Student & Class Management

Understanding Student Enrolment

In Drupal LMS, student enrolment can be handled in two ways:

1. Course-Level Enrolment: Students are added directly as members of the Course group. This is the simplest method and is suitable for courses that do not need to be divided into separate cohorts.
     
2. Class-Based Enrolment: Students are enrolled in a Class, which is then associated with a Course. This method requires the optional LMS Classes sub-module.
     

Benefits of Class-Based Enrolment

• Better organization of student groups (e.g., by semester, location, or teacher).
• More detailed reporting and filtering capabilities.
• Ability to assign different teachers to different classes within the same course.
• Support for multiple cohorts taking the same course content.

Adding Students to Courses

Course-Level Enrolment (Without Classes)

If you are not using the LMS Classes sub-module, you can add students directly to the course itself.

1. Navigate to Administration > Groups (/admin/group).
     
2. Find the course you want to add students to and click on Members in the Operations column.
     
3. Click the Add member button to add existing users to the course.
     

Class-Based Enrolment (with the LMS Classes module)

Manually Adding Students

To manually enrol students into a course when using the LMS Classes module, they first need to have a user account, then you can add their username to one of the course's associated classes. The easiest way to add students is through the course's Students tab:

1. Go to the course page, either by clicking on its course card, or by visiting Admin > LMS > Courses and clicking on the course Title.
     
2. Click the Students tab, then click the Add student button.
     
3. In the form, select the Class you want to add the student to.
     
4. Start typing a student's username in the Student field and select them from the autocomplete suggestions.
     
5. Click Add.
     

Self-Enrolment Options

You can allow students to enrol themselves in courses as a site-wide setting. This is controlled by the permissions you assign to the Outsider role within the Course group type.

1. Navigate to the Course group type's permissions page by visiting Administration > Groups > Group types and clicking Edit permissions next to Course (/admin/group/types/manage/lms_course/permissions).
     
2. Find the Outsider (Authenticated user) column to manage its permissions.
     
3. To control enrolment, grant one of the following permissions:
   • Join group: Allows any authenticated user to enrol in the course immediately by clicking an "Enroll" button.
       
   • Request group membership (if you have the LMS Membership Request module installed): Allows users to request enrolment. A teacher or admin must approve the request before the student is enrolled.

Managing Classes

Remember that in Drupal LMS, Classes are Groups.  This makes managing them a little awkward and not very intuitive.  More UI improvements will be coming in the near future, but in the meantime, here's how to manage them:

Viewing Classes

Classes in a specific course

1. Go to the course page, either by clicking its course card, or visit Admin > LMS > Courses (/admin/lms/courses) and click the course Title.
    
2. Click the All entities tab
    
3. You’ll see a list of users and classes in this course.  Classes will have an Entity type of Group and a Plugin used of LMS Class.
    
4. If you want to make changes to the class from here, in its Operations dropdown select View entity, then select the tab you want to manage.
    

List all classes

1. Go to the Groups page: Admin > Groups (/admin/group)
    
2. If necessary, click the Type column heading to sort by type
    
3. In the list of classes, you can either select a management option in a class's Operations dropdown, or click on the class Title and then select a tab you want to manage.
    

Editing a Class Name

To change the name of a class:

1. View all Groups: Admin > Groups (/admin/group)
    
2. In the Operations column next to the class name you want to change, click Edit
    
3. Edit the Title and click Save
    

Adding a Class to a Course

Each course can have multiple associated classes.  To add a class to a course:

1. First, create the new class:
    
   1. Go to Admin > Groups (/admin/group), click the Add group button, and select Class
       
   2. Give it a descriptive Title — it's helpful to include the course name in the class title
       
   3. Click Create class
       
2. Now go to the course page: Admin > LMS > Courses (/admin/lms/courses) and click the Title of the course you want to add the class to
    
3. Click the All entities tab then press the Add existing entity button and select LMS Class
    
4. Start typing the name of your new class, and an autocomplete selection list will allow you to choose the class to add
    
5. Click Save
    

Managing Students in a Class

When using the LMS Classes module, students are members of a Class group.  You can view, edit, add, and remove members:

1. View all Groups: Admin > Groups > List (/admin/group)
    
2. In the Operations column next to the class whose members you want to manage, click Members
    
3. In the Operations column next to the student you want to change, click View member, Edit member, or Remove member
    
4. There is also an Add member button near the top of the class Members page.  To add a student to the class, click this button, and start typing their username in the User field.  A list will appear with autocomplete suggestions that you can choose from, then click Save.
    

Managing Student Access

Viewing Enrolled Students

To see all students in a course:

1. Go to the course page, either by clicking on its course card or by visiting Admin > LMS > Courses and then clicking on the course Title
     
2. Click the Students tab

This shows a table of all students, their classes, completion status, and last activity.
 

Filtering and Sorting

The students table can be filtered by:

• Student name 
• Class

Results can be sorted by clicking on sortable column headings: 

• Name 
• Status
• Last activity
   

Removing Students or Resetting Progress

You can reset students' progress in a course, which returns them to the enrolled but just-started state, or you can completely remove students from a course or class:

1. Go to the course's Students tab
     
2. Find the student(s) and select the checkbox next to their name(s)
     
3. From the Action dropdown menu at the top of the list, select either Remove students or Reset course progress
     
4. Click Apply to selected items and confirm the removal
     

Tracking Student Progress

Individual Progress

To view one student’s progress:

1. Go to the course’s Students tab
    
2. Find the student in the list
    
3. In the Results column, click the show link. This will take you directly to their detailed report for that course.
    

Course Completion Status

Student progress in a course is tracked with these status labels:

• In progress: Student has started but not completed
   
• Needs grading: Student has completed all activities, but some need manual grading
   
• Passed: Student completed with a score at or above the required threshold
   
• Failed: Student completed but did not achieve the required score
   

Activity Completion

Within each lesson, you can see:

• Which activities the student has completed 
   
• Which activities are not done yet
   
• Scores for completed activities
   
• Which activities need manual grading
   

Grading Student Work

Automatic Grading

Activities using plugins like multiple choice and true/false are graded automatically: 

• Scores are calculated based on correct answers
• Results are available right away
• No teacher action is needed
   

Manual Grading

Activities using the free text plugin need teacher grading:

1. Go to the course’s Students tab and find students with “Needs grading” status
    
2. Click on the student’s Status to see their detailed results
    
3. Expand each lesson to find unevaluated activities (marked “No” in the Evaluated column). Click the “No” link to open the grading form
    
4. Review the student’s work, assign a score, and optionally add feedback
    
5. Click “Evaluate”
    
6. Repeat for any other unevaluated activities
    
7. Also repeat for any other students with “Needs grading” status
     

The course status will immediately update based on the grading.  Note that a course that contains any manual grading activity will not give the student their results or score until the grading is complete.

Student Management Best Practices

• Class Organization: Group students logically by cohort, section, or other categories
   
• Regular Monitoring: Check the Students tab often to find students who may be struggling
   
• Timely Grading: Grade manual activities quickly to provide timely feedback
   
• Reach Out: Contact students who show patterns of low scores or inactivity
   
• Quality Feedback: Give specific, helpful feedback in manual grading
   
• Review Data: Look at completion rates and scores to find ways to improve course materials

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