Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Moodle 2 integration update

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hey Fellas,

Alright, so we are getting ready to start testing the LAMS -Moodle2 integration.

The advantages on this integration is that:

1) It works with Moodle2
2) It's a complete re-write so gives us a change improve on previous issues/bugs we had before and
3) Takes advantage -as much as I can, to make use of the Moodle architecture.

On this last one, along with the groupings and all other share characteristics of Moodle module, we now also have been using Moodle Activity Completion, one of the many Moodle2's features.

This Activity Completion sets a state for Moodle activities... meaning that now these activities can be set as completed. That means that you can track progress of users directly in Moodle and also make use of Moodle2's conditionality and/or activity locking. These are quite useful new features in Moodle that we are leveraging on in this integration.

Technically speaking, I'm very impressed with the Moodle2 framework. It makes a lot of sense for what I've been able to play with.

Now, without further due, here's the demo site you can play with:

http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2

Get yourself an account, enrol in the course there and go crazy.

Note that this is still work in progress and there are quite a few features missing: like gradebook integration, preview, deeper integration, random optimisations, code clean up, etc.

Also is worth taking into account that this integration module is a complete re-write from the previous one, so I haven't been able to work out an upgrade path for people that want currently use Moodle 1.9 and LAMS. But we'll come up with something

As always, we need your feedback so feel free to post questions, comments, suggestions, etc here.

Thanks and enjoy!

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Just finished adding the preview option from Moodle:

When selecting a sequence from the folder tree, a "Preview" button is shown, if you click on it, you can preview the lesson directly from there (see attached pic).

You can test this now on this testing server.

Also a few other UI improvements like nice buttons and other icons now.

Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

Moodle won't send me a confirmation mail :(

I thought that we made peace, Moodle and me, but it doesn't seem so ...

More seriously, could you please check if the mailer is working please ? Moodle says that I do exist, that confirmation mail has been sent and it won't send me another confirmation mail. Btw I did check the junk mail graveyard plus my trash .... can't find any trace of this mail.

cheers ! Daniel
PS Just to make sure, I am trying this one:
http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Daniel,

> Moodle won't send me a confirmation mail :(

Hmmm.. I'll check on that. It was working before.

Anyway, I have confirmed your user so you should be able to login now.

> PS Just to make sure, I am trying this one:
> http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/

Yes, that's the one.

Thanks,
Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

Thanx ... maybe it just doesn't like my email address.

Anyhow, I had a look at the thing and I find your new interface more intuitive and its much closer to the rest of the Moodle UI logic. Cool !

Maybe (I don't know, needs usability testing): When you select a sequence, there might be some immediate feedback that not only shows the "Preview this lesson" button, but also makes explicit that *this* selection will be taken.

Also I wonder what happens if you change a sequence. Is the old instance still available for recovery ?

Actually I got a smarter related question. There is always a confusion between the authored course (pure prototype) and its run sequences (instances of the course). Get's even more complicated since one can actually load a run sequence for authoring (I image that all the user data get stripped away) .... anyhow I didn't take time to investigate this, but it's slightly confusing to me and probably a lot to some other people.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Daniel,

> When you select a sequence, there might be some immediate feedback that not only shows the "Preview this lesson" button, but also makes explicit that
> *this* selection will be taken.

At the moment, when you are adding a new LAMS lesson to Moodle, whenever you click on a lesson, the lesson node (on the tree) gets marked, the name of the lesson gets automatically added as titled and the preview button gets displayed. Would that enforce the notion that a *this* sequence is selected?

I could also add an extra noticed on top to make sure that is is completely obvious but maybe is an overkill?


> Also I wonder what happens if you change a sequence. Is the old instance still available for recovery ?

On update, it does explicitly tell you that you are about to change the lesson. It tells you which one is current and gives you the warning:

If you do change it, then the a new lesson is created with the new selected sequence. Note that you can change the description or any other settings but if you don't change the sequence, then the lesson will remain the same.

Is this what you would expect?

> Get's even more complicated since one can actually load a run sequence for authoring (I image that all the user data get stripped away) .... anyhow I
> didn't take time to investigate this, but it's slightly confusing to me and probably a lot to some other people.

