User story: As a course creator I would like to use course templates to simplify course creation and maintenance when managing many courses. To avoid having too many templates to manage, I would like to have generic course templates that can be configured in the course settings. Based on the configuration some activities would be available, others would be hidden.

Since there is a availability restriction based on profile fields, a restriction based on course fields ist a logical consequence.

Idea for implementation: I could store information about the course in its custom course fields, e.g.

• course field "interaction" would store if my students need to interact with each other with specific tools
• course field "exam" would store in which manner the exam is taken (as an online quiz in moodle, an assignment in moodle, an external tool, on paper)
• course field "meeting" would store a datetime when an online meeting should occur.

I could hide or show certain activities based on the value of the course field.

Improvement: Having a generic template that can be configured with course fields I don't need a plethora of course templates for every combination of options and every scenario but just a single template that contains all options that are shown on demand, As I can create courses from a bulk CSV and populate the course fields in the csv there is less to configure in the courses after creation. Should I choose to change a scenario, I don't need to rework the complete course but only change the relevant options.

Examples:  

• I have a course that requires certain preparation (for example the installation of some typical software like BBB). Based on the course field "interaction" that contains BBB a text box will be displayed to the students how to install BBB.
• I can hold online exams that can either be done in a moodle quiz, an assignment, via lti or be linked with a url. The exam can be proctored with tool a, tool b, take place on site etc.
  A generic template with availability restrictions based on custom course fields would work like this:
  • Show the activity "moodle quiz" only if the course field "scenario" equals to "online test"
  • Show a link to a specific proctoring tool only if the course field "proctoring" equals to "proctoring with x"
  • Show the data security informations only f the course field "proctoring" equals to "proctoring with x"
  • Show a map of the campus only if the test ist taken on campus (course field "proctoring" equals on campus)
  • Show a proctoring-tool only after course field "proctorung_start" has a datetime in the past.
  • Show a quiz activity only after course field "exam_start" has passed.
  • etc.
• I can show specific sections only if needed for my specific scenario:
  • Show a section how to operate BBB or zoom based on a custom course field "interaction" that contains "BBB" or "zoom"
  • Show a map, if the location is not online or even a map to a specific location (when using further tricks like JavaScript and Generico)
• I have a course with an on site exam. Due to unforseen circumstances I need to change it to an online exam. Then I just need to change the option in the course fields and the appropriate info will be displayed to my students.
• My course consists of multiple phases. The dates at which the phases begin/end are not known upon the creation of a course. I can set up multiplie activities tied to that dates and change the dates in the course fields later.
• I want to reuse my course later on, but do not want to change time-based restrictions for each activity. I could clone the course and just change the course field date.