Lambda Solutions | Interconnecting your Integrations
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Is your technology working with you or working against you? Integrations play an essential role in building an interconnected IT environment, where information is readily shared between systems. If your disparate systems can’t “speak” to each other they become information silos and information becomes more difficult to access. In this webinar we will outline how Moodle and Totara LMS’ can be interconnected to your other IT systems. Our speaker, James, will demonstrate how different types of information can be used as part of these integrations. We will also detail how 3rd party applications can be integrated into the LMS to further enhance its abilities with additional course and content functionality. For each of these integrations, we will identify how they can be performed and what features are available out of the box in Moodle and Totara LMS’. Key takeaways: What does it mean to integrate with Moodle & Totara? What types of integration are available for the LMS’s? What information can be shared between Moodle/Totara and your other systems? What integrations can you utilize immediately through Moodle & Totara’s out of the box features?
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Lambda Solutions | Interconnecting your Integrations
- 1. A C C E L E R AT E L E A R N I N G P E R F O R M A N C E Interconnecting your LMS Integrations Integrations with Moodle and Totara LMS
- 2. Housekeeping • Sound and Audio • Poll Questions • Q&A at the End • Presentation Recording and Slides • Post-Webinar Survey
- 3. Today’s Speaker James Nicolson Product Manager
- 4. Agenda # • What is an integration? • What are some of the reasons for integrating the LMS? • How can integrations be performed? • How should integration be approached?
- 5. Moodle and Totara LMS • Open Source LMS • Wide range of features and functions • Most widely used LMS on the market • Open Source Moodle distribution • Extended functionality aimed at corporate organizations
- 6. What is an integration? SCORM xAPI
- 7. Poll – Would you like your LMS integrated with other systems in your IT environment? # • Yes, and I already have my LMS integrated with other systems. • Yes, but I do not have any integrations currently in place • No, my LMS is ok on it’s own • Not sure
- 8. What are some of the reasons for integrating with other IT systems? # • Functional • Content creation and sharing • Repositories for content storage and media distribution • eCommerce • 3rd party services
- 9. What are some of the reasons for integrating with other IT systems? # • User Information Management • Uploading user information • Tracking job positions and reporting manager or mentors • Application triggers • Authentication • Single Sign On
- 10. What are some of the reasons for integrating with other IT systems? # • Reporting • User completions, grades and progress • Compliance • Effectiveness of learning materials • Return on Investment
- 11. Poll – What types of integration have you, or are you most interested in implementing? # Select all that apply: • Content creation, storage and distribution • 3rd Party Services • User Information Management • Authentication • Reporting
- 12. What are some of the integration options and methods? # • Native functionality • Plugin based integration • Web Services • Custom development
- 13. Native Moodle/ Totara Functionality # A variety of out of the box integrations that can be used to integrate with internal and 3rd party systems. • Activity Modules & Content • SCORM objects • Learning Tools Interoperability(LTI) Interface • Embeddable content – GoogleDocs, Youtube, • Repositories for content storage • GoogleDrive • Dropbox • Office365
- 14. Native Moodle/Totara Functionality # A variety of out of the box integrations that can be used to integrate with internal and 3rd party systems. • Authentication • LDAP, CAS, External Database • OAuth2 – Authentication via Google, Microsoft & Facebook • HR Import (Totara only) • Automated user and organizational information upload into the LMS for automatic assignment of courses and other learning objects.
- 15. Plugin based integration Community based plugins can be installed on the LMS that allow for further integration with other 3rd party services providers, or closer integration with internal systems. • 3rd Party Service Providers • Webinar platforms – WebEx, Adobe Connect, BigBlueButton • Course content libraries – Lynda.com, OpenSesame • Plagiarism and browser security • eCommerce • Advanced Authentication • SAML2, OpenID Connect, OAUth2 • Single Sign On
- 16. Web Services # Out of the box and extendable API “Web services are a collection of functions, protocols and standards that can be used for exchanging data between applications or systems over the internet” Common uses include • Creating/adding learners to the LMS using information stored within the application • Enrolling learners in courses • Retrieving learner completion and grade information for record updates and sharing
- 17. Custom Development # Building a custom integration between Moodle/Totara and your other reliant systems can always be performed if no other options are available. Custom development would involve working with a Moodle/Totara hosting provider or developer and detailing how you want the systems to interact. Custom development means you get the exact solution you are looking for as it is built to your requirement.
- 18. Poll – Have you used a partner to perform custom development? # • Yes, we have required customization of our LMS platform • Yes, but not for other systems and not the LMS • No, we have not required any custom development • Not sure
- 19. How do I pick the right integration? # • Plan - Identify what systems you intend to integrate and the reason? • Research – What existing technology is available? • Build – Use the built in features, 3rd party tools or work with a partner to start development of this functionality? • Budget – How valuable is this integration to you organisation?
- 20. Who are Lambda Solutions # Totara & Moodle are 80% more cost effective Managed cloud hosting reduces your IT operating costs by more than 40% Over 12 years of experience and 600 customer implementations
- 21. Some of Lambda’s Clients
- 22. #
- 23. Follow Up • Recording & slides to follow • Resources • Post-webinar satisfaction survey Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
- 24. Your TOLL FREE +1.877.700.1118 EMAIL SALES@LAMBDASOLUTIONS.NET WWW.LAMBDASOLUTIONS.NET
Editor's Notes
- Moodle is the original Opensource Learning Management system, which has roots as an academic LMS system. It has been developed and updated since 2002, with a large community of active and passionate users that makes it the most widely used LMS platform on the market today. Totara LMS is a specialised and open source distribution of Moodle. Totara builds on many of the learning techniques and components developed by Moodle, but tailors the learning experience to a more corporate based deployment. Totara provides a number of learning and management focused features that allows for easier management of courses, content and users within the LMS. If you haven’t seen Moodle or Totara and would like to know more let us know in the comments or by contacting our Sales team and we would be happy to provide you a demo.
- With both Moodle and Totara being open source platforms, this provides a high degree of of flexibility when its comes to configuration and customisation. Both systems have a large community of users that are making changes to their LMS implementations but also providing code back to the community so other organisations can take advantage of these enhancements. One of the most common customisations that is performed for the LMS’s is to integrate or interconnect the system with other corporate applications. By forming these connections, information can be readily shared between the different applications that make up your IT infrastructure. Integrations can be made between a variety of different applications and in a number of different ways. Applications such as Student Information Systems, Human Resource Information Systems and Customer Relationship Management systems are commonly connected to the LMS so user or learner information can be easily shared for record keeping and reporting needs. Other integrations may tie the LMS into other 3rd party applications that provide additional functionality or access to different learning resources. Integrations can be extremely useful and on many occasions essential for some organizations. Throughout this webinar we will try to provide a high level overview of your integration options when using Moodle or Totara and also what your next steps are for building out these connections.
