Just installed Moodle... SIMs Course integration?!

[CyBeRkId2002]

Hi all,

 

We are currently looking into alternatives to our costly paid VLE provider and I am starting to play around with an onsite Moodle configuration, something our head of ICT has used in the past.

 

I have now got Moodle installed under Linux, stuck on a basic theme that I think (with a few tweaks) could suit our needs fine and have got users authentication and sync sorted via LDAP. The next step I am looking at is how to get users populated into groups (or cohorts? not too sure on the difference in Moodle) and then on to courses. At present we have full integration and wondered if this can be done (I imagine it can) for free (possibly not) in Moodle. Not bothered to bothered about write-back, profiles, registration etc. just want the basics of students being populated into the correct classes so teachers can view them correctly.

 

Any help and advice on how people achieve this would be very much appreciated.

 

Michael

[mavhc]

ZiLink for Moodle | SchoolsICT is probably what you want, doesn't list any prices though, hate that

[markwilfan]

ZiLink for Moodle | SchoolsICT is probably what you want, doesn't list any prices though, hate that

 

If you have have to ask how much it is, you probably can't afford it. My pet hate too.

 

Think we looked at it before and it was very expensive. Could be mistaken though

[CyberNerd]

We use it and is is substantially less expensive than employing someone to maintain the courses.

[Meldrew]

We use it and its about half the price of alternatives, ie webanywhere. We went with zilink engage which also allows parental access, meaning we've not continued with our hosted SLG and it costs us £1750 from memory per year (not sure if that's related to the number of students on roll). Certainly you'd need the lowest level by the sound of it which would be rather less I'd imagine.

 

HTH,

 

Meldrew.

[Max_Power]

We use it and its about half the price of alternatives, ie webanywhere. We went with zilink engage which also allows parental access, meaning we've not continued with our hosted SLG and it costs us £1750 from memory per year (not sure if that's related to the number of students on roll). Certainly you'd need the lowest level by the sound of it which would be rather less I'd imagine.

 

HTH,

 

Meldrew.

 

What kind of things does it allow parents to see? Reports, attendance, update contact details etc?

[NetworkSeb]

In the end I wrote my own script that exported groups / courses into AD then used moodle LDAP enrolment to enrol students and teachers into the courses with the correct permissions.

[CyBeRkId2002]

cheers for the advice everyone... I keep swaying with how I want to go about this. In some ways I think keeping it simple, creating enrollment groups/keys inside each course may be the way forward... may however have a look at the moodle guide stickied in this forum at some point in the future to do it "properly", just dont like the idea of giving a plugin full access to the SIMs database (along with the fact that I dont think our LA give out the SA password).

[matt40k]

SalamanderSoft is another option - SalamanderSoft Limited - SIMS partner too. Pretty sure SchoolsICT uses the approved methods (such report engine) to interface with your SIMS db so your LA\Capita are happy. Just create it a limited SIMS user account within SysMan.

[TheScarfedOne]

Another +1 for @rpwillis and Salamander here

[mavhc]

I dont think our LA give out the SA password).

 

You don't need it to gain sysadm access, you can restart the sql server in single user mode and log in as domain admin (you have to run sql management studio in Administrator UAC mode if you have UAC). Then create a read only user for a plugin. Or just use sims reports or pay capita for api access.