For one specific course, I had enabled Guest access, but I wanted to change the settings. At one time I had required a password, and now I wanted there to be no password required.
However, for some reason I could not erase the password – and worse, it conflicted with the improved password requirements I was using for the site.
The end result was a paragraph of red text listing error complaints and warnings regarding password policy violations, whenever a guest user accessed the course.
It wasn’t a critical issue that would stop someone from accessing the course, but it was a source of potential confusion for users visiting my site.
This is contrary to the desired user experience, and a bit of an embarrassment.
I am happy to have since resolved the issue, it turns out there was a corrupted course, and I was able to set things right by copying the course.
Now I can share with you what I learned in the process, with the following simple steps of how to manage guest access to Moodle courses.
Also, full disclosure: this is for a limited audience of people who are managing, or thinking about managing, a Moodle instance.
Moodle Guest Password Policies
There are settings for Guest access both at the global system level and within each course itself.
First things first: establish the norms for your Moodle instance at a site-wide level, and them move on to the individual course settings.
Navigate to Site administration\Security\Site security settings.
Require digits, uppercase, lowercase, and non-alphanumerics as needed.
Enable password expiration if required
Configure lockouts after failed logins (under Account lockout settings).
User Account Creation and Passwords
Navigate to: Site administration\Plugins\Authentication\Manage authentication
Enable email-based self-registration (if needed)
Set new user default role
Force password change for pre-created accounts.
Guest Access to Courses
Enable Guest access globally:
Navigate to Site administration\Plugins\Enrollments\Guest access.
Enable Guest Access for a course:
Navigate to: Course\Participants\Enrollment methods\Add method\Guest access
Allow guest access: Yes
Set a guest password (optional)
TIP: Leave password blank to allow public access.
Best Practices
Consistent design patterns and management of user policies are a curricular level concern that needs to be communicated and maintained through policy, and ongoing faculty professional development efforts, in combination with IT training and support assignments.
Depending on what you are using Moodle for, you might want to have a variety of resources that are freely available, as well as others that are password protected.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Test guest access using an incognito or logged-out browser
Use course visibility settings to hide sensitive courses
Regularly audit accounts and login attempts (under Reports).
At the hub of your online learning toolkit is a foundational bit of technology that is often taken for granted, the Learning Management System (LMS).
The LMS is a huge determiner of what kinds of content you can use as part of your online course. The ability to interact with data across different technologies while maintaining the security and privacy required for the modern world is a critical aspect of delivering online education.
Essential LMS Capabilities
In general, it is expected that a modern LMS should be able to provide a suite of basic functions:
Storage of files
Creation of HTML pages
Various activities/modules for organizing content
Assessment tools (Quiz/Exams)
Forums/Discussion Boards
Email communications
Gradebooks
To name a few…
Accessibility has largely been built into the framework of most modern Learning Management Systems, most likely as a requisite element in getting the government-sponsored contracts with public school districts across the US.
That’s the beauty of Section 508, it requires you to buy the most accessible version of technology that delivers your business need, so all the LMS vendors basically have to deliver the same level of accessibility.
However, there is nothing so simple it can’t be undone with some third-party “enhancements”.
Accessibility in your online course may start at an acceptable level, but it is possible to introduce technologies that do not provide the necessary level of accessibility.
LMS Virtues and Weaknesses
Typically, the LMS provides an accessible structure you can build your course in. Issues like heading structure and accessible interactive elements are built into the interface, so theoretically your LMS is accessible. But this is mostly true when your course is empty.
As you build your course, your design decisions will influence the final measure of accessibility.
If you use the formatting features in your content creation tools to enable accessibility as you create content, then your course accessibility remains intact.
If you introduce content that does not provide the formatting required for accessibility, you actually take away from the overall accessibility of your course.
It doesn’t matter if the LMS framework is accessible if you put an inaccessible file inside it, the file is still inaccessible. Information doesn’t automagically become accessible by virtue of being loaded into the accessible LMS.
There is no accessibility through osmosis or association.
WWW – World Wide Web, or Wild Wild West?
Each and every piece of content needs to be formatted for accessibility – if not by the original author, then by you.
This includes the world outside of your LMS – the Internet. When you link to a third-party website, you should check the website for basic accessibility. Remember, it is often easy to copy and paste the educationally significant information into an accessible LMS page, if necessary.
Publisher Problems
Don’t assume that a content pack you purchase from a textbook publisher is automatically accessible. Even if the sales rep assures you it is.
You need to verify the accessibility of ALL the features of the content and technology you attach to the LMS and expose to your students.
Ask the sales rep to cover the cost of accommodating any students with disabilities if their product is found to be inaccessible and see how they react.
There is much of the world of online education that is not yet accessible, but plenty of sales people who will try to sell you a problem waiting to happen.
Now you know better, and you can choose content more responsibly for the good of your students and for your success as an educator.
Accessibility Checkers
Be wary of people selling accessibility checkers for your LMS. Often these tools can be useful additions to your online tool kit, but so far none of them are capable of addressing all the accessibility challenges in your course.
Always ask about the capability of accessibility checkers to test individual documents such as MS Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, etc., as well as websites you want to link to from your course.
Ask if they can test different quiz questions.
Ask if they can test the LTI cartridge you want to integrate into your course.
Unfortunately, the range of true help available from most accessibility checkers remains rather limited.