- Moodle and Totara can be integrated with a variety of different systems and there are many different reasons why this would be done. Over the next few slide we will try and outline some of the different reasons that Moodle and Totara might want to be integrated into other systems using a number of categories that best explain the general requirement. The first category we have identified is the need for a functional integration. With the variety of different web applications and plugins that perform very specific functions, it can be useful to include these functions directly into the LMS. Commonplace functional integrations could be content creation and sharing tools. The authoring tools such as Captivate, Camtasia and Storyline can all be used to create learning content which can be uploaded into the LMS. At its most basic requirement, this content needs to be integrated and opened using and LMS platform, typically through SCORM objects or directly as HTML and Flash . These platforms and many others are starting to offer content hosting services that allow content to be created and stored remotely to the LMS. Courses stored in these locations will need to be referenced accordingly by the LMS so videos and content can be rendered effectively and any reporting streams are directed to the appropriate locations. Content not built through these authoring tools, such as PDFs, word documents and media files can also be stored in external locations. These files could exist in public cloud storage offerings such as GoogleDrive or DropBox or through more specialised media servers like Kaltura or JWPlayer, which offer optimised media streaming solutions. Customers looking to sell their learning material will likely want a method of collecting payment. This is where integration with eCommerce platforms can be very useful. And these platforms and integrations can vary significantly with simple pay -> enrol workflows to multiple seat purchasing, with discounts, coupon codes and support for a variety of different currencies. These are some of the most common 3rd party application integrations but there are many more with a wide range of features that could prove to be useful to your organisation and the LMS. Some interesting ones that I have seen are the ability to quickly upload lecture recordings to the associated Moodle online course, send SMS messages to students with a code that allows them to enrol or enter into an exam and very commonly linking webinar platforms such as Cisco WebEx, GotoMeeting and Zoom into the LMS so that learners can launch and view webinar sessions directly for the LMS. This is of web applications seems to be ever expanding at the moment so there is certainly an application that is out there that can be integrated into your LMS to provide better functionality or a better experience.
- Outside of enhancing the feature set of the LMS one of the most common integrations is to connect the LMS with other platforms for the purpose of sharing information throughout your organisation. User information typically exists within centralised locations for an organisation. For academic organisations this could be through Student Information Systems designed to track enrolments of users into the courses they have registered for. Corporate LMS customers will likely use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Human Resource Information System (HRIS) applications to store different important information associated with internal staff or customers. This information can be valuable when creating users or assigning courses to users within the LMS. On the flip side, Moodle and Totara gather a lot of useful information that may be beneficial to have in other reliant systems within the organisation. Passing completion and grade information back to SIS, CRM or ERP systems prevent different versions or values of the information to be found in different locations. The passing of this information can be also be used to trigger certain application level events that notify staff, trigger position changes or assign rewards such as badges or certificates. Tying information systems together allows for the movement information to be much mode fluid but still retain its accuracy. Outside of the movement of user information, authentication plays a significant role in many of these integrations. As I mentioned previously user information typically exists in a centralised location within the organisation to ensure that the information is accurate. This also goes for login credentials. More companies are using internal systems such as Active Directory or cloud based alternatives (Google Apps, Microsoft Azure) to manage to manage their user login credentials. With so many different applications that a user has to log into on any given day it is useful to have only a single set of credentials that the user needs to remember to access all their IT resources. Not only does this simply the login process, it also strengthen security with the user only needing to remember a single strong password. This can be taken a step further with the introduction of Single Sign On, which allows for a single login event to take place but all IT resources are immediately authenticated and accessible to the user – no more passwords. This is obvious a hugely desirable benefit from integrated authentication and security and makes it a very popular form of early integration.
- LMS’s are always purchased with a particular goal in mind, such as training internal teams so they are on boarded into the company effectively, selling courses to external customers or team students a number of courses that makes up an institutions curriculum. Getting better insight into the status and progression of students, is typically the second most important role of the LMS, with hosting the learning content being the LMSs’ primary purpose. LMS’s, Moodle and Totara included, typically come with a number of reporting options available of of the box but many organisations use 3rd party reporting applications to give them greater control over their learning data. These applications could be specialised LMS reporting solutions, such as Lambda Solutions’ Zoola Analytics, which provide specialised tools for analysing your learning data. Other more general reporting or business intelligence (BI) tools can also be attached to the LMS if it is something that your organisation is already using across the other applications you operate. With access to greater reporting capabilities you are able to ask questions about your LMS such as what courses are proving to be the most effective, how many users are compliant in a specialised field such as first aid, CPR or fire safety. One of the ultimate goals for corporate organisations is to see how the money you spent getting the LMS up and running is impacting your learners and making them more effective within the organisation. Reporting solutions can be used as a way of proving return on investment and ensuring that your LMS continues to get management buy-in.
