This guide details how users can gain access to Moodle courses, i.e. how different types of users are enrolled onto Moodle courses with different enrolment methods that are available.
For more information on how accounts for people are created on Moodle automatically from their central Membership data, please see the following guides.
For credit-bearing modules which are registered in the student records system, enrolment data is sent directly from SITS to Moodle. This enrolment method in Moodle is displayed as External DB Extended V2 and is applicable to:
Students
Students on credit-bearing modules are enrolled on the respective Moodle space automatically via SITS.
If a student cannot access a module course on Moodle, check their module registration and their enrolment status. Please contact the Student Records team for assistance.
Module leader
In SITS, there is a single field for 'Module tutor' who is enrolled automatically onto the respective Moodle course with the 'Course Leader' role. This should always be kept up-to-date by administration staff in the department.
If you are a module leader and your course does not appear on your Moodle dashboard, please check with your department that you are registered as the module tutor in SITS.
If you are the module leader and you require other teaching or administrative staff to have access to the Moodle course, you can manually enrol them with the appropriate user role.
Participants enrolled through this process cannot be manually unenrolled. Students' registered modules and module tutors need to be updated by the relevant department in SITS.
If students are removed from a module in SITS they will be unenrolled and the module will be removed from their dashboard.
Enrolment rules
While students and module leaders are automatically enrolled via SITS, there are other enrolments that use this method to enrol users in bulk.
Enrolment rules are usually only applied to ad hoc Moodle spaces but can also be used for SITS modules to add addtional participants.
There are two different types of enrolment rule that can be applied through Moodle-Admin:
WebGroup enrolment rule - enables participants to be synced to a Moodle space from a
WebGroup. WebGroups are a way of organising groups of users at Warwick; for example, you might have a WebGroup for all staff in your department, or a WebGroup for all Year 1 students in your department. Module web groups update each year and contain students enrolled on that module at the current time.
SITS enrolment rule - enables participants to be synced to a Moodle space from SITS. This enrolment rule type is recommended when you want to add students from a particular module cohort to an ad hoc course e.g. students taking CX279 in academic year 2024/25.
Changes to the WebGroup will be reflected in Moodle and current enrolments must therefore be managed at the WebGroups (or source of the WebGroups) level. Participants enrolled through this process cannot be manually unenrolled in Moodle but they have to be removed from the WebGroup, or the WebGroup enrolment rule deleted.
To give other staff members access to a Moodle space or to enrol students onto non-SITS modules/courses ('ad hoc courses') there are other enrolment methods available in Moodle.
To view and edit the enrolment methods for a space:
Click the Participants tab to open the participants list.
Click on the dropdown list that currently says Enrolled users.
Select Enrolment methods.
You can do the following with most enrolment methods by clicking on the appropriate icon:
Edit
Disable/ Enable
Delete
Please note that if any enrolment methods are disabled or deleted, the users enrolled with that method will be removed along with data such as grades, group membership or forum subscriptions.
Follow the instructions for each enrolment method below.
This enables users to be enrolled manually onto a Moodle course where required. Moodle courses usually have manual enrolment added and enabled by default on creation.
Students should not be enrolled manually on Moodle courses for credit-bearing modules.
To enrol a user with manual enrolment:
Click on the Participants tab and then the Enrol users button.
Use the Select users drop-down menu to search for and select individual user(s).
From the Assign role drop-down menu select the required role you wish to grant the chosen users.
Click the Enrol selected users button to enrol the users onto your Moodle space.
To unenrol a user with manual enrolment:
Click the Participants tab to open the participants list.
Find the user within the participants list and click the Delete icon in the status column.
In the Unenrol pop-up window, click the Unenrol button to confirm deletion of the selected user from your Moodle space.
With Warwick auto-enrolment enabled, participants are permitted to enter a course and are automatically enrolled and added to the participants list. The Moodle course will not appear on a user's dashboard until they have visited the course for the first time.
Warwick auto-enrolment can be restricted to specified categories of user such as all staff or all students. Multiple user categories can be used in combination. For example, auto-enrolments could be restricted to only allow staff in the department of Chemistry to enrol on the course.
