Communication
New feature
in Moodle 4.3!
If the experimental setting 'Enable communication providers' (enablecommunicationsubsystem) is checked, admins can offer a way for teachers and learners to communicate within the courses.
Currently, there are two communication providers available:
- Matrix - This creates a Matrix Element room accessible from a Moodle course and with related user management.
- Custom link - This offers a field to add a URL to an existing service (e.g. an existing Matrix room, Telegram or Google Meet).
Course settings
Teachers can access course communication options by navigating to a course and selecting More > Communication. To enable communication for your course, ensure your admin has enabled and configured the feature (see 'Site administration settings' below).
The different communication integrations are known as providers. Each provider can have their own settings and can be modified in a course from Course navigation > More > Communication.
After saving the changes, a Communication room will be automatically created when the ad-hoc tasks are run.
Any changes to communication settings will not be immediate. Changes are also handled via ad-hoc tasks and will be determined by how frequently these tasks are run on the site.
Pending status
When your Communication room has been saved, but the ad-hoc task has not yet completed, you will see a notification indicating that your room will be ready soon.
Ready status
When viewing the course page after the ad-hoc task has run, you should see a notification indicating that the Communication room is now ready. To access the newly created room, look for the communication icon towards the bottom of the page (refer to 'Room/service access' section below for more details).
Room/service access
Once all the ad-hoc tasks for communication have finished running, and the room is created, the room will be available from a 'sticky' icon on the relevant course pages. Look for the icon towards the bottom of you screen above the information icon. This icon is available to anyone who has access to the course, regardless of their capability.
Site administration settings
Communication providers are currently an experimental feature and must be enabled by an admin. To enable communication providers:
- Navigate to Site administration > Development > Experimental > Experimental settings.
- Check the 'Enable communication providers' checkbox (enablecommunicationsubsystem).
- Click the 'Save changes' button.
- Once the communication providers experimental setting is enabled go to Site administration > Plugins > Communication > Manage communication providers to configure your provider.
Managing communication providers
Admins will be able to access a new section: Site administration > Plugins > Communication > Manage communication providers. From this page, admins can configure the installed communication provider plugins. See the sub-pages for more info, eg Matrix