- So we have outlined quite a few ways that other applications can be integrated into the LMS but which integrations are of most interest to you. We will take a moment to run a quick poll just to see what types of integrations are of interest and if you have already completed an integration what are the ones that you are currently leveraging. Please use the questionnaire to select all the integration options that apply to you.
- So it is all well and good to know what you want to integrate but until you know how this can be achieved the integration can’t be completed. We will now turn our focus to some of the methods that 3rd party systems can be integrated. The great news is that many of these integrations are freely available and through community plugins for Moodle and Totara. There are of course custom integration options which would require development if no other options are available but we will identify some of the key aspects associated with this development and what to look out for. So these are the topics, Native functionality, plugins, web services and custom development and that we will focus on for the remainder of this webinar.
- Moodle and Totara are both very modular applications, with new features, functions and components being added with each release. Many of these enhancements involve integration with other systems so Moodle and Totara can work more effectively with your other IT systems. One of Moodle and Totara’s key integrations is with authoring tools. These 3rd party content authoring tools, such as Captivate, Camtasia and Storyline typically have their content integrated into the LMS through the use of SCORM objecst. This is a very commonly used feature of Moodle and Totara, although new standards and integrations are now being made more available. SCORM is a standard that has been around for many years and is starting to show its age, but a few other options are now available which enhance on certain features of embedded content within the LMS. Learning Tools Interoperability is another method of embedding content within the LMS. LTI main difference is the location where the content is stored. This type of integration allows content stored in LTI compliant locations to be served to the LMS and displayed directly through a Moodle course. The functionality to integrate in this way is available out of the box in Moodle. Content can be served or host on other LMS sites or could be authored and managed through 3rd party content providers such as Lynda.com and OpenSesame. Other common content integrations typically involve streaming videos and other media fields. The Atto editor found in Moodle and Totara provides a number of nice features that allows you to author text content directly into the LMS. A common use of this is to embed videos directly into content areas. Youtube, Vimeo and other media servers can be easily embedded using the text editor allowing you to seamlessly add video content to your courses. The same text editor can also be used to embed content found on applications like Google Apps, Slideshare, Twitter and Facebook. Many of these applications have embed codes which can be used within the LMS to add spreadsheets, slideshow presentations, and social media feeds. Moodle and Totara feature integrations with cloud storage applications such as GoogleDrive, Dropbox and Office365. All these applications provide respositories which can be used to store organisational and learning content. These integrations are available out of the box but will need to be configured so they connect to the appropriate respository. These typically appear when using Moodles file picker functionality and can help with teachers uploading content, such as images, videos and documents, but they can also be used by learners when they are submitting assignments or adding other types of files to the LMS, such as through the forum.
- As we have seen, authentication plays a large role for many organisations. Customer’s wanted a fully integrated IT system, for great security and ease of access between the different applications. Moodle and Totara feature a number of different authentication methods out of the box. Older integrations using LDAP, CAS and External Databases are all available and compatible, but they are starting to be replaced by more modern standards such as OAuth2. This out of the box integration with Moodle is a really easy and nice way to tie the LMS authentication in with Google, Microsoft and Facebook. Moodle has made the setup of this piece really easily so if you are using Google or Microsoft products and want your users to login using these credentials it is very easy to get this integration going. This is a feature that is available in Moodle 3.3 out of the box. We will see that there are more options available if this particular one doesn’t meet your requirement Totara’s core industry focus is on corporate and compliance based organisations that require the ability to track learner’s positions and roles within the organisation and assign learning associated to this. To aid with this process, Totara features out of the box automated user upload functionality called HR import, which is designed to ingest user and job assignment information. This integration plays a key role within Totara and helps trigger many of the automated enrolment features that make it ley differentiator to Moodle. As you can see there are a wide number of possibilities with regards to integrating Moodle and Totara to other systems directly out of the box. This functionality should give you confidence that both LMS’s and effectively connect to other systems within your organisation quickly and easily with out significant technical resources. Moodle and Totara are both very extendable applications with a large library of community plugins that can be installed easily.
