Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Chris Simpson -
Number of replies: 10

We have got automatic enrolment on courses working via a database view taken from the College MIS System.

The College MIS System uses a number of different course codes for similar courses. It would be great if we could map a course on moodle to a number of course codes within the MIS system.

Currently Moodle only allows a 1 - 1 moodle course to mis course code relationship which isn't ideal for us, as we could end up with 100's of duplicate courses.

Therefore, one feature that would be very helpful to us at Swansea College would be allowing a course to have a number of identifiers.

Has anybody else encountered this issue, and I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has resolved / scripted a solution.

Thanks in advance.

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In reply to Chris Simpson

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Martín Langhoff -
You can use a more sophisticated view, or, if the rules are too complex for a view, make it a 'materialized' representation: create a table in the db and populate it with a script that aggregates the course the way you want. Run the script periodically via cron.

cheers!
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In reply to Martín Langhoff

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Chris Simpson -

Thanks Martin for your suggestion.

Yes, I can see how that could be quite easily implemented, via a script. There are some complex rules that would make a the simplest solution, i.e. database view a non-viable option.

However, the ideal solution would be able to manually enter multiple course id's into course settings.

Has anyone tried any other solutions?

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In reply to Chris Simpson

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by John Rodkey -
Isn't this essentially what the metacourse is?

John
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In reply to Chris Simpson

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Scott Krajewski -
In our setup we use external database enrolment with 3 tables for enrolment.

table 1 : registrar data of college student id numbers and course id numbers.  your standard enrolment table.

table 2 : conversion table enable many registrar courses mapped to a single moodle course.  this happens when we have a course in 2 programs (day and adult) that is essentially 1 course but the data is split as 2 courses, 1 in each program.  this table maps the two registrar courses to a single course id for use in moodle for unified enrolment.

table 3: extra enrolments for courses that aren't in the registrar list for whatever reason.  we probably won't use this much, but wanted the flexiblity.

We also have it run as a cron item which is different from the standard database plugin.  I can post if you're interested.


--S
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In reply to Scott Krajewski

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Helen Foster -
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Wow, we've used 3 tables for enrolment almost exactly as you describe, Scott! wide eyes The only difference is that it's not run as a cron item. Teachers are able to enter multiple course ID numbers in the course settings page.
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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by jon e -

Hi Helen,

are you able to enter multilpe course IDs into the course ID number: text field of a single course and Moodle enrols the students connected to the different IDs onto the that same course.

We have one enrolments database that we populate by aggregating a number of MIS course ID's with our own Moodle course ID. If Moodle excepts multiple entries then we dont need to go through this extra process.

Can you please confirm I have picked this up correctly.

Cheers

jon e thoughtful

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In reply to jon e

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Helen Foster -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi Jon,

Yes, we're able to enter multiple course ID numbers (separated by commas) into a course ID number text field with our customized code.

There is often more than one way to solve a problem - your way sounds fine. smile
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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by jon e -

Thanks Helen.

Can I just check what version of Moodle you are on - as we cant get ours (V1.4.4.) to recognise multiple ID's set in course settings? A single ID will work OK though.

Cheers

jon e wide eyes

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In reply to jon e

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by Helen Foster -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi Jon,

Sorry I didn't explain things properly before. When we enter multiple course ID numbers, they go into an additional database table that we created. All of this is customised, not standard (though we're using Moodle 1.5.2).

If you'd like the option of teachers being able to enter multiple course ID numbers as a standard feature in Moodle then perhaps you could submit a feature request in the bug tracker.
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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Multiple Enrolment Mappings from external database to a moodle course?

by jon e -

Thanks for the explanation Helen - it now makes sense.

We originally wanted to use multiple ID's but having explored alterantive methods we to have found it easier to manage an external relationship in a seperate database.

jon e 

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