“Moodle as the Central Hub of Learning with Tools Plugged in ”

Learning Tool Interoperability

Presented at Moodlemoot Madrid 2012

Gavin Henrick – Juan Leyva

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

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

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

So what….?

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.

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

Why IMS LTI?

“Allow the seamless connection of web-based, externally hosted applications and content, or Tools to platforms that present them to users”

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

http://www.lts.ie/

So Tool Providers Are?

2010 - Approved

• SpACE .5

• WebPA 1.0.0.3

• Campus Pack v4.2

• Noteflight 2.1

• CourseSmart ServiceHub 2

• Wimba Basic LTI

• CafeScribe Building Block...

2011 - Approved

• ATutor External Tools Mod...

• Ucompass Octane

• Tegrity BLTI

• Barnes & Noble NOOK Study

• Subject Research Guides -...

• PebblePad

• ChemVantage

• Boost v1.0

• SCORM Cloud BLTI

• Piazza

• BadgeStack

So Tool Providers Are?

2012 - Approved

• Mediasite v6.0.2

• ALEKS 2012.2.7

• VitalSource Platform v3.0

• ePortfolio v4.0

• WebAssign API v1.0

• Courseload v2.2.6

• LTI Plugin for Wordpress...

Un-Approved Yet

• Moodle

• Tandem

• Mediawiki

• LangBlog

• Elgg

• Mahara

• Joomla!

• Question2Answer

• Status.net

• Vanilla2

• Videochat

• Google Apps

And the Consumers?

2010 - Approved

• D2L Learning Environment

• Sakai 2.7

• JICS v7.2

• Blackboard 8 Building Bl...

• OLAT 7.0

• Moodle 1.9

• BrainHoney 2010.3

• Agilix Learning Services

2011 - Approved

• Penn State Angel BLTI

• Blackboard Learn v9.1 SP4

• Atutor 2.03

• eRacer v1.3

• JICS v7.3

• LearningOn LRMS v1.0

• McGraw-Hill Campus v1.0

• ..

And the Consumers?

2012 - Approved

• Pathbrite v1.0

• Learn 9.1 SP8

• Canvas

• SAFARI Montage 5.5

• Learning.com v91

• Toolwire LTI System v1.0

Others

• …

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

– …

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..

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

MOODLE LTI PROVIDER

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

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

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/

Some Projects

Some projects pushing the development -> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/learningapps/ http://www.celtic-project.org/

Contact Info

Gavin Henrick

Email: gavin@lts.ie

Blog: http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ghenrick

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/

Linkedin: http://ie.linkedin.com/in/gavinhenrick

Work: http://www.lts.ie