In our Moodle/WebWork setup, we are missing the 'Student ID' in the automatic Moodle user creation process.
Is it possible to export the classlist, add the student's information as a column (either Student ID column or Section Column), re-import it via the Classlist Editor (Import users from file newclasslist.lst replacing ANY existing users and adding NO new users), and not have users' passwords change (or grades change)?
I noticed the Moodle-ified classlist contains the phrases 'moodle created user' in Column 5 and 'not cached' in Column 10.
I modified an exported classlist for an old course and reimported it, but I can't test student's passwords. I did notice that grades are unchanged and my password is still correct, but I'm not a moodle user and my password comes out encrypted in Col 10.
Thanks-
Fuzzy
In the interests of a speedy reply I have not tested what follows but here are some suggestions to try (cautiously).
Test to see if the students you have reimported now have a password which is the same as the studentID. When students are initially imported the password is set to the ID unless a password is explicitly given in the last column. I think the password might be overwritten with the studentID if you reimport students but I'm not sure. If you place passwords in the last column I am pretty sure that the password will be reset.
More importantly -- Moodle does just-in-time creation of a new student user and installs a random password. In communication between Moodle and WeBWorK only the session key is used. This is why if a student is logged out then they have to go back through Moodle to get logged in again. They can't log in to WeBWorK directly because they don't know the hidden password. If you give them (or a TA say) a known password then they can login directly to WeBWorK.
Not sure whether this is a bug or feature -- but it's the way it works.
Hope this helps. Please report back if you can verify or disprove this description.
-- Mike
Test to see if the students you have reimported now have a password which is the same as the studentID. When students are initially imported the password is set to the ID unless a password is explicitly given in the last column. I think the password might be overwritten with the studentID if you reimport students but I'm not sure. If you place passwords in the last column I am pretty sure that the password will be reset.
More importantly -- Moodle does just-in-time creation of a new student user and installs a random password. In communication between Moodle and WeBWorK only the session key is used. This is why if a student is logged out then they have to go back through Moodle to get logged in again. They can't log in to WeBWorK directly because they don't know the hidden password. If you give them (or a TA say) a known password then they can login directly to WeBWorK.
Not sure whether this is a bug or feature -- but it's the way it works.
Hope this helps. Please report back if you can verify or disprove this description.
-- Mike
If the StudentID field has an entry, but the password field does not, the system changes the password to the StudentID.
If the StudentID has an entry and the password field has an entry (even 'not cached'), the system changes the password to the password field (encrypted style [wonder what 'not cached' is unencrypted?]).
If the StudentID is empty and the password field is empty, the password is unmodified. Any changes to other columns appear to take affect.
In our case this would work fine as we don't typically fill the Section or Recitation column and can use it for StudentIDs after the fact. I can export the classlist, delete the entries in the StudentID column and the Password column and populate the Section or Recitation column with what I need.
Thanks!
Fuzzy
By the way it should not be such a big deal to have Moodle include the studentID when it creates the new user in WeBWorK. Is this something that Moodle currently has in each users record at your school? Do you know what the variable name is for this data item?
-- Mike
-- Mike
On our To-Do list- this should definitely be passed to our server.
Thanks-
Fuzzy
Thanks-
Fuzzy