As they say, “Some assembly is required” in building an accessible learning experience for your students. Slick shortcuts and ready-baked solutions are rarely accessible. Often these are just bright shiny broken things that interfere with education for your students with disabilities.
Accessibility through Phones and Tablets
It is important to verify that all the different aspects of your LMS and your online course are also accessible when viewed through a phone or tablet using a mobile operating system such as Android or iOS.
There are many happy examples of accessibility functioning across technology platforms and operating systems, but it is not a safe assumption that everything automatically works.
Verify, and adjust your workflow as necessary to ensure information is accessible for all users in as many contexts as possible.
Support in Different Browsers
It is also a good idea to check out the accessibility of your course and LMS in different internet browsers.
Surprisingly, many LMS vendors can only claim accessibility in certain browsers using certain assistive technologies.
These LMS vendors get away with this lack of capability simply because your administrators continue to sign the contracts instead of requiring better support for accessibility.
But that is the topic for a different blog post. The point here is to be aware of any limitations that you can advise your students about before they flood your inbox with emails about broken content in a certain browser.
Portability of Content
While the LMS is a great tool for delivering online education, sometimes a student really needs the information presented in a special way to be most accessible and usable.
It is a good idea to become familiar with the export capabilities of your LMS.
Especially valuable is any ability to export course content as an ePub document.
ePub is a rich data format that is capable of presenting multiple media formats in an accessible file that is compatible with different assistive technologies.
ePub can also be loaded onto many reading devices, increasing the options for your students to be able to engage with content and study on their terms.
That’s half the joy of taking an online course, after all.
These are just some of the things you can keep in mind to make your online course more effective, truly engaging, and as accessible as possible.
Sometimes you find a novel or impressive way of communicating information out in the wild west of the World Wide Web. You find some form of content that would be a great addition to your online course – but you quickly find that it has some critical accessibility failing that makes it unacceptable.
If you’re thinking that you can’t use this otherwise impressive content because of the lack of accessibility, consider another option.
Sometimes you can bring a problem out of the rough and sink it into the nice manicured green of your LMS.
Admittedly, this is not always possible, as some content may require complete re-programming to address the accessibility problems it contains. However, for certain media you can recreate the essential aspects of what is being communicated as an HTML page within your LMS.
Essential Accessibility Concepts of WCAG – POUR
When considering content that can be improved upon, remember the four guiding principles of WCAG, POUR:
Perceivable
Operable
Understandable
Robust
Ultimately, the WCAG nails accessibility down in simple terms that are easy to remember and apply to content you are teaching.
Perceivable
Perceivable content is styled and represented in a way that allows it to be presented to at least one of the human senses.
No content is invisible to ALL of the senses, there must be a representation of the content that is perceivable by whatever capability a user possesses.
Operable
The interface menus, links, and functionality must be operable by all users. Keyboard control is one of the easy tests to see if content is operable, but it is just a beginning.
Understandable
The content and the intended use and operation of the interface must be understandable. As an educator, this should be an easy one to discern and improve upon, if necessary.
Robust
Content needs to be adequately formatted and designed so there is enough information for a variety of different user agents to make sense of it. Over time, the information should retain the core meaning and capability of being expressed through evolving technologies.
Having thorough text descriptions and formatting content with semantic styles like headings and lists is a great way to make content more robust.
When you find digital media that can be improved upon, follow the WCAG concepts of POUR to enhance the message as much as possible.
Essential Interactive Elements
Moodle activities and resources you can create in the LMS.
Your LMS can be used to create many of the interactive elements used by digital designers. From basic HTML pages to more sophisticated content packages, today’s modern LMS offers the capability to create several types of accessible interactive content.
Consider mapping out just what kind of interactivity is present in the content, and see if you can duplicate it within the LMS.
Undescribed and Unlabeled Content
It is very easy to provide alternate text descriptions for images within your LMS.
Image Properties from Moodle.
If the only accessibility issue you find is missing or inappropriate alternate text, then copy and paste the images into your LMS and provide appropriate descriptions for those images.
Remember that form fields require text labels as well.
Inaccessible polls and surveys can be recreated accessibly with the assessment and feedback tools of your LMS.
Bad Contrast
If there is bad contrast between text and background, that is another issue that is extremely easy to fix.
Copy and paste the text into your LMS and apply appropriate colors for WCAG-compliant contrast ratios.
Likewise, if the focus indicator has been styled to be invisible or difficult to see via linked CSS, you can copy and paste the content into your LMS. The styling for the focus indicator will be formatted according to your LMS CSS settings.
Bad Instructions and Layout
Sometimes good content comes with bad instructions, explanations, or just a confusing or cluttered layout. Redesigning a problematic page for easier readability is a valid activity for accessibility and a great use of the LMS.
Bonus Lessons
Another benefit of fixing accessibility issues by redesigning the content within your LMS is the opportunity to demonstrate to your students how to responsibly synthesize information into new forms of media, and how to properly cite sources when using other people’s content.
Reproducing content within the LMS can provide a simple means for addressing basic accessibility concerns, and it can also be a great way to focus user attention and keep students in the LMS.
You’ve learned not only how to assess content for accessibility, but how to make content better for accessibility and learning. Now when you encounter inaccessible content, it doesn’t have to be a dead end – you can create options and improve the situation for everyone.