Auto-enrolment differs from the self-enrolment method as users are not required to confirm their enrolment by clicking the Enrol me button. Wawrick auto-enrolment also provides the option to limit access by department or user type which is not possible for self-enrolment. For example, you could permit only undergraduate students in the School of Law to auto-enrol on a course.
Enable Warwick auto-enrolment
Click the Participants tab to open the participants list.
Click on the dropdown list that currently says Enrolled users.
Select Enrolment methods.
From the Add method drop-down list, select Warwick Auto-enrolment.
If required, you can change the following settings:
Custom instance name - if left blank, it will be called Warwick Auto-enrolment.
Allow Warwick Auto-enrolments - leave as Yes to enable the enrolment method.
Default assigned role - will be the role assigned to users when they are auto-enrolled on the course.
Send course welcome message - tick if you wish to send a welcome message to users when they are enrolled. Once ticked, enter the message in the Custom welcome message field.
To allow access by any user, do not select a designation or department. To apply restrictions:
By type of user, for example undergraduate students only, select the designation(s) from the Available Designations list and click Add.
By department, select the department(s) from the Available Departments list and click Add.
Click Add method at the bottom of the page.
You can select multiple designations and departments at a time. For example, you could allow undergraduates and postgraduates from Maths and Statistics to auto-enrol on a course.
How do users access a Moodle space with auto-enrolment enabled?
With Warwick Auto-enrolment enabled, users will be automatically enrolled on a space when they access it for the first time with the role defined when setting up Warwick Auto-enrolment. This allows users to either:
Access the space via a URL that has been shared with them.
Search for the space in Moodle, using the module code or (part of) the title in the search box in the top right-hand corner and click on the name of the correct space.
Both methods will enrol users as soon as they access the space.
With guest access enabled, users can search for the Moodle course or access it via a link. It’s important to note, users accessing a course with this method are not enrolled on the course and it will not appear on their dashboard. Warwick guest access also provides options to limit by department or designation i.e. undergraduate, staff etc. For example, guest access could be restricted to only allow Undergraduates in the School of Engineering to enrol on the course.
Guest access does not allow external users to access Warwick Moodle courses. All Moodle users require a University IT account.
Enable Warwick Guest Access
Click the Participants tab to open the participants list.
Click on the dropdown list that currently says Enrolled users.
Select Enrolment methods.
From the Add method drop-down list, select Warwick Guest access.
If required, you can change the following settings:
Password – if set, it will restrict Warwick Guest access to those who know the password.
To allow access by any user, do not select a designation or department. To apply restrictions:
By type of user, for example, undergraduate students only, select the designation(s) from the 'Available Designations’ list and click Add.
By department, select the department(s) from the Available Departments list and click Add.
Click Add method at the bottom of the page.
You can select multiple designations and departments at a time. For example, you could allow undergraduates and postgraduates from Maths and Statistics to access a module as guests.
How do users access a Moodle space with Warwick Guest access enabled?
With Warwick Guest Access enabled, users can access a Moodle course by:
using a URL that has been shared with them.
searching for the course in Moodle, using the module code or (part of) the title in the search box in the top right-hand corner and clicking on the name of the correct course.
This allows users to enrol themselves onto a Moodle course. This way of enrolment is only possible once this enrolment method has been added to the Moodle course. Users will be asked to confirm to be self-enrolled when they visit the course for the first time. Once the user has self-enrolled, the Moodle space will be added to their dashboard.
How to enable self-enrolment
Click the Participants tab to open the participants list.
Click on the dropdown list that currently says Enrolled users.
Select Enrolment methods.
From the Add method drop-down list, select self-enrolment.
If required, you can change the following settings (among others):
Enrolment key- if set, it will restrict self-enrolment to those who know the password.
Use group enrolment keys- if you have groups set up in your Moodle course, you can set an enrolment key for each of those. When users enter the group enrolment key, they are added to the group as well as enrolled on the course.
Click the Save changes button.
How do users access a Moodle course with self-enrolment?
With self-enrolment enabled, users can enrol onto a Moodle course with this method by:
using a URL that has been shared with them.
searching for the course in Moodle, using the module code or (part of) the title in the search box in the top right-hand corner and clicking on the name of the correct space.
Both methods will prompt them to click the Enrol me button, with or without entering an enrolment key.
