Pulse: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:46, 12 October 2021

About Pulse

Description

Pulse is a moodle activity and helps teachers to implement better workflows in their courses. It can be added like any other activity.

Architecture

Being a moodle activity, we can leverage the power of Moodle's availability conditions to trigger Pulse. Pulse is "activated" by being available. If you e.g. want to send a course welcome message, you simply add the activity without any restrictions to your course and use the invitation feature to send a notification to all students once they are enrolled. In addition to the activity (mod_pulse), there's a pro version available (local_pulsepro) which adds more features.

Use cases

We like to think of Pulse as a tool which teachers can use for various things. Here are a few typical use cases:

List of typical Pulse use cases
Name	Description	Used features	Tier
Course welcome message	Notify students when they are enrolled into a course	Invitation	Free
Group welcome message	Notifiy students upon entering a group	Intivitation Restriction by group	Free
Reminder for upcoming activity	Remind students about an activity that they have not yet completed	Invitation Restriction by activity completion or Restriction by date	Free
Congratulations message	Notify students that have completed the course	Invitation Restriction by activity completion or Restriction by course completion	Free
Time to learn	Reminder students daily/weekly to re-engage them	Recurring reminder Restriction by course completion	Pro
Drip fed content notifications	Notify students about new content	Invitation Restriction by date	Free
Multi-lingual content with choices	Allow students to complete the content in any language (e.g. if you have several scorm packages)	Restriction by activity completion Completion criteria: when available	Free
Section completion	Simplify course completion reports	Restriction by activity completion Completion criteria: when available	Free
Consent	Require your students to give their consent before they can proceed with the course	Restriction by activity completion Completion criteria: self mark complete	Free
Teacher approval	Add a teacher approval step to your courses, and notify teachers about it at the right time.	Completion criteria: approval required by role	Free
Line manager approval	Add a line manager approval step to your courses, and notify line managers about it at the right time.	Completion criteria: approval required by role Reaction: approval required	Pro
Parent approval	Add a parent approval step to your courses, and notify parents about it at the right time.	Completion criteria: approval required by role Reaction: approval required	Pro
Non-editing teacher approval	Add a non-editing teacher approval step to your courses, and notify non-editing teachers about it at the right time.	Completion criteria: approval required by role Reaction: approval required	Pro

Features

The full list of features can be found here: Pulse/Features

Installation

Installation instructions can be found here: Pulse/Installation

Pulse
Type	Activity
Set	N/A
Downloads	https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_pulse
Issues	https://github.com/bdecentgmbh/moodle-mod_pulse/issues
Discussion	https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=426359
Maintainer(s)	Stefan Scholz