- So Moodle and Totara both come with a lot of functionality out of the box, but a large number of community plugins allow the applications to be extended even further. Many of the integrations associated with plugins are typically used to connect the LMS to other 3rd party services. Common integrations include webinar platform integrations with Cisco WebEx, Adobe Connect, Zoom and BigBlueButton. Webinar integrations typically allow you to schedule webinars sessions directly from the LMS without having to visit the associated platform. Attendance tracking and other report is usually included so you can see who registered and attended for any given event. As previously mentioned Moodle and Totara can connect into course content libraries such as Lynda.com and Opensesame via an LTI connection. There is a lot of content that has already been created which may already fit your need. This is particularly true for compliance based training due to the standardisation of the content. Although the integration is typically easy to do and freely available, accessing the content usually requires a subscription to the content hosts’ services. eCommerce plays an ever more important integration with the LMS, espcially for customer’s looking to sell their courses to different organisations. These systems typically allow courses to be organised in a store front or market place design. They allow transactions to be tracked and invoices to be sent. There are usually some unique services that can be augmented with the LMS such as plagiarism detection, restricted or locked down browsers and clicker functionality. All the plugins involved in these integrations are usually freely available. However the services that they are bringing to the LMS usually incur addition subcriptions. Authentication can also be heavily enhanced through some of the community plugins. Some of the plugins available allow for authentication via SAML2, OpenID and OAuth2. These plugins can be configured to allow integration into some of the complex IT environments. The ultimate goal of these authentication protocols is Single Sign On which can be accommplished by configuring these plugins effectively.
- If no native functionality or community plugins are available, typically your first port of call will be to use Moodle & Totara’s web services functionality. Web Services are interfaces that are built into web applications, which typically allow other computer systems to communicate with the application. Web services are common place across many web applications and allow you to perform a variety of tasks remotely, without having to be on the LMS itself. They allow for remote applications, such as CRM & SIS systems to push and retrieve information from Moodle or Totara, directly without having to use features such as CSv or excel file uploads.. Moodle and Totara include Web Service functions that allow for the creation and management of users, Enrolment of learners into courses and the retrieval of completion and grade information. The library of different web services on offer is quite extensive although these can be easily extended.
- Sometimes there are no plugins or native integrations available. At this point you will likely need to consider custom development. This can sometimes be a bit of a daunting prospect but your Moodle and Totara partner should be able to help you with this process.
- What information would be useful to be shared between the two systems. What do you intend to accomplish through the integration? Working with a Moodle or Totara partner can usually help you identify the most appropriate path to take with regards to an integration. Partners have usually completed integrations or customisations fo the LMS and know what system can and cannot do in specific workflows. So this is the reason why Lambda Solutions is talking to you today. If you have an existing Moodle or Totara site and you are looking to integrate the system another IT system, we can certainly help.
- Lambda solutions is a specialised LMS hosting provider that focus on the deployment of Moodle and Totara LMS’s Both of these systems are highly flexible and extremely cost effective allowing you to deliver your learning content through a feature rich LMS. We have built a specialised hosting platform and operations team so that your LMS is responsive and high performing with minimal downtime. Our development team has a unique understanding of Moodle and Totara’s architecture and so they build custom integrations and solutions as per our customers requirements. We have a wealth of experience with content, user information, authentication and reporting integrations giving our customers access to the information and functionality they need. We have also constructed a purpose built LMS analytics platform called Zoola Analytics which offers you complete control and access to your learning data. Finally we have over 12 years of experience with Moodle and Totara, which allows us to deliver world class support, training and onboarding to all of our customers.
- Here are some of the customers that the have worked with for Moodle and Totara deployments. Each one of these customers has required unique setup and integration configurations that our team has been able to assist with in an effective manner. So that concludes today’s demo. We have some time at the end to discuss an questions that you have about today’s presentation and the integration options that are available.
- What is the most common type of integration? How long can an integration typically take? How often is custom development required to complete an integration?