Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is a learning technology standard developed by IMS Global Learning Consortium. LTI acts as a medium to integrate learning tools (virtual applications developed by providers) into another platform, which is the tool consumer. Moodle can be both an LTI tool consumer and provider; we can export content available in a Moodle instance as a resource to other platforms, and we can also import content from other providers into Moodle.

Using Moodle as an LTI consumer

Teachers can use the External tool to link external resources from LTI compliant platforms to their Moodle course page and also have users’ grades sent into Moodle from where they are being externally calculated. This means that users can conveniently just log into Moodle to access resources without having to go to the provider’s platform with a separate login.

The following instructions need to be followed to set this up:

1) In a course, find and click on the Turn editing on button
2) Go to the desired course section and click on the Add an activity or resource button
3) In the pop-up that opens, go to the Activities tab and click on the option External tool

External tool settings

This section covers the settings of the External tool activity when it is added to a course and also the site administration level settings for the course module.

The activity settings have eight different setting groups. Except for General and Privacy settings, which are specific to the External tool, the remaining groups are general activity settings that you can read more about from these links:

• Common module settings
• Restrict access
• Activity completion
• Tags
• Competencies

General Settings

• Activity name
  • Add a title, description if required, with your choice of display
• Activity description
  • Give a short description here
• Display description on course page
  • Choose to show the description along with the activity name
• Display activity name when launched
  • Have this appear when the student clicks the link.
• Display activity description when launched
  • Have this appear when the student clicks the link.
• Secure tool URL
  • This overrides the tool URL when moodle uses SSL (if your site is configured to use HTTPS in the web root)
• Consumer key
  • This tells the External tool’s site that your Moodle is allowed to connect.
  • The site will issue you with this key
  • If you are merely linking to a tool with no secure access or gradebook sharing, you won’t need a consumer key
  • If you are linking to a course or activity from another Moodle site, you can add any consumer key
• Shared secret
  • This is the authentication passphrase to connect to the External tool’s site
• Custom parameters
  • The tool provider might use this to allow you to display a specific resource
  • This setting may be left blank for most External tools
• Icon URL
  • Enter the URL to a different icon you want to display instead of the default External Tool icon
• Secure Icon URL
  • Enter the URL of a different icon here if your students are accessing Moodle securely via SSL
• Preconfigured tool
  • This is how Moodle communicates with the tool provider. If in doubt, leave as default
  • If your administrator has made a tool available site-wide, you will be able to select it here
• Select content button
  • This button is for LTI Content-Item configuration
• Tool URL
  • This is the URL for connecting to the tool’s external site.
  • If your Moodle site uses SSL (is on HTTPS), you will only be able to use a tool that also uses SSL. Make sure the tool URL has HTTPS before attempting to use it or you may get a blank page
• Launch container
  • This is how the External tool will be displayed and one of the following options must be picked:
    • Default – If in doubt, leave as default
    • Embed – The External tool will be embedded in the Moodle course page with blocks and navigation bar
    • Embed without blocks – The External tool will be embedded in the Moodle course page but without blocks
    • New Window – The External tool will open in a new window (a new window or tab will open with the External tool and the old browser window containing the course page will not change)

Privacy

• Share launcher’s name with the tool
  • The student’s name will be displayed on the connected External tool site
• Share launcher’s email with the tool
  • The student’s email will be displayed on the connected External tool site
• Accept grades from the tool
  • The connected External tool site will send back grades to Moodle’s gradebook
  • This will be discussed in more detail

Site administration settings

Adding a tool site-wide

A site administrator can manually configure External tools from Admin dashboard > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > External tool > Manage tools to render them available across the site.

A tool can be configured so that it is shown in the course module selection pop-up menu when adding an activity/resource to a course.

Registering a tool using a cartridge

A cartridge can be used to register a tool type. This will configure all the necessary settings info so you don’t need to from the settings page. Enter the tool’s cartridge URL into the “Tool URL…” field and click on the Add button, as shown in the screenshot below.

Then, you will be asked to enter a consumer key and shared secret. If you do not possess these, you can leave the fields blank.

Registering an External tool

To register an External tool, enter the tool URL into the same “Tool URL…” field and click on the same Add button. This will open the tool and prompt you to provide some settings.

Then, you will be shown the capabilities the tool wants to use and you can decide if you want to proceed with it.

Viewing more details

On the Manage tools page, you can also go to Manage preconfigured tools to view the preconfigured tools under Active, Pending, Rejected tabs.

You can also go to Manage external tool registrations to view the tool registrations under Configured, Pending, Accepted, Rejected tabs.

From here, you can click on Configure a new external tool registration to add a tool with limited capabilities.

• Tool provider name
  • Name given by the provider
• Registration URL
  • URL given by the provider
• Capabilities
  • Select all capabilities you want the provider to have
• Services
  • Select all services you want to offer the provider

Once you have configured these settings and saved the page, click on the checkmark to register.

After a success message is displayed, click Register to complete the registration process.

If all requirements are met, you will be able to register automatically. Now, you can go to Admin dashboard > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > External tool > Manage external tool types and click on the Pending tab, then click the checkmark to activate it.