Yes, for run sequence the user data gets stripped out. The reason we keep these copies in the Run-sequences folder under the Course Folder is because you could change the design using Live Edit... this way you always keep a copy of all previously used designs. Even if you change the original design (in author), and they you go "how did I used to run this sequence last year?", you can go see it.

I hope this help.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

1. Quote: "name of the lesson gets automatically added as titled and the preview button gets displayed. Would that enforce the notion that a *this* sequence is selected?"

It probably does, but maybe you should make the input field pink :) I just believe that users need some strongly visible feedback that did not only select but that the selection will be taken, but then that kind of question only can be answered with some usability testing :)

2. when we change, the message should be stronger like: Everything that your students did will be dead, plain dead, uncoverably dead. The gonna not just be confused but angry too ;)

3. Oh right, I forgot about LiveEdit :)

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

> It probably does, but maybe you should make the input field pink :)

No worries. I'll make it a bit more obvious shortly. It shouldn't be too hard.

2. when we change, the message should be stronger like: Everything that your students did will be dead, plain dead, uncoverably dead. The gonna not just be confused but angry too ;)

No worries, I'll re-word this too.

Thanks

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Spyros Papadakis

[ Reply | Forward ]

I had a similar problem in my first effort.

I tried with my second e-mail account(Google mail)and I received a confirmation mail.

Spyros

Posted by Spyros Papadakis

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Yes, Spyros... I approved your confirmation as well.

The email issue should now be fixed.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

OK, so I've been doing a lot of code reading in Moodle2 and I quite like it....

One of the things I've reading on is the Grades, that's the ability to grade an "activity" in Moodle so it can be displayed on the Moodle Gradebook.

So I'm thinking of using the Gradebook API in Moodle to pass marks that you get in LAMS directly to the Moodle Gradebook.

The plan is that in Moodle you will set up a numeric scale (say 0 to 100) and then when you do an activity in LAMS that has a result (say an Assessment) then the mark you get there will be passed to Moodle. If the activity had a max scale of 10, and this is the only activity that gives an output in the lesson, then in Moodle the student will get the full 100 points.

But if the student in the Assessment gets a 6 (out of 10 -max for the assessment activity), when when passed to Moodle, it will show 60 in the Moodle Gradebook.

If the lesson has more than 1 activity that returns an numeric output, then we calculate (in LAMS) what's the maximum combine mark you can get and then pass to module the percentage achieved. So say there are two activities an MCQ and an Assessment. The max mark for the MCQ is 10 and the Assessment is 40.... then if the a student gets an 8 in the MCQ and a 20 on the Assessment, then we'll do (combined student result/max possible mark ie: 28/50=0.56).... pass that to Moodle and add in the Moodle Gradebook 56 (as 100 is the max mark it's been set in the scale in Moodle and 0.56 is the result that the student got in the LAMS activities).

So, how does that sound to you? Would it fly for you?

Thanks,

ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

I'd have to take more time too look at Moodle 2, but can't right now. Grading was a quite disaster in Moodle 1.x since one could not define grading criteria for each assments as for example in Blackboard. Well that has nothing to do with your question....

What I however strongly suggest that you indeed take into account various international habits at least in some ways.

France:
Grades go from 0 to 20
16 corresponds to an American A or 100 %
20 is reserved for brilliant students (like the unfamous A+)

Switzerland
Grades go from 0 to 6, sometimes from 1 to 6

US
Grades go from A to F
but some numerical scale go from 50 to 100, since 60 is F

So definitely if Moodle can tell you the upper and lower boundary you should take it and then use the range. An additional suggestion - and I'd wait for user reactions - is the ask the teacher what he wants: E.g. 100 LAMS points = 6 and 0 LAMS points = 2. E.g., in the advanced tools tabs you also could ask the user to define a translation from total score to a grade.

I am a quite confused by grading math, but definitely have the impression that people using non-US grading philosophy always have to struggle quite a lot using the grading tools in LMSs.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Daniel,

My understanding is that the Moodle Gradebook has been improved drastically in the past few releases. I don't really have had a lot of exposure to it in the past but the one I've been using (version 2.0) looks like it allows you to do grades and scales of all sorts.

So if you want, you can use any of the numeric grades (from 0 to any number you like). Then using scales you can map the grade to a specific item on the scale A, B, C, etc... or Good, Bad, Terrible... you choose.

