The document describes an enrollment plugin developed for Moodle 2.0 to automatically group students from the University of the West Indies Open Campus student management system (OCMS) into Moodle courses. Previously, student data had to be manually pushed from OCMS to Moodle 1.8 before each semester, and grouping was not automatic. The new plugin uses a web service API to enroll students from OCMS into Moodle courses and automatically assign them to groups based on preset group limits, creating new groups as needed. Testing of the enrollment plugin was completed successfully.

1. Auto Grouping
Enrollment Plugin
for Moodle 2.0
by
Reiza Haniff, Sacha Beharry and Anil Ramnanan
University of the West Indies Open Campus
open.uwi.edu

2. Grouping Requirements
for UWI Open Campus
Students register for courses using
custom Student Management System
(OCMS)
Before the semester begins, students
must be pushed to Moodle
Students are now put into groups
before teaching begins

3. Enrollment in Moodle 1.8
Current Environment is a branded
Moodle 1.8 installation (since 2007)
Auto grouping does not exist in
Moodle 1.8
Custom grouping functionality was
built for Moodle 1.8 but part of the
process is still manual

4. Enrollment in Moodle
1.8
push
script
MOODLE
OCMS
1.8
External Push Script has to be run
which would create student accounts
in Moodle 1.8

5. Moving to Moodle 2.0
Auto grouping exists but can only be
done once.
Student accounts still need to exist
within Moodle before grouping begins

6. MOODLE 2.0
Plugin
OCMS
Enrol
Group
A new plugin would be created that
would handle enrollment and grouping

7. Enrollment Plugin
User logs into Moodle
Plugin
Get enrolment from OCMS
Add user to course in Moodle
Add to a course group

8. Enrollment Plugin
Administration
Web Services API settings (REST URL,
Method Name, API Key)
Field Mapping (Course, User, role
fields)

9. How Auto grouping Works
Group
eTutor
25 Students

10. Groups are set up before students log in
Group 1 Group 2
eTutor eTutor
0 Students 0 Students

11. Student
+
Group 1 Group 2
eTutor eTutor
24 Students 0 Students
As students log in, the first group
is filled

12. Student
+
Group 1 Group 2
eTutor eTutor
25 Students 0 Students
Once that group limit is reached,
the next group is filled

13. Student
+
Group 1 Group 2 New Group
eTutor eTutor
25 Students 25 Students 0 Students
If the exiting groups are filled, a
new group is created to contain the
overflow

14. Enrollment plugin
Administration

15. Automatic group
creation

16. Current Status and
Future Work
Testing is complete and feedback has
been positive
We are porting the auto grouping
feature to the External Database
Enrollment Plugin
We will provide a library that can be
added to other plugins
http://code.google.com/p/group-magic/

17. Thank You