Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by George Joeckel -
Number of replies: 9

Dear All,

We would like to introduce the Moodle developer community to an open source syllabus project at Utah State University (USU): http://salsa.usu.edu/.

Our project is focused on helping instructors create syllabi that are web accessible, based on best practices and targeted to distance education courses in higher ed.

We have completed an integration with Canvas LMS (used at USU), and have pilot programs operating at a small number of colleges and universities.

We are at the point where we strongly desire to be integrated with Moodle. We are reaching out to you as Moodle developers to take some time to evaluate Salsa, and see if it is a project that you would be interested in learning more about.

We hope that this discussion topic will be an opportunity to discuss the value that Salsa could bring to Moodle. You may also contact us directly at salsa@usu.edu.

Sincerely,

George Joeckel & John Pope

salsa@usu.edu

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In reply to George Joeckel

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi George,

The most similar module to your proposal that I know of is UCLA's syllabus module: https://github.com/ucla/moodle-local_syllabus It's nowhere near as richly featured and sophisticated as SALSA appears to be though. Perhaps you could work with UCLA to extend that module or branch it and extend it yourselves?

It's helpful to have the structure (template pages) set out to begin with and it would be nice if faculty/curriculum developers/teachers/etc. could add and remove pages so that it's more flexible, e.g. with some types of courses it's sometimes helpful to add a teaching philosophy/methodology page so that learners know in advance what they might be signing up for, e.g. learner-led courses put a great deal of responsibility onto learners and cultivate radically different relationships between tutors/facilitators/mediators/etc. and learners.

One thing that's nice about the UCLA syllabus plugin is that it has public (for prospectuses?) and private (for enrolled students?) versions.

I hope this helps! smile

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by George Joeckel -
Your information definitely helps--thanks! We will reach out to the team from UCLA.

We have tried to model what some parts of the agreement could look like with our built-in example: http://salsa.usu.edu/SALSA/lfgqjomdzxtsyksekfvserucebgusq. Each of the sections--information, resources, objectives, activities, policies, grades and schedule--can be enable/disabled based on User preference.

Our integration with Canvas features a private (published into the built-in text editor) and a public version (the Salsa HTML link in the upper-right hand corner) of the learning services agreement (screenshot).

The public version is hosted by Salsa on Amazon: http://salsa.usu.edu/SALSA/ggetnqzmpqrbqpqjqbtrgykrnkumwg. 

Attachment Screen Shot 2014-05-28 at 4.24.58 PM.png
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In reply to George Joeckel

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by Rex Lorenzo -

Hey, I helped develop the UCLA syllabus project, but it was really just a way to categorize files uploaded as a syllabus.

Not a syllabus creator like this project.

What help do you need on the Moodle side? Seems like this would be an LTI project? Or was it not using LTI when you integrated with Canvas, because both programs were written in Ruby on Rails?

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In reply to Rex Lorenzo

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by John Pope -

Rex,

We didn't use LTI for this (yet), but it might be what we want to do. Canvas has a rest API that allows for authentication and pushing content such as the syllabus directly into it from an approved 3rd party application. That is what we are using at this point.

If you have recommendations or can help us figure out what would make sense with Moodle, I'd be happy to receive any assistance that could be provided.

Thanks,
John Pope

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In reply to John Pope

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by Rex Lorenzo -

I am not sure how Canvas works, but they allow 3rd party plugins that are hosted outside of it to be placed in the middle of the page and be part of the course? Is it using an iframe?

Moodle has a set of web services that may be used: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Web_services

There is LTI, but it only offers a limited set of what you data you can send and get to/from Moodle. It is mainly enrollment and grade data. I don't believe you can send or push course structure information. But LTI does allow you to put external tools in the middle of the page in an iframe.

Another possible way to implement this would be as a course format (http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Course_formats), since that controls the layout of course content in Moodle. That course format would have to be setup so that it can communicate with Salsa and also embed your tool in the middle of the page when interaction is needed.

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In reply to George Joeckel

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

I think Salsa needs a bit more of an "elevator pitch" on the front page. I took a look and thought, "I don't know what this product does", and I am not excited by the content free text headed

SALSAs are designed to:....


 then I clicked on the Make your own Salsa button and I got a list including outcomes, resources activites etc and I though, oh I see that looks interesting.

Just my knee jerk reaction.

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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by dawn alderson -

Hi,

RE: Canvas & instructure

two questions-anyone! Please, be great to know the  answers.

1. What is the pedagogical draw?

2. What is the epistemological underpinning of this LMS?

It seems a shame that the marketing is driven by 'we can transfer you from BB to Canvas' eh? Transferring from WebCT...is hard enough-over  to any other LMS....course, I do not contest the ease of transition...do-able, what  I would like to know is why? and How?

This outfit....proclaims such effective impact/output to enhance the student experience-if I don't get an answer...crack on as you were 'all'...waiting to be blown away smile Have read 'all' the stuff-not convinced as yet...and I know a little bit about this stuff...really-I do.

Dawn

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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by George Joeckel -

Thanks for the feedback Marcus.

As an open source project we have to be careful with our resources, so our marketing resources are definitely "home grown".

Even though we have been working on higher ed syllabi for several years now, we know our ideas are limited to the contexts in which we have been solving problems. We are trying to stay open to what other folks need in this space so that Salsa can be configured to address issues for a variety of higher ed contexts. The somewhat generic language of the frontpage is designed to encourage collaboration in this open process.

That being said, when we release version 1.0 (soon!), you will see more "pitch" on the frontpage. smile

If you have some specific ideas, please send them to salsa@usu.edu--we are definitely open for suggestions.

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In reply to George Joeckel

Re: Syllabus tool integration with Moodle

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

George, Salsa interesting area that Moodle and other VLE's tend to gloss over.  Home grown marketing can sometimes be the best!.

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