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Restricting Moodle guests to WW assignments

Restricting Moodle guests to WW assignments

by Michael Schroeder -
Number of replies: 2
I have recently become aware of a slightly annoying loophole which my students have found in WW. We use the Moodle - Webwork bridge, and we want Moodle to allow guests to access the homepage for syllabus information and the like. However, we've had some cases of guests accessing Webwork (friends of students presumably) who then can attempt the homework. With this, they are getting as many tries as they want on the problem.

Is there a way to limit a Moodle guest's access to Webwork? I hunted the forum, but perhaps I didn't search for the right topic.

Mike
In reply to Michael Schroeder

Re: Restricting Moodle guests to WW assignments

by Michael Gage -
Moodle logs guests in to WW as the reserved user "guest" . (This can be problematic if you have a student M. Guest in your class -- but that is another story.)

Make sure that the privileges for "guest" are "guest" in the webwork course.

In the course configuration page under the permissions tab set the minimum requirements to "Allowed to log in to the course" to "student" (it is normally "guest").

This may not always take effect immediately since a session key is normally used to connect to the course (the password is only used to login the first time) and you may need to wait for the session key to expire. Using a different browser (where no login information will have been cached) might speed up the process. Restarting the server might help.

My first try at this was unsuccessful, but after waiting a while after I changed the permission level for logging in from guest to student I was unable to access webwork from moodle using guest login. Just what was desired.

YMMV. This is not a well tested configuration.

Let us know how it goes.

-- Mike

In reply to Michael Gage

Re: Restricting Moodle guests to WW assignments

by Michael Schroeder -
I now realize I asked the wrong question.

We do allow guests to view the Moodle page. However, students can still log in with their username and password from the university, even though they are not registered for the course. So I have students that are "logging in" to Moodle, then viewing the homework problems. They are being given an account dynamically and have student status. Is there a way to keep these individuals which are not enrolled or specifically added to the Moodle course out of Webwork?

I should also mention -- the easy way to identify them is by a lack of section name in WW.

Mike