Moodle-Learning-Management-System/C2/Plugins-in-Moodle/English-timed

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Time Narration
00:01 Welcome to the Spoken Tutorial on Installing plugins in Moodle
00:07 In this tutorial, we will learn about: Plugins and How to install a plugin in Moodle
00:15 To record this tutorial, I will be using:

Ubuntu Linux OS 16.04

00:23 Apache, MariaDB and PHP obtained through XAMPP 5.6.30
00:31 Moodle 3.3
00:33 Firefox web browser and Working Internet connection
00:40 You can use any web browser of your choice.
00:44 However, Internet Explorer should be avoided as it causes some display inconsistencies.
00:52 Learners of this tutorial should have some courses and users in their Moodle website.
00:59 If not, please refer to the relevant Moodle tutorials on this website.
01:06 What are plugins?

Plugins are add-on tools that add special features to an existing software

01:15 Moodle has several useful plugins for teachers as well as site administrators
01:22 These are available in the plugins directory
01:26 Open the browser and type https://moodle.org/plugins
01:36 The page has filters based on Purpose and Plugin Type.
01:41 There is also a search box, for custom search.
01:46 There are some numbers displayed at the top right.

The text below indicates what they are.

01:53 In this tutorial, we will learn how to install the attendance plugin.
01:59 Type attendance in the search box and click on the Search button.
02:05 We see that there are multiple plugins having this keyword, either in their title or description.
02:13 Click on Attendance plugin.

The description reads “A plugin that allows an attendance log to be kept.

02:22 To verify that you have clicked on the same plugin that I mentioned, check the title on the new page.
02:30 It should say Activities colon Attendance as the title.
02:36 This plugin allows a teacher to keep an attendance log in Moodle.
02:42 Before installing any new plugin, ensure that it is available for the Moodle version you are using.
02:50 To verify, click on the Versions link to see the versions that it supports.
02:56 Scroll down to see that it is available for our version of Moodle 3.3
03:03 Go back to the Description link.
03:06 Read the description to understand whether the plugin fulfills your purpose.
03:12 It also mentions prerequisites for using the plugin and the usage instructions, if any.
03:20 We can see that it is being used on a number of websites and has many fans.
03:27 This authenticates that the plugin is useful and easy to use.
03:33 You may also want to scroll down and see the questions others have asked related to this plugin.
03:40 When you are convinced you want to install the plugin, go back to the Versions link.
03:46 Click on the Download button.
03:49 Save the file on your local system. I have already saved it in my system.
03:55 Open a new tab and login to your Moodle website as site administrator.
04:02 Make sure that the XAMPP service is running.
04:06 We are now in the admin dashboard.
04:09 Click on Site Administration on the left side.
04:13 Then click on Plugins tab and then on Install plugins link.
04:20 There are 2 ways to install a plugin - through Moodle plugins directory and through a zip upload.
04:29 We will cover the second method only.
04:33 The first method requires us to have an account on moodle.org, hence we are skipping it.
04:41 Click on Choose a file button next to Zip package.
04:46 Click on Upload a file link on the left, if it is not already selected.
04:52 Click on Browse button and browse to the location where you have saved the plugin file.
04:59 Select the zip file which we downloaded earlier.
05:03 Then click on Upload this file button at the bottom of this window.
05:08 Now click on Install plugin from the ZIP file button at the bottom.
05:14 You may encounter an error in this page.
05:18 The error message says Validating mod_attendance ... Error
05:24 Click on the Cancel link.
05:27 This is an indicator for us to give write permission to this directory.
05:33 So open the terminal by pressing Control + Alt + T keys.
05:39 Type sudo space chmod space 777 space slash opt slash lampp slash htdocs slash moodle slash mod slash
05:56 Enter the administrative password if prompted and press Enter.
06:02 Let us go back to the browser and repeat the process.
06:09 This time we get the validation successful message. Click on the Continue button.
06:17 Please note that this additional step is required only if you get the above error screen.
06:25 Now, the plugin is downloaded and validated for this version of Moodle.
06:31 Next, we will get a page with the title Plugins check.
06:36 Notice the status information in green here, which says To be installed.
06:43 Click on Upgrade Moodle database now button.
06:47 This step may take some time. Please do not refresh or close the browser window.
06:53 When you see the success message, then click on the Continue button.
06:58 We are now in the New settings page.
07:02 Go through all the settings to see if you need to change any of them.

I do not wish to make any changes.

