Etherpad and Moodle Integration

Activities ::: mod_etherpad
Maintained by Chris Kenniburg
Etherpad and Moodle as a course activity. Allows the teacher to add an Etherpad activity directly from the moodle course.
Latest release:
15 sites
7 downloads
8 fans
Current versions available: 1

We are pleased to announce a Moodle module that makes collaborative writing possible in Moodle. Real time editing inside of Moodle brings even more functionality to the worlds most popular Educationally focused Learning Platform. If you want to try it out before you install you can use our sandbox Etherpad deployment at beta.etherpad.org.   If you require any assistance deploying Etherpad Lite or help installing new plugins or features then please get in touch.

Please note that in order to use this plugin you will need to have access to an Etherpad setup.  You can download and install Etherpad on your own server or you can use PrimaryPad.

PrimaryPad offers a hosted Etherpad Lite instance too that can be leveraged so you don’t need to host your own, this service comes with an uptime guarantee and SLA that should provide your school with the piece of mind and simplicity of deployment.

Watch a video guide for how to get started.

Further reading ODT PDF DOC

This plugin was developed in collaboration with the Etherpad Foundation, Primarypad, and Dearborn Public Schools (Dearborn,Michigan).  

This will only work with ETHERPAD - LITE.  It will not work with the older Etherpad.

 

Screenshots

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Contributors

Chris Kenniburg (Lead maintainer)
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  • Chris Kenniburg
    Tue, 29 Apr 2014, 8:12 PM
    Martin, I think the errors you are getting might be related to JQuery. It has it's own package included with this plugin.
  • Hi Chris,
    I just want to inform you that we also developed an etherpad-lite module for moodle right at the same time as you did, but we didn't upload it to moodle.org yet.
    Now, that it is established at our university, we are submitting it to moodle.org and are waiting for approval right now.

    The module's github page is: https://github.com/moodlehu/moodle-mod_etherpadlite

    The additional features we decided we need include:
    - The user is only be able to access the pad, when he has access to the course.
    - It is possible to configure the etherpad server, so that only pads, which are created via moodle are allowed
    (Otherwise anyone who knows the url of the server could create and modify pads).
    - Backup the module via moodle's internal backup routine

    We invite anybody who's interested to comment and contribute.

    Best Regards
    Timo Welde
    (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
  • Chris Kenniburg
    Thu, 15 May 2014, 12:14 AM
    Timo, That is great news. This plugin is old and hasn't been modified in quite some time. We initially paid to have this developed to get the ball rolling and it was our intent that someone in the community could take this and more fully develop it or create a completely new plugin that is more robust. I think this plugin worked for the time and look forward to checking out your plugin.
  • Oam
    Fri, 18 July 2014, 7:37 PM
    Hello !

    In debug mode, I've got some errors easy to fix : (Moodle 2.5)

    Invalid get_string() identifier: 'etherpad:debugger' or component 'mod_etherpad'. Perhaps you are missing $string['etherpad:debugger'] = ''; in mod/etherpad/lang/en/etherpad.php?

    Invalid get_string() identifier: 'etherpad:student' or component 'mod_etherpad'. Perhaps you are missing $string['etherpad:student'] = ''; in mod/etherpad/lang/en/etherpad.php?

    Invalid get_string() identifier: 'etherpad:teacher' or component 'mod_etherpad'. Perhaps you are missing $string['etherpad:teacher'] = ''; in mod/etherpad/lang/en/etherpad.php?

    Can you add the missing lines in lang/en.php ?


    Thanks !
  • Matt Bury
    Thu, 21 Aug 2014, 6:39 AM
    Hi, thanks for everyone's contributions to this project. I think this could be a great module. It installs OK on Moodle 2.7 but returns a JSON error if you try to create an instance. I created a free pad (primarypad.com) and tried some variations of the URL and API key but still got JSON errors.

    Would love to see some progress on this smile
  • Jesse H
    Tue, 7 Oct 2014, 12:08 PM
    This seems like a great plugin but I cant get it to work.

