SS&E LMS Integration: Moodle Plugin Installation Guide

Student Success & Engagement integrates with Moodle to provide updated LMS data to a student’s success team. This article provides information on the steps needed to enable the SS&E/Aviso Moodle Plugin in their hosted environment to allow SS&E to connect and retrieve information using the SS&E/Aviso Moodle Plugin.

• The intent is for the Student Success Team to be able to view all important information on a student in a “one stop shop” and avoid the need to navigate between various systems.
• Automatic alerting, filtering and reporting features leverage LMS data to quickly identify students who may need additional support for their success team.
• The LMS data is matched with course section and enrollment data within SS&E so that users can view Grades, Assignments, Submissions, and last login data on the student profile.
• To verify whether or not data is syncing properly from the LMS at a high overview level, you can check the LMS Summary Report, further explained here.

For instructions on how to upgrade the Moodle Plugin on an existing LMS-SS&E integration, see How to Upgrade the Moodle Plugin.

Moodle Versions: 3.x, 4.x

Vendors: OpenLMS/Learning Pool

In some cases it may be necessary to contact OpenLMS/Learning Pool Support to complete this setup. Please contact OpenLMS/Learning Pool Support and ask them to install the SS&E/Aviso plugin. The SS&E/Aviso user created above should then be given access to the plugin.

Setup Instructions for Moodle - SS&E Integration

In Moodle

As a Moodle Administrator, log in to your instance of Moodle and complete the following:

1. Enable Web Services
   1. Navigate to Site administration -> General -> Advanced Features
   2. Check "Enable web services" then click "Save Changes".
2. Enable Rest format for Web Services
   1. Navigate to Site administration -> Server -> Web services, Manage protocols
   2. Check Enable for "REST protocol" then click "Save Changes".
3. Install the Plugin
   
   1. Download the aviso.zip plugin file.
   2. Navigate to Site administration -> Plugins -> Plugins, Install plugins
   3. If using Remote Learner
      1. Go to the Remote Learner Manager block.
      2. Click on the "Manage Add Ons" link.
      3. Remove the check mark from "Only Show Golden Add Ons".
      4. Type in "Aviso" in the search bar.  "Aviso Web Services" will appear.
   4. Navigate to Administration / Site administration / Notifications to Apply Database updates.
4. Create the Aviso User
   1. Navigate to Site administration -> Users -> Accounts, Add a new user
   2. Specify username as "avisosystem"
   3. Set Authentication method to "Manual accounts"
   4. Set Password to a random 50 character strong password.  Keep this password for later.
   5. Set first name to "Aviso", Surname to "System" and email address to "lms@watermarkinsights.com".
   6. Click Create User button.
5. Create the Aviso Role
   1. Download the avisorole.xml file (right click on this link and select "Save Link As..." to download it)
   2. Navigate to Site administration -> Users -> Permissions, Define roles
   3. Click "Add a new role" button.
   4. Click "Choose a file..." button.
   5. Browse to provided avisorole.xml file and upload.
6. Assign the Aviso Role to the Aviso User
   1. Navigate to Administration / Site administration / Users / Permissions / Assign system roles.
   2. Click the "Aviso Role".
   3. Add the Aviso System user to the role.
7. Configure the SSE/Aviso External Service
   1. Navigate to Site administration -> Server -> Web services, External services
   2. For the "SSE" or "Aviso" External Service, click Functions.
   3. Verify that the "SSE" or "Aviso" External Service has the following functions:
      1. core_course_get_courses
      2. local_aviso_assignments_and_grades_by_moodle_id
      3. local_aviso_assignments_by_moodle_id
      4. local_aviso_enrollments_by_moodle_id
      5. local_aviso_gradeColumns_by_moodle_id
      6. local_aviso_grades_by_moodle_id
      7. local_aviso_user_detail
   4. For the "SSE" or "Aviso" External Service, click Edit.
      1. Verify that the Enabled and Authorized users only checkboxes are checked.
      2. Save the External Service.
   5. Add the Aviso System User as an Authorized user to the "SSE" or "Aviso" External Service.
8. Generate Token
   1. Navigate to Site administration -> Server -> Web services, Create a Token for a User
   2. Search for the Aviso System user
   3. Search for the "SSE" or "Aviso" External Service
   4. Do not enter an IP restriction
   5. Do not enable an end date
   6. Save
   7. Save the token to enter into SS&E.

In Student Success & Engagement

Enter Connection Details

An SS&E Administrator must enter the Moodle connection details into SS&E. The Moodle Administrator and SS&E System Admin may work together on this step. 

• From the SS&E Home screen, open the navigation menu "Advise" with 9 dots. 
• From SS&E Administration, on the left side navigation menu, navigate to LMS Integration > LMS Integration Configuration.
• Edit the page, and edit the Integration Type to select Moodle
• In Moodle Configuration:
  • Check "enabled"
  • Fill the connection details in this section
    • host (LMS domain): Usually this looks something like "moodle.yourinstitution.edu". Do not include the "https://".
    • wstoken: This is the token created in Moodle in the previous section.
• Save the configuration

Note: It is not recommended to edit the Advanced Configurations.

Test Connection

It may take a few minutes for the integration changes to take effect.

• The Moodle Integration cannot be tested using the test connection button at this time.
• Instead, navigate to LMS Integration > Manual API Calls and locate the Course Sections box. Click Course Sections to trigger the API call to confirm that the connection is configured correctly. Course Section data should be returned. Note that this pulls all course sections, so a large amount of data is being queried.
  
  
  • If an error message is returned, verify the configurations and permissions above are correct.
  • If valid course section data is returned, the connection is successful and the setup is complete. 
    
    • NOTE: "504 - Gateway Timeout". Because this API call is pulling all course section data, it may timeout even if the connection is valid. Let your Project Manager and/or Technical Consultant know if you get this error message.

Once this process is complete and the connection test is successful, please let your Project Manager and/or Technical Consultant know. Next, Watermark staff will need to build the LMS course resolver (for new implementations or LMS migrations). 

Technical Notes

Moodle Web Services Documentation: https://docs.moodle.org/402/en/Using_web_services

Moodle Updates & Upgrades

When using self-created roles in a Moodle system, upgrades and updates don't usually include them, so they can become corrupted. After upgrading or updating to a new version of Moodle, be sure to verify the settings and permissions above.

Current Grade Data

The SS&E Integration calculates the current grade for a student in a course section using the finalgrade and rawgrademax columns from the grade_grades table in Moodle. To ensure grade data is synced, these values should be available.

Assignment Data

These instructions to install the updated SS&E/Aviso Moodle Plugin will enable all LMS Data Synchronization with SS&E, including the assignment data sync. If you are using the older version of the SS&E/Aviso Moodle Plugin (installed prior to June 2023) and would like to upgrade to the newer plugin (June 2023 or later) for Moodle 4 and/or Assignment data support, see How to Upgrade the Moodle Plugin.