The good news is that this is all handled by Moodle, so all I've got to do is pass the mark from any LAMS activities that give you a numeric output and then Moodle can calculate the grade/scales accordingly.

Just about 10 mins ago I have added this feature to the moodle2 demo site. So now when you create a lesson, this is what you get:

As you can see in the second pic, you can also choose not to add a grade by default. In that case then, the will be no mark added to Moodle gradebook (even if LAMS does have a mark though).

When you finish a lesson, if the gradebook option was set, then you do get a result displayed:

And once you check the Moodle Gradebook, then you'll see:

I have added a lesson there "Super hero Assessment" if you want to give it a try. Once you have completed this activity in LAMS, just refresh the lesson page in Moodle and the output from LAMS will be recorded in Moodle (we'll do this automatically before release -this is just to make sure it works for now).

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

Yeah that looks ok to me (better than my skill with caribean capitals and superheroes in any case ....). So it's fine with me... After using this feature for real, I may have other suggestions that you then may or may not integrate with a new LAMS version :)

Btw I get an error when I try to add a scale in Moodle.
http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/grade/edit/scale/index.php?id=2

Probably just a Moodle error. People who don't have the right permission I probably shouldn't even see this link. (Anyhow permissions in Moodle is something that requires at least a day of work to understand ....)

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Yes, these capitals test are quite a challenge indeed

I'll check on the scales problem but I also think it might be an issue out of the scope of LAMS.

Thanks and looking forward to your comments.

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi fellas,

We have now made the gradebook update automatic. So this means that as soon as you finish the lesson, the LAMS activity results are passed automatically to the Moodle gradebook.

I have created this example if you want to try:

http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/mod/lamslesson/view.php?id=16

(this is with Presidents/Prime ministers rather than capitals, so it should be a lot easier

Once you have completed the activity as learner, you'll see that the marks are now in Moodle gradebook for the course (http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=2)

Thanks

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Spyros Papadakis

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie

I tested Super Hero Assessment but at the end I received only a Print not and a Finished button.

Is there an option the author to blind the print button?

Posted by Spyros Papadakis

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Spyros,

Yes, we'll have a return to Moodle button, no worries. We haven't yet implement it that, but it's coming no worries

When you see the print button now, if you go back to the moodle page where this lesson was opened from and refresh, you should see your results.

Also, in Moodle, check out the gradebook and you will see the results from LAMS in there too.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Andrea Zappi

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie
Have you completed the integration between LAMS and moodle2?
I can help you in any way?
I need this integration for my work
Thanks

Posted by Andrea Zappi

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Andrea,

It is functional but I think it's still in beta stage. I need to tidy up the code a bit as well as document some of the methods.

Here's the code as of today:

20110329-lamslesson.zip

If you are willing to try it, please be my guest. Any patches/fixes are very much welcome.

Here's the CVS repository for it, if you want to track updates. To check out the latest from CVS:

cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anonymous@lamscvs.melcoe.mq.edu.au:/usr/local/cvsroot co moodle

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Andrea Zappi

[ Reply | Forward ]

Thanks Ernie for your help.
I install it and try it now. If I find problems or apply corrections i will report and put them into the repository
Andrea

Posted by Andrea Zappi

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Thanks Andrea, let me know how you go.

Cheers,

ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Andrea Zappi

[ Reply | Forward ]

Ho Ernie
I installed it and did several tests with the plugin
For now, the only mistake I found is:
from the file menu (of LAMS) if you choose exit: does not come back to the interface of Moodle
Do more tests and then let you know
Good WE
A.

Posted by Andrea Zappi

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for your review! That's excellent.

I'll take not of the Menu exit in Author.

Have you had a chance to test the outputs of LAMS activities into the Moodle Gradebook?

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Andrea Zappi

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie
I installed it and did several tests with the plugin
For now, the only mistake I found is:
from the file menu (of LAMS) if you choose exit: does not come back to the interface of Moodle
Do more tests and then let you know
Good WE
A.

Posted by Andrea Zappi

By: Jeremy Page

[ Reply | Forward ]

Just floating a pipe dream, but it would be cool if we could do that "Automatically Generate a PNG from the sequence" trick that we do on the community and in LessonLAMS for the moodle sequences?