• Secret
  • A string of characters which is shared with the remote system (LTI consumer) to provide access to the tool.
• Grade synchronization
  • Whether grades from the tool are sent to the remote system (LTI consumer).
• Require course or activity completion prior to grade synchronization
  • Teachers can specify whether a course or activity should be completed before the grade synchronization is to be triggered.
• User synchronization
  • Whether a scheduled task synchronizes enrolled users in the remote system with enrolments in this course, creating an account for each remote user as necessary, and enrolling or un-enrolling them as required. If set to “No”, at the moment when a remote user accesses the tool, an account will be created for them and they will be automatically enrolled.
• User synchronization mode
  • Whether remote users should be enrolled and/or unenrolled from this course.

After you have successfully added the LTI enrolment method to your course, you can navigate to the Course administration page to view and copy the registration URL for the LTI consumer site. Go to the Published as LTI tools page from the drop down menu.

Note: You should share the registration URL and secret key with the LTI consumer site in order for them to access your site. The above links will be different for your Moodle instance, but relatively follow the same format such as “http://yourmoodlesite.com/enrol/lti/”.

For more information on the Publish as LTI tool plugin, please read the Publish as LTI tool Moodle article.

Scheduled tasks:

Moodle allows administrators to schedule routine tasks. These tasks are often referred to as “scheduled tasks” and run in the background. These scheduled tasks should run on a regular schedule however, administrators have the ability to change the scheduled task’s default schedule if required. Scheduled tasks will run as often as the cron is run in Moodle. It is recommended that the cron run every few minutes to get the maximum benefit from your scheduled tasks. This requires the task to do less work on each execution. The scheduled tasks essentially allow for task automation within Moodle.

Administrators can access the scheduled task for their site by navigating to:
Site administration > Server > Tasks > Scheduled Tasks

Clicking the Edit icon allows you to edit the task schedule:

You can specify the month, day, hour, and minute interval that this task will be run. Optionally, you can reset the task back to its default configuration or disable it entirely. In the example above, the scheduled task is set to run every 15 minutes.

The format of the fields that you can specify for the settings:

View task log:

Administrators can view a log of their scheduled task by navigating to:

Site administration > Server > Tasks > Tasks log

Manually executing tasks:

Administrators can manually run individual scheduled tasks via the “Run now” link under the scheduled tasks. The “Allow ‘Run now’ for scheduled tasks” setting must be enabled.

Site administration > Security > Site security settings

In addition, the “Path to PHP CLI” setting must also be provided:

Site administration > Server > System paths

Task processing:

Administrators can define the additional configuration for scheduled tasks by navigating to:

Site administration > Server > Tasks > Task processing

Executing task from the command line:

You can view a list of scheduled tasks by entering the following command:
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php –list

Here is an example in which a specific scheduled task was executed from the command line:
php admin/cli/scheduled_task.php –execute=’\enrol_imsenterprise\task\cron_task’

For more information regarding scheduled tasks and the command line, please navigate to:
https://docs.moodle.org/39/en/Administration_via_command_line#Running_cron_via_command_lin 

Why should I consider scheduled task?

Scheduled tasks are a great way to keep the information on your site up to date. This includes user submissions, notifications, course progression, etc. Scheduled tasks are one factor that makes Moodle the leading LMS. Plugin developers should consider utilizing scheduled tasks in their development to create more immersive and consistent plugins.

Moodle’s certified services strengthen in Australia as Lingel Learning officially join the APAC region

Moodle welcomes Lingel Learning to the Certified Partner Network as a Moodle Partner in Australia.

“I am excited to have Lingel Learning officially join the APAC region as they add Australia to their Certified Moodle territories. Sandeep, Gavin and the team have been with the Moodle Partner Program since 2018, servicing the North American marketplace out of offices there and in Melbourne. Lingel Learning have clearly demonstrated growth, commitment and support of the Moodle project over the past few years, so they were a natural choice when the opportunity to bring on an additional Certified Moodle Partner in Australia came about. I look forward to working with them through this expansion and continuing contribution”. ​– Fiona Ong, APAC Channel Manager, Moodle

“We have been servicing the Australian market since 2011 and becoming a Certified Moodle Partner in Australia will now allow us to provide certified Moodle services to our current and future clients.”​ – Sandeep Gill, Director, Lingel Learning

Sandeep continues, ​“Becoming a Moodle Partner has solidified the hard work our company has undertaken to promote, develop and extend Moodle. We are passionate about Moodle and look forward to bringing the additional resources, knowledge and expertise that being a Certified Moodle Partner will offer our current and future clients”.

Why the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region?

Lingel Learning was founded in Melbourne, Australia and it has always been the home of our headquarters. We have a strong presence and client base across Australia. We are excited to be working closely with Moodle HQ and our Australian team, further growing Moodle in the APAC region to deliver exceptional services to our clients across Australia.

What is a Moodle Partner?

Moodle Partners are experts in educational technology who have years of experience with Moodle projects and the expertise to deliver high quality projects. Moodle Partners have been vetted by Moodle to ensure their knowledge and expertise is up to Moodle standard. Moodle Partners pay a portion of their income to Moodle in the form of royalties. This helps the Moodle project move forward and ensure the ongoing development and support and maintenance of Moodle.

We constantly improve and innovate solutions that help our clients get the most out of their Moodle platform. We offer a diverse range of Moodle services from hosting, development, support, integration, training to course development.

We look forward to continually grow and support the Moodle Community.