You already know that when creating Activities or Assignments in Moodle and setting a due date within that Activity's settings, it creates a calendar event for that specific Activity.
Did you know, however, that you can create events on the calendar that are not tied to any specific online Activity? Say you wanted to let students know about important upcoming dates that are not tied to an activity's “Due Date.”
Much like a normal calendar, you can add events to your course calendar that all users enrolled in the course will see. This is useful, for example, to remind students of upcoming key dates (such as in-person exams or lab dates) or parts of an assignment that might not be graded as an Activity, but are useful for keeping pace.
Here is how:
- Go to your course within OpenLMS.
- On the right-side navigation bar, find the icon that looks like a bunch of blocks (you may need to enable "Edit mode"). Click the bunch of blocks.
- On the menu that slides out, one of the blocks should be the Calendar, with the link “Course calendar” below it. Click the “Course calendar” link.
- You are now in full-page view of the calendar, and in the top-right corner, you should see a “New event” button.
- Clicking the "New event" button will open up an event settings menu, where you can name the event, give it a date and time, set the type ("Course" is recommended), and set the courses it will be visible in. You can then click "Show More," and additional settings will appear, such as description, locations, durations, and whether it repeats.
- Once the event has the settings you want, click the “Save” button at the bottom. This will save the event to the calendar for the courses you selected. Since the type was “Course,” all enrolled users in those chosen courses should see that event on their calendars as well.
That's it! You and your students will now have an event populated within your OpenLMS calendar.
Having important information easily accessible to students and yourself ensures smooth operations throughout the semester.