Moodle as the central hub of learning with tools plugged in –learning tool interoperability
1. “Moodle as the Central Hub of
Learning with Tools Plugged in ”
Learning Tool Interoperability
Presented at Moodlemoot Madrid 2012
Gavin Henrick – Juan Leyva
2. Where does the LMS sit?
• Larger Learning Ecosystem than before
• Learning can happen everywhere
• Many specialist applications and tools and
activities and content
• The LMS cannot be everything
• Need to facilitate integration with all these
other systems
3. The old challenge
• Each application needs to create LMS specific
integrations
• Always updating/recoding that integration
with each release of each LMS version
• On-going debugging / patching
• Multiple user interfaces to the same system
• Complex support
4. A solution?
• One integration methodology
• All suitable LMS will work with it
• Can update the application without interfering
with or considering the LMS code
• Can write the tool/activity in any language as
long as it is compliant – language of LMS does
not matter
6. Who are the IMS?
The IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS
GLC) is a global, nonprofit, member
organization that strives to enable the
growth and impact of learning technology
in the education and corporate learning
sectors worldwide.
7. The Mission
Your mission if you choose to accept it is to
• Develop a standard way of integrating
learning applications with learning
platforms
• Enable a seamless user experience
between the systems
• Enabling real-time user account creation
and authentication, and allow grades be
transferred back to the LMS
8. Why IMS LTI?
“Allow the seamless connection of web-based,
externally hosted applications and content, or
Tools to platforms that present them to users”
9. So what does this mean?
• Standard way of integrating learning
applications with learning platforms
• Applications – Tool Provider
• Platforms(LMS) – Tool Consumers
• Consumer & Provider exchange data to
facilitate the seamless experience
15. Example 1
• Expanding the ecosystem of tools beyond the
LMS for best of breed tools
– Wordpress for bloggin
– Mediawiki for co-creation of content
– ELGG eportfolio
– Joomla for website creation
–…
16. Example 2
• Cross department / institution/ organisation
use of the 1 tool
– Implementation of a centralised questionnaire for
students in many institutions
• No need to collate data from all locations
• Manages authentication securely so known source of
input
• Can provide each “teacher” from other courses access
to produce reports..
17. Example 3
• Use of a Tool to deliver standardised features
(content or activities) centrally to many clients
– Development and provision of a course for
consumption by many organisations
• No need to distribute for many systems
• Update once and available to all
• Report on all centrally
• No extra admin for managing enrolments
19. LTI Provider Background..
• Author: Juan Leyva
• Released Jan 2012
• Supports Moodle 2.0, 2.1, 2.2
• A local plugin
• Provide access to full courses or single
activities.
• Send backs course or activity final grades
20. LTI Provider Features
• Enrolment duration
• Start/End date
• Max enrolled users
• Role mapping for instructor / learner
• User default values
• Hide header/footer/blocks
• Custom CSS
21. Some articles
• Video Demo of LTI in action
http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2012/04/11/ireland-and-uk-
moodlemoot-2012-ims-lti-demo/
• LTI Provider Plugin for Moodle 2
http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2012/01/08/review-lti-
provider-for-moodle-2-2/
• External Tool in Moodle 2 (LTI Consumer)
http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2011/11/28/moodle-2-
supports-connecting-to-ims-lti-tools/
22. Some Projects
Some projects pushing the development ->
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/learni
ngapps/
http://www.celtic-project.org/