Google Groups integration with Moodle to enhance communication and collaboration Richard Heath Presented at Moodlemoot Edinburgh 2014 www.moodlemoot.ie

1. Google Groups Integration with
Moodle
Enhancing communication and
collaboration
Richard Heath (richard.heath@port.ac.uk)
Senior Educational Technologist, University of Portsmouth

2. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Background
• Approx. 23k students
• Moodle in use for 2 years
• Currently running Moodle 2.4
• Google Apps for Education (staff & students)

3. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
What are Google Groups?
• Mailing list
• Discussion board
• Access mechanism
– Google Docs
– Google sites

4. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Solution
• Create a Google Group for each Moodle course
• Enrol members of course into Google Group
– Lecturers as owners
– Students as members
• Synchronise membership regularly
• Create Google Groups from Moodle groups as needed
• Expose groups inside Moodle

5. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Aims
• Provide a RELIABLE mechanism for contacting students
WITH attachments EASILY
• Allow sharing of Google Documents easily
• Create a simple method to facilitate online document
collaboration
• Provide a foundation for further development

6. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Solution
• Local plugin
– Sync script (CLI) for mass creation
– Event listeners:
• Enrol/unenrol users
• Create/delete/edit courses
– Cron to process events

7. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Solution
• Block: My Google Groups
– List a user’s groups
– Provide email link
– Provide web link to group

8. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Roll-out
• Currently evaluating with academics in a number of
departments
• University-wide roll-out for next academic year

9. Google Groups Integration with Moodle
Future development
• Creation of Google+ Communities?
• Integration of timetabling data to create
groups
• Closer integration with Google Apps