Communication: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 06:43, 15 April 2024

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 communication

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).

Groups

New feature
in Moodle 4.4!

Communication rooms can now utilise groups. Enabling groups in your course will create separate Communication rooms the next time the ad-hoc task is run.

When group mode is enabled on your course, only group rooms will be used. Communication rooms will reflect the course's groups exactly.

When group mode is disabled, users will be removed from those group rooms and placed into a common course room. When group mode is enabled, users will be removed from the common course room and placed into group rooms.

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

Capabilities

Configure course communication settings.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{New features}}
+{{Managing a Moodle site}}
+If the [[Experimental settings|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).
-If the [[Experimental settings|Experimental setting]] Enable communication providers (enablecommunicationsubsystem) is checked, admins can offer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(protocol) Matrix] rooms or custom links to existing rooms for teachers to use with learners in their courses.
 {{MediaPlayer | url = https://youtu.be/kVQNFqvpbR8 | desc = Course communication}}
 ==Course settings==
-* Teachers can access course communication options from Course navigation > More > Communication.
+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).
-* If the admin has set up a Matrix server for the site, a Matrix room will automatically be created when a new course is created. Teachers can configure the room settings by ensuring Matrix is selected as the provider.
-* If desired they can give the room a name and a topic. If they don't give the room a name then the course name is used instead.
-[[File:MatrixProvider.png|center|700px]]
+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.''
+[[File:course_provider.png|alt=Course communication providers|700x700px]]
-*A teacher will automatically have the moderator capability in the Matrix room.
+After saving the changes, a Communication room will be automatically created when the ad-hoc tasks are run.
-If there is no Matrix server on the site, teachers can add a link to a Matrix room of their own or to a room in another messaging service such as Telegram by selecting Custom link as the provider and adding the relevant URL.
+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.
-[[File:CustomLink.png|center|700px]]
+=====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.
-Once saved the room will be available from a 'sticky' icon, present on all pages at the bottom of the screen above the information icon.
+[[File:Room creation pending.png|alt=Room creation pending|700x700px]]
-[[File:CommIcon.png|center|700px]]
+=====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).
-==Site Administration Settings==
+[[File:Room creation done.png|alt=Room creation complete|border|700x700px]]
-Communication Providers in Moodle LMS are currently œexperimental and must be enabled in the experimental settings. To Enable communication providers:
+=== Groups ===
+{{New features}}
-*Navigate to ''Site administration > Development > Experimental > Experimental settings.''
+Communication rooms can now utilise groups. Enabling groups in your course will create separate Communication rooms the next time the ad-hoc task is run.
-*Check the checkbox nable communication providers (enablecommunicationsubsystem)
-*Click the Save changes button.
-Once the communication providers experimental setting is enabled they can be configured.
+When group mode is enabled on your course, only group rooms will be used. Communication rooms will reflect the course's groups exactly.
-* Admins will then have a new section, Communication, from ''Site administration > Plugins''. From the page Manage communication providers, administrators can configure the installed communication provider plugins server for the site if desired and disable/enable the option for teachers to add custom links to messaging rooms in their courses.
-[[File:Manage communication providers.png|center]]
-The currently supported communications providers are:
+When group mode is disabled, users will be removed from those group rooms and placed into a common course room. When group mode is enabled, users will be removed from the common course room and placed into group rooms.
-*Custom link - Allows communication providers only requiring a URL (like Google Meet) to be linked to a Moodle LMS course
-*Matrix - Allows for pairing a Matrix Element room to a Moodle course, including user management.
-===Matrix===
+===Room/service access===
-The Matrix communication provider allows Moodle LMS courses to have an associated room in a [https://element.io/ Matrix Element] instance, and can provide adding and removing of participants in a course to a Matrix Element room.
+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.
-Currently the integration supports the [https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse Synapse] Matrix homeserver. To configure your Moodle LMS instance to connect to a Synapse server you will need the URL of the homeserver, and an API Access token for a Synapse Admin user.  You will also need the URL of an Element web server to use.
-[[File:HomeserverURL.png|center]]
+[[File:CommIcon.png|alt=Access your room/service|700x700px]]
-To configure your Moodle LMS instance to use the Matrix provider:
+==Site administration settings==
-*Enter the URL of your Synapse server in the Homeserver URL (matrixhomeserverurl) field
+Communication providers are currently an experimental feature and must be enabled by an admin. To enable communication providers:
-*Enter the Synapse server API Access token in the Access token (matrixaccesstoken) field
+#Navigate to ''Site administration > Development > Experimental > Experimental settings.''
-*Enter the URL of the Element web server in the Element web URL (matrixelementurl) field
+#Check the 'Enable communication providers' checkbox (enablecommunicationsubsystem).
-*Click Save changes.
+#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.
-===Synapse API Access Token Generation===
-To generate an API Access Token for Moodle LMS, you need access to a terminal and an existing username and password for and administrator of your Synapse server instance.
-To generate an access token  to be used with Moodle LMS, enter the following into a terminal:
+===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]]
-curl -XPOST -d '{"type":"m.login.password", "user":"@admin:synapse", "password":"secretpass"}' "https://synapse:8008/_matrix/client/r0/login"
-}}}
-*Where  the username is:
+[[File:Manage_communication_providers.png|alt=Managing communication providers|700x700px]]
-{{{
-@<user name on home server>:<home server domain>
-*Password is the admin user's regular password.
-}}}
-The returned value will look something like:
-{{{
-{"user_id":"@admin:synapse","access_token":"syt_YWRtaW4_OQNsHwWoObhseRAWmUCs_2T29if","home_server":"synapse","device_id":"JPAIBCQCSB"}
-}}}
-The access_token field is the API token to use in the Moodle LMS Matrix communication provider settings.
-===Course Defaults===
-Moodle LMS administrators can configure the default behaviour for communications providers in their courses.
-*For new courses, admins can define the default provider - or specify 'none' - from ''Site administration > Courses > Default settings > Course default settings.''
-If a Matrix server is set up and used on the site and the course default settings specify Matrix as the provider, Moodle will automatically create Matrix rooms for new courses and automatically create user accounts for the existing course participants when they enter the rooms. Teachers who enter the room will have moderator rights.
 ==Capabilities==
-*[[Capabilities/communication/matrix:moderator| Matrix moderator]].
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/course:configurecoursecommunication| Configure course communication settings]]. [[es:Comunicación]]
-*[[Capabilities/moodle/course:configurecoursecommunication| Configure course communication settings]].
+[[de:Kommunikation]]
-[[es:Comunicación]]

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