Moodle® For Dummies®

Users

User, in Moodle, is an account that has a particular role, and each role has a permission status assigned to it. The main default user roles are Administrator, Teacher, Student, Non-Editing Teacher, and Guest. User management is the most time-consuming administrative job because unlike the other utilities, registering and maintaining users, roles, and permission for courses is an ongoing process throughout the lifecycle of courses. Moodle has a number of tools that can make the process easier, depending on how you and/or your organization decide to register students. There are three main sections in the Site Administration block under the Users category: Authentication, Accounts, and Permissions.

Authentication

Authentication is all about creating accounts for learners and anyone else who needs access to courses, enabling learners and others to log in to Moodle courses. Creating student accounts is covered in Chapter 4, where I suggest that the most efficient way for new learners to acquire a Moodle course account is through self registration. Self registration may not always be possible, for any number of reasons, such as the way an organization is structured and the server architecture; however, Moodle provides you with alternative authentication (the Moodle word for creating accounts) methods.

From the Site Administration block, click Users to open three subfolders, each of which is a link. Click the Authentication folder to view the following authentication options: