Moodle and SIMS

[Jambo_C]

Hi,

A colleague of mine is setting up Moodle and we're looking at SIMS integration. We've found a couple of solutions that charge, I think one is Schoolsanywhere, I'm unsure what the other one is.

Does anyone know of any other SIMS integration?

Thanks,

J.

[danIT]

I've said it before and (Schoolanywhere? SIMS + Moodle paid solution) I might as well suggest them again.

I went to Moodle Moot UK last year and sat in on a demo of ZiLink, there demo presentation is here: ZiLink - enabling 21st century learning along with a whole raft of information regarding the solution. Although ZiLink is primarily about Parental Reporting and giving Parents/Teachers access to specific information from SIMS I know the company has experience of enrolment of Moodle courses from SIMS etc... Assign the correct pupils and teacher to the correct course kind of thing.

Im pretty sure the guy behind the free guide of linking Moodle and SIMS together is from SchoolsICT and behind ZiLink etc....

[vikpaw]

I think member Penfold has a company, schoolsict that could help.

Also Richard from salamandersoft, member rpwillis does custom / bespoke linking between a variety of systems including AD Sharepoint other MISes.

[Rammie]

I know this is going to sound like a really silly question, but I can't find any documentation on what "SIMS to Moodle" integration actually achieves for our users. There is no shortage of "how", but zilch telling me what it does when I've done it. We have already set up Moodle to LDAP linkage - the benefits are obvious and user authentication isn't a problem. However, what can my teaching users expect to gain from the Enrollment Plug-in and the Timetable Block? Is there anything else available? How does it make teacher's lives easier?

I'm being asked to provide SIMS-Moodle integration, but when the discussion progresses to a) what they expect it to do, and b) what the existing solutions actually do, we dissolve into Neverneverland. Do I really have to implement this stuff to find out what it does? I have the same problem with a lot of Linux software and frankly, I don't understand why people, who've spent weeks developing some code, can't spend two minutes properly summarising what it does. Oops, that sounds like Jeremy Clarkson! Perhaps I've spent too long doing technical writing in my previous lives...

[localzuk]

I know this is going to sound like a really silly question, but I can't find any documentation on what "SIMS to Moodle" integration actually achieves for our users. There is no shortage of "how", but zilch telling me what it does when I've done it. We have already set up Moodle to LDAP linkage - the benefits are obvious and user authentication isn't a problem. However, what can my teaching users expect to gain from the Enrollment Plug-in and the Timetable Block? Is there anything else available? How does it make teacher's lives easier?

I'm being asked to provide SIMS-Moodle integration, but when the discussion progresses to a) what they expect it to do, and b) what the existing solutions actually do, we dissolve into Neverneverland. Do I really have to implement this stuff to find out what it does? I have the same problem with a lot of Linux software and frankly, I don't understand why people, who've spent weeks developing some code, can't spend two minutes properly summarising what it does. Oops, that sounds like Jeremy Clarkson! Perhaps I've spent too long doing technical writing in my previous lives...

How do you currently populate your courses, and the users to those courses?

That is what SIMS to Moodle integration does in my experience - it auto populates your classes, and then assigns the users to them.

[CyberNerd]

I know this is going to sound like a really silly question, but I can't find any documentation on what "SIMS to Moodle" integration actually achieves for our users. There is no shortage of "how", but zilch telling me what it does when I've done it. We have already set up Moodle to LDAP linkage - the benefits are obvious and user authentication isn't a problem. However, what can my teaching users expect to gain from the Enrollment Plug-in and the Timetable Block? Is there anything else available? How does it make teacher's lives easier?

The short answer is that it allows you to make metacourses that are dynamically populated with SIMS data. ie student logs in and gets their SIMS course not everyone elses.
It also allows parents to log in and track their childs progress using live SIMS data. Timetable block is simply an online timetable - student/staff/parent logs in and get their timetable

[TheScarfedOne]

Richard over at Salamander also has a system for SIMS/CMIS to Moodle, as well as to Sharepoint and AD.

Im not advertising honest... im just a user of the AD bits (and soon the Sharepoint bits :-))

Stuart