Parameters for Elluminate Session

Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Michael Lindeman -
Number of replies: 14
Hi there.

I am trying to create a resource that will link to an Elluminate web site (see www.elluminate.com) and pass the login information in the URL.

I have created user accounts in Elluminate that have the same username and passwords as they have in the Moodle course. 

Therefore, I need to pass 6 parameters from Moodle to Elluminate:

01: siteid=XX

02: username=USERNAME

03: password=PASSWORD

04: supervisor=SUPERVISOR

05: first_name=FIRSTNAME

06: last_name=LASTNAME

The link I need to create will look something like this:
http://www.elluminate.com/site/external/homeroom?siteid=999&username=JohnDoe&password=afc142dc42f19c1affd51daf5728e358&supervisor=SUPERVISOR&first_name=John&last_name=Doe

Setting the Parameters when I create a resource in Moodle allows me to easily pass Username, Password, Firstname, and Lastname. 

Here is the link I am able to generate:
http://www.elluminate.com/site/external/homeroom?username=USERNAME&password=b9adb0adcdb29i8d8c91c9n6357z1063&first_name=FIRSTNAME&last_name=LASTNAME

However, I am not sure how I can pass the two variable that are unique to Elluminate -- SiteID and Supervisor.

Is there a way to add a couple of fields to a table that will allow me to customize the available Parameters for a Resource?

Or is there a different way to generate a URL with Parameters?

TIA,

Michael

Attachment MoodleParameters.png
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In reply to Michael Lindeman

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Tony Hursh -
Hi, Michael. You may remember me from last year's IOC. We're looking forward to participating again this year (our proposal is going to be about our experience with Moodle, as it happens smile).

Is this the Elluminate system that Academic Outreach is licensing? We're quite keen to start using it. Everyone here at CTER was impressed with how well it worked for the conference last year.

Can you give me some more information about the parameters, or a link to the appropriate documentation? Do the extra parameters change based on something, or are they always the same for a specific installation?

I haven't been able to use the AO-licensed Ellumininate yet; but let's just say that I have a high degree of motivation to make it work. smile


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In reply to Tony Hursh

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Tony Hursh -
You may remember me from last year's IOC

Or not. smile Sorry, I was thinking of the wrong conference. I presented some of the same work at the FSI, which of course is the one you organized.

Nevertheless, we're still interested in integrating Moodle and Elluminate. I tinkered around with it a bit this morning.

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In reply to Tony Hursh

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Michael Lindeman -
Tony,
Yes... I remember you from the FSI.  Glad to learn that there is a fellow Moodler in Champaign-Urbana.

Illinois Online Network (ION) has purchased a license for Elluminate with Academic Outreach and Illinois Virtual Campus.  ION is switching from WebCT to Moodle in January to host the online courses in the Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality program. 

We are hoping to be able to pass user info from Moodle to Elluminate so that students can avoid logging in to Elluminate. 

According to Elluminate's documentation, we need to pass 6 different arguements (parameters) in a URL string to do this.  The 6 variables are:

1: siteid

2: username

3: password

4: supervisor

5: first_name

6: last_name

The link will look something like this:
http://www.elluminate.com/site/external/homeroom?siteid=999
&username=JohnDoe&password=afc142dc42f19c1affd51daf5728e358&
supervisor=SUPERVISOR&first_name=John&last_name=Doe

As I mentioned, using Moodle's Resource Module, I can easily pass username, password, first_name, and last_name.  I just don't know how to add additional paramenters so that I can pass the siteid and supervisor.

Looking forward to working with you on this!

Michael
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In reply to Michael Lindeman

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Tony Hursh -
Are siteid and supervisor set at the institutional level or at the individual class level? In other words, will these vary with different courses, or will they be the same for all courses that fall under a specific license? I'm guessing the former, but it's hard to tell.

I looked around on the Elluminate site, but I can't find the documentation anywhere. If it's not confidential or proprietary information, could you send me a copy?

If nothing else, this could certainly be implemented as a custom resource type (i.e., you'd see Elluminate as an option when you created the resource, along with file or web site, directory, text page, etc.) or as a custom module.
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In reply to Tony Hursh

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Michael Lindeman -
siteid: set at the license level.  This is a string (generally 2 or 3 digits) assigned by Elluminate.  It will be the same for all courses, for all departments

supervisor: set at the department level.  it is the username of the supervisor of the user.  ION is sharing the license with IVC and AO, so there will be 3 different possible supervisors.  For ION's Moodle Users, the supervisor will always be the same.

I have attached the documentation sent to me by Elluminate.

A custom resource or module sounds like a good solution. 

-- Michael
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In reply to Michael Lindeman

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Tony Hursh -
Great! I'll look at that in more detail this weekend, but it seems straightforward.

How does the idea of an Elluminate block sound?

One further question: are you using MySQL or Postgres in your Moodle installation?

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In reply to Tony Hursh

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by W Page -
Hi Michael and Tony!

Bryan Willams is a "Moodle Partner" and he is one of the moderators for the Moodle for Business Uses forum located here,
http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=32

He uses Elluminate and may be able to help you all out with what you are trying to do.  His site is located at,
http://remote-learner.net/

You can also send him an e-mail about what you are trying to do.  I am sure he can help you out.

WP1
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In reply to W Page

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Bryan Williams -

WP,

I have been following this thread with interest the last few days. I don't have an answer but am looking into it.

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In reply to Michael Lindeman

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Bryan Williams -

Michael,

A custom resource or module sounds like a good solution. 

We have been exploring this for the past several months and have the Elluminate API to work with. So far we have not found a good way of doing this, but are still examining things.

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In reply to Michael Lindeman

Re: Parameters for Elluminate Session

by Claude Whitmyer -

Here's a note and document from Elluminate support that you may find of interest in answering this question:

"We do not currently have a plug-in for Moodle, although the functionality to integrate is certainly there through our SDK. I've attached a document describing our SDK and how it can be used to integrate into a learning management system."
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