07:10 After checking, click on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
07:16 You may see some warning messages which you can ignore for the time being.
07:21 To see if the plugin is installed successfully, click on Site Administration in the left panel.
07:29 Then click on Plugins tab and then Plugins overview.
07:36 This will show you the list of all plugins
07:40 The ones which were installed by default and the ones you installed.
07:46 On my site, it shows these many plugins are installed.
07:51 To see the plugins that were additionally installed, click on Additional plugins link above the table.
07:59 Here there are links to go to the Settings and uninstall the plugin from this page.
08:05 Teachers and administrators can now create attendance for their courses.
08:11 Once again click on Site administration in the left panel.
08:16 Then click on Courses and Manage Courses and categories.
08:21 Click on 1st year Maths in the Course category on the left.
08:26 Click on Calculus course on the right.
08:30 Scroll down to the Calculus course details section and click on View tab to view the Calculus course.
08:40 Click on the gear icon at the top right and then click on Turn editing on.
08:47 Click on Add an activity or resource at the bottom right of the area before the topics.
08:54 Double click on the Attendance activity to create an attendance.
09:00 Enter the name and description as shown here.
09:04 Expand the Grade section.
09:07 This dropdown decides the type of grading used for attendance.
09:12 If you want attendance to contribute to the course grade, set a Maximum points value.

The default is 100.

09:21 I will select Grade as None.
09:24 Let the other options be default.
09:27 Scroll down and click on Save and display button.
09:31 We are now in a new page.
09:34 Click on the Status set tab here.
09:38 There are 4 default status for the attendance:

Present , Late , Excused , Absent

09:47 Depending on your requirement, you can either delete these or add more.
09:53 You can also modify the status names if you call them something else.
09:59 I will delete the Excused status because I do not use that in my class.
10:07 A confirmation message box appears.

Click on the Continue button.

10:13 Now click on the Add session tab.
10:16 Select the date of the first session you want to add.

I will put this as 4th June 2019.

10:24 Select the start and end time of the session.
10:27 Note that the time fields use a 24-hour clock.

So a 3:15pm to 4:05pm class should be 15:15 to 16:05.

10:43 Type a short Description for the session.
10:46 If you leave the description field blank, the description by default will be “Regular class session”.
10:54 Click on Multiple sessions section to expand it.
10:59 If your class meets at regular intervals, you can create multiple sessions at the same time.
11:06 Click on Repeat the session above as follows checkbox.
11:11 If your class meets on certain days of the week, select the days of the week.

For my class, I will select Monday.

11:20 Next option is Repeat every dropdown.

If the class meets every week, select 1.

11:28 If the class meets 2 weeks from the date of the first session, select 2 and so on.
11:35 I will let this remain as 1.
11:38 This means my class meets every Monday at 3:15pm for 50 mins.
11:45 Repeat until is the date of the last session.
11:49 I will put this as 30th March 2020.
11:54 Next click on Student recording section to expand it.
12:00 If you want students to record their own attendance, fill up the fields in this section.
12:07 I will skip this section.
12:09 Scroll down and click on Add button at the bottom of the page.
12:15 A confirmation message appears saying 43 sessions were successfully generated.
12:22 You may see a different number of sessions, if you selected dates other than mine.
12:28 See the icons next to each session.
12:32 They let the teacher to take the attendance, edit the session or delete the session.
12:39 Click on Take attendance icon for the week that you want to take attendance.
12:46 You can see a list of all students enrolled in this course and you can mark their attendance.
12:53 P, L and A are the status that we selected in the settings earlier.
12:59 Check the radio button just below 'P' to set status for all users to 'Present' and mark 'A' only for the absentees.
13:10 When you have marked the attendance, click on Save attendance button at the bottom of the page.
13:18 With this we come to the end of this tutorial.

Let us summarize.

13:24 In this tutorial, we learnt about:

Plugins and How to install a plugin in Moodle

13:32 Here is an assignment for you:
13:35 Search for a plugin Font family maintained by Projectes TAC Dept.
13:42 Install the plugin with its default settings.
13:46 Verify from the Plugins overview section that the plugin is installed.
13:52 The video at the following link, summarizes the Spoken Tutorial project.

Please download and watch it.

14:00 The Spoken Tutorial Project Team conducts workshops and gives certificates.

For more details, please write to us.

14:10 Please post your timed queries in this forum.
14:14 Spoken Tutorial Project is funded by NMEICT, MHRD, Government of India. More information on this mission is available at the link shown.
14:27 This script has been contributed by Priyanka.

And this is Nancy Varkey along with the Spoken Tutorial team signing off.

Thanks for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

PoojaMoolya