Enabling and Using Moodle Activity Completion Tracking: Step‑by‑step Guide

Quick answer

To make Moodle automatically tick an activity’s completion checkbox when a student satisfies a condition, you must enable completion tracking globally, turn it on for the course, and then set the condition in the activity’s settings (e.g., “Require grade ≥ 70 %”). Once those three steps are in place, the system updates the checkbox as soon as the condition is met.

How the mechanism works

Moodle’s completion tracking feature stores a boolean flag for each user‑activity pair. The flag is evaluated whenever a relevant event occurs (view, grade submission, manual mark, etc.). If the flag’s conditions are satisfied, Moodle sets the flag to true and displays a checked box on the course page.

Worked configuration

1. Enable globally: Log in as an administrator, go to Site administration ► Advanced features, check Enable completion tracking, and save changes.
2. Enable for a course: Open the course, click Edit settings, scroll to Completion tracking, select Yes, and save.
3. Set an activity condition: Add or edit a Quiz (or any activity). In the activity’s settings page, under Activity completion, choose Show activity as complete when conditions are met. Then pick a condition, for example:

Require grade: 70 % or higher

Save the activity. Now, when a student attempts the quiz and receives a grade of 70 % or more, Moodle records the grade, evaluates the condition, and automatically checks the completion box.

Limits and common pitfalls

• Global and course switches: If either the global toggle or the course‑level toggle is off, the activity’s completion settings are ignored.
• Resources without completion options: Plain labels, pages, or files that do not expose an Activity completion section cannot be tracked; only resources and activities that provide the section can be used.
• Contradictory conditions: Requiring both “Require view” and “Require manual mark” can prevent the activity from ever being marked complete because the manual mark may never be given if the view requirement is already satisfied, or vice‑versa. Review the logic of combined conditions.
• Cache stale data: After changing completion settings, Moodle may serve cached completion states. Clear the cache via Site administration ► Development ► Purge caches or ask users to refresh after a few minutes.
• Grade overrides: If a teacher later overrides a grade that previously satisfied a condition, the completion flag is re‑evaluated; a lower override can un‑check the box.

Verification checklist

1. Log in as admin, confirm global completion tracking is on.
2. Enter a test course, confirm course‑level completion tracking is on.
3. Add a Quiz, set Activity completion to “Require grade ≥ 50 %”.
4. Enroll a test student, log in as that student, attempt the quiz and score 55 %.
5. Refresh the course page; the quiz’s completion checkbox should appear ticked.

If the box remains unchecked, retrace the three enable steps and check for contradictory conditions or caching issues.