Currently, when a course is set to use the Topics or Weekly format, all sections within the main course content are expanded by default. This patch adds a new setting for these course formats which enables an individual course to automatically collapse every section for those users who are new to the course.

For users who have never expanded or collapsed a section within a course, the experience is functionally equivalent to accessing said course and immediately clicking on the "Collapse all" button in the top right-hand corner of the course content.

The proposed enhancement is best suited for long-running courses or those that are extensive in their contents. Rather than presenting the user with one continuous run of content, which could be overwhelming, the user is instead presented with a list of sections. They can then orient themselves from this position and drill down into the specific section/sections they are interested in from this higher-level overview.

The fact that users are initially presented with a list of sections establishes a precedent that suggests to the user that the course content is best engaged with through collapsed sections. The user is always welcome to expand all sections using the existing UI controls - however, they may think twice if they are initially presented with a list of collapsed sections, and this may result in an overall improved experience.

The first section (which is usually the General section, and is fixed in its position as the first section) and any section that is highlighted are, however, left expanded. This helps to direct attention towards the most important sections - highlighted sections, in particular, are very easy to miss when they are placed in the middle of a large number of already expanded sections.