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-'''Pulse''' is a Moodle activity and can be added to courses like any other activity (e.g. page or quiz). Teachers can use Pulse for (1) notifications and (2) completion workflows.
+==About Pulse ==
-== Main Features ==
+=== Description===
-=== Notifications ===
+Pulse is a moodle activity and helps teachers to implement better workflows in their courses. It can be added like any other activity.
-Each Pulse activity can be configured to send a notification once it becomes available to the student. There are a number of placeholders that can be used to personalize the message, like the first name of the student or the name of the course. The notification can be sent to the student, the teacher, the non-editing teacher or the manager. Other course context or user context roles are supported as well, e.g. parent or staff manager.
+=== Architecture ===
+Being a moodle activity, we can leverage the power of Moodle's availability conditions to trigger Pulse. Pulse is "activated" by being available. If you e.g. want to send a course welcome message, you simply add the activity without any restrictions to your course and use the invitation feature to send a notification to all students once they are enrolled. In addition to the activity (mod_pulse), there's a pro version available (local_pulsepro) which adds more features.
-Using availability restrictions, teachers can specify in a very flexible and powerful way, when the notification is sent, e.g.:
+== Use cases ==
-* upon enrolling into the course as course welcome message
+We like to think of Pulse as a tool which teachers can use for various things. Here are a few typical use cases:
-* after joining a group as group welcome message
+{| class="wikitable"
-* at a specific date as reminder for an upcoming activity
+|+List of typical Pulse use cases
-* after completing a specific activity as congratulations message
+!Name
-* after a specific date AND only for students that have *not* completed an activity as reminder for an overdue activity
+!Description
-* for students that received a very good/very bad grade in a quiz as warning message to parents
+!Used features
-* and many more....!
+!Tier
-In addition to the notification sent to the student, the same — or another — text can be shown on the course page. (similar to the label module)
+|-
-=== Completion Workflows ===
+|Course welcome message
-Pulse supports activity completion in three ways (in addition to moodle core ones): upon availability, when marked complete by student and when approved by other role.
+|Notify students when they are enrolled into a course
-===== Complete when available =====
+|
-This activity completion criterium is very powerful when used in combination with availability restrictions. One key issue this solves is that course completion is a bit limited when it comes to activity completion — you can either require all or any; with Pulse, you can build flexible scenarios easily, for example:
+* Invitation
-# multilingual content where the student can choose which one to complete
+|Free
-# multiple learning paths, depending on student choice, progress or grades
+|-
-# section completion
+|Group welcome message
-# and many more....!
+|Notifiy students upon entering a group
-===== Complete when self marked complete =====
+|
-The key difference to core's manual completion is that it is non-reversible. Once the student has marked the activity as complete, the student cannot revoke it any more. This is important for a number of scenarios like:
+* Intivitation
-# Gathering consent before the course can be started (e.g. for privacy reasons)
-# Asking the student to choose a learning path
-# Legal requirements where students need to read and confirm something, as disclaimer
-# For offline/real life activities that shall be represented in the course in a very simple and efficient way
-# As checklist for the student.
-===== Complete when marked complete by other role =====
-This completion criterium can be used to either get approval by course or user context roles, for example the teacher of the course, the parent of the child or the line manager of the course. Teachers/parents/managers can give their approval in a very simple and intuitive way, much easier than any other interface moodle core provides.
-Pulse supports groups (non-editing teachers only see students in their group) and user context roles (e.g. parents can only see their children, line managers can only see their employees).
+* Restriction by group
+|Free
+|-
+|Reminder for upcoming activity
+|Remind students about an activity that they have not yet completed
+|
+* Invitation
+* Restriction by activity completion or
+* Restriction by date
+|Free
+|-
+|Congratulations message
+|Notify students that have completed the course
+|
+* Invitation
+* Restriction by activity completion or
+* Restriction by course completion
+|Free
+|-
+|Time to learn
+|Reminder students daily/weekly to re-engage them
+|
+* Recurring reminder
+* Restriction by course completion
+|Pro
+|-
+|Drip fed content notifications
+|Notify students about new content
+|
+* Invitation
+* Restriction by date
+|Free
+|-
+|Multi-lingual content with choices
+|Allow students to complete the content in any language (e.g. if you have several scorm packages)
+|
+* Restriction by activity completion
+* Completion criteria: when available
+|Free
+|-
+|Section completion
+|Simplify course completion reports
+|
+* Restriction by activity completion
+* Completion criteria: when available
+|Free
+|-
+|Consent
+|Require your students to give their consent before they can proceed with the course
+|
+* Restriction by activity completion
+* Completion criteria: self mark complete
+|Free
+|-
+|Teacher approval
+|Add a teacher approval step to your courses, and notify teachers about it at the right time.
+|
+* Completion criteria: approval required by role
+|Free
+|-
+|Line manager approval
+|Add a line manager approval step to your courses, and notify line managers about it at the right time.
+|
+* Completion criteria: approval required by role
+* Reaction: approval required
+|Pro
+|-
+|Parent approval
+|Add a parent approval step to your courses, and notify parents about it at the right time.
+|
+* Completion criteria: approval required by role
+* Reaction: approval required
+|Pro
+|-
+|Non-editing teacher approval
+|Add a non-editing teacher approval step to your courses, and notify non-editing teachers about it at the right time.
+|
+* Completion criteria: approval required by role
+* Reaction: approval required
+|Pro
+|}
+== Features ==
+The full list of features can be found here: [[Pulse/Features]]
 == Installation ==
-For more detailed info how to install plugins in general, visit https://docs.moodle.org/400/en/Installing_plugins.
+Installation instructions can be found here: [[Pulse/Installation]]
-=== Pulse ===
-To install the free version of Pulse (mod_pulse), you have three options:
-===== Option 1: Install from Moodle.org =====
-# Login as an admin and go to Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins. (If you can't find this location, then plugin installation is prevented on your site.)
-# Click the button 'Install plugins from Moodle plugins directory'.
-# Search for "Pulse", click the Install button then click Continue.
-# Confirm the installation request
-# Check the plugin validation report
-===== Option 2: Install from zip package =====
-# Download Pulse from <nowiki>https://bdecent.de/product/pulse</nowiki>
-# Login to your Moodle site as an admin and go to Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins.
-# Upload the ZIP file. You should only be prompted to add extra details (in the Show more section) if the plugin is not automatically detected.
-# If your target directory is not writeable, you will see a warning message.
-# Check the plugin validation report
-===== Option 3: Install manually on server =====
-# Download Pulse from <nowiki>https://bdecent.de/product/pulse</nowiki>
-# Rename the folder to "pulse"
-# Upload or copy it to your Moodle server.
-# Unzip it in the `/mod` directory. (the path should then look for example like this: https://yourmoodle.com/mod/pulse/version.php)
-# In your Moodle site (as admin) go to Settings > Site administration > Notifications (you should, for most plugin types, get a message saying the plugin is installed).
-=== Pulse Pro ===
-To install the pro version, you will need to buy it first from https://bdecent.de/product/pulse-pro/ — we do offer discounts for NGOs, countries with low buying power and for all that want to contribute (translation, documentation, testing), if you're interested, just contact us!
-<code>Important: the pro version is needs to be installed in addition to the free Pulse activity. The installation will only succeed if you have the free version (mod_pulse, see above) already installed. ''You can install local_pulsepro at the same time or after mod_pulse is installed.''</code>
-==== Option 1: Install from zip package ====
-# Download Pulse Pro from <nowiki>https://bdecent.de/my-account</nowiki>
-# Login to your Moodle site as an admin and go to Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins.
-# Upload the ZIP file. You should only be prompted to add extra details (in the Show more section) if the plugin is not automatically detected.
-# If your target directory is not writeable, you will see a warning message.
-# Check the plugin validation report
-==== Option 2: Install manually on server ====
-# Download Pulse Pro from <nowiki>https://bdecent.de/my-account</nowiki>
-# Upload or copy it to your Moodle server.
-# Unzip it in the `/local/` directory. (it should then look like /local/pulsepro/)
-# In your Moodle site (as admin) go to Settings > Site administration > Notifications (you should, for most plugin types, get a message saying the plugin is installed).

Documentation