The current LAMS launch screen just looks a little bit spartan for my taste; also gives learners a heads up of what to expect from the sequence.

Posted by Jeremy Page

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Sorry Jazza, are you saying to put the picture of the designs in the moodle page that creates the lesson?

If I remember correctly this screen has the directory structure with all the lessons. if this is the screen you are referring to, where would you put the image of the design?

Thanks

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Jeremy Page

[ Reply | Forward ]

Ah — sorry, a little incoherent.
I meant on the launch screen for learners: mockup attached.

Posted by Jeremy Page

By: James Dalziel

[ Reply | Forward ]

Yes, I really like this idea. Keen to see it as an option in the Moodle 2 implementation, although there needs to be the ability to turn this image off, as there may be sequences where showing this would "give away" some important aspect of the sequence that the teacher wants to keep hidden. But I think this is rare enough that the default setting would be to show the image unless you click something to turn it off.

On this general idea, I remember long ago thinking about having a special LAMS tool which was an "introduction to your sequence" tool that would be at the beginning of every sequence automatically - it would just be a Noticeboard for introducing the sequence - but would have a special feature to allow it to show this if the teacher wanted. Such a tool could also have other settings that relate to a whole sequence rather than individual tools (eg, if we had the concept of global properties, they could be implemented here).

In practice I think it is too late to implement an "automatic first tool" concept in LAMS now, but perhaps we could add an Advanced option to the Noticeboard tool to show the image of a sequence, and then those who like this idea could click this on a Noticeboard at the start of their sequence. This setting would be off by default

Posted by James Dalziel

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

OK, I think this can be done.

Let me have a look at how we do the images for the sequences. I think we only create them on export but not when we save a sequence or create a lesson.

I'll work on some mockup for LAMS standalone and I think the Moodle2 one would look pretty much like Jeremy suggests.

More on this shortly.

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

OK, so we started working on this without resorting to mockups, so I hope we've got it right...

So here's how it looks now for students in Moodle2:

Note that this feature can be turn on or off when then teacher creates/edits the lesson (see red circle):

This feature is already in CVS. However, you will need the latest LAMS code from the lams2_3_release. Details of the changes to LAMS are here and here for Moodle2.

We'll add this shortly to the moodle2-lams demo server shortly.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

This feature is now ready to be tested in the Moodle2-LAMS demo server.

Enjoy!

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Spyros Papadakis

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie,

Some people in Greece ask about LAMS 2.3.5 - Moodle 2 integration.

When are you planning LAMS Module for Moodle 2 to be available for Windows and Linux server?

Thanks

Spyros

Posted by Spyros Papadakis

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Spyros,

Have a look at this message in this thread. In there, there's a link to download the functional integration module for LAMS2-Moodle2.

Note that I think this is in Beta stage, so there might be still some issues pending here and there. But it does work for Windows and Unix.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Jeremy Page

[ Reply | Forward ]

Documentation for the Moodle2 integration is up at http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/x/QIDAAQ

I'll be updating these instructions as updates come to the module.

Posted by Jeremy Page

By: Deds Castillo

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie,

We will soon have a mix of moodle 1.9 and 2.x and I believe some old OpenACS sites that needs to access it. Our lams is still on 2.3.1 and the moodle 2.x sites are going up soon.

What would be the best approach so that they behave. Should I just upgrade the lams server now to 2.3.5 and have all of them using that instance? Or would you suggest setting up a new lams server and let the newer moodle 2.x sites connect to this new instance?

Thanks,
Deds

Posted by Deds Castillo

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Deds,

I would suggest you first upgrade to 2.3.5 and then you will be able to use your LAMS instance for OpenACS, Moodle 1.9 and 2.0 too.

Also make sure you use this LAMS module for your moodle2 server.

Let me know if you encounter any problems.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Deds Castillo

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie,

Thanks. I've now upgraded it to 2.3.5. I've tested the lams module for moodle2 as well and it's working at this point. I'll have a couple more moodle2 instances which should be up within the next month and I just need to keep an eye on it.

Posted by Deds Castillo

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Everyone,

Faghrie Mitchell has created the attached powerpoint on how to do the LAMS and Moodle integration in windows.

I hope you find it useful.

