Inspire

Administration tool ::: tool_inspire
Maintained by David Monllaó, Elizabeth Dalton
The Inspire plugin implements open source, transparent next-generation learning analytics using machine learning backends that go beyond simple descriptive analytics to provide predictions of learner success, and ultimately diagnosis and prescriptions (advisements) to learners and teachers. From Moodle HQ.

Inspire v3.3-r2

Moodle 3.3
Released: Friday, 26 May 2017, 12:39 PM

The Inspire plugin implements open source, transparent next-generation learning analytics using machine learning backends that go beyond simple descriptive analytics to provide predictions of learner success, and ultimately diagnosis and prescriptions (advisements) to learners and teachers. From Moodle HQ.

This is Moodle's offical descriptive and predictive analytics engine, implementing machine learning backends.

Currently it's a plugin for 3.3, but once tested and improved it will go into core.

Includes * A built-in prediction model: Students at risk of dropping out of courses. * A set of student engagement indicators based on the Community of Inquiry. * An API to build prediction models for your plugins * Machine learning backend plugin type

More information * Project inspire information (mostly for educators / researchers): https://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=17233 * Architecture overview (mostly for developers / systems administrators / researchers): https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Project_Inspire_API * Prototype (for everybody): http://prototype.moodle.net/inspirephase1/ (may not be up to date as development will continue on top of Moodle core).

Note that Students at risk of dropping out of courses prediction model is experimental, we are still working on improving the model to make it applicable to all kind of courses.

Requirements

  • Moodle 3.3
  • PHP 7.x (required if you are using the PHP predictions processor, more info below)

Installation

https://docs.moodle.org/32/en/Installing_plugins#Installing_a_plugin

Configuration

A couple of important sitewide settings:

Predictions processor

Prediction processors are the machine learning backends that process the datasets generated from the calculated indicators and targets and return predictions. This plugin is shipped with 2 prediction processors:

  • The PHP one is the default, the only requirement is PHP 7.x, no other system requirements
  • The Python one is more powerful and it generates graphs with the model performance but it requires setting up extra stuff like Python itself (https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Download) and the moodleinspire package.

pip install moodleinspire

Time splitting methods

The time splitting method divides the course duration in parts, the predictions engine will run at the end of these parts. It is recommended that you only enable the time splitting methods you could be interested on using; the site contents analyser will calculate all indicators using each of the enabled time splitting methods. The more enabled time splitting methods the slower the evaluation process will be.

Usage

Please note that it is very important to properly set courses start and end dates. If both past courses and ongoing courses start and end dates are not properly set predictions will not be accurate. We include a command line interface script (https://github.com/moodlehq/moodle-tool_inspire/blob/master/cli/guess_course_start_and_end.php) that tries to guess course start and end dates by looking at the student enrolments and students' activity logs, but you should still check that the guess start and end dates script results are correct.

Process the site contents

Using the command line interface

// Evaluate the model using your site' contents (this is optional but useful as you want to see how the different time splitting methods perform)
php cli/evaluate_model.php --modelid=1 --non-interactive

// Enable the model (you can replace quarters for any other splitting method).
php admin/tool/inspire/cli/enable_model.php --modelid=1 --timesplitting=\"\\tool_inspire\\local\\time_splitting\\quarters\"

// These are the 2 tasks that will run through cron regularly, you can force their execution.
php admin/tool/task/cli/schedule_task.php --execute=\\tool_inspire\\task\\train_models
php admin/tool/task/cli/schedule_task.php --execute=\\tool_inspire\\task\\predict_models

Using the web interface (not for big sites)

  • Go to Site administration > Reports > Inspire models
  • Select Evaluate from the Actions drop down menu (this is optional but useful as you want to see how the different time splitting methods perform)
  • Select Edit from the Actions drop down menu, check 'Enabled' checkbox and select the time splitting method you prefer
  • Select Execute to start getting predictions

View predictions

Note that you will first need to enable and execute the model.

As a manager/admin you can access model predictions by: - Going to Site administration > Reports > Inspire models - Selecting a context from the predictions list menu

As a teacher you can access model predictions by: - Going to an ongoing course and Course administration > Reports > Insights

User with tool/inspire:listinsights capability will receive notifications when new predictions are available for them. e.g. Course teachers will receive a notification about their students at risk of dropping out.

Limitations

This plugin only reads activity logs from the standard log store. A log store selector will be added in future versions of the plugin.

Version information

Version build number
2017050901
Version release name
v3.3-r2
Can be updated from
v3.3-r1 (2017050900), v3.3-r1 (2017050900)
Can be updated to
v3.3-r3 (2017050902)
Maturity
Beta
MD5 Sum
808002be9abb88d1d9d1b05489879bc1
Supported software
Moodle 3.3

Version control information

Version control system (VCS)
GIT
VCS repository URL

Default installation instructions for plugins of the type Administration tool

  1. Make sure you have all the required versions.
  2. Download and unpack the module.
  3. Place the folder (eg "mytool") in the "admin/tool" subdirectory.
  4. Visit http://yoursite.com/admin to finish the installation