Configuration of the course format One Topic


To select a format, access the course configuration by clicking on “Edit settings”.

Image 1: Editing settings in the course configuration menu

Once there, drop down the “Course Format” section and in the “Format” field choose “Onetopic format”.

Image 2: Course format in course setup

Once this option is selected, other options will be enabled such as Hidden sections: This option will let you choose how the sections will be seen in case they are not visible, they can be seen as collapsed, totally invisible or collapsed with availability message.

Image 3: Editing settings in the course configuration /hidden sections

By choosing the option that they are hidden and displayed in a collapsed way, the hidden tab will be visible but different from the others that are not and will not allow access, in case of clicking on the hidden tab with this option, you can read a warning indicating that it is not available. In this case the hidden tab is that of Topic 1.

Image 4: Edit settings in the course configuration /hidden sections / Collapsed view

If you choose the option that they are totally invisible, you will not see the tab or a warning that it is hidden. In this case the hidden tab is the Topic 2 tab.

Image 5: Edit settings in the course configuration /hidden sections / Totally invisible view

When you choose the option to display a collapsed form with availability message, it will look similar to the first option where it is also displayed collapsed, but unlike the other one, this one has a small help icon and when you click on it, a dialog box will open with the availability information.

Image 6: Edit settings in course configuration /hidden sections /Collapsed view with availability message

Hide tab bar

This option will allow you to hide the tabbed navigation bar, you will be able to navigate between sections with the options available in the lower corners.

Image 7: Edit settings in the course configuration / Hide tab bar

If you wish to hide the tab bar, choose the “No” option and once the settings are saved the tabs will not be visible, however, at the bottom right and left, below the resources, you will see the names of the previous and next sections for navigation.

Image 8: Edit settings in course settings / Hide tab bar /Hidden view

Visualization mode of section 0

This option allows you to choose how to view the general section or section 0, either as a tab or above the other tabs.

Image 9: Edit settings in course configuration / Section display 0

If you choose the option “As tab” the general section will be at the level of the other tabs.

Image 10: Edit settings in the course configuration / Display section 0 / As tab.

If the “Before the tabs” option is chosen, the resources added to the zero section will still be visible while navigating between tabs. It is especially useful to place a course banner or some general course navigation menu there.

Image 11: Edit settings in the course configuration / Section 0 display / Above tabs

Use topic summary as template

This option allows the content in a topic summary to be used as an HTML template, so that resources can be placed anywhere in the content, not necessarily as sequential lists as traditionally shown in Moodle. To place a resource, simply place in the section summary the name of the resource enclosed in double brackets, example: [[Task 1]]. 

Image 12: Edit settings in course configuration / Use topic summary as template 

Example: In the “Topic 4” tab, 2 activities were created of which only one was referenced in the topic template summary, you will see how the activities are displayed using the 3 possible choices of this option.

In the summary, the exact name by which the resource was called was added in double brackets [[Task 1]] while the activity called “Task 2” was not referenced, as indicated above.

Image 13: Edit course settings / Use topic summary as template /Activity reference

With the “No, display by default” option the resources are not auto-linked, the text remains there as plain text and the resources can be seen as Moodle displays them.

Imagen 14: Editar ajustes en la configuración del curso / Usar resumen de tema como plantilla / Elección: “No, mostrar por defecto”

With the option “Yes, use the  summary as a template” the resources called in double brackets remain as hyperlinks that lead to the resource when clicked and those that were not called in the template are not displayed.

Image 15: Edit settings in course settings / Use topic summary as template / Choice: “Yes, use summary as a template”. (Only referenced resources will be seen).

A more complete example of the application of this option will now be shown.

In the image 16 you can see that 3 resources are called in a simple way, as explained above, and the resource “BD #4” is called in a button;

Image 16: Use theme summary as template / Choice: “Yes, use the summary as a template”/ HTML Editor.

For the case of the button, the resource is called in the code in the [[BD #4]] tag part.

Image 17: Use theme summary as template / Choice: “Yes, use the summary as a template”/ HTML code for button.

This will be the view when saving and viewing published in the summary.

Image 18: Use topic summary as a template / Choice: “Yes, use the summary as a template”/Referenced resource view.

With the option “Yes, use the summary as a template and list resources not referenced” the resources that were not called in the HTML template, i.e. in the section summary, are displayed at the bottom as Moodle lists them by default.

Image 19: Edit settings in course settings / Use topic summary as a template / Choice: “Yes, use the summary as template, list the resources that are not referenced”

Show icon in resource links in summary

This option defines whether or not the resource icons are displayed when the summary is used as a template.

Image 20: Edit settings in course configuration / Show icon 

With this option set to ‘No‘, the resources are displayed only with their name as a hyperlink.

Image 21: Edit settings in the course configuration / Show icon / No

With this option set to ‘Yes‘ the resources are displayed with their name as a hyperlink and the moodle resource icon.

Image 22: Edit settings in course configuration / Show icon / Yes

Tab view

The “Tab View” option allows tabs to be placed in a vertical menu or in a single line with scrolling if there are many tabs. This reduces clutter in courses that have a large number of topics, a lot of content in the topics, or a combination of both.

In the post “Onetopic view” we go into more detail about these options.

Restrict access

You can configure a tab so that it is only displayed if the user meets certain conditions. To do this you must turn editing on in the course where you have the onetopic format and go to the tab you want to restrict. Once there, click on Edit section and define the conditions you want.

Image 23: Course
Image 24: Course / Edit section

Tabs with defined restrictions will be displayed with a button that will indicate to the user which conditions must be met to access that tab.

Image 25: Course / Tab with restriction