I’m working with Moodle 3.6.3+ and want to change how the dashboard looks. We’ve got 10 courses split into 2 main groups. The goal is to show each group’s courses in its own box on the dashboard.
Here’s the tricky part: students might be in 2 courses from one group and 3 from the other. We need to split these up so the dashboard shows the courses from the first group in one box and the ones from the second group in another box.
We looked for a plugin to do this but couldn’t find anything that fits. Has anyone figured out how to set this up? Maybe there’s a way to do it without a plugin? Any tips or ideas would be super helpful!
I’ve tackled a similar challenge in my Moodle setup. One approach that worked for me was customizing the course overview block. You can modify its code to group courses based on their categories. It requires some PHP knowledge, but it’s doable.
Another option is to create a custom plugin. While it’s more complex, it offers greater flexibility. You’d need to hook into Moodle’s dashboard rendering process and implement your own logic for course grouping.
Have you considered using course tags instead of categories? You could tag courses with their respective groups and then use those tags to filter and display courses on the dashboard. This method might be less intrusive than modifying core Moodle functionality.
Remember to thoroughly test any changes in a development environment before implementing them on your live site.
hey ryan, have u tried messing with the dashboard blocks? u might be able to create custom blocks for each course group. it’s not a perfect solution, but could work. u’d need to tweak some code tho. maybe check out moodle forums for more specific tips on custom blocks?
Hey Ryan_Courageous, that’s an interesting challenge you’ve got there! 
Have you thought about using JavaScript to reorganize the dashboard view? You could potentially write a script that runs when the page loads, grabs the course elements, and then sorts them into different containers based on their categories. It’s not a built-in Moodle solution, but it might be a way to achieve what you’re after without diving too deep into core modifications.
Another idea - what about creating a custom dashboard page? You could set up a new page template that pulls course info from the database and displays it how you want. It’d take some work, but you’d have full control over the layout.
Oh, and quick question - have you checked if there are any themes that offer this kind of course grouping functionality? Sometimes theme developers pack in extra features like this.
Curious to hear what route you end up taking! Keep us posted on how it goes, yeah?