Moodle-Learning-Management-System/C2/Plugins-in-Moodle/English-timed
From Script | Spoken-Tutorial
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. |