    1. Unclear where to find the API key when using a hosted service.
    2. The hosted primarypad.com seemed very slow and unresponsibe
  • Chris Kenniburg
    Tue, 7 Oct 2014, 7:42 PM
    Jesse H,
    1. The host would need to provide this to you.
    2. I do not operate primarypad.
    This plugin is designed to work with Etherpad installed on a server. You need to run it yourself. Then this plugin allows you to connect and use Moodle with Etherpad.
  • Anthony Borrow
    Fri, 20 Feb 2015, 3:49 AM
    Chris - Would it be possible to get the source code and tracker URLs properly setup and updated? Peace - Anthony
  • Chris Kenniburg
    Fri, 20 Feb 2015, 3:53 AM
    We don't have source code other than the project download. It is not on github.
  • Eugene Matusov
    Sun, 21 Feb 2016, 2:59 AM
    I installed Etherpad Lite on my Windows 2012R IIS8.5 server and then this great Moodle plugin on my Moodle 3.0.2 (PHP 7.0.3 64-bit, MySQL 5.7 64-bit). It works great -- no problems! I run Etherpad as Windows service (I installed it using nssm.exe that I downloaded and placed in the c:/Windows/System32 folder).

    My only problem was how to hide the Etherpad from a public access, while making it available for my Moodle users, without requiring them to enter an Etherpad user account. I got around this problem by adding an Etherpad user account into the Moodle Etherpad Lite plugin setting: Server URL pointing at my Etherpadlite server. I put "http://Etherpadusername: Etherpadpassword@myserveretherpad.mydomain.local/" Adding the user account to the URL is considered not good, not secure, but I think it is OK since I'm using the same physical server for Moodle and Etherpad. Of course, I do NOT use Etherpad admin account. Also, I set requireAuthentication to true, while requireAuthorization to false in the Etherpad settings.json file. It works like a charm!

    My next challenge is how to set a particualr Moodle Etherpad for groups of students. I have flexible, unstable groups of students in classes (mine and my colleagues) and want my students being able to form a group around a Moodle Etherpad module in a session. Currently a Moodle Etherpad is open for the entire class. In Google Docs, a student can invite other students to work on a Google Doc. I wonder if there is a similar possibility can be developed in Moodle Etherpad. Any ideas? I want to search for Etherpad plugins for a solution....

    My big thanks for the designers of the Etherpad Lite and Moodle Etherpad Lite plugin! Eugene
  • Eugene Matusov
    Sun, 21 Feb 2016, 5:01 AM
    To Shawarma Consumer. When I was installing the Moodle Etherpad plugin, I had also initially got the error, "Exception : JSON response could not be decoded". I found that the error was caused by my wrong URL address in the Moodle plugin pointing at the URL of the Etherpad Lite server. My mistake was that I included the instance in the address. It seems that the Etherpad Lite server address should be the same as in the Etherpad settings.json. I hope this help.... Eugene
  • sebastian seitz
    Fri, 15 July 2016, 3:17 PM
    Hi, Will the Plugin works with moodle 3.1+? When not, will there be an update to 3.1?
  • Emilie Lenel
    Tue, 14 Mar 2017, 5:16 PM
    Hi, Since the firefox and chrome latest releases, we are facing a lot of issues with our etherpad in Moodle, "No access to pad"...
    We use etherpad for our moodle + redmine, both are running with the same server, with reverse-proxy,
    The only differences are regarding access configuration
    + slightly version difference : moodle instance : 1.5.7 sur redmine instance : 1.6.0
    I wonder if others are facing the same issues ??
    Thanks
    Emilie
  • Paul
    Tue, 17 Oct 2017, 7:13 PM
    Is there no further development of this tool, for example to work with Moodle 3.3.+
  • Chris Kenniburg
    Tue, 17 Oct 2017, 8:48 PM
    Hello Paul and others,
    We are no longer using Etherpad and the development for this plugin has stopped.
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