And needless to say, thanks Faghrie

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi there

(1) The module seems to create an error. Click on "Scales" in any place, e.g. Site administration->Grades->Scales

Moodle version: Moodle 2.1.2+ (Build: 20111125)
Integration version: 20110329-lamslesson.zip

Apache trace:
[Fri Nov 25 14:48:21 2011] [error] [client 129.194.31.31] Default exception handler: Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: PHP catchable fatal error Debug: Argument 2 passed to moodle_database::record_exists() must be an array, string given, called in /data/portails/moodle/moodle/mod/lamslesson/lib.php on line 243 and defined\n* line 359 of /lib/setuplib.php: coding_exception thrown\n* line 1554 of /lib/dml/moodle_database.php: call to default_error_handler()\n* line 243 of /mod/lamslesson/lib.php: call to moodle_database->record_exists()\n* line 281 of /lib/grade/grade_scale.php: call to lamslesson_scale_used_anywhere()\n* line 139 of /grade/edit/scale/index.php: call to grade_scale->is_used()\n, referer: http://tecfalms.unige.ch/moodle/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=23

(2) The LAMS Lesson / LAMS Server Configuration page has a messed up message. I see:
"Here is where the button will go get_string('validationbutton', 'lamslesson') bold"

- greetings ! - Daniel

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

Sorry, some missing background:
* The Lams integration module breaks the whole Moodle scaling system, i.e. does not just affect the LAMS module
* Putting the LAMS module to sleep, fixes the problem
* Don't know from which Moodle 2.x version this started happening, since we don't use either scales or LAMS that much. I personally don't use any LMS for most of my classes, but in about 10 days I plan to use both, so a fix would be nice :)

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Daniel,

I believe there must have been an upgrade on the Moodle Gradebook that now makes this fail.

This week I'll have a look at this and hopefully get it fix.

Thanks for letting me know,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Daniel,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

As for (1), here's the quick fix.

Look for the following line in the mod/lamslesson/lib.php:


if ($scaleid and $DB->record_exists('lamslesson', 'grade', -$scaleid)) {


And change that to:


if ($scaleid and $DB->record_exists('lamslesson', array('grade' => -$scaleid))) {


That will fix the issue.

As for (2), I'm still working on this. However, this does not affect any functionality. It's just that I want to create a button on this page to validate the settings with the LAMS server, but with the new Moodle2 API, I still need to figure it out.

Let me know if you have any other issues with this.

Thanks,


Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Attached you can find the latest code for lamslesson moodle module

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

Thanx a lot Ernie

Seems to work fine now :)

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Daniel Schneider

[ Reply | Forward ]

I was feeling brave yesterday eve and installed Moodle 2.2. Good News: The Moodle-LAMS-Mahara integrations still work :)

Q: Why would I upgrade just days before using Moodle + LAMS ?

A: After countless years of waiting, Moodle now allows to grade assigments in a more or less acceptable way (using custom made evaluation rubrics). Grading and feedback is the only use I have for an LMS.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Thanks for letting us know Daniel.

Cheers,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Oh, I forgot to add that our LAMS-Moodle2 demo site has now being upgrade to Moodle 2.2 as well in case someone wants to try this:

http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2

Thanks,

ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Alex Forero

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hello

I have the same problem as Daniel Schneider about LAMS settings:

"Here Is Where the button Will Go get_string ('validationbutton', 'lamslesson') bold"

The installation is local

Mooodle Version: 2.2.1
Integration Version: 20111205-lamslesson.zip

Thank you very much for the help

Alex

Posted by Alex Forero

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Alex,

Actually, I have implemented this already last week:

http://bugs.lamsfoundation.org/browse/LDEV-2778

Also, I've just updated the link to the latest version:

20120111-lamslesson.zip

Very shortly, we will implement Moodle2 backups as well and that will probably mark the full compatible release!

