities from What each job needs. The role must be assignable in the system context.
3. Assign it through Site administration → Users → Permissions → Assign system roles.

CPD manager tasks

Work in this order, because items and cycle minimums choose from the categories that already exist.

Categories

1. From the cog menu, choose CPD categories, then Add category.
2. Enter Name and ID number (both required), and optionally Description.
3. Press Save changes.

• Categories are optional. Without them, a person has one undifferentiated total.
• They list in the order you created them. There is no way to reorder them.
• Deleting a category removes the tag from its items and removes any minimums for it. The CPD stays, and shows as Uncategorised.

You can change a category's name, description or ID number at any time, and its items stay attached. Each category needs its own ID number: a number already in use is refused.

The list shows each category's Name, ID number and Description, and under CPD catalogue how many items are tagged with it. Use the menu on a row to edit or delete it.

Catalogue: course and activity items

1. From the cog menu, choose CPD catalogue, then Add CPD item.
2. In What earns it, choose Course or Activity.
3. In Course, type part of the full or short name and pick a course. The list shows up to 50 matches, and only courses with completion tracking on. A course tagged "no completion conditions yet" has tracking on but cannot complete until you set its conditions.
4. For an activity, press Show activities, then choose from Activity. Only activities with completion tracking are listed.
5. Enter Name, as it should read on dashboards and statements. It is not filled in for you.
6. Choose a Category if you use them.
7. Under Worth, enter points, hours or both.
8. Enter Valid for (days) if the credit expires. Leave it empty if not.
9. Choose Offered to and, if needed, Which. Only people in this audience earn the item. See Audiences.
10. Leave Active ticked and press Save changes.

The catalogue flags a course that cannot earn anything with a Never completes badge. Click the badge for the reason and a link to fix it: Go to the course settings when tracking is off, or Go to course completion when a course item has no conditions.

The catalogue shows each item's Name, what it is Earned by (the course or activity, or External), Category, Worth, Valid for and who it is Offered to. External items that need approval read "External · Pending approval", and those that require evidence add "Required". An item that is switched off is marked inactive. Use the menu on a row to edit or delete the item.

Catalogue: external items

An external item describes a kind of CPD, such as "Conference or seminar" or "Self-directed reading", not one event.

1. Choose Add CPD item, and External in What earns it.
2. Enter Name and choose a Category.
3. Set the worth in one of two ways:
   • a fixed Worth in points, hours or both; or
   • tick The practitioner enters the hours and set Points per hour (starts at 1). Points are hours multiplied by this rate.
4. Enter Maximum hours per cycle if the professional body caps this kind. Leave it empty for no cap.
5. Set Evidence: Not needed (the starting value), May be attached or Required.
6. Tick Claims need approval before they count if someone should vouch for it. It starts unticked, and an unticked item's claims count as soon as they are saved.
7. Choose Offered to, then press Save changes.

A cap can only be set on external items, and only applies when an entry has hours. The most recent entries are counted first. The In this cycle list and the statement show an entry at what it counted for, with a note of the hours recorded. An entry with nothing left to count says so, and the All list shows what was recorded.

What changing an item does

• One completion earns once. If several items name the same course or activity, an item that has since stopped earning comes first for completions it covered, then an item for a particular audience, then the first in the catalogue. Use this to give different audiences different worth. A course item and an activity item in that course are separate completions, and both earn.
• The course picker can offer hidden courses, but a hidden course's item earns nothing.
• The catalogue lists 25 items a page. It has no search and no way to reorder items.

Cycles

1. From the cog menu, choose CPD cycles, then Add cycle.
2. Enter Name, Starts and Ends. The last day counts in full.
3. Enter Points required, Hours required or both.
4. Choose Applies to and, if needed, Which.
5. Under Minimums per category, enter the least needed in each category. Zero means no minimum. This section only appears once categories exist.
6. Press Save changes. The list marks each cycle current, closed or not yet started.

The list of cycles shows each one's Period, what is Required, its Minimums per category and who it Applies to. Use the menu on a row to edit or delete it.

• Which cycle is current: the one whose dates include today. A cycle for a cohort, team or unit beats one for Everyone, whatever their dates. Among equals, the latest start date wins. The plugin does not warn about overlaps.
• No automatic rollover: create the next cycle before the current one ends. It takes over on its start date. Until then, people see No cycle.
• Limits: a cycle must end on a later day than it starts, so a one-day cycle is not possible.
• Time zone: dates are saved in the time zone of the person saving the cycle.
• Editing: changes to dates or requirements apply straight away, including to closed cycles.
• Deleting: this removes the cycle, its minimums and its individual targets. Entries stay, but that cycle's statement is gone.

Individual targets

Use these for people whose requirement differs in one cycle, such as part-time or newly registered practitioners.

1. Open the person's dashboard, from Team CPD or the View CPD record link on their profile.
2. If needed, use Cycle to show the right cycle.
3. Press Set an individual target.
4. Enter Points required, Hours required and Reason, then press Save changes.

• To go back to the cycle's requirement, open the same form, tick Remove the individual target and save.
• To exempt someone, set both figures to zero. They then show Requirement met, unless the cycle has category minimums, which still apply to them.
• The person's dashboard shows Individual target and the reason. The statement shows the label only, not the reason.
• Nobody can set their own target: the button is not on your own dashboard and the page refuses it. Targets are set one person at a time, for a cycle that applies to that person.

Approver tasks

Nobody is told when a claim arrives or when it is decided. Approvers need to check the page regularly, and people see the result on their dashboard.

1. Open CPD approvals from the "waiting for approval" button in the block, the Claims pending tile on Team CPD, or the cog menu.
2. Read the claim: Person, What (with the kind, category and notes), Date, Worth and Submitted. Open any files under Evidence.
3. Press Approve, or type a Reason and press Reject. A rejection without a reason is refused.

• Claims appear oldest first, 25 to a page, only within your scope.
• You never see your own claims, so someone else must approve them.
• You cannot change a claim's hours or worth. Reject it with a reason so the person can correct it.
• A decision cannot be reversed. Decided claims leave the page and no screen reopens them. The person would have to remove the claim and record it again.
• An approved claim counts on its activity date, so it may land in a closed cycle.
• Decisions are recorded in Moodle's logs as CPD claim approved and CPD claim rejected. Dashboards and statements do not show who decided.

Team manager tasks and the Team CPD page

Team CPD shows where people stand in their current cycle, listed by name. It needs viewotherscpd and Team Management. Without Team Management, the link does not appear and the page shows a message saying the plugin is needed.

Check your team

1. Open Team CPD from the block, the cog menu, or the cog on a Team Management report page.
2. Read the tiles: People, Requirement met, On track, Behind and No cycle. Approvers also get Claims pending, which opens the approvals page. The tiles can be up to 5 minutes old.
3. Tick Only people behind to narrow the table. It applies at once. The tiles keep counting everyone. This option is not offered above 5,000 people in scope.
4. Choose Rows per page under the table: 10, 25, 50 or 100. The default is 10, and your choice is remembered for you.
5. Click a name to open that person's dashboard, read-only. From there you can open their statement and evidence.
6. Use Export as CSV or Export as Excel at the foot of the page.

The Team Management person report also links to the person's CPD dashboard for anyone allowed to see it.

• Order: by last name, then first name. To see who needs attention, use Only people behind.
• Who is listed: active accounts in your scope. Deleted and suspended accounts and guests are left out, whether you see everyone or only your teams and units, and you never appear in your own list.
• Paging and exports keep the filter.
• Empty lists: "Nobody in your scope." means you have nobody to oversee. "Nobody is behind." means the filter found nobody. Export and rows per page are hidden when the table is empty.
• Tiles and the filter: these need everyone's standing, so they are worked out in batches and kept for 5 minutes. Changing the catalogue, or a course's completion settings, clears them sooner. The table itself is worked out fresh for each page, so it can briefly disagree with the tiles. The filter uses the same saved list, so someone who has just caught up may still appear.
• Above 5,000 people in scope: the page shows only the People tile (and Claims pending for approvers) with a message, and Only people behind is not offered. The table and the export still work, and the export lists everyone with their standing.

What the export contains

The export contains every row that matches the filter, not only the current page. Its file name is "Team CPD" plus the date.

Learner tasks

Read your CPD dashboard

1. Press View details in the block, or choose My CPD from the cog menu.
2. The top shows your cycle, achieved against required, your badge, what is left ("to go"), what is pending, days left and a progress bar.
3. By category shows your CPD per category. A minimum you have not reached is marked "short".
4. Under CPD entries, choose In this cycle or All. In this cycle shows entries as they counted there, and All shows what was recorded. Long lists are split into pages.
5. If more than one cycle applies to you, use Cycle to switch. This includes closed cycles and those not yet started.

Record CPD done elsewhere

People record only their own CPD. A manager or administrator cannot record CPD for someone else, or change or remove someone else's claim.

1. Press Record CPD in the block or on your dashboard. It appears only if at least one active external item is offered to you.
2. Choose Kind of CPD. The list holds the active kinds offered to you. Each option shows its name and worth, either a fixed worth or the points per hour. A kind that needs approval adds "Pending approval", and one that requires evidence adds "Required".
3. Enter What it was, as it should read on your statement.
4. Set Date. It cannot be in the future.
5. Enter Hours if the kind asks for them. They must be above zero.
6. Add Notes if useful, and attach files under Evidence. A kind that requires evidence cannot be saved without a file.
7. Press Save changes. The message says either "CPD recorded." or "CPD recorded. It counts once approved."

To change a claim, use the menu on its row in CPD entries:

• Edit is offered on pending and rejected claims. Saving sends the claim for approval, whichever kind you choose, so changing the kind cannot avoid a review.
• Remove is offered on every claim of your own, including approved ones. The claim and its evidence are deleted permanently, and Moodle's logs record CPD claim removed.
• An approved claim cannot be changed. To correct it, remove it and record it again.

Get a CPD statement

1. On your dashboard, choose the cycle with Cycle if needed.
2. Press CPD statement. The button appears when a cycle is showing.
3. Press Print, and print or save as PDF from the browser. Back to the dashboard returns you.

The statement shows the issue date and time, the person, the cycle and its dates, the Requirement (marked if it is an individual target), what was Achieved with the badge, and the standing by category. It then lists CPD entries that counted, at what they counted for, with evidence links. A separate Not counted list follows, with pending and rejected claims (and any reasons), expired entries, and entries over a cycle cap.

The profile page section

Turn on CPD on the profile page in the settings. It is off by default.

• A CPD section appears first after the person's name.
• It shows the current cycle, the badge, the figure such as "22 / 40 points", the days left and a progress bar, then a View CPD record link.
• With no current cycle, it says "No CPD cycle applies at the moment."
• People see it on their own profile if they hold view. On someone else's, they see it only if they may see that person's CPD under the rules in scope.
• Guests never see it.

What updates totals

Totals are worked out when a page is drawn, and no background job maintains them. The plugin has no scheduled tasks, and it sends no reminders. Each person's ledger is cached for up to 10 minutes, and the events below clear that cache straight away.

• Changes to cycles, minimums and individual targets show straight away, because they are not cached.
• The Team CPD table reads completion records directly, so it can briefly be more up to date than a person's own dashboard. Its tiles can be up to 5 minutes old.
• Joining or leaving a cohort, team or unit does not clear the cache, so a course or activity item's credit can take up to 10 minutes to change on a person's dashboard.
• Moodle marks courses complete through its own completion scheduled task, which runs every minute by default. If course CPD has not arrived after a few minutes, check the course's completion report, then contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.
• Using course reset to delete completion data removes the matching CPD entries, including from closed cycles. Check before resetting courses that earn CPD.
• Moodle's logs record CPD claim submitted when a claim is first saved, not when it is edited or resubmitted. They also record CPD claim approved, CPD claim rejected and CPD claim removed.

Privacy

The plugin implements Moodle's Privacy API. Course and activity CPD is Moodle's own completion data and is covered by Moodle. The plugin itself stores:

• Data export: includes the person's claims with evidence, their individual targets and their preference. It does not list claims they reviewed for other people.
• Deletion request: removes the person's claims, evidence and targets, so their total falls. Where they reviewed someone else's claim, their name is cleared and the decision stands.
• Deleted account: their claims, evidence and targets are removed, and their name is cleared from decisions they made on other people's claims.
• Evidence access: files open only for the owner, people who may see the owner's CPD, and approvers with the owner in scope.
• Logs: the log entry for a removed claim keeps its title, status, worth and date, under Moodle's own log retention.
• Retention: there is no retention period or automatic clean-up. Claims and evidence stay until the owner removes them, the account is deleted or a deletion request is processed.

Downloads

Upgrading from the custom field version

Earlier versions read points and validity from two custom fields on each course. The upgrade turns every course with a positive points value into a Course item worth those points, valid for the validity field's days where set. People's earned CPD is carried across because it comes from completion records.

1. Review CPD catalogue after upgrading. Names come from the courses, and categories are empty.
2. Add categories, external items and cycles. Until a cycle exists, people see what they have earned but not what is required.

The two custom fields stay on the courses, but nothing reads them. Editing them has no effect.

If your site already uses the CPD dashboard

This update corrects several rules, so some figures change even though no data is lost. Check the following after upgrading:

• Course and activity items with an audience: people outside the audience lose those entries. Before, anyone who completed earned the item.
• Items already switched off: these now stop earning from when they were last saved. Later completions drop out.
• Several items on one course or activity: a completion now earns once, not once per item.
• Requirement met: people short on a category minimum, or on hours where both are set, move to On track or Behind.
• Expired entries: these no longer count in an open cycle.
• Team CPD: the list is now by name rather than Behind first.

Questions and troubleshooting

Where do I set the period and the target?

On CPD cycles, from the cog menu or the link at the top of the settings page. The block has no settings, and the plugin settings only control display and evidence uploads.

Why has my CPD total not gone up after recording a claim?

Approval is set for each kind of CPD, not for the whole site. If the kind needs approval, the claim shows as Pending approval and counts once approved. Otherwise, check that its date falls within the cycle you are looking at. The In this cycle list also says if the kind's Maximum hours per cycle has been reached. Approvers are not notified, so you may need to tell them.

Someone completed a course but no CPD shows. What should I check?

1. Is there a catalogue item for that course? Completing a course earns nothing without one.
2. Is the person in the item's Offered to audience now? Someone outside it earns nothing, even if they used to be in it.
3. Was the item switched off or deleted before the completion? Completions after that moment earn nothing.
4. Does the item show a Never completes badge?
5. Is the course hidden? A hidden course's item earns nothing.
6. Is the person really marked complete in the course's completion report? If they should be and are not after a few minutes, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.
7. Is the completion date inside the cycle, and has the entry not expired? Choose All under CPD entries to see entries from any date.

The dashboard can also take up to 10 minutes to catch up in rare cases.

Can a manager add CPD on somebody's behalf?

No. Claims can only be recorded by the person themselves, and no role can enter, edit or remove a claim for someone else. A manager can approve or reject a claim, and a CPD manager can set an individual target. If a person cannot record their own CPD, the only option within the plugin is a lower individual target with a reason.

What happens to accrued CPD when a period ends?

Entries stay, and count only in the cycle their date falls in. Nothing rolls over. The next cycle starts with its own total, provided you have created one. Otherwise people show No cycle. They can still open a closed cycle and its statement through Cycle, as long as the cycle still applies to them.

A learner changed team mid-cycle. Do they keep their CPD?

