Echo360 has developed multiple modes of interoperability with the Moodle LMS.
- Add Echo360 as an External Tool which allows you to select the tool from your Moodle Courses and link them to Echo360 sections.
- ALTERNATELY, you can configure an API integration with Moodle that helps automate the Canvas-to-Echo course linking as well as provides consolidated Analytics for course related media.
- Install and configure the Echo360 Plugin and Filter that provides an Echo360 embed button on content windows in Moodle. This allows users to embed Echo360 videos directly into content pages throughout their courses.
- The atto Plugin and Filter also allows instructors to create assignments in Moodle that request students submit Echo360 videos as an assignment submission. Submitting videos through the homework assignment locks the submitted videos from editing or deletion in Echo360.
If you are installing or upgrading to version 1.0.17 or higher of the Echo360 atto plugin and filter for Moodle, views of embedded videos will be authenticated (if the user is logged into Moodle) and will generate unique viewer data. In addition, version 1.0.17 and higher of the plugin/filter have removed the need for the extra configuration steps around Trusted Sites or student role setting to allow students to embed videos. To upgrade, simply remove the old filter and plugin, and download and install the new one.
The steps below provide a high-level workflow for integrating Echo360 with Moodle, and provide links to articles with more detailed procedures as needed. The procedures in the linked articles are provided as guidelines to the Moodle setup process. Where the Moodle product/interface is discussed, refer to the Moodle documentation for additional details or contact Moodle product support if you need further assistance.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN: You will want to determine if your Echo360 Courses and Sections will be created separately in Echo360 and then linked to through the LMS, OR if you want to enable the simplified One-Click Provisioning feature for your institution. The One-Click course provisioning auto-creates the course and section in Echo360 from the LMS link, using the same course code and name as the LMS. This is designed to accommodate institutions who want to limit administrative involvement in Echo360 management, and use Echo360 primarily as a content management solution for instructor class materials. You can still create capture schedules for the sections, to record and publish lectures, or allow instructors to generate ad hoc captures for their sections, if lecture capture is part of your institution's workflow. Beyond the one-click course provisioning feature, all other LMS integration steps remain essentially the same and are described below.
Step 1: Add a Moodle LMS Configuration in Echo360
This step generates an authentication mechanism, allowing your Moodle instance to talk to your Echo360 instance.
To add a Moodle LMS configuration to Echo360
- As an Echo360 Admin, click the Settings icon (it looks like a gear).
- Select Configurations.
The LMS Configurations page appears by default. - In the right side of the LMS configurations page, click Configurations, as shown below.
- Click Add Configuration, then select Moodle from the drop-down list, and click Save.
A Moodle LMS Configuration appears on the page, as is shown in the below figure. The Key, Secret, and URL field values are the values you will copy and paste into Moodle for ALL of your Echo360 tool configurations.
For more detailed procedures, see Generating LMS/LTI Configuration fields in Echo360.
Step 2: Create an Echo360 External Tool in Moodle
Add Echo360 as an External LTI Tool in Moodle. We STRONGLY recommend using the "configure a tool manually" option, identified in the below figure.The tool configuration will use the Key, Secret, and URL values generated with the LMS Configuration in Echo360 in the above step.
When creating the tool, be sure to set the Accept grades from the tool option to Always. This allows instructors to export Echo360 student analytics to the Moodle gradebook.
Once you have the tool created, you can link Moodle Courses to Echo360 Sections.
Step 3: Link Moodle Courses to Echo360 Sections/Classes
This is potentially the most complicated step in the process, not because it's difficult, but because there are lots of different possible ways to do it, depending on the policies at each institution, whether the links are created and configured by Instructors or Administrators, whether the Echo360 sections already exist for linking to or if one-click course provisioning is turned on, whether instructors plan to export Echo360 analytics into their Moodle gradebook, and whether or not links to specific classrooms are needed instead of or in addition to a main link to the Echo360 section.
The main process is:
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Add an activity link to each Course in Moodle using the Echo360 External Tool created in Step 2. If the tool was set to accept grades, configuration of this link provides fields for points possible and grade unit (points/percentage, etc). The grading option allows instructors to export Echo360 student analytics to the Moodle gradebook.
This step can be done by the Admin or the Instructor.
- Click the Content link to Echo360 and select the Echo360 section this Moodle Course should link to.
This step can be done by the Admin or the Instructor.
- ALTERNATELY: If One-Click Course Provisioning is turned on, the initial click-through of this link will auto-create the course and section in Echo360, and you are immediately taken to the main section page. It will be empty (no classes) until an instructor creates one or more classes, launches an ad hoc capture, or an administrator configures a lecture capture schedule for the section. See also Instructor How To's for LMS One-Click Course Provisioning.
Any user who executes the link-through step is automatically enrolled into the linked Echo360 section as an instructor.
Moodle course instructors are automatically enrolled into the Echo360 section as an instructor when they click through the Echo360 link, if they were not already enrolled. Instructors may also have their Echo360 account created if it does not already exist when they pass into Echo360 from Moodle. See also Disabling Automatic Instructor Creation (for LMS users) if this is not appropriate for your institution.
When a student passes through the link from Moodle into Echo360, they are automatically enrolled into the section as a student. If the student is not yet an Echo360 user, their Echo360 account is automatically created when they pass into Echo360.
Step 4: Install Echo360 Plug-in and Filter to provide Echo360 Video embedding in Moodle
Echo360 also provides the ability to have an Echo360 "easy" embed button added to the toolbar for content windows in Moodle. You can limit this embedding capability to only Instructors and Administrators, or you can configure Moodle to allow Students to embed content from their Echo360 content library. If you are installing version 1.0.17 or higher of the atto plugin and filter, the embedded videos will provide Echo360 with unique viewer data to Echo360.
In addition, you can configure Moodle to allow students to embed Echo360 videos as Assignment submissions in Moodle courses, and for Instructors to view those submissions in the Assignments grading page. The Student assignment feature requires installation of version 1.0.10 or later of the Echo360 atto plugin and filter.
The process for enabling Echo360 "easy" embeds is:
- Install the Echo360 Atto Plug-in and Filter onto your Moodle instance. If installing version 1.0.17 or later, unique viewing data for the embedded videos will be provided to Echo360 AND you can skip Step 2 (the security policy information is included in the updated filter for the newer version).
- If you want to allow students to embed videos, enable Trusted Content in the Moodle Site Policies, and edit the Student role to allow trusted content. This step is NOT required if installing/upgrading to version 1.0.17 or higher of the Echo360 atto plugin.
- Be sure that the Echo360 feature toggles to Allow public and embeddable links are turned on.
If for some reason you do not want to add the Echo360 easy embed button to content windows toolbars, users can always manually paste the link or embed code for a video into a content window.
Step 5: Provide Articles to Instructors and Students as necessary
Once the Echo360 interoperability has been added to Moodle, let instructors and students know how to take advantage of it.
- If Instructors are responsible for linking into Echo360 from their Moodle Courses, be sure to provide them with the proper procedures for doing so.
- If your instructors are going to be exporting Echo360 student engagement analytics into their Moodle Gradebook, be certain YOU have set Accept grades from this tool to Always in the tool configuration, and that instructors are including grading details such as points or percentage in the link configuration.
- If you have added the Echo360 easy embed button to content windows for Instructors and/or Students, be sure they have instructions for embedding videos into Moodle content windows.
- If you have added the ability for students to embed videos as Assignment submissions, be sure instructors have the instructions needed to create and view student Echo360 video assignment submissions, and students have the instructions necessary for embedding Echo360 videos as assignment submissions.