Thanks,

ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi fellas,

We have finally finished all the development tasks to consider the LAMS plugin for Moodle2 stable

So now this module complies to pretty much all features and functionalities of all other Moodle2 tools/activities. These are some of the features we've implemented:

• Status completion
• Completion tracking
• Groups and groupings
• Grades push to Moodle's gradebook
• Grade outcomes
• Backup and restore

A brief explanation:

Status completion

If for a Moodle course, the option to track student's completion is enable, when creating a lesson, a teacher will be able to set a criteria for when the LAMS lesson will be set as completed. These options can be:

• Student must view this activity to complete it
• Student must receive a grade to complete this activity
• Show as complete when user finished the lesson

Completion tracking

As soon as a LAMS lesson is completed, Moodle is automatically notified making sure that both systems are at sync.


Groups and groupings

Like other Moodle activities, you can select which groups you want to access LAMS lessons.


Grades push to Moodle's gradebook

If the LAMS lesson has a quiz or an assessment that produces an result, this will be passed automatically to Moodle so it can be added to the Moodle's gradebook.


Grades outcomes

When creating a LAMS lesson, a teacher can specify the score that he/she wants this lesson to have in the Moodle course. For example a LAMS lesson can be given a score of 100 points.

Here's a simple example:

If a LAMS sequence has a quiz that has a maximum mark of 50, but when the teacher created the LAMS lesson in Moodle decided that the score for the LAMS lesson activity should be 100, then when a student finishes with a score of 40 points, this mark is passed to Moodle which then calculates the proportional mark based on the 100 points. In this case it will be (40/50) * 100, so the score in Moodle's gradebook will be 80 points.


Backup and restore

Now you can backup courses and include LAMS activities in them.



Demo site

Here's where you can have a play with the integration as it stands today:

http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/


Documentation

All you need to know about this integration: from setup, development and video how-tos

http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/lamsdocs/Moodle2


Quick video tutorials

• Using LAMS & Moodle video tutorial
• Configuring LAMS and Moodle 2 integration in less than 5 minutes

Download

And here's where you get the latest plugin:

http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/Downloads (integrations tab)


Please feel free to test this and if you find any bugs or have comments, post them in this thread.

Many thanks to Daniel Schneider, Spyros Papadakis and Jeremy Page for their constant help with testing this integration and suggesting new features and fixes.

Comments, suggestions, improvements, please don't hesitate to post them here.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Richard Flurey

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie,

I've recently installed LAMS 2.4 which we intend to use in the near future and the latest plugin for Moodle 2 (20120322) and after configuring the correct URLs in both LAMS and Moodle2 and having a successful validation I get the following error message when trying to add a lamslesson to a module:

HTTP Status 400 - Problem with LearningDesignRepositoryServlet request

type Status report

message Problem with LearningDesignRepositoryServlet request

description The request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect (Problem with LearningDesignRepositoryServlet request).


The following error message is posted into the apache logs of Moodle:

[Thu Jan 10 16:36:43 2013] [error] [client] PHP Notice:  cURL request for "http://ourserver.com:8080/lams//services/xml/LearningDesignRepository?serverId=uwsmoodle&datetime=January+10%2C2013+4%3A36+pm&hashValue=f3acd71999145b4d8d16c2cdb721fe949d293894&username=11111055&courseId=75&courseName=ICT+Testing+Module+2%2F2012&mode=2&country=GB&lang=en" failed, HTTP response code: HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request\r\n<ul style="text-align: left"><li>line 1298 of /lib/filelib.php: call to debugging()</li><li>line 918 of /mod/lamslesson/lib.php: call to download_file_content()</li><li>line 321 of /mod/lamslesson/lib.php: call to lamslesson_http_call()</li><li>line 95 of /mod/lamslesson/mod_form.php: call to lamslesson_get_sequences_rest()</li><li>line 194 of /lib/formslib.php: call to mod_lamslesson_mod_form->definition()</li><li>line 71 of /course/moodleform_mod.php: call to moodleform->moodleform()</li><li>line 260 of /course/modedit.php: call to moodleform_mod->moodleform_mod()</li></ul> in /var/www/lib/weblib.php on line 2865, referer: http://ourserver.com/course/view.php?id=75&notifyeditingon=1
[Thu Jan 10 16:36:43 2013] [error] [client] Default exception handler: Call to LAMS failed: received no response or connection was refused. Please check that you have the correct LAMS server URL and that it is online. Debug: \nError code: restcallfail\n* line 467 of /lib/setuplib.php: moodle_exception thrown\n* line 324 of /mod/lamslesson/lib.php: call to print_error()\n* line 95 of /mod/lamslesson/mod_form.php: call to lamslesson_get_sequences_rest()\n* line 194 of /lib/formslib.php: call to mod_lamslesson_mod_form->definition()\n* line 71 of /course/moodleform_mod.php: call to moodleform->moodleform()\n* line 260 of /course/modedit.php: call to moodleform_mod->moodleform_mod()\n, referer: http://ourserver.com/course/view.php?id=75&notifyeditingon=1

