Where is My Moodle Site, and Who Can See It?

Where's My Moodle Site?

  • On the Moodle dashboard, you will see a list of courses which you can filter according to whether they are past, in progress, or future. 
    • Courses move to "Past" six weeks after grades close.
    • Courses move to "In Progress" three weeks before classes begin.
    • Courses are listed under "Future" until three weeks before classes begin.
      dashboard

If a site is missing from your list:

    • a) the site does not exist yet (see timeline below)

    • b) you don't have access (see our page on Moodle Access & Enrollments)

    • c) if you are a student, the site is hidden from students (see timeline below)

Site Availability Timeline

  • Most Moodle course sites are created during the pre-registration period for that term.
  • When created, they are hidden from students and only instructors and others in editing roles can see them.
    • To faculty, the links for these courses will appear grayed out, which indicates they are hidden from students. 
  • One week before the start of classes, all Moodle sites become visible to enrolled students, Amherst and Five College students who have petitioned for access to the course, and additional classroom assistants.
  • Courses are hidden from students approximately six weeks after the end of term. 

Sites for Courses Not Yet Approved

  • If course offerings are added over the summer, they will not get a Moodle site until shortly before the start of the semester.
  • College policy requires all courses to undergo committee review before they can have E-Reserve and Moodle sites created for them.
  • If this is the case for your course, you can review the course catalog tool to see where it is in process, and work with the registrar to help move it through the approval process.

Courses with Sections

If a course has different sections, Moodle will contain an "umbrella" site for the course, as well as a site for each section. For example, if Statistics 135 is being taught in two sections, three Moodle sites will be created:

  • The site called STAT-135 will enroll the students and instructors in both sections.
  • The site called STAT-135-01 will enroll the students and instructors in only section 1.
  • The site called STAT-135-02 will enroll the students and instructors in only section 2.

Any site not being used can be made not visible to students to avoid confusion. If you could like a section or umbrella site removed from your Moodle course list as well, contact AskIT and we'll take care of it. 

Who Can Access My Site?

  • The default setting is that only instructors, enrolled students, Amherst and Five College students who have petitioned for access to the course, requested classroom assistants can access a Moodle site.
  • Staff with access to Moodle sites include your academic department coordinator and subject librarian. There is also a small number of staff in the Library & IT Departments with site-wide access.
  • All of the access levels above protect site content from anyone not associated with the course.
  • Faculty can open up or restrict access to the Moodle site at any time after the course site is created, including enabling guest access.
    • This can allow access to anyone with a course password, or be set to allow access to anyone in the world. Though guests cannot see reserves or student information, they can view the site outline and download any other files added to the site.
    • No courses with guest access are created automatically. Historically, very few courses have been set such that anyone in the world can access them.