Claims stay, and so does credit from course and activity items offered to Everyone or to an audience they are still in. Credit from a course or activity item offered to an audience they have left is removed. Their cycle may change too: if the cycle was for a cohort, team or unit they have left, it stops applying, and their entries are measured against whichever cycle applies now. Putting them back in the group restores the credit and access to the old cycle's statement.

Why does someone who has reached the total not show Requirement met?

Requirement met needs every requirement: points and hours where each is set, and every category minimum. Check By category for anything marked "short", and the notes beside the badge for hours to go. Team CPD and its export show the badge but not which minimum is short, so open the person's dashboard to find out.

Does an expired course still count?

Not in an open cycle once its Valid until date has passed: it appears under In this cycle as Expired, and on the statement under Not counted. In a closed cycle, it counts if it was still valid when the cycle ended.

Why don't I see Team CPD, or why do I see a message about the plugin?

Team CPD needs both viewotherscpd in a system-level role and the Team Management plugin, which Lingel Learning enables for your site. Without Team Management, you can still open a person's dashboard from their profile if the profile section is on, or from the approvals page.

A team manager sees "Nobody in your scope." Why?

That message means nobody is in their scope. Confirm they are the manager of a team with members, or the head of a unit with current placements. Holding the capability alone gives them no people unless they also hold manageteams. Suspended accounts are not listed. If a filter finds nobody, the page says "Nobody is behind." instead.

Why did someone lose CPD after leaving a cohort or team?

A course or activity item's Offered to audience is judged by who is in it now, and the plugin has no record of past membership. Leaving the audience removes that credit, including from closed cycles. Change the item's audience to include them, or offer it to Everyone, if the credit should stand. Save a statement before moving people if you need a record of it.

Why is Team CPD not sorted with the people behind at the top?

The list is by name so that each page can be worked out on its own, however many people are in scope. Tick Only people behind to see just those people, or sort the export. The filter is not offered above 5,000 people in scope.

Can an approval be undone?

No. An approver cannot reopen a decided claim. The person who made it can remove it and record it again, and if the kind needs approval it then waits for a new decision.

Why can a person not attach their evidence?

Check the file type (PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, DOC or DOCX), Evidence file size limit, Evidence files per claim and Moodle's site upload limit. The file picker shows the size that applies.

A statement shows different figures from last month. Why?

Statements are calculated when opened. The figures change if an item's worth or audience changes, the person joins or leaves an audience, a cycle is edited, a course is hidden, completions are reset, or a claim is added, removed or approved. An entry that had expired by the end of a closed cycle stays out, and time passing alone does not change a closed cycle. Keep a saved PDF if you need a fixed copy.

Can we report on CPD across the whole organisation?

For current standing, yes: someone with viewotherscpd and manageteams sees everyone on Team CPD and can export it. Above 5,000 people, the export is how you get the totals, as the tiles are not shown. Advanced Reporting does not read CPD data. Reports on closed cycles, categories or individual entries are not available as a site-wide view, so you would use each person's dashboard or statement.

Team Management gives your site teams: named groups of people, each with a manager who sees their team's learning without needing administrator rights. Teams can be built by hand, kept in step with cohorts, or made automatically from a rule. On the enterprise level, an organisation structure of units and positions sits underneath, and managers see the part of it they head.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate Team Management (a block and a set of pages)

Managing teams

Site administration → Users → Team Management → Manage teams

Settings

None. Everything is set on the plugin's own pages

In-app help

Documentation, in the cog menu on Manage teams

Organisation structure

Part of the enterprise level, enabled by Lingel Learning

Works with

CPD Dashboard (Team CPD, team and unit audiences) and Learning Pathways (pathway counts on the team page)

• How it works
• Capabilities
• The block
• Create a team by hand
• Teams from cohorts
• Teams from a rule
• The team page
• Team reports and the person page
• The organisation structure
• Rules from the organisation
• Who sees what
• How current the figures are
• Privacy
• Questions we get asked

How it works

A team is a named group of people with one manager. The manager opens the team page to see each person's enrolments, completions, progress and, where Learning Pathways is installed, their pathways. A person can be in several teams, and a manager can manage several.

People get into a team in three ways, and one team can use any mix of them:

Capabilities

Assign these through roles in Site administration → Users → Permissions → Define roles. Site administrators hold them all.

A team's manager needs no capability to see their own team: being named as its manager is enough. manageteams is site-wide, so whoever holds it can manage every team.

The block

Add Virtual Slate Team Management to the Dashboard, for everyone through Site administration → Appearance → Default Dashboard page, or to any page. Its title is My Teams. It lists each team the viewer manages under Name and Members, and the team's name opens the team page. On the Virtual Slate dashboard it appears as the My teams tab.

• Who sees it. The block only appears for someone who manages at least one team, or who holds manageteams. Everyone else does not see it at all, so it is safe to put on the default Dashboard. A holder of manageteams who manages no team sees You have not been assigned a team yet.
• My organisation appears on the enterprise level for anyone who heads a unit, and for holders of manageteams.
• Manage teams appears for holders of manageteams while Edit mode is on. With editing off, use Site administration → Users → Team Management → Manage teams.

Create a team by hand

Manage teams is at Site administration → Users → Team Management → Manage teams. It lists every team, 30 to a page, with its Team manager, number of Members and Cohorts. Sort by name, manager or cohorts by pressing the column heading, and use Download table data as to save the list as CSV, Excel or another format. Each row has three icons under Action: manage the team's members, edit the team, and delete it. The cog menu at the top right holds Manage team auto-creation, Organisation structure (enterprise level) and Documentation.

1. Go to Manage teams and press Add new team.
2. Enter a Name and choose the Team manager. Start typing to search for them. Both are required.
3. Optionally choose Cohorts (see Teams from cohorts).
4. Press Save.
5. To add people one at a time, press the person icon for the team on Manage teams. This opens Manage team members.

Manage team members has two lists. Existing team members is on the left and Potential team members on the right. Search the right-hand list, select one or more people (hold Ctrl or Cmd to pick several) and press Add. Select people on the left and press Remove to take them out. On a large site the right-hand list says Too many users to show until you search.

• Remove only undoes a hand addition. Someone who is in the team through a cohort or a rule stays when you press Remove. Take them out of the cohort, or change what the rule reads.
• Deleting a team (the bin icon, then confirm) removes its memberships. The people and their learning are not affected.
• Changing the manager on the team form hands the team page to the new manager straight away.

Teams from cohorts

A team linked to one or more cohorts contains every member of those cohorts, and stays in step as membership changes. Adding someone to the cohort adds them to the team at once, and removing them removes them.

• Someone in two of a team's cohorts stays in the team until they have left both.
• Deleting a cohort removes its members from the team, unless another of the team's cohorts still contains them.
• People added by hand are never removed because of a cohort.

Teams from a rule

A rule turns a user profile field into teams. Each person's value in the field is looked up against a column of the user accounts (ID, username, ID number or email address) to find their manager. The manager gets a team named after them ("Jane Smith's team") if they do not have one, and the person is placed in it.

For example, a text profile field Manager email holds j.smith@example.com and the rule matches it to email address. The nightly run finds the account with that address, makes Jane Smith's team if needed, and adds the person.

1. On Manage teams, open the cog menu and choose Manage team auto-creation. Press Add rule.
2. Tick Active. It starts unticked, and a rule that is not active does nothing.
3. Choose the profile field under Select User Profile Field.
4. Under Select User Mapping Field, choose which column of the user accounts the value is matched against: id, username, idnumber or email.
5. Press Save. The rule runs that night; existing teams are not touched until then.

Manage team auto-creation lists every rule with its Type (Profile field or, on the enterprise level, Organisation), a plain description of what it does, whether it is Active, and Edit and Delete links. Deleting a rule asks you to confirm. Its memberships are removed on the next nightly run, unless another rule still wants them.

• One rule per profile field. Saving a rule for a field that already has one edits that rule. Rules on different fields, such as Manager and Mentor, each make their own teams.
• A rule only removes what it placed. Someone added by hand, from a cohort or by another rule is never removed by a rule that does not want them. That is what makes disabling or deleting a rule safe: on the next run its own memberships go, and nothing else changes.
• People who move are moved. When someone's profile value changes, they move from the old manager's team to the new one on the next run. If the value stops matching anyone, they leave.
• Memberships from before September 2026 made by a rule cannot be told apart from ones added by hand, so they are treated as hand-added and never removed automatically. This sorts itself out as rules place those people again.

The team page

Open a team from the block or from Manage teams. The page lists the team's people as cards or as a list, a page at a time, with Team learning health above them: how many people, their average progress and the courses they have completed between them.

• Search matches part of a name or an email address.
• Sort by name, A to Z or Z to A, or by progress, high to low or low to high.
• People per page: 10, 25, 50 or 100, where your site's theme shows the choice. It is remembered in your browser.
• Organisation (enterprise level): choosing a unit keeps the people who sit at it or beneath it, and the panel shows how many of the team sit at each unit. Each person's card says where they sit: their position, then their unit in each hierarchy.
• Progress is the courses a person has completed out of the courses they are enrolled in.
• Team learning health counts everyone the search and the unit filter keep, not just the page on screen. Choosing a department shows that department's figures.
• Each card shows the person's progress, how many courses they are Enrolled in and have Completed, and their Last access in your own time zone (Never if they have not logged in). Report opens the person's page.
• Where Learning Pathways is installed, each card also shows how many pathways the person is on, and on themes that show it, such as Autumn, how many they have finished.

The page asks for one page of people at a time, so it opens quickly however large the team is.

Use Team view to switch between List and Cards. The figures are the same; cards show more people side by side on a wide screen.

The three-dot button beside Report opens a short menu: View profile, Grades (the person's course grades), Completed (the courses they have completed, with dates) and, where Learning Pathways is installed, Pathways.

On the enterprise level, choose a unit in the Organisation panel to narrow the page to the people at it or beneath it. A Filtered by bar shows the unit's path; press the cross on it, or Reset in the panel, to see everyone again. Team learning health follows the filter.

A team bigger than one page shows a pager at the bottom: how many people are showing, and Previous, page numbers and Next. A page holds 25 people unless your theme offers the People per page choice.

Team reports and the person page

Every team page has a Team report: people down, every course anyone in the team is enrolled in across, and in each cell where that person stands: not started, in progress, or completed with the date and the course grade. A dash means not enrolled.

• Figures across the top: how many people, the completion rate over all their enrolments, how many have nothing outstanding, how many have not logged in for 30 days, and the average course grade.
• Narrow it to a unit of the organisation, or tick Only people with something outstanding. Sort by name or by any course.
• Export as CSV or a spreadsheet: exactly the rows the report is showing, every page of them.
• A course heading opens that course on its own: everyone in it, their status, when they started and finished, their grade, and their time in the course where your site measures it.
• A name opens the person: where they sit and who they report to, every course with the same detail, their learning pathways where that plugin is installed, and a link to their CPD dashboard where CPD is installed and you may see it.
• The same report exists for a unit of the organisation, from the unit's people page, covering everyone at it or beneath it.

The figures come straight from Moodle's enrolments, course completions, gradebook and access records, so the report never says something different from the course itself.

Open the report with Team report on the team page. The report shows 50 people to a page; the course columns scroll sideways when there are many. Under each name it shows the person's position and unit on the enterprise level.

A course heading opens the course on its own for this team: tiles for Enrolled, Completed, In progress, Not started and Average grade, then one row per person with Status, Started, Completed on, Grade, Time in course and Last access. Columns stay empty where Moodle holds nothing to show, such as a grade on a course with no graded activities.

A name opens the person's page. It shows their Position, where they are Placed at, who they Reports to, their email address and last access, and a View profile button. Below are tiles for Enrolled, Completed and Average grade, the Courses table and, where Learning Pathways is installed, their Pathways with status and progress.

The organisation structure

On the enterprise level, Manage teams → Organisation structure holds a model of how your organisation is arranged. Where it is not enabled, these pages are not offered, and teams, cohorts and profile-field rules work as described above.

• Hierarchies: one or more trees of units. Organisational is there from the start; Geographic, Legal entity or others can be added.
• Kinds of unit: each hierarchy lists its kinds from the top down, such as Company › Division › Department › Team or Country › State › Site. Every unit is one of them. A kind is a label rather than a level, so a Team can sit straight under a Company.
• Positions: job titles, kept as a flat list. A position may report to another: a Registered Nurse reports to the Nurse Unit Manager.
• Assignments: what connects a person to all this: the position they hold, who they report to, where they sit in each hierarchy, and from and until when. A move on 1 July can be entered in June. A person can hold more than one.

Someone whose assignment names no manager reports to whoever holds the position above theirs at their own unit, or the nearest unit above it. Replace a unit manager and everyone under them follows on the next run. A manager written on the assignment always wins.

Each unit row has a plus icon to add a unit beneath it (it offers the next kind down, such as Add Team beneath), a pencil to edit it, and a menu with View people, Place someone here and Delete. Deleting a unit deletes everything beneath it too; people placed there lose that placement but keep the rest of their assignment. The cog menu at the top right holds Import organisation, Place a person, Add hierarchy and Add position.

A unit has a Name, an ID number, a Parent, a Kind of unit and a Description. A position has a Name, an ID number, the position it Reports to, and a Description. Choose ID numbers that never change, such as finance or rn: imports and HR feeds match on them.

To set a hierarchy's kinds of unit, choose Edit hierarchy from the hierarchy's menu. Enter one kind per line, top of the organisation first. Each kind can have its own icon. A kind still in use by a unit is kept even if you remove its line, and the page says which ones were kept. The Organisational hierarchy cannot be deleted.

Building it

• On screen: add hierarchies and units on the organisation page, and place people with Place someone here on a unit or Give someone this position on a position. The count beside a unit opens the people there, with their position, manager and start date; edit or end a placement from that list.
• From files: Import organisation takes three CSV files, one at a time: units, positions, then assignments. The page offers a template for each and a download of your current data in the same format. Rows are matched on their ID numbers, so importing a file again updates it rather than duplicating it. Accounts are matched by their ID number or username, which should carry the employee ID from your HR system.
• From your HR system: ask your usual Lingel Learning contact about a feed. It writes through the same import.

The people page for a unit shows its path and kind at the top. Below that are any Teams a rule has made for it, then its People, with their Position, who they Reports to, where they are Placed at and Since when. by position beside a manager means the reporting line comes from the positions, not from a name on the assignment. Switch between Include everyone in units beneath and Only people directly at this unit. Use the pencil to edit a placement, or the end icon to end it today. An ended placement stays on record, and teams a rule built from it update on the next run.

Place someone here opens Place a person: choose the Person and their Position. Leave Reports to as (as the position says), or name someone to override the positions. Then choose a unit in each hierarchy and the From date. Tick Until to give an end date. This is their main role decides which manager their team-per-manager membership follows. Saving a new main role ends the previous one the day the new one starts. Untick it for a second, concurrent role.

Import organisation describes each of the three files. Each has Download template, Download current data and Columns and an example. Choose the CSV file, its CSV separator and Encoding, and press Import. Tick Record as an HR system feed when the file is an export from your HR system, so it is clear later which assignments came from there. The result says how many rows were created, updated and skipped, with the line number and problem for each skipped row.

My organisation

A person heads a unit when they manage more people at or beneath it than anyone else, or when they manage the team made for it. My organisation, linked from the block, shows them the units they head and everything beneath, read-only, and the count beside a unit opens the people there. A green team badge opens the unit's team when they are its manager.

"Manage the most people" counts the people who report to each person directly. If a team leader has more direct reports than anyone above them, they can head the units above theirs too, and see everyone there. Keep reporting lines complete up to the top, by naming managers on assignments or through positions, so that senior managers are the heads of the units above.

Rules from the organisation

On the enterprise level, Manage team auto-creation also offers Add organisation rule. Its conditions pick people by where they sit (a unit, optionally with everything beneath it, or any unit of a kind), by position, or by a profile field value, combined with "all of" or "any of". It then does one of three things:

A person who changes unit or position moves team on the next run. As with every rule, an organisation rule only ever removes the memberships it made.

The form asks for a Rule name and whether it is Active (ticked to start with). Under Who, Match is all of the following or any of the following. Then come Placed at (a unit), Placed at any (a kind of unit), or anywhere beneath it, Holding position, and Profile field with the value it equals. Choose at least one. Under Then, Create is a team per manager, a team per unit or add everyone to one team, with the Team to use for the last. Advanced: conditions as JSON is for rules the fields cannot express, such as two units; anything entered there replaces the fields above, so leave it to us if you are unsure.

Who sees what

The limits are enforced in what the site fetches, not only in what it shows, so there is nothing to un-hide. CPD Dashboard uses the same teams and units to decide whose CPD a manager can see.

How current the figures are

• Membership by hand or from a cohort shows straight away.
• Membership from a rule changes on the nightly run, shortly after midnight. A rule you have just saved does nothing until then.
• Team learning health is kept for up to two minutes, so a new enrolment or completion can take that long to appear in it. Adding someone to the team or removing them, by any route, updates it straight away. The people on the page are always current.
• Deleting an account removes its memberships straight away. A nightly check catches any that were missed.
• If membership still looks out of date the next day, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.

Privacy

The plugin implements Moodle's Privacy API. It records which teams a person belongs to, which teams they manage and, on the enterprise level, their organisation assignments, including where they are named as someone's manager. All of these appear in a data export. When a person's data is deleted, their memberships are removed. A team they managed is kept with the manager left empty, because the team exists for its members and deleting it would remove their data too. Choose a new manager for it on Manage teams.

Team Management: questions we get asked

A manager cannot see somebody they manage.

Check how the person gets into the team. A rule places people on the nightly run, so a profile value changed today shows tomorrow. A cohort or a person added by hand shows straight away. If the team is right, check the manager: a team has one manager, and only they and holders of manageteams open its page. On the enterprise level, a manager also sees the people beneath the units they head, under My organisation.

I made a rule and no teams appeared.

Rules run overnight, shortly after midnight. Check the next morning. If teams still do not appear, check that people's profile values match a user account in the column you chose: a value matching nobody is skipped. If that looks right, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.

Will disabling or deleting a rule empty our teams?

Only of the memberships that rule made. People added by hand, from a cohort or by another rule stay. The teams themselves are not deleted.

Why do the Team learning health figures not match a course I just checked?

They are kept for up to two minutes, so a completion from the last two minutes may not be in them yet. They also count everyone your search and unit filter keep, so clear both to see the whole team.

Can a manager enrol or edit the people they manage?

Not through Team Management, which shows a manager their people's learning. What else a manager may do, such as enrolling people, comes from the roles they hold on your site, and we can help you set those up.

How is this different from Moodle cohorts?

A cohort is a flat set of people, used mainly for enrolment. A team has a manager who sees its learning, and the organisation structure adds units, positions and who reports to whom. A team can be filled from cohorts, so you can keep using the cohorts you have.

We cannot find the Organisation structure page.

It is part of the enterprise level, which Lingel Learning enables for your site. Without it, teams, cohorts and profile-field rules work as usual.

An import says it does not recognise a person.

People are matched on the ID number or username of their account. Make sure each account's ID number holds the employee ID from your HR system, then import the file again. Rows already imported are updated, not duplicated.

The person who managed a team has left. What happens to the team?

It stays with its members. Edit the team on Manage teams and choose a new manager.

Assessments runs workplace-based assessment programs. A program is a list of assessment forms, each with a number to complete. Trainees are enrolled in a program with their supervisors, supervisors (and for some forms the trainee) fill in the forms as the trainee works, and everyone follows progress on the Assessment summary page.

Name in Moodle

Assessments

Where to find it

The Assessments menu in the top bar, shown to site administrators: Manage administrators, Assessment summary, Manage programs, Assessment types, Clinical Supervisor groups. Trainees and supervisors open the Assessment summary from a link your site provides

Settings

One, the source of the clinical supervisor groups, which Lingel Learning sets up for you

Permissions

No capabilities to assign. Access comes from the plugin's own administrator list and from who is named on each enrolment

• How it works
• Assessments administrators
• Set up a program
• Enrol trainees and assign supervisors
• Clinical supervisor groups
• Assessment types: forms, sections and questions
• The Assessment summary page
• Filling in an assessment
• Recognition of prior learning (RPL)
• The meetings report
• Settings
• Who sees what
• Questions we get asked

How it works

Site administrators reach every page from the Assessments menu in the top bar.

Assessments administrators

Site administrators can do everything. To let someone else manage programs, enrolments, assessment types, RPL and attempts without making them a site administrator, add them under Assessments > Manage administrators: search for the person in Potential administrators, select them and choose Add. To take the role away, select them in Existing administrators and choose Remove. Only site administrators can open this page.

Assessments administrators do not see the Assessments menu; give them links to the pages they use (for example Manage programs and Assessment summary), or ask us to add them to your site's menu.

Set up a program

Assessments > Manage programs lists every program with its number of Trainees and its dates. Select a program's name to open it. The icons on each row move it up or down the list (the order of the tabs on the summary page), edit it, Copy program, View report (the meetings report), and Delete.

1. Choose Add new program.
2. Give it a Name (required) and a Description. The description is shown to trainees and supervisors above the program's table on the summary page.
3. Set Start date and End date if the program has fixed dates (tick Enable beside each). A trainee or supervisor can open the summary only while at least one of their programs is running, so leave both off for a program with no fixed dates.
4. Choose the Trainee cohorts, Primary supervisor cohorts and Clinical supervisor cohorts. These are not optional in practice: Enrol trainees offers only members of the trainee cohorts, and Assign supervisors offers only members of the supervisor cohorts. Set the cohorts up first under Site administration > Users > Cohorts.
5. Choose Save changes.

Open the program to see its details. The cog menu above Program details has everything else: Edit settings, Enrol trainees, Assign supervisors, Manage supervisor assignments, Manage RPL and Manage Assessments.

Add assessments to the program

1. From the cog menu choose Manage Assessments, then Add new assessment.
2. Choose the Assessment (the assessment type) and choose Select.
3. Enter the Number required and choose Save changes. Some meeting forms show their own rule instead, such as One per placement or One every 3 calendar months.

Copy or delete a program

Copy program creates Copy of '<name>' with the same description, dates, cohorts and assessments, but no trainees. Edit the copy's name and dates, then enrol the new intake. Delete asks Are you sure you want to delete the program? and cannot be undone.

Enrol trainees and assign supervisors

Enrol trainees

From the program's cog menu choose Enrol trainees. Potential trainees lists members of the program's trainee cohorts who are not yet enrolled. Select people and choose Add; select someone under Existing trainees and choose Remove to take them out. Removing a trainee hides them from the program but keeps their attempts: add them again and their record comes back.

Assign supervisors

Each trainee has three kinds of supervisor:

• Primary supervisors complete most forms and see everything for the trainee.
• Clinical supervisors complete the forms that allow it (for example Mini-CEX, DOPS and CbD) and see the trainee's summary.
• Clinical supervisor groups make every member of the group a clinical supervisor for the trainee (see below).

To set supervisors for several trainees at once, choose Assign supervisors, pick the Trainees, then the Primary Supervisors, Clinical supervisors and Clinical supervisor groups, and choose Save changes. The supervisor lists offer members of the program's supervisor cohorts; the groups list offers every group. Saving replaces those trainees' existing supervisors with your choice.

Manage supervisor assignments lists every enrolled trainee with their supervisors and groups. Filter by the first letter of the first or last name. Manage supervisors on a row changes one trainee's supervisors.

Clinical supervisor groups

A clinical supervisor group is a list of clinical supervisors at one site, for example everyone in one hospital's emergency department. Assign a group to a trainee and every member supervises them, with no need to name each person.

The groups are built every night (at midnight, server time) from a list Lingel Learning sets up with you: one row per supervisor with their username, the site and the programs they supervise for. The sync creates one group per program and site, named like EMC - Riverside Hospital, and replaces each group's members from the list. A supervisor added to or removed from the list joins or leaves the group the next day. Usernames in the list that do not match an account are skipped.

Assessments > Clinical Supervisor groups shows each group and its number of Members. Select the number to see who is in it.

Assessment types: forms, sections and questions

Assessments > Assessment types lists every form with its Name and Display name, 50 to a page. Each row has three icons: edit the type, Manage sections (the three dots) and Manage fields (the list icon).

Editing a type changes:

• Parent: makes this type part of another. Completed attempts of a child type count towards its parent on the summary page, which is how one row can collect several kinds of module.
• Name: what administrators see in lists. Display name: what trainees and supervisors see on the summary page and the form; when it is empty the name is used.
• Active: recorded for your reference. It does not currently hide the type anywhere.
• Introduction: the text on the form's Instructions tab.

Sections

Manage sections lists the form's sections in order. Each has a Name, a Heading (shown on the form when Display heading is ticked) and a Section type: Information, Table (3 column), Table (2 column), Global assessment, Other or Procedural checklist. The type decides how the section's questions are laid out.

Fields (questions)

Manage fields lists every question with its section, in order. Add or edit a field to set:

• Section, Name (a short internal name of letters and numbers; keep it unchanged once the form is in use) and Question text.
• Data type (Number, Text or Raw) and Field type: Date, Radio button, Radio button (custom), Dropdown, Text box, Long text box, Procedural checklist item or Label. Choose Update after changing the field type to show its extra settings.
• Options for dropdowns, custom radio buttons and checklist items, one per line; predefined Radio options for standard radio buttons.
• Rationale (radio types): adds a box for the assessor's reasons. Global Assessment (radio types): this answer is the attempt's overall result.
• Display on summary page: the answer is shown in the Completion details column, for example the term. Required: the form cannot be submitted without it.

The Assessment summary page

The summary is where trainees, supervisors and administrators follow progress and start new forms. Each program is a tab with its description, then one row per assessment:

• Number required, or the meeting's rule.
• Number completed: attempts with a passing result (Competent, Satisfactory or RPL). Where the number is a link, select it to see the trainee's attempts for that assessment.
• Completion details: one line per attempt with the answer chosen for display (for example the term) and the result, green for C, S or RPL and yellow for NYC or NYS, explained by the Key to Details column at the top.
• Actions: Add new starts a form, when you are allowed to start that form. A procedural checklist shows View/Edit instead, because each trainee has one checklist that grows over time.

Download under each program's table saves it as a CSV file.

Supervisors and administrators

Supervisors choose one of their trainees under Trainee and choose View; the list holds only the trainees they supervise. Administrators can choose any trainee.

Trainees

Trainees see their own programs straight away, one tab each. They can start the forms that are theirs to start, such as the start of placement and reflection meetings, and open their completed forms read-only.

Clinical supervisors and group members

Clinical supervisors, including everyone in a clinical supervisor group assigned to the trainee, see the same page. They can add the forms that allow clinical supervisors, such as Mini-CEX, DOPS and CbD, but not the meeting forms.

Filling in an assessment

1. On the summary, choose Add new on the assessment's row.
2. The form opens on the Form tab, headed with the trainee's name. The Instructions tab has the assessment type's introduction.
3. Answer the questions. A rationale box appears under competencies that ask for one.
4. Choose Submit and confirm Are you sure you are ready to submit this assessment? The page says Thanks, that worked. The assessment was successfully submitted. A form with missing or invalid answers comes back with the problems marked.

• Which roles can start a new attempt depends on the form. Most are started by a primary supervisor; workplace assessments such as Mini-CEX, DOPS and CbD can also be started by a clinical supervisor, and the meeting forms by the trainee.
• Once a supervisor has saved an attempt it is theirs: other people see it read-only (greyed out, with no Submit button), and only that supervisor or an administrator can change it.
• RPL attempts open only for administrators.

The attempts list

Select the Number completed link on the summary to see every attempt of that assessment for the trainee, with its Date of assessment, Global assessment and Completion details. View opens one. Administrators also see Delete, which asks you to confirm and cannot be undone.

Procedural checklists

A procedural checklist lists the procedures a trainee must perform, for example two adult intubations. Each requirement turns green once enough procedures matching it are logged. To log one, choose the + beside the requirement, set Real/Simulated and the Date (always required), plus Adult/Paediatric and Gender if the procedure needs them, and choose Save changes. Logged procedures are listed on the right with their dates; select one to correct it. Administrators can also tick RPL on a procedure.

Recognition of prior learning (RPL)

Where an assessment allows it, an administrator can record RPL for trainees who have already met a requirement elsewhere. From the program's cog menu choose Manage RPL, which lists the RPL already recorded, then Add new:

1. Choose the Trainees (one or more enrolled trainees).
2. Choose the Assessment. Only assessments that allow RPL are offered. Some then ask for Assessment options, for example which workshops are recognised.
3. Choose Save changes.

Each trainee gets an attempt marked RPL, which counts towards the number required and shows as RPL in the completion details. Only administrators can open RPL attempts. Delete on Manage RPL removes the RPL and its attempt after you confirm.

The meetings report

The report icon on Manage programs (View report) opens a report of start of placement and reflection meetings. Choose the Programs and Assessments (a meeting type, or All) and choose Select. Each row shows the trainee's username (under ACEM ID), name, email, program, Meeting type, Meeting date and Completion status: whether the trainee's part and the supervisor's part are complete, or Not started. Download it in any of the usual formats (CSV, Excel, ODS and so on).

Settings

One setting, at Site administration > Plugins > Local plugins > Assessment summary:

Who sees what

The plugin has no capabilities to assign in Moodle's roles. Access works like this:

These limits are checked by the site whenever a page or a saved form is requested, not only by hiding links.

Questions we get asked

A trainee or supervisor gets "You are not authorised to view this page".

Check that they are enrolled in, or named as a supervisor on, a program whose start and end dates include today. If they supervise through a clinical supervisor group, check that they appear under View group members; the groups refresh overnight. A supervisor can only open trainees they supervise.

A supervisor cannot change an attempt.

Another supervisor has already saved it, so it is theirs. Ask that supervisor, or an administrator, to make the change.

We have a new cohort of trainees. Do we need a new program?

Not necessarily: you can enrol them in the existing program. If the new intake has different dates or requirements, use Copy program on Manage programs, adjust the copy and enrol the new trainees in it.

Can we add a new kind of form?

Yes. Each form is built on a layout provided with the plugin; contact your usual Lingel Learning contact and we will set the new form up and add it to your programs.

Potential trainees, or the supervisor lists, are empty.

The lists come only from the program's cohorts. Open the program, choose Edit settings, and check Trainee cohorts, Primary supervisor cohorts and Clinical supervisor cohorts. Then check the people are members of those cohorts under Site administration > Users > Cohorts. Trainees already enrolled are not offered again.

A supervisor shows as "Deleted supervisor".

They are no longer in the program's primary or clinical supervisor cohort, or their account was deleted. Add them back to the cohort, or choose Manage supervisors on the trainee's row and pick someone else.

An attempt shows on the summary but the number completed did not go up.

Only passing results count: Competent, Satisfactory or RPL. A Not Yet Competent or Not Yet Satisfactory attempt is listed in the completion details but does not count towards the number required.

We removed a trainee by mistake.

Add them again under Enrol trainees. Removing only hides the enrolment, so their attempts and supervisors come back with it.

These blocks are added to a Dashboard or course page like any other Moodle block. On most sites they reach people through Dashboard tabs, one block on the Dashboard that shows the others as tabs. Dashboard tabs and My Learning have site settings, Quicklinks is set up from its own management page and Categories has one setting per block; Events, Grades and Grading need nothing beyond being placed where people will see them.

On this page: Dashboard tabs, My Learning, Quicklinks, Categories, Events, Grades and Grading.

Dashboard tabs

Dashboard tabs gathers the Virtual Slate blocks into one block on the Dashboard, with a tab for each. People switch between My learning, Learning pathways, Grades, Grading, CPD and My teams without leaving the page, and the Dashboard stays short.

Name in Moodle

Dashboard tabs (a block)

Where it can go

The Dashboard and the site home page. One per page

Added for you

When it is installed it is placed at the top of the default Dashboard, so new users see it without any setup

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Dashboard tabs

What people see

• The tab that opens is the one the person last opened. On their first visit it is the Default tab from the settings.
• Only the open tab is loaded with the page. Each other tab loads the first time it is selected and then stays loaded, so a Dashboard with six tabs opens as quickly as one with a single block.
• A tab shows the same thing as the block on its own, for the same people: My learning shows the person's courses, Grades their grades, Grading a teacher's courses with work to grade. Each block is described below.
• A tab with nothing for that person says Nothing to show here yet. A learner sees this on the Grading tab, for example, because Grading is for teachers. The tab itself is the same for everyone.
• If one tab cannot be shown it says This section could not be shown. and the rest of the Dashboard carries on working. If a tab fails to load, for example because the connection dropped, it says This section could not be loaded. with a Try again button.
• Content taller than the tab area scrolls inside it. The tabs work from the keyboard: the arrow keys move between tabs, Home and End jump to the first and last.
• Guests and people who are not logged in see nothing.

Settings

Choose the tabs

1. Go to Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Dashboard tabs.
2. Under Tabs, tick the blocks you want and untick the rest.
3. Optionally put them in a different order in Tab order, and choose a Default tab.
4. Set Minimum height (px) and Maximum height (px). The same value in both gives a tab area that never changes height.
5. Press Save changes.
6. If any of the same blocks is also on the Dashboard on its own, remove it there, or it shows twice.

Who sees what

• Everyone who uses the default Dashboard sees the block. People cannot add it to their own Dashboard; it comes from the default.
• The block keeps one preference for each person, the tab they last opened. It is included when you export a person's data under Site administration → Users → Privacy and policies → Data requests.

Questions we get asked

Some people do not have the Dashboard tabs block.

It is added to the default Dashboard. People who had already changed their own Dashboard keep their own copy. To give everyone the default, go to Site administration → Appearance → Default Dashboard page and press Reset Dashboard for all users. This also removes blocks people added themselves, so tell them first.

The page jumps when someone switches tabs.

Set Minimum height (px) and Maximum height (px) to the same value. The tab area then keeps one height and longer content scrolls inside it.

A block appears twice on the Dashboard.

It is a tab and also a block on the page in its own right. Remove the separate block, or untick it under Tabs.

My Learning

My Learning shows each person the courses they are enrolled in. The block on the Dashboard shows four of them as cards, and its Show more button opens a full page with every course, a search, filters and pages.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate My Learning (a block and a full page)

Where it can go

Any page; usually the Dashboard

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Virtual Slate My Learning

Two looks

A classic look on most themes, and a modern look on themes made for it, such as Autumn

The block

The block shows up to four of the person's courses as cards, then a Show more button. Each card has the course image, the course name, a View course link and, where the course tracks completion, a status: Not started, In progress or Completed. Someone enrolled in nothing sees No items.

Site administrators see a note instead of cards, because they are not enrolled in courses the way learners are. Show more still takes them to the full page.

The block is also the My learning tab of Dashboard tabs.

The full page

The full page, headed Enrolled courses, lists every course the person is enrolled in. In the classic look it has:

• Sort by: newest or oldest courses first, course name A to Z or Z to A, or the order of your course categories.
• Category: only the categories the person has courses in.
• Status: Not started, In progress or Completed.
• A keyword box and Search. Keywords match the course name, its summary and its tags.
• Previous, page numbers and Next when there is more than one page.

Site administrators see every visible course on the site here, with a note saying that learners only see their own.

On a theme with the modern look, the page adds a Continue learning banner for the course the person used last (only a course they are still enrolled in, with an active enrolment, and not in a category hidden from My Learning; if there is none, the banner does not appear), filters that apply as they type, a tile or list view, a choice of how many courses to show per page (8, 16, 32 or 64), progress bars, and pinning. Each person can pin up to 30 courses to keep them at the top of the page and the block.

With editing on, administrators see a Block settings button at the top of the full page that goes straight to the settings below.

Settings

Go to Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Virtual Slate My Learning.

Who sees what

• People see only the visible courses they are actively enrolled in. A suspended or expired enrolment, or a hidden course, does not show.
• Courses in categories your site has set aside, and courses in another language where your site shows courses by language, are left out.
• Pins, the tile or list choice and the page size belong to each person and follow them across devices.

Privacy

My Learning keeps three preferences for each person: whether they see tiles or a list, which courses they have pinned, and how many courses they show per page. They are included when you export a person's data under Site administration → Users → Privacy and policies → Data requests. The block keeps no other personal data.

Questions we get asked

A learner has just been enrolled but the course is not in the block.

New enrolments, completions and course changes show straight away; a changed setting can take up to a minute to reach the block. If the course still does not appear, check that the enrolment is active, the course is visible and it is not in a category your site leaves out.

Why does a course show 50% progress when the learner has barely started?

The course has no completion criteria to count against, so a started course shows halfway as a sign that it is under way. Set completion criteria on the course for a real percentage.

Why is there no pin button or progress bar on our site?

They belong to the modern look, which comes with themes made for it, such as Autumn. Other themes keep the classic look. Contact your usual Lingel Learning contact if you would like the modern look.

Quicklinks

Quicklinks puts a row of large icon tiles at the top of a page: the Dashboard, the site home page or a course. Each tile takes people straight to somewhere they go often, such as their courses, their certificates or a page on another website. Some tiles show a number, such as how many courses the person has completed.

Name in Moodle

Quicklinks (a block)

Where it can go

The Dashboard, the site home page and course pages. One per page

Managing the links

Turn editing on, then press Manage Quicklinks under the block

Settings

None. Everything is set on the Manage Quicklinks page

Which links show where

Links belong to the page they were made on. A course has its own set. The Dashboard and the site home page share one set, so a link made on one also appears on the other wherever the block has been added.

Add a quicklink

1. Turn editing on and press Manage Quicklinks under the block.
2. Press Create quicklink.
3. Enter the Quicklink text: the words on the tile.
4. Choose an Icon. Start typing to search, for example fa-graduation-cap.
5. Under Links to, choose Existing page and pick one from the list, or Custom page and enter the full web address in Link to custom page.
6. Optionally choose Cohorts (see Who sees what).
7. Choose a Target: Same window, or New window to open it in a new tab.
8. Press Save.

The existing pages

Where your site has the My Learning block, the course tiles open its full page. Certificates is only offered when your site has certificates, and Enrolmart only when your site is connected to Enrolmart. If a feature is later removed from your site, tiles pointing at it stop showing, and the Manage Quicklinks page marks them Not available on this site.

Change, reorder, hide or delete

The Manage Quicklinks page lists every link for that page under Existing quicklinks, in the order they appear. Each row has buttons to:

• Move up and Move down: change the order of the tiles.
• Edit: change anything about the link.
• Deactivate: hide the tile without losing it, and Activate to bring it back.
• Delete: remove it for good, after a confirmation.

The buttons are icons: arrows to move, a pencil to edit, an eye to activate or deactivate, and a bin to delete. The Links to column has a View link to try the destination.

Who sees what

• A link with no cohorts is shown to everyone who can see the page.
• A link with cohorts is shown only to members of at least one of them.
• Numbers on tiles are always the viewer's own.
• The Manage Quicklinks button shows only with editing on, to people allowed to manage quicklinks on that page. By default that is the Manager role and site administrators.
• Managing quicklinks is limited to the page it is given for. Someone who may manage a course's quicklinks can change only that course's links, not another course's or the Dashboard's.

Questions we get asked

A tile has disappeared.

Check the Manage Quicklinks page. The link may have been deactivated, limited to cohorts the person is not in, or pointed at a page that is not available on your site any more. A page with no tiles to show hides the block altogether.

Why is Certificates or Enrolmart missing from the list of existing pages?

They are only offered when your site has that feature. If you expected it to be there, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.

Why does a link I added on the Dashboard also show on the home page?

The Dashboard and the site home page share one set of quicklinks. To show different links, use cohorts, or put the block on only one of them.

Categories

Categories shows course categories as tiles, so people can browse their courses by category.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate Categories (a block, titled Course categories)

Where it can go

The Dashboard only. One per page

Settings

One for each copy of the block: turn editing on, open the block's menu and choose Configure

By default the block shows the categories that hold a course the person is enrolled in. Selecting a tile opens a list of the person's courses in that category. Someone enrolled in nothing does not see the block.

On a theme with the modern look, such as Autumn, each category is a card with the number of the person's courses in it, and selecting it opens My Learning filtered to that category.

Events

Events lists the calendar events coming up for the person: their own events and those of their courses, groups and the site.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate events (a block, titled Events)

Where it can go

The Dashboard, the site home page, course pages and category pages. On a course page it shows that course's events

Settings

None

Each row has the event name and its date and time. Selecting an event opens its details; Go to calendar... opens the calendar's upcoming events, for that course when the block is on a course page. With nothing coming up the block says There are no upcoming events.

The column heading reads This month's events, but the list is what is coming up next, which can run into next month. How far ahead it looks and how many events it lists come from each person's calendar settings, Upcoming events look-ahead (21 days unless changed) and Maximum upcoming events (10 unless changed), under Preferences → Calendar preferences.

On a theme with the modern look, such as Autumn, each event has a date tile, its type and a Details button, and tabs (Next 7 days, All, Course, Personal and others) with a filter box.

Grades

Grades gives a learner their course grades and how far through their courses they are, in one place, with a fuller page and a download behind it.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate Grades (student) (a block, titled Grades)

Where it can go

The Dashboard only. It is also the Grades tab of Dashboard tabs

Settings

None

The block lists up to five of the person's courses with their course total, and a Completions chart that counts all their courses as Completed, In-Progress or Not Started. A course is in progress once the person has started it, has a grade in it or has completed an activity in it. Courses the person teaches are left out. Someone with no courses as a learner does not see the block.

When the person has more than five courses, a Show more link appears beside the title.

Show more opens the Grades page: every course the person is enrolled in, with its Course, Short name, Grade and a View grade report button that opens their Moodle grade report for that course. It shows 50 courses at a time, sorts by course or short name, and Download table data as saves the list as a spreadsheet or other format.

Grading

Grading gives a teacher one list of the courses they grade, with the number of assignment submissions waiting in each, across all their courses rather than one course at a time.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate Grading (teacher) (a block, titled Grading)

Where it can go

The Dashboard only. One per page. It is also the Grading tab of Dashboard tabs

Settings

None

The block lists the courses the person is enrolled in and may see the grader report for; by default that is teachers, non-editing teachers and managers. Each row has the course, a To grade count and a View grades button that opens the course's grader report. Courses with the most submissions waiting come first, then the rest from A to Z.

• The block shows five courses, with Showing 5 of 7 courses and Show all 7 courses underneath when there are more. Show fewer folds the list again.
• The count opens the course's list of assignments. A course with nothing waiting says Up to date.
• Someone who grades no courses, such as a learner, does not see the block; as a tab it says Nothing to show here yet.

What is counted. A submission is counted when a learner has submitted it (drafts are not counted), it is their latest attempt, they are still actively enrolled, and it has not been graded since it was submitted. Assignments where students submit as a group, and quizzes, are not counted.

The counts are worked out for all the teacher's courses together and kept for up to an hour, so the block stays quick even for a teacher with many courses. They refresh straight away when a submission is made or graded, an enrolment changes or an activity is added, changed or deleted.

Dashboard blocks: questions we get asked

Why use these when Moodle has its own equivalents?

Because the core blocks did not fit the dashboards we build: layout, branding, and in the grading case a cross-course view that core does not offer. Where core has since caught up, we will say so rather than keep a block for its own sake.

A learner can see a grade their teacher has hidden.

That is the known limitation in the Grades block noted above, not a configuration problem on your site. A fix is in progress. Until then, a site that relies on hidden grades should use Moodle's own grade overview instead of this block.

Why is a dashboard with these blocks slow?

Most often the Grades block, which looks up each of the user's courses separately. It is being rewritten to use a single query. If you need an immediate improvement, removing that block from the Dashboard, or unticking Grades in the Dashboard tabs settings, is the quickest test. With Dashboard tabs, a slow block only slows the Dashboard when its tab is the one that opens.

Learning Pathways

A learning pathway is a programme of courses. You choose the courses, and optionally groups of courses called course sets, put them in order, and decide who is on the pathway, one person at a time or through cohorts. Everyone on a pathway is enrolled in its courses, can be held back from a course until they finish the one before it, and sees their progress through the pathway on their Dashboard.

Name in Moodle

Learning pathways (the learner block is Virtual Slate Learning Pathways)

Managing pathways

Site administration → Courses → Learning pathways → Manage learning paths. Managers also have a Learning pathways item in the main navigation that opens the same page.

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Learning pathway settings, or the Learning pathway settings button on Manage learning paths

What learners see

The Learning pathways block on the Dashboard, a page listing their pathways, and a page for each pathway

Who can manage

Site administrators, and anyone with the local/learning_plan:manage capability (the Manager role by default)

• How it works
• The Manage learning paths page
• Create a pathway
• Add courses and course sets
• Course sets
• Prerequisites
• Put people on a pathway
• What happens when things are removed
• How progress and completion are worked out
• Completions to review
• The pathway report
• The Learning pathways block
• What learners see
• Who sees what
• Privacy
• Questions we get asked

How it works

A pathway is made of conditions, in order. Each condition is either a single course or a course set: a group of courses where the learner completes all of them, or any number you choose. A learner completes the pathway by completing every condition.

Putting someone on a pathway enrols them in every course in it, including the courses in its course sets, as a student. Taking them off does not unenrol them unless you change the settings (see What happens when things are removed).

The Manage learning paths page

Everything starts from Manage learning paths. Under Existing learning paths it lists every pathway, ten to a page, with:

• Name and ID number.
• Ad hoc users: how many people were added one by one. Press the number to add or remove people.
• Status: Active or Inactive.
• Cohorts: the cohorts that put people on the pathway.
• Conditions: how many courses and course sets it has. Press the number to manage them.
• Action: icons to View report, Edit and Delete. Deleting asks you to confirm first.

Choose a format under Download table data as and press Download to save the list. The buttons under the list are Add a new learning path, Manage course sets and Completions to review; Learning pathway settings is at the top right.

Create a pathway

1. Go to Manage learning paths and press Add a new learning path.
2. Enter the Learning path name (required) and, optionally, a Learning path description. Learners see both on the pathway page.
3. Optionally enter a Learning path ID number, your own reference for the pathway.
4. Set the Status: Active, or Inactive to keep it out of learners' lists while you build it.
5. Optionally choose Cohorts (see Put people on a pathway).
6. Press Save changes. The pathway appears in the list on Manage learning paths.

Add courses and course sets

1. On Manage learning paths, press the number in the Conditions column for the pathway.
2. Under Add conditions to learning path, choose Select condition: Courses or Course sets.
3. Pick one or more courses, or course sets, and press Save. They are added to the end of the pathway, and everyone already on the pathway is enrolled in them.
4. Use the up and down arrows to change the order. The order is the order learners see.

The table shows each condition's Full name, Short name, Type (Course or Course set), a link to view it, its Prerequisite condition and the Actions: set a prerequisite (pencil), move up, move down, and remove (bin). A red ! next to a prerequisite warns you that the course has no completion settings, or that it is hidden from students; press it to read the warning.

A hidden course can stay in a pathway, but learners do not see it on the pathway page and it does not count towards their progress.

Removing a condition (the bin icon) asks you to confirm. The message tells you what will happen to people's enrolments in it, following the settings, and links to them.

Course sets

Course sets are shared: one set can be used in several pathways. Manage them from the Manage course sets button on Manage learning paths. The list shows each set's name, shortname, status, courses and completion criteria, can be downloaded, and has Add course set underneath. Use the pencil to edit a set and the bin to delete it (you are asked to confirm).

If a course in a set is deleted, the set carries on without it.

Prerequisites

Any condition after the first can have a prerequisite: a course or course set in the same pathway that must be completed first.

1. On the pathway's conditions page, press the pencil (Set prerequisite) on the condition's row.
2. Under Select condition, choose Courses or Course sets.
3. Pick the course or course set. The lists offer the other conditions of this pathway. Choose None to take a prerequisite away.
4. Press Save changes. The prerequisite shows in the Prerequisite condition column.

Until the prerequisite is completed, a learner who opens the course sees a message saying they will get access once they complete it, with a link to it. For a course inside a course set, the message also names the course set. On the pathway page the condition shows Not started and, for a course set, the same message appears when the learner points at its name (see What learners see).

Hiding a course removes it as a prerequisite wherever it was one. Nobody is unenrolled or suspended when you do: the course stays in the pathway, and its members keep their access.

Put people on a pathway

On a site with many accounts, Potential users says there are too many to show: type part of a name or email address in the Search box under it, select the people you want (hold Ctrl or Cmd to pick several) and press Add. Back returns to Manage learning paths.

A pathway can have several cohorts, and someone can be in more than one of them. They stay on the pathway as long as they are in at least one of its cohorts. Leaving one cohort, or taking one cohort off the pathway, takes them off only if no other cohort of the pathway still includes them; only then does the User removed from cohort or Cohort removed from Learning Path setting apply to them.

What happens when things are removed

Being on a pathway and being enrolled in its courses are separate. When someone comes off a pathway, or a course comes out of one, their enrolments are left as they are unless you choose otherwise. Learning pathway settings has one choice for each case, and each choice is one of:

• Do nothing: enrolments stay as they are. This is the default for every case.
• Unenrol: the person is unenrolled from the courses concerned. Their progress in those courses can be lost.
• Suspend enrolment: the enrolment stays but the person can no longer enter the course. Their progress is kept, and an administrator can reactivate it.

The confirmation when you remove a course or course set from a pathway tells you which of these will happen. A setting applies to removals from the time you save it; it does not go back over earlier ones.

How progress and completion are worked out

Progress is the share of a pathway's conditions the learner has completed, as a percentage. It is worked out each time the page is opened, from Moodle's course completion, so it is as current as course completion is.

• A course counts when it is visible. It is completed when Moodle has recorded the course as completed (whether or not Moodle also recorded when it was started), in progress once the learner has started it, and not started otherwise.
• A course set counts when it is active. It is completed when enough of its courses are.
• The pathway is Completed when every condition that counts is, Not started when none has begun, and In progress in between. A pathway with nothing in it that counts is Not started at 0%.

When a learner completes a pathway, the date is recorded straight away when they complete its last course, and a nightly check catches anyone missed. A recorded completion is kept even if the pathway changes later.

Completions to review

Before an update in late 2026, a pathway with nothing in it counted as completed. People who were put on a pathway before its courses were added could therefore be recorded as having completed it, and those completions still show in reports and team pages. They are not removed automatically, because only you can tell whether they matter.

To review them, open Manage learning paths and press Completions to review. The page lists the pathways that have completions recorded before the learner had completed any of the pathway's courses, with their ID number and how many each has. If there are none, it says No pathway completions need reviewing.

Press a pathway's name to see those completions, 50 to a page: each learner, their email address and when the completion was recorded.

1. Tick the completions that are not genuine (the box in the heading row ticks every one on the page) and press Remove selected, or press Remove all … for this pathway to remove every completion listed for it.
2. Check the number on the confirmation page and press Remove, or Cancel to go back without changing anything.

Removing a completion cannot be undone, and each removal is recorded in the site logs. If a learner has since really completed the pathway, a new completion is recorded for them overnight, dated that night.

The pathway report

Press the report icon (View report) on a pathway's row in Manage learning paths. The Learning path completion page lists everyone on the pathway, ten to a page, with their email address, each condition and where they are with it (Completed, In progress or Not started), their Progress and their Status. Choose a person under Filters → User and press Add filter to see just them; the list offers only the people on that pathway. Choose a format under Download table data as and press Download to save the report.

The Learning pathways block

The Learning pathways block shows a learner their active pathways on the Dashboard, under the headings Path and Progress, with a progress bar for each. Each pathway's name opens its page.

• It shows up to five pathways. When someone is on more, Show more > opens the page listing all of them.
• Managers (anyone who can manage pathways) also see a Manage pathways > button, which opens Manage learning paths.
• For a learner who is on no active pathway, the block does not appear at all.
• The block can only be added to the Dashboard. To put it on everyone's Dashboard, add it to the default Dashboard (Site administration → Appearance → Default Dashboard page). Adding it is allowed for the Manager role by default.
• If your Dashboard uses the Dashboard tabs block, the pathways appear on its Learning pathways tab, which is on by default.

What learners see

All their pathways. Show more > in the block, or the Learning pathways link in the breadcrumb on any pathway page, opens a page with every active pathway the learner is on and their progress in each.

A pathway's page. It shows the pathway's name, progress and description, then one tile per condition in order: the course or course set's image, name and description, and its status (Completed, In progress or Not started). The arrow opens the course, or the course set's details. Hidden courses and inactive course sets are left out.

Course sets. Pointing at a course set's name shows the courses in it with the learner's status in each, the completion criteria, and a View course set details button. If the set has a prerequisite that is not yet met, it shows the message saying the learner will get access once they complete it instead.

The course set details page lists the set's name, shortname, description, each course with the learner's status in it, and the completion criteria.

Who sees what

Privacy

Learning Pathways keeps which pathways each person is on (and through which cohorts), and when they completed each one. Both are included when you export a person's data under Site administration → Users → Privacy and policies → Data requests, and removed when their data is deleted. Deleting a person's account also removes which pathways they were on and their pathway completions. Deleting a pathway does not remove completions already recorded for it.

Questions we get asked

Someone has finished every course but the pathway is not complete.

Check each course in the pathway has completion tracking and completion conditions set, and that Moodle shows the course as completed for them: the pathway follows course completion. Then check the pathway's course sets: a set set to All needs every course in it. If all of that is right, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.

We took someone off a pathway and they can still get into its courses.

That is the default. Taking someone off a pathway leaves their enrolments alone unless User is removed from the learning plan (or the matching cohort setting) is set to Unenrol or Suspend enrolment. The setting applies to removals from then on; it does not go back over earlier ones.

A learner cannot see a pathway they are on.

Check the pathway's Status is Active. Inactive pathways are not listed for learners.

The Learning pathways block is not on a learner's Dashboard.

The block hides itself for anyone who is on no active pathway. If they are on one, check the block is on the default Dashboard, or on the Dashboard tabs block's Learning pathways tab. A learner who has customised their own Dashboard keeps their own layout until it is reset.

Can I change a pathway once people are working through it?

Yes. Adding a course enrols everyone on the pathway in it, and their progress drops until they complete it. Removing one follows the settings. Completions already recorded stay recorded.

Why does a course a learner has completed show 0% on a pathway?

The course may be hidden, or in an inactive course set: neither counts. Or completion tracking is off for the course, in which case Moodle never records it as completed.

After the update, some learners were recorded as completing a pathway they finished a while ago.

Moodle can record a course as completed without recording when the learner started it; it depends on how the course was completed. Before the update, a pathway counted such a course towards progress but treated it as not started for the pathway's status, so a learner who had finished every course could show 100% without the pathway being completed. The pathway now counts these courses as completed.

The first nightly check after the update records the pathway completions that were missed this way. They are dated the night of that check, not the day the learner finished their last course. This happens once; from then on completions are recorded as they happen.

Some people are shown as having completed a pathway without doing its courses.

They were probably on the pathway before it had any courses in it, when an empty pathway counted as completed. Use Completions to review to see these completions and remove the ones that are not genuine.

Course Catalogue

The Course Catalogue is a page listing the courses people can enrol in or buy, with a price on each, a search box, a category filter and sorting. A Course catalogue block on the Dashboard shows four of those courses. Courses join and leave the catalogue by themselves, based on their enrolment methods, so there is no list to keep up to date by hand.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate Course Catalogue

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Virtual Slate Course Catalogue (two tabs: General and Cohort settings)

What people see

The Course catalogue page, a details page for each course, and the Course catalogue block on the Dashboard

Who can see the page

Anyone, including visitors who have not logged in

Who can change it

Site administrators. Adding the block to a Dashboard is allowed for the Manager role by default.

• Which courses are in the catalogue
• Prices, Buy and Enrol now
• The catalogue page
• A course's details
• The Dashboard block
• Settings
• Showing different categories to different cohorts
• Who sees what
• Privacy
• Questions we get asked

Which courses are in the catalogue

A course is in the catalogue when all of these are true:

• The course is visible.
• It has at least one enabled enrolment method of a type ticked in Enrolment methods on the General tab. By default that is self enrolment, PayPal and Stripe.
• It is in a category the person may browse (see cohorts). By default every category is open to everyone.

Adding, changing or removing an enrolment method on a course updates the catalogue straight away, and the whole catalogue is also checked every few minutes. To take a course out, hide it or disable its enrolment methods of those types.

People do not see courses they are already enrolled in, including enrolments that are suspended. Site administrators do see them.

Prices, Buy and Enrol now

The price shown is the cost of the course's first enabled enrolment method of an allowed type, in the order listed on the course's Enrolment methods page. Move a method up or down there to change which one sets the price.

• A method without a cost, such as self enrolment, shows Free course, and the course's button reads Enrol now.
• A method with a cost, such as PayPal or Stripe, shows the price, and the button reads Buy.

Prices are shown with two decimal places and the currency symbol of the site's language (for example $99.00); the currency code set on the enrolment method is not shown.

Both buttons open the course, where Moodle shows the enrolment or payment options as usual. View opens the course's details: its description and price.

The catalogue page

Open it from the Show more > link at the top right of the Course catalogue block. You can also add it to a navigation menu: its address is your site's address followed by /blocks/vslate_catalogue/view.php.

Under Search for courses:

• Sort by offers Recently added first (the default), Price (low to high), Price (high to low), Course full name (A to Z) and Course full name (Z to A).
• Category narrows the list to one category. It lists only the categories the person may browse.
• The Keywords... box and Search find courses whose full name or description contains what was typed, or that have a tag containing any one of the words. Capitals do not matter.
• Each course is a card with its image, name and price label, and the View and Buy or Enrol now buttons. Courses are shown eight to a page, with Previous, page numbers and Next underneath.

A course's details

View on a card opens the course's details within the catalogue: its full name, price and description, with Go back to return to the list and Buy or Enrol now. Like the catalogue page, it opens without logging in.

The Dashboard block

The Course catalogue block shows four courses from the catalogue, newest first, following the same rules as the page: a learner sees four courses they are not yet enrolled in. Each card has View and Buy or Enrol now, and Show more > opens the catalogue page. To put it on everyone's Dashboard, add it to the default Dashboard (Site administration → Appearance → Default Dashboard page). The block can only be added to the Dashboard.

If your Dashboard uses the Dashboard tabs block, the catalogue can be one of its tabs (Catalogue). That tab is off until it is switched on in the Dashboard tabs settings; if you do, take the separate Course catalogue block off the Dashboard so it does not appear twice.

To choose a different order for the block, tick Enable Custom Catalogue Courses on the General tab and pick a Custom Sorting Options entry: Course creation date (Oldest to Newest), Course creation date (Newest to Oldest), Course full name (A to Z), Course full name (Z to A), or Default category listing (the order courses have on the course management page). This affects the block only; on the catalogue page people choose the order themselves.

Settings

Unticking a type in Enrolment methods takes courses that rely on it out of the list straight away. Ticking one adds its courses, and updates prices, at the next check a few minutes later.

Showing different categories to different cohorts

The Cohort settings tab decides which course categories people can browse.

• Default visible categories are open to everyone. With none selected, which is the default, every category is open to everyone and the cohort settings below have no effect.
• Once default categories are chosen, each cohort has a Visible categories for cohort setting. Members of the cohort can browse the default categories plus the cohort's own.
• If someone is in a cohort that has no categories selected, they can browse every category.
• Visitors who have not logged in, and people in no cohort, see the default categories only.

For example, to show most people only the Short courses category and also show the Accredited category to the Members cohort: set Default visible categories to Short courses, set Members' categories to Accredited, and select at least one category for every other cohort as well (Short courses will do), because a cohort left empty opens every category to its members.

The tab lists one setting for each cohort on the site. If there are no cohorts, it says so and links to the cohorts page.

Who sees what

Course images open without logging in only for visible courses in the catalogue. Images of other courses are not served from the catalogue.

Privacy

The Course Catalogue keeps a price for each course and no personal data, so there is nothing of a person's to export or delete.

Questions we get asked

A course is not showing in the catalogue.

Check that the course is visible, and that it has an enabled enrolment method of a type ticked in Enrolment methods (self enrolment, PayPal or Stripe by default). Check its category is open to you (cohort settings). If you are testing as a learner who is already enrolled in it, it is hidden from them on purpose. If it has only just been set up, wait a few minutes.

The price on a course is wrong.

The price comes from the first enabled enrolment method of an allowed type on the course's Enrolment methods page. If the course has, say, both self enrolment and Stripe, whichever is higher in that list sets the price. Reorder or disable methods there; the catalogue updates within a few minutes.

The price shows the wrong currency symbol.

The symbol comes from the site's language, not from the enrolment method's currency. The amount is the method's cost. If this matters for your site, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.

We restricted categories but some learners still see everything.

Those learners are probably in a cohort that has no categories selected on the Cohort settings tab. A cohort left empty opens every category to its members. Select categories for that cohort.

Why does a learner see fewer courses in the block than we expected?

The block leaves out courses the learner is already enrolled in, and courses outside the categories open to them. It shows at most four.

Can people browse the catalogue without an account?

Yes. The catalogue page and course details open without logging in, so visitors can see what is on offer. Buying or enrolling takes them to the course, where Moodle asks them to log in or create an account.

Four parts of Virtual Slate sit behind your site's own administration: the Admin dashboard and the screens around it, the theme that sets your site's look, the connection to your Enrolmart store, and the monitor that tracks your storage and active users against your plan.

On this page: the Admin dashboard, menus and course lists, theme settings (including the Autumn theme), connecting to Enrolmart, site usage and storage and Lingel Learning support sign-in.

Admin dashboard, menus and course lists

The VirtualSlate helper sits behind several everyday screens: the Admin dashboard, the View all users and View all courses pages, the Notes page, your site's custom navigation menus and course cover images. It also has two settings that decide which courses learners see in their course lists.

Name in Moodle

VirtualSlate helper

Admin dashboard

Admin dashboard, in the main navigation

Notes

Notes in a course's navigation, or on a person's profile page

Navigation menus

Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Navigation menus

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → VirtualSlate helper

Who can use it

Site administrators, and anyone you give the capabilities listed under Who sees what

• The Admin dashboard
• Figures and system health
• Searching every admin page (Ctrl+K)
• View all users and View all courses
• The Notes page
• Navigation menus
• Course cover images
• Settings
• Who sees what
• Questions we get asked

The Admin dashboard

The Admin dashboard is a single page of shortcuts to the administration screens you use most, grouped into sections. Open it from Admin dashboard in the main navigation.

Type in the Search administration dashboard box at the top to narrow the shortcuts to those whose name matches. Sections with nothing left in them disappear; clear the box to bring everything back.

The dashboard only offers what you can use. A shortcut is left out when you do not have permission for the page it opens, or when the feature behind it is not part of your site. A section with no shortcuts left is hidden, so two administrators with different roles can see different dashboards.

On the Autumn dashboard some shortcuts also carry a small number: View all users shows how many accounts are suspended, Manage cohorts how many cohorts you have, Unique access codes how many codes are unused, and Plugins how many plugins are waiting to be upgraded. A shortcut with nothing to count shows no number. The classic theme does not show these numbers.

Lifecycle notifications (User management) opens the page where you set up lifecycle notifications. It is shown to anyone allowed to manage them, including managers who cannot change site settings. The plugin's own settings, such as Suspend notifications, are behind Lifecycle notifications settings in Advanced settings, for site administrators only. Both shortcuts appear only when Lifecycle Notifications is part of your site.

Figures and system health

With the Autumn theme, the top of the dashboard also shows four figures and a system health card:

The figures are kept for five minutes, so something you changed a moment ago may not show yet. A dash instead of a number means the figure could not be read just then; it does not mean zero. After fixing something the health card warned about, press the refresh button on the card (Refresh system health) to run the checks again straight away. View status report opens Moodle's full list of checks.

The classic Virtual Slate theme shows the shortcuts and search box only.

Searching every admin page (Ctrl+K)

On the Autumn dashboard, press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) to search every page in Site administration, not just the shortcuts. Type part of a page's name, move through the results with the arrow keys, press Enter to open one and Esc to close. Each result shows where the page sits in Site administration, so two pages with similar names can be told apart.

The search works with a screen reader and the keyboard alone: the search box is labelled, the highlighted result is read out as you move, "Loading" and "No matches" are announced, Tab stays inside the search window while it is open, and closing it puts you back where you were.

The list is built for you, from the pages your role can open, and is kept for ten minutes. A page added by a plugin installed in the last few minutes may not appear until then.

View all users and View all courses

View all users (User management) lists every account except deleted ones and the guest, a page at a time. Search by name, email address, username or ID number; every word you type must match. Filter by Active, Suspended, Not confirmed or Never logged in. Each row shows the person's last access and how many courses they are actively enrolled in, with links to their profile and, if you may edit users, to edit them.

View all courses (Course management) lists every course with its category, a page at a time. Search by course name or short name. From a course's row you can Enrol users, View course or set its Cover image.

In the Autumn theme

Autumn lays out both pages as cards and adds more:

• View all users has Bulk actions, Upload users and Add a user buttons, and four figures: Total users, Active (last 30 days), New this month and Suspended. Filter by status and by authentication method, and sort by Name (A–Z), Name (Z–A), Most recently active, Newest accounts or Most enrolments, then press Apply. Each row has View, Edit, a message button and a menu with Edit profile, Course enrolments, Logs, Assign roles, Log in as, Suspend user account (or Activate user account) and Delete. Each item appears only if you are allowed to use it, and you cannot log in as, suspend or delete a site administrator from here.
• View all courses has Manage categories and Add new course buttons, and the figures Total courses, Categories, Active enrolments and Hidden courses. Filter by category and by Visible or Hidden, and sort by ID, name, Most enrolments or Newest first. Each row has Enrol, View, a picture button that sets the course's Catalogue banner, and a menu with Settings, Participants, Grades, Reports, Course completion, Course cover image, Backup and Delete, again only those you may use.
• Both pages end with "Showing 1 to 10 of …", page numbers and a choice of 10, 25, 50 or 100 rows per page.

The Notes page

Notes are short private remarks about a person, such as "Called about the overdue assessment". The Notes page brings them together: you can read, search and export them, and write a note about several people at once. It opens wherever Moodle offers Notes: inside a course, and on a person's profile page (your own included). It replaces Moodle's standard notes list on hosted Virtual Slate sites.

The three kinds of note

The tabs at the top of the page split notes by who can read them. Each tab shows how many notes it holds; when you search, the numbers count the matching notes only.

Each note shows who it is about, who wrote it, when it was last changed and, on the site-wide page, the course it was written in. All notes about a person narrows the list to that person; Show everyone takes you back.

Searching and sorting

Type in Search notes and names to find notes by their wording or by the name of the person they are about. Sort by offers Newest first, Oldest first and Name (A to Z). Long lists are split into pages.

Recipients & Members

The list beside the notes is the people you can write about:

• Inside a course, everyone enrolled in the course.
• On the site-wide page, the members of the teams you manage in Team Management. If you do not manage a team, the list is empty; open Notes from inside a course to write about its participants instead.

Search the list by name, and tick the people the note is about. Your ticks are kept while you move between pages of the list or search again, and the count above the list shows how many you have chosen. Select everyone on this page and Clear selection help with larger groups.

Writing a note

1. Tick the people in Recipients & Members.
2. Write the note in Compose note.
3. Under Publish as, choose who can read it: Site, Course or Personal (see the table above). On the site-wide page only Site and Personal are offered, because a course note belongs to a course.
4. Press Publish note. Each person gets their own copy of the note, so you can later change or delete one without affecting the others. You can write about up to 100 people at a time.

Changing and deleting notes

Edit and Delete appear on the notes you are allowed to change: course notes in courses where you manage notes, your own personal notes, and site notes if you manage notes across the whole site. Delete asks you to confirm first; a deleted note cannot be brought back.

Exporting notes

Export notes downloads a spreadsheet (CSV) of the notes on the tab you are looking at, with your search and any person you narrowed to applied. It has a row per note: when it was created and last changed, who it is about, who wrote it, the course, how it was published and the note itself. It contains only notes you can already see on the page.

Navigation menus

Navigation menus add your own links to the site's navigation. There is one Default menu (all users), which everyone sees, and you can add a menu for any cohort, which its members see in addition to the default menu.

1. Go to Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Navigation menus and press Add menu.
2. In Applies to, choose Default menu (all users) or a cohort. Only cohorts that do not have a menu yet are offered, and the default menu only until it exists; after that, change it from the list.
3. In Menu items, put one link per line as Label|URL, for example Help Centre|https://support.example.com or Dashboard|/my/. Leave out the URL for a label that does not link anywhere.
4. Leave Enabled ticked and save.

The list shows each menu, how many items it has, a preview of the first few, and whether it is enabled. Use the edit icon to change a menu (the cohort it applies to cannot be changed) and the delete icon to remove it; you are asked to confirm. Untick Enabled to hide a menu for a while without losing it.

Changes show straight away. When someone joins or leaves a cohort, the menus they see follow on their next page. If a link appears in more than one menu a person sees, it is shown once. Deleting a cohort deletes its menu. The links appear in the left navigation in both the classic and the Autumn theme, after the standard links.

Course cover images

A course can have a cover image, which the classic Virtual Slate theme shows on the course page and learners' course cards. Set it from Cover image on the course's row in View all courses, from Course cover image in the course's navigation (classic theme), or from the row menu in Autumn's View all courses. You need permission to edit the course.

1. Open Cover image for the course. The page is headed Cover image for: and the course name.
2. Drag an image into the box, or use the add button to choose one. One image per course; GIF, JPEG or PNG.
3. Press Save image. To remove the cover, delete the file in the box and save.

In the Autumn theme a course can also have a Catalogue banner, a wide image across the top of its catalogue page. If it has none, the cover image is used instead, then the course image.

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → VirtualSlate helper:

Who sees what

Questions we get asked

A shortcut I expect is missing from the Admin dashboard.

Either your role does not have permission for that page, or the feature is not part of your site. Check your role first; it is the usual cause. If you believe the feature should be on your site, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.

A figure on the dashboard looks out of date.

Figures are kept for five minutes. Wait a few minutes and reload. For the system health card, press Refresh system health.

Ctrl+K does nothing.

It works on the Autumn Admin dashboard only, once the page has finished loading. Some browser extensions use the same keys; if one does, it wins.

I added a cohort menu but someone in the cohort does not see it.

Check the menu is enabled, and that the person is a member of that cohort (not of a similarly named one). They see it on the next page they open.

Someone I manage is missing from Recipients & Members on the site-wide Notes page.

The list shows the members of the teams where you are the manager in Team Management. Check the person is a member of one of your teams. To write about someone in a course you teach, open Notes from inside that course.

I cannot open the site-wide Notes page, but I can open Notes in my course.

The site-wide page needs permission to view notes across the whole site; teachers usually have it in their courses only. Ask your site administrator if you need it.

A learner shows as completed in a course but has no start date.

That is expected. A course with a completion date counts as completed, even when no start date was recorded, for example when the completion was marked by hand or imported.

I hid a category but a learner still sees its course.

Ignored course categories affects the My Learning block and the My courses page. Other places, such as the course catalogue or search, are not affected. To see every course on the site, use View all courses.

Theme settings

Virtual Slate is the look of your site: the header, logo, navigation, login page, footer and colours. Its settings let you brand the site, add a banner slider, show messages to learners and add a few extras to quizzes, without changing any of your courses.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate (a theme)

Settings

Site administration → Appearance → Themes → Virtual Slate configuration settings

Navigation menus

Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Navigation menus

Who can change it

Site administrators

• The settings tabs
• Brand the site
• Add a banner slider
• Different logos and sliders for cohorts
• Navigation menus
• Edit mode
• Messages to learners
• Quiz enhancements
• The Autumn theme
• Who sees what
• Questions we get asked

The settings tabs

The settings page is split into tabs. Save each tab before moving to the next; changes on a tab you leave without saving are lost.

Brand the site

1. On Logos, upload your Logo, Login page logo and Favicon, then Save changes.
2. On Colour scheme, choose a scheme and set Brand color for charts to your main brand colour, then save.
3. On Login page, upload a Background image and adjust Login box opacity until the form is easy to read over it.
4. On Custom elements, add your copyright line or contact details as Footer text.

Log out and look at the login page, then log in and check a few pages. A new image can take a minute to appear for everyone.

Add a banner slider

1. On Slider, tick Enable slider.
2. Choose Display slider on: All pages or Home page only. Tick Enable slider on course page? to show it on course pages as well.
3. Set Slide count (up to 10) and Save changes. A heading appears for each slide.
4. For each slide, upload the image and, if you want the slide to be clickable, add a Slide URL. Save again.

The slider only shows once at least one slide has an image.

Different logos and sliders for cohorts

If groups of learners need their own branding, you can give each cohort its own logo or slider.

1. Tick Enable cohort logos on Logos, or Enable cohort sliders on Slider, and save.
2. A new tab, Cohort Logos or Cohort Sliders, appears with a section for every cohort on the site. Upload what each cohort should see and save.

A learner in a cohort with its own logo sees that logo; everyone else sees the main one. If a learner is in several cohorts, the cohort they joined most recently decides.

Navigation menus

Extra links in the main navigation are set on their own page: Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Navigation menus (the Menu tab links to it). There is a default menu that everyone sees, and you can add a menu for a cohort, which its members see as well as the default one. Write one link per line as Label|https://address.

These menus used to be on the Menu tab of the theme settings. When your site was updated, your existing menus were moved across for you.

Custom links show to people who are logged in, not to visitors or guests. The other setting on the Menu tab, Open nav drawer by default (on by default), decides whether the left navigation starts open when a page loads.

Edit mode

To change a course, the Dashboard or the site home page, use the Edit mode switch at the right of the top bar, after your name and picture. Turn it on to add, move and change activities and blocks; turn it off to see the page as learners do. It stays on as you move between pages until you turn it off.

The switch replaces the Turn editing on and Turn editing off buttons that used to appear at the top of these pages. It is the same switch as in standard Moodle 4.5, and it only appears on pages the person is allowed to edit. Learners see it on their own Dashboard, which Moodle lets everyone arrange, but not on course pages. On a phone, only the switch shows, without its label.

Messages to learners

• Popup after login (Custom popups): a message in a popup after someone logs in. It shows once a day in each browser, so it suits notices rather than anything learners must see every time.
• Need help button (Custom popups): adds a Need help button to the login page that opens your text in a popup. Useful for "forgotten your username?" instructions.
• Login form additional text (Login page): always visible under the login form.
• Enable browser check (Custom elements): warns people whose browser is not in Supported browsers. Tick Ignore mobile browsers to leave phones and tablets alone.
• Support tab script (Custom elements): paste the code your help-desk or chat provider gives you, and its button appears on every page.

Quiz enhancements

On Advanced Settings. Each one is off until you tick it, and applies to every quiz on the site.

The Autumn theme

Autumn is the newer Virtual Slate theme: a dark sidebar, a white top bar and pages laid out as cards. It is the theme sites are moving to. Until your site moves, the settings above apply. When it does, this is what you and your users will notice.

What changes for your users

• Dashboard blocks match the theme: Events, Calendar, Latest announcements, Latest badges, Tags, Starred courses, Recently accessed courses, Courses, Categories, Grading, Team management and CPD dashboard. Lists of courses share one footer: "Showing 1 to 8 of 92 courses", a Courses per page choice and numbered pages.
• Standard Moodle pages such as the gradebook, calendar, messages, profiles, badges, tags, groups and forum posts are restyled to match.
• Courses in the Lingel tabs format show their section tabs as a pill switcher under the usual course navigation. A row of tabs wider than the screen gets arrows to scroll it.
• Links in section summaries and activity descriptions are underlined, so they can be told apart without relying on colour.
• On the login page, the lock icon in the password box stays visible while you type.
• Editing a course, with Edit mode on, you can drag sections and activities in the course index on the left to reorder them, as in standard Moodle.
• The Admin dashboard gains figures, a system health card and Ctrl+K search, and View all users and View all courses gain figures, filters and row menus.

Autumn's settings

Go to Site administration → Appearance → Themes → Autumn settings. The Admin dashboard's Theme design section has a shortcut for each tab. As with the classic theme, save each tab before moving to the next.

Bringing your settings across

1. On the General tab, under Import settings from theme Vslate, press Review and import….
2. Read the list. Each row shows a classic setting, its Autumn equivalent, both values and what would happen: copied, or skipped because nothing is set in the classic theme or Autumn already has a value.
3. Press Import now to copy them. Nothing changes before that.

Logos, custom CSS and JS, footer, email header and footer, login page text, support widget and quiz options are copied. Slider images and links become hero banner slides. Cohort logos, sliders and menus, colour schemes, browser checks and the site usage bar have no Autumn equivalent and are not copied. Your navigation menus carry on working, because they are not part of either theme.

Autumn's own guide

Open the documentation on the General tab, or the Documentation shortcut on the Admin dashboard, opens a guide to the theme inside your site, with a user guide and release notes.

Who sees what

Questions we get asked

Where did the menu boxes on the Menu tab go?

They moved to Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Navigation menus, with your existing menus carried across. Saving a menu there takes effect straight away and no longer slows the site down while the theme rebuilds.

Where has the Turn editing on button gone?

It is now the Edit mode switch at the right of the top bar, as in standard Moodle 4.5. Turn the switch on to edit the page and off when you have finished. If you cannot see the switch, you are not allowed to edit the page you are on.

I uploaded a new logo and still see the old one.

Check you saved the Logos tab, then reload the page. If you are in a cohort with its own logo, you see that one instead. Your browser may also hold the old image for a short while.

Can I change how the site looks with my own CSS or JavaScript?

Yes, on Custom elements. Both apply to every page for everyone, so a mistake can break the site's layout or login. Try small changes, check the login page afterwards, and keep a copy of what was there before.

The Popup after login does not show again.

It shows once a day in each browser. To see it again sooner, use a private browsing window.

Connecting to Enrolmart

Enrolmart is the online store where people buy your courses. Once your site is connected to your store, someone who buys a course gets an account on this site and is enrolled in the course, without you doing anything. Connecting takes one form: you paste a code from Enrolmart and press a button.

Name in Moodle

Enrolmart authentication plugin

Connecting

Site administration → Plugins → Authentication → Enrolmart authentication plugin → Connect to Enrolmart

Who can connect

Site administrators

What you need

Your store's address and a pairing code, both from the Moodle Integration screen in Enrolmart

• Connect your site to your store
• What connecting changes on your site
• Settings
• If connecting does not work
• Questions we get asked

Connect your site to your store

1. In Enrolmart, open the Moodle Integration screen. It shows your store's address and a pairing code such as XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
2. On this site, go to Site administration → Plugins → Authentication → Enrolmart authentication plugin and press Connect to Enrolmart. If Enrolmart gave you a link to this page, the two boxes may already be filled in.
3. In Enrolmart address, enter your store's address. It must start with https://; addresses starting with http:// are not accepted, because the connection carries your site's key. Either the store address or the full pairing address from Enrolmart will do.
4. In Pairing code, paste the code.
5. Press Connect to Enrolmart. The site asks you to check the store address: it names the store it is about to connect to, for example "You are about to connect this site to yourstore.enrolmart.com".
6. If that is your own store's address, press Connect to and the address. If it is not, or you are not sure, press Cancel. When it works you see "Connected. Enrolmart now has a token for this site — you can close this page."

You never see or copy a password or key. The site hands Enrolmart its key directly, so it does not end up in an email or a support ticket.

What connecting changes on your site

Connecting does the setup that used to take several admin screens. You do not need to do any of it yourself:

• Web services and the REST protocol are switched on. This is how Enrolmart talks to your site.
• An Enrolmart web service is set up with the things Enrolmart needs to do: look up and create accounts, and manage enrolments.
• An account called Enrolmart Integration (username enrolmart_ws) is created. Enrolmart acts through this account. It is not a person and cannot sign in to the site.
• A role called Enrolmart integration is created and given to that account for the whole site. It allows only what the store needs: creating and updating accounts, enrolling and unenrolling people, managing cohort membership, and reading courses, progress and grades. It is also the only role that connecting allows to use the REST protocol. You can see it under Site administration → Users → Permissions → Define roles.
• A new key is made for Enrolmart every time you connect (see Can I connect again?).
• Your store's address is saved in the Enrolmart URL setting.

Settings

On Site administration → Plugins → Authentication → Enrolmart authentication plugin:

If connecting does not work

Questions we get asked

Can I connect again?

Yes. Make a new pairing code in Enrolmart and go through the form again. Your site reuses the same Enrolmart Integration account but gives the store a new key each time. The old key keeps working until the store starts using the new one, then it is switched off automatically, usually within 15 minutes. Connecting to the same store again changes nothing for your students. If the store does not accept the new key, nothing changes and the old one carries on.

We have moved to a different store. What do I do?

Connect to the new store with a pairing code from it. As soon as the new store starts using its connection, the old store's key is switched off automatically and the old store can no longer reach your site.

Someone bought a course but has no account here.

Check that the Enrolmart Integration account still exists, is not suspended and still has the Enrolmart integration role. If it does, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact with the buyer's email address and the time of the purchase.

Why does the site ask me to check the store address?

So that a link which fills in the form for you cannot connect your site to the wrong place without you noticing. The address it names is where your site's key will be sent. Only confirm when it is your own Enrolmart store.

Our site was connected before. Does the Enrolmart Integration account still have the Manager role?

No. Sites that were connected earlier were moved over automatically when the site was updated: the account now has the Enrolmart integration role instead of Manager, and the store carried on working without being connected again. The Manager role is no longer allowed to use the REST protocol, unless other people with that role on your site use web service keys, in which case it was left as it was.

Does a purchase change details on an existing account?

When the buyer already has an account here, the store can fill in profile details such as their city, phone number, department and your custom profile fields. It cannot change their email address, password or how they log in, and it never changes a site administrator's account.

How do new students get their password?

When the store creates an account, the site emails the new student their username and a password.

Site usage and storage

The Site usage monitor keeps track of how much storage your site uses and how many people are active on it each month, compared with the limits of your plan. It gives site administrators a storage breakdown page, and sends a notification as your site nears or passes a limit.

Name in Moodle

Site usage monitor

Storage breakdown

Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Storage breakdown

Settings

None for you to change. Your plan's limits, and who is notified, are set by Lingel Learning

Who can use it

Site administrators

Works with

The site usage bars in the vSlate theme footer, which show the same figures

• What is measured
• The storage breakdown page
• The usage bars in the footer
• Usage notifications
• How current the figures are
• Who sees what
• Questions we get asked

What is measured

The storage breakdown page

Go to Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Storage breakdown. The page is headed Site storage breakdown and shows:

• Total files: all file storage on the site.
• Draft files: files people have uploaded into a form or editor that have not yet been saved somewhere permanent. These are part of Total files, not added to it.
• Database: the size of the site's database.
• Total: Total files plus Database. This is the figure compared with your plan's storage limit.
• Per course: each course with files, largest first, with its number of files and its size. Click a course name to open the course. The list shows 50 courses a page; use the page links above and below it to move through. The Total line at the foot of the list adds up every course, on all pages.

Find what is using your storage

1. Open Storage breakdown.
2. Look at the top of the Per course list; it is sorted largest first.
3. Open a large course and look for big files you no longer need, such as old videos or course backups saved in the course.
4. After removing files, select Refresh now to see the new figures.

The usage bars in the footer

In the classic Virtual Slate theme, site administrators see two bars at the bottom of every page: Storage (used and allowed, in GB) and Active users (this month's active users and your plan's limit). Hover over a bar to see the percentage. The bars are green up to 70% of the limit, orange up to 100% and red above it; you can change these colours on the theme's Site usage bar tab, or switch the bars off with Enable site progress bar.

Next to the bars are two buttons: Purge cache, which clears Moodle's caches and brings you back to the page, and Upgrade, which opens an email to Lingel Learning so you can ask about a larger plan.

The bars only show when your plan has a limit and a figure has been worked out. Learners, teachers and managers never see them. The Autumn theme does not show them; use the storage breakdown page instead.

Usage notifications

Each night the site compares its storage and active users with your plan's limits. When usage reaches 50%, 70%, 90% or 100% of a limit, a notification is sent. Each notification says how much is in use, what your plan allows, and who to contact to discuss more.

• For each level, Lingel Learning chooses whether the notification goes to your site, to Lingel Learning, or to both. Unless set otherwise, it goes to Lingel Learning only.
• Notifications to your site go to the site's main administrator, as a Moodle notification (titled Site Usage notification) and by email. The administrator can change how they receive them in Preferences → Notification preferences.
• Once a notification has been sent for a level, no further notification is sent for that level, or a lower one, for 30 days. If usage climbs to a higher level in that time, you are notified again.
• If your plan has no limit for storage or active users, that check is not made and no notification is sent for it.

How current the figures are

Storage is worked out once a night, at 1:30 am, and active users shortly after midnight. The storage breakdown page shows when its figures were last updated. Select Refresh now to work them out again straight away; on a large site this can take a little while.

If the figures have not been updated for more than a day and a half, the page shows Numbers may be out of date. Select Refresh now, and if the warning comes back the next day, contact support.

Who sees what

Questions we get asked

Why is the total bigger than the files I can see in my courses?

The total also includes the database, files outside courses (such as user profile pictures, private files and draft files), and an allowance for the backup copies kept of your site.

I deleted a large course. Why has the total not dropped?

The figures update overnight. Select Refresh now on the storage breakdown page to update them straight away. If the course recycle bin is on, Moodle keeps a backup of a deleted course in the recycle bin, and that backup counts towards storage until it is removed from the recycle bin.

Who counts as an active user?

Anyone who has logged in since the 1st of the current month, whatever their role. Someone who logs in several times is counted once.

Can I change the limits or who gets the notifications?

No. These come from your plan. Contact support to discuss changing your plan or who should be notified.

Does going over a limit stop the site working?

No. Nothing is blocked or switched off. The notifications are there so that you and Lingel Learning can talk about your plan before it becomes a problem.

Lingel Learning support sign-in

When you ask Lingel Learning for help, our support staff sign in to your site with their own named accounts. You do not need to create accounts for them or share a password, and everything they do is recorded under their own name.

Name in Moodle

Lingel Learning authentication

Who it is for

Lingel Learning staff only: people with an email address ending in @lingellearning.com

Settings

None for you to change. It is set up and kept switched on by Lingel Learning

Where you see it

Site administration → Plugins → Authentication → Manage authentication, and on the staff accounts themselves

How our staff sign in

• From Lingel Learning's own portal. A member of staff picks your site in our portal and arrives on your site already signed in.
• On your login page. They can also type their Lingel Learning email address and password on your normal login page. Your site checks the password with Lingel Learning's central sign-in service; it never stores it. Only addresses ending in @lingellearning.com are checked this way. Everyone else signs in exactly as before.

The first time someone signs in, an account is made for them with their name and email address. After that, each sign-in brings their name up to date. They arrive on the Dashboard.

What you will see

• Their accounts in View all users, with an @lingellearning.com email address and the authentication method Lingel Learning authentication.
• Support staff who look after your site are made site administrators when they sign in, so they appear under Site administration → Users → Permissions → Site administrators.
• Their password belongs to Lingel Learning. It cannot be changed or reset from your site, and the forgotten password page does not apply to them.
• Their actions appear in your logs and reports under their own names, like anyone else's.
• On the Manage authentication page the plugin is listed as enabled, without the usual option to disable it. It stays on so that we can always reach your site when you need us.

What you control

• You can see who has signed in, and when, in View all users and your logs.
• Who at Lingel Learning can reach your site is managed in our portal. If you want someone's access removed, or you have a question about a sign-in, contact your usual Lingel Learning contact.
• Taking administrator rights away from one of our accounts on your site only lasts until that person next signs in, because their access comes from our portal. Ask us instead.

Questions we get asked

There is a site administrator with an @lingellearning.com address I do not recognise.

That is a member of our support team who has signed in to help with your site. Contact your usual Lingel Learning contact if you want to know who it is or why they signed in.

Can we switch Lingel Learning sign-in off?

It is how we support your site, so it is not something you can turn off from the site. If you have a reason to limit our access, talk to your usual Lingel Learning contact.

Does it change how our own people sign in?

No. Only email addresses ending in @lingellearning.com go through it. Everyone else signs in with the method they always use.

Four tools look after who is on your site and what they are enrolled in. Unique access codes let a learner create an account and land in the right courses, cohorts and groups with a single code. Cohort automation keeps cohorts and course groups filled from profile details and activity completion. Virtual Slate bulk user actions adds team, learning path, welcome email and suspend actions to Moodle's bulk user screen. The Salesforce plugin sends your users, courses and course progress to Salesforce.

On this page: Unique access codes, Cohort automation, Virtual Slate bulk user actions, Salesforce and JWT authentication.

Unique access codes

A unique access code (UAC) is a short code, such as CSN8Q5DD, that a person types once. If they are new, it creates their account; if they already have one, it adds to it. Either way the code enrols them in the courses, cohorts and groups you chose for it. Each code works for one person only.

Name in Moodle

Unique Access Code (an authentication method)

Manage codes

Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Manage Access Codes, or Unique access codes on the Admin dashboard

Settings

Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Unique Access Code

Sign-up page for learners

Your site address followed by /auth/uac/signup.php; the settings page shows the full link

Who can use it

Site administrators. Learners only ever see the sign-up page.

• How codes work
• Before you start
• Create a set of codes
• The Manage UACs list
• See and download the codes
• Change, disable or delete a set
• Archive and restore
• How a learner redeems a code
• Settings
• Usage and the web service
• Who sees what
• Questions we get asked

How codes work

You create codes in sets. A set has a name, a three-character prefix, a count and the enrolments every code in it gives. Moodle generates the codes for you: each one is the prefix followed by five random letters and digits, eight characters in all. A set with the prefix CSN and a count of 25 gives you 25 codes such as CSN5ZAXN and CSNQ814E.

When a code is redeemed, the learner is:

• enrolled in each of the set's courses, using the enrolment method chosen in the settings;
• added to each of the set's cohorts, so anything tied to those cohorts (cohort sync enrolments, learning paths, notifications) follows;
• added to each of the set's groups in those courses.

A redeemed code is used up. Nobody else can use it, and the same person cannot use it twice.

Before you start

1. Make sure Unique Access Code is enabled under Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Manage authentication. Until it is, the sign-up page only says "Unique Access Code Authentication is not enabled yet."
2. Check that every course you will put in a set has the enrolment method from the settings (by default Manual enrolments) enabled. A course without it is skipped, quietly, when a code is redeemed.
3. Create the cohorts and course groups you want people added to. Codes cannot create them for you from this screen.
4. Open the settings page and copy the sign-up link. That is the address you give learners.

Create a set of codes

1. Go to Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Manage Access Codes and select Add new code under the list.
2. Enter a Name that says what the codes are for, such as the intake or client. Learners never see it.
3. Add a Description if it helps your colleagues. It shows in the list.
4. Enter a Prefix of three letters or digits. Every code in the set starts with it, so it tells you at a glance where a code came from. Each set needs its own prefix; Moodle says "Initials already exist" if one is taken, including by an archived set. Type it in capitals so it matches the rest of the code.
5. Enter the Count: how many codes to generate.
6. Pick any Cohort/s, Course/s and Group/s. Start typing to search. Groups are offered from the courses you picked.
7. Select Save. The codes are generated at once and the set appears in the list.

The Manage UACs list

Manage Access Codes has two tabs: Manage UACs for your current sets and Manage Archived UACs for archived ones. The list shows ten sets a page and can be sorted by any column and downloaded.

See and download the codes

Select the number in the count column. UAC details lists every code in the set, 50 a page. For a code that has been used, it shows who used it (linked to their profile) and when; otherwise No.

To send codes out, choose a format next to Download table data as (CSV, Excel, OpenDocument, HTML, JSON or PDF) and select Download. The file has every code in the set with its status, ready for a mail merge.

Change, disable or delete a set

• Edit (pencil) opens the same form as when you created the set. It is offered only while none of the set's codes has been used.
• Disable (eye) stops every code in the set from working, straight away; a learner who tries one is told the code is invalid. Enable (crossed eye) turns it back on. Nothing else changes, and people who already redeemed a code keep their enrolments.
• Delete (bin) removes the set and its codes for good, after you confirm. It is offered only while no code has been used. To retire a set that has been used, archive it.

Once a code has been used you cannot change the set. Moodle says "You can not edit this code as at least one code has been redeemed." Create a new set instead.

Archive and restore

Archiving moves a set off the main tab, for example when an intake has closed. It also disables the set, so archived codes cannot be redeemed. Archiving works whether or not codes have been used, and keeps the record of who used which code.

1. On Manage UACs, select the archive icon (box) on the set's row.
2. Select Continue to confirm.

The Manage Archived UACs tab lists archived sets with the date each was archived. Select the arrow icon in the action column and confirm to Restore a set. It goes back to the main tab disabled, because archiving also disables a set. Select Enable (crossed eye) on its row when you want its unused codes to work again.

How a learner redeems a code

Learners

Send each person their code and the sign-up link. What they see depends on whether they already have an account.

New to the site

1. They open the sign-up link and fill in New account: a username and password, their email address twice, their name, and optionally city and country. Any extra required profile fields your site has are shown too.
2. They type their code into Unique access code and select Create my new account. A code that does not exist, is used, or belongs to a disabled or archived set is rejected with "Invalid unique access code".
3. Moodle emails them a confirmation link. When they select it, they are signed in and the code is redeemed: their enrolments are made at that moment.

Accounts created this way use the Unique Access Code authentication method. People sign in afterwards with the username and password they chose, like anyone else.

Already has an account

1. They sign in, then open the same sign-up link. Instead of the sign-up form they see Enter your unique access code.
2. They type the code and select Submit.
3. They are taken to their home page (usually the Dashboard) with the message "Unique access code applied successfully!" The new courses are in their course list.

Settings

Go to Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Unique Access Code. The top of the page shows the sign-up link to give learners and a Manage Existing Codes button. Under Enrolment settings are four settings that decide how course enrolments are made when a code is redeemed. They apply to every set.

Usage and the web service

The usage column and the UAC details page are where you track redemptions on the site. The Admin dashboard's Unique access codes shortcut shows how many codes across all sets are still unused. Every action is also recorded in the site logs: sets created, updated, enabled, disabled, archived, restored and deleted, and each code used.

The plugin has a web service so another system can manage codes for you. Enrolmart uses it to create a set when someone buys a course and to check and redeem codes. Through it a connected system can create a set (and create any cohorts it names that do not exist yet), list sets and their codes, check a code without using it, redeem a code for a user, and read usage figures: total redemptions, how many different people, and redemptions by day and by set over a period. Lingel Learning sets up the connection and the account it uses; that account needs permission to manage codes.

Who sees what

Questions we get asked

A learner redeemed a code but has no course. Why?

Most often the course does not have the enrolment method from the settings enabled (usually Manual enrolments), so it was skipped. Add and enable that method in the course, then enrol the learner by hand; redeeming the code again is not possible. Also check the setting When the user is already enrolled: with Do nothing at all, a learner who was already enrolled is left exactly as they were, even if their enrolment had ended.

A learner signed up but their code shows as unused.

The code is redeemed when they select the link in the confirmation email, not when they submit the form. Ask them to check their inbox and junk folder. Until they confirm, someone else could still use that code.

Can I add more codes to a set?

Only before any code has been used, and saving replaces all of the set's codes. Once codes are in use, create a second set for the same courses with a different prefix.

Do people lose access when I disable or archive a set?

No. Disabling or archiving only stops unused codes from being redeemed. Enrolments, cohort memberships and groups already given stay in place.

Can one code enrol a whole team?

No. Each code is for one person. Generate a set with one code per person, or use bulk user actions or cohorts for people who already have accounts.

Cohort automation

Cohort automation puts people into cohorts, or into groups in a course, when their profile or progress matches rules you set. A rule such as "department is Sales and region is North" keeps the Sales managers cohort up to date as people join or change role, without anyone editing the cohort by hand.

Name in Moodle

Cohort Automation

Where

Site administration > Users > Accounts > Cohort automation (Add new rule and Manage existing rules), or Cohort automation on the Admin dashboard

Who can use it

Site administrators and managers (the Manage cohort automation rules permission)

Runs

Every 15 minutes, and straight away when an account is created or updated

• How rules work
• The rules list
• Add a cohort rule
• Add a group rule
• Conditions
• Change or delete a rule
• Who sees what
• Questions we get asked

How rules work

A rule has a target and one or more conditions.

• A cohort rule adds matching people to one or more cohorts.
• A group rule adds matching people to one or more groups in a single course. If someone is not enrolled in that course yet, they are enrolled first, as a student, through the course's Manual enrolments method. A course without Manual enrolments enabled gets no new members.

A person matches a rule only when they meet every condition in it. To add people who meet one condition or another, make two rules with the same target.

Rules only ever add people. Someone who stops matching (they change department, say) stays in the cohort or group until you remove them. Deleting a rule does not remove anyone either.

Moodle checks all active accounts every 15 minutes, and checks a person straight away when their account is created or their profile is saved. Suspended and deleted accounts are skipped. A person who already matched a rule is checked against it again once a day, so anyone you removed by hand is added back the next day if they still match.

The rules list

Manage existing rules lists every rule, 50 a page, with its name, type (Cohort or Group) and description, and edit and delete icons. Use Filter rules to search rule names and descriptions. The Add cohort rule and Add group rule buttons start a new rule.

Add a cohort rule

1. On Manage existing rules, select Add cohort rule.
2. Give the rule a Name and, if you like, a Description of who it is for.
3. Under Cohort, pick one or more cohorts.
4. Under Conditions, select Add condition and choose User profile or Activity completion. Fill in the condition (see Conditions). Repeat for each condition.
5. Select Save changes. People who match are added within 15 minutes.

Add a group rule

1. Select Add group rule.
2. Enter a Name and Description.
3. Choose the Course that holds the groups.
4. Under Groups, pick one or more of its groups. You can only pick groups from one course per rule.
5. Add the conditions and select Save changes.

Conditions

User profile condition compares one profile field with a value you type.

• Profile field lists the standard account fields by their database names (for example department, institution, city, email) followed by your custom profile fields by name.
• Match type is Contains, Is equal to, Starts with or Ends with. Matching ignores upper and lower case.
• Value is the text to compare. For a drop-down custom field, type the option exactly as it appears.

Activity completion condition is met when the person has completed one activity. Activity lists the activities of visible courses that have completion tracking turned on, as "Course : Activity". A completion marked as failed still counts as completed.

Change or delete a rule

Select the pencil on the rule's row, change it and select Save changes. Saving a rule makes Moodle check every account against it again at the next run. Remove a condition with the cross in its top corner.

Select the bin to delete a rule, then confirm. People the rule already added stay where they are. When a course group is deleted, it is taken out of any group rule that used it.

Who sees what

The rule pages need the Manage cohort automation rules permission, which managers and site administrators have by default. The menu links under Site administration are shown to site administrators; managers use the Cohort automation shortcut on the Admin dashboard. Learners never see rules; they just appear in the cohort or group.

Questions we get asked

I made a rule but nobody has been added yet.

Rules run every 15 minutes, so allow a little time. If still nobody appears, check the value matches the profile exactly as stored (open one person's profile), that every condition can be met by the same person, and for group rules that the course has Manual enrolments enabled.

How do I remove people who no longer match?

Remove them from the cohort or group by hand. Rules never remove anyone. If they still match, they will be added back within a day.

Can a rule enrol people in a course?

A group rule enrols people in its course as students before adding them to the group. For cohort-based enrolment, add a Cohort sync enrolment method to the course and point a cohort rule at that cohort.

Virtual Slate bulk user actions

Virtual Slate bulk user actions is Moodle's bulk user screen with more actions. You pick people once, then add them all to a team or a learning path, re-send their welcome emails, or suspend or reactivate their accounts.

Name in Moodle

Virtual Slate bulk user actions

Where

Site administration > Users > Accounts > Virtual Slate bulk user actions

Who can use it

Anyone who can update or delete user accounts; each action has its own permission (see Who sees what)

• Choose the people
• The actions
• Add to team or learning path
• Re-send welcome emails
• Suspend and unsuspend
• Who sees what

Choose the people

1. Open Virtual Slate bulk user actions.
2. Narrow the list with New filter if you need to: for example User full name contains a name, or select Show more... for email, cohort, course role, last login, authentication and other filters. Select Add filter. Filters stack.
3. Under Users in list, select people on the left (hold Ctrl or Cmd to pick several) and select Add to selection. Add all takes everyone the filters show.
4. Your selection appears on the right. Use Remove from selection or Remove all to change it.
5. Choose an action under With selected users... and select Go.

Your selection is kept while you stay signed in, so you can run several actions on the same people. Suspending, unsuspending and the plain welcome email clear it when they finish.

The actions

Add to team or learning path

1. Choose Add to team or Add to learning path and select Go.
2. Check the list of people. Select a column heading to sort it.
3. Pick the Team or Learning path and select Add to team or Add to learning path.
4. You land on the team's members page or the learning path's users page, with a confirmation, so you can see the result.

If your site has no teams or no learning paths yet, the action says so and returns you to the bulk page. Deleted accounts in the selection are skipped. See Team Management and Pathways & Catalogue for what membership gives people.

Re-send welcome emails

Both welcome email actions replace each person's password with a new random one, email it to them with the site's standard new account message, and make them choose their own password when they next sign in. Their old password stops working at once. Use them for people who never received or lost their first email.

• Re-send welcome email asks you to confirm, sends the emails and returns you with "Welcome email sent to n user(s)."
• Re-send welcome email (& download passwords) lists the people and asks you to confirm. On Continue it sends the emails and downloads an Excel file with each person's first name, last name, email, username and new password.

Suspend and unsuspend

Suspend user(s) account asks you to confirm, then suspends the selected accounts and signs them out of any open sessions. Site administrators and your own account are never suspended; Moodle lists any account it could not suspend. A suspended person cannot sign in, but their enrolments, grades and history are kept.

Unsuspend user(s) account reactivates the selected suspended accounts as soon as you select Go, without asking.

Who sees what

An action you do not have permission for is not offered. Display on page is always offered.

Salesforce

The Salesforce plugin keeps your Salesforce org up to date with what happens in Moodle. New and changed user accounts become Contacts, courses become course records, and course progress can be sent each night. It works in one direction, from Moodle to Salesforce.

Name in Moodle

Salesforce plugin

Settings

Site administration > Plugins > Local plugins > Salesforce plugin, with tabs General, Users, Courses and Completions

Who can use it

Site administrators only

Needs

A Salesforce org with a Connected App that Moodle signs in to. Lingel Learning sets this up with you.

• What is sent
• Setting up the connection
• General tab
• Users tab and field mapping
• Courses tab
• Completions tab
• Questions we get asked

What is sent

Changes are queued and sent by Moodle's background tasks, so saving a user or course is never slowed down by Salesforce. If Salesforce cannot be reached, Moodle tries again with growing gaps for about four hours, then gives up on that change and keeps a record that Lingel Learning can review.

Setting up the connection

1. In Salesforce, create a Connected App with a certificate, turn on Use digital signatures, and pre-authorise the Salesforce user Moodle will act as. Lingel Learning can do this with your Salesforce administrator.
2. On the General tab, fill in the login URL, consumer key, Salesforce username and private key, and save.
3. On the Users tab, set up the field mapping (at least Email and LastName, which Salesforce needs for a Contact), then tick Sync users.
4. On the Courses tab, check the course object and its fields, then tick Sync courses.
5. Only if your org records programme engagement, set up the Completions tab.
6. Change one test account and check the Contact appears in Salesforce a few minutes later.

General tab

Users tab and field mapping

Manage user mapping opens the list of field pairs: each row says which Salesforce field (its API name, such as FirstName) is filled from which Moodle user field. Only mapped fields are sent.

1. Select Add new mapping.
2. Type the Salesforce field API name exactly as Salesforce shows it, for example MailingCity or a custom field ending in __c.
3. Choose the Moodle User field and select Save changes.

The Completions tab has its own Manage course progress mapping list, which works the same way with progress fields.

Courses tab

Completions tab

Questions we get asked

We deleted someone in Moodle. Why did their Contact disappear from Salesforce?

With Sync users on, deleting a Moodle account deletes the Contact the plugin linked to it. If your Salesforce Contacts must outlive Moodle accounts, suspend accounts instead of deleting them, or ask Lingel Learning to turn user sync off.

Does anything come back from Salesforce into Moodle?

Not in this version. Changing a Contact in Salesforce does not change the Moodle account; the next change in Moodle overwrites the mapped fields.

Someone's Contact did not appear.

Check that your mapping includes every field Salesforce requires for a Contact (at least LastName), that the person's account has those fields filled in, and that the Salesforce user in Subject may create Contacts. Changes that keep failing stop after about four hours; Lingel Learning can see them and resend.

JWT authentication

JWT authentication lets people go straight from another system you run, such as a member portal or CRM, into Moodle without signing in again. That system sends them to Moodle with a signed token (a JSON Web Token) that says who they are. Moodle checks the signature, finds or creates their account, and signs them in.

Name in Moodle

JWT authentication

Settings

Site administration → Plugins → Authentication → JWT authentication

Switch it on

Site administration → Plugins → Authentication → Manage authentication, the eye icon beside JWT authentication. Nothing happens until it is on

Who can use it

Site administrators set it up; learners never see its settings

Needs

A system that can create tokens signed with a shared secret (HS256), or with its own key published at a web address (RS256). Lingel Learning helps your developers set this up

How sign-in works

1. The person is signed in to your portal and clicks a link to the learning site.
2. The portal creates a token holding who they are (at least the claim named in UPN, by default username, or an email), an expiry time, and optionally name, lang and any mapped fields, signs it, and adds it to the link: for example https://your-site/course/view.php?id=12&token=…, or the login page https://your-site/login/index.php?token=…. (It can also send the token in an Authorization: Bearer header.)
3. Moodle checks the signature with the Secret (HS256) or the keys at the JWKS URL (RS256), and the token's expiry and start times where it has them.
4. Moodle looks for the account whose username equals the token's UPN claim. If the token has no such claim, it looks for the account with the token's email (or the claim mapped to Email address).
5. Found: it updates the account's email address and language from the token if they are in it, and any field whose Update local is On every login, then signs the person in. Not found: it creates a new account using JWT authentication, with the username (in lower case) and email from the token, first and last name from the first two words of the name claim, and every mapped field, then signs them in.
6. The person lands on the page the link pointed to (the token is removed from the address), or on their Dashboard when the link was the login page.

A link to a page that needs sign-in only uses the token when the person is not already signed in in that browser; if they are, they simply stay signed in as they are.

Settings

Data mapping

Under Data mapping each user field (first name, last name, email address, city, country, language, institution, department, phone numbers, address and the rest, and your custom profile fields) has three settings:

• Data mapping (field): the name of the claim in the token that fills this field. Leave it empty to leave the field alone.
• Update local (field): On creation (the default) fills it only when the account is created; On every login refreshes it from the token each time.
• Lock value (field): Unlocked (the default), Unlocked if empty or Locked, which decides whether people can change the value on their profile.

Questions we get asked

Someone has two accounts after signing in from the portal.

The token's UPN claim did not match their existing username, so a new account was made. Make sure the portal sends the same value Moodle has as the username (or set UPN to the claim that matches, such as email), then ask us to merge or remove the extra account.

Can learners still sign in with a password?

People whose accounts were created by JWT have no Moodle password, so they come in through the portal. Accounts created any other way keep signing in as before.