I'm not sure what step I might have missed in setting it up because I've gone over it a few times and it all seems correct i.e. URLs, server ID and key, integration enabled on LAMS, curl installed in PHP5 on Debian Squeeze on both servers, connectivity between servers is okay etc.

We are using Moodle 2.3.1+ (version: 2012062501.11)

Any suggestions?

Kind Regards,
Richard

Posted by Richard Flurey

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Richard,

I'll be looking into this today, so most likely on Monday, I'll have an answer for you. Need to set up your exact version of Moodle to test. Thanks for your patience.

Cheers,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Richard Flurey

[ Reply | Forward ]

Thank you Ernie.

Its much appreciated that you are going to test it out for us. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Cheers,

Richard

Posted by Richard Flurey

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Richard,

I've done some changes to adapt the current lamslesson module to Moodle 2.4 now.

It seems to be working fine with the latest Moodle 2.4.1+, so I'll email you shortly the link so you can test this.

Hopefully we can release this publicly in the next few days.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know that if you are using LAMS 2.4.x, then please let me know as we are testing a new version of the LAMS-Moodle plugin.

It seems that the LAMS-Moodle plugin for Moodle 2.3 does not work with 2.4, so we will need to start forking and supporting two Moodle versions.

This is due to the architectural changes that Moodle has done between these two releases.

If you are able or want to help out testing this, email me directly.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that there's a new version of the LAMS-Moodle plugin for Moodle version 2.4 available here:

http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/lams/Integrations

If you have any questions, please post here.

Cheers,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Atif Rasheed

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Ernie,

I have tried Moodle 2.4 with LAMS 2.4 following 2.4 integration instructions. Validation gives a success message but when I actually try to add a lesson it gives an error.

Error on Screen is "Call to LAMS failed: received no response or connection was refused. Please check that you have the correct LAMS server URL and that it is online."

Where as error/exception in JBoss logs is
"ERROR org.lamsfoundation.lams.webservice.xml.LearningDesignRepositoryServlet - Problem with LearningDesignRepositoryServlet request
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
at org.lamsfoundation.lams.integration.service.IntegrationService.createExtUserUseridMap(IntegrationService.java:274)
"

Any idea what I am missing out here ?

Posted by Atif Rasheed

By: Atif Rasheed

[ Reply | Forward ]

previously I installed LAMS on same instance (Ubuntu 12) where I had Moodle but now I installed LAMS on windows and it worked. Now sure what went wrong with LAMS instance in Linux.

Posted by Atif Rasheed

By: Mei Ling Yun

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi, I have integrated LAMS 2.4 into Moodle 2.5.2 recently. Everything looks fine, and the error happened on page when I Click 'Save and display' on the Moodle page.

Error:

The module lamslesson does not define the standard capability mod/lamslesson:addinstance
line 2033 of \course\lib.php: call to debugging()
line 377 of \course\modlib.php: call to course_allowed_module()
line 59 of \course\modedit.php: call to can_add_moduleinfo()

Strict Standards: Declaration of mod_lamslesson_mod_form::validation() should be compatible with moodleform::validation($data, $files) in C:\moodle252\mod\lamslesson\mod_form.php on line 34

Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$displaydesign in C:\moodle252\mod\lamslesson\lib.php on line 399
Skip to main content
This page should automatically redirect. If nothing is happening please use the continue link below.
(Continue)
Error output, so disabling automatic redirect.

Anyone can help?

Posted by Mei Ling Yun

By: Ernie Ghiglione

[ Reply | Forward ]

Hi Mei Ling,

The integration listed in the integrations download page probably doesn't work with Moodle 2.5.x

However, I have done some changes to the code recently and I think these are working OK with Moodle 2.5 now.

Please find the latest LAMS-Moodle mod attached. Let me know how you go.

Cheers,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione