Phil Nicholls presented on Psydev's integration of the Student and Academic Information Profile (SAIP) with Moodle using the Learning Information Services (LIS) standard. Psydev created middleware that acts as a LIS listener to exchange user, course, and enrollment data between SAIP and Moodle in a standardized way. The integration was challenging due to data and service mapping between the systems but works successfully. Next steps include supporting additional LIS specifications and keeping up with changes to Moodle. A video demo of the integrated systems was shown.

1. Phil Nicholls
HEUG EMEA London 2013
Integrating SAIP with Moodle
using LIS

2. Introduction
• Psydev have created middleware to
integrate SAIP with Moodle, the ubiquitous
Open Source Learning Management
System
• The integration was made possible using
the open standard: LIS.
• I will present some information on LIS
• I will show the video demo of the
integration

3. Introduction: Phil Nicholls
• Software Developer since ’95 (mostly
standards)
• Psydev: consultants specialising in
interoperability standards
• “LIS Guy” / Tech Facilitator for IMS Global
• Based in Sheffield, UK
• www.linkedin.com/in/philnicholls
• @psydevuk

4. What is LIS for?
• Different systems take different views of
the same data.
• LIS is a specification that allows systems
to exchange information about people,
courses, groups, memberships and
outcomes in a standard way
• Commonly it is used to integrate Student
Information Systems (SISs) with LMSs…

5. LIS Scenarios
Student Information System
Learning Management System
Library Management System Learning Object Repository
Timetabling and Scheduling
Users, courses, enrollmentsUsers, enrollments
Users
Courses (+schedules) grades
Users
LIS APIs

6. Where did LIS come from
• The specification has been built over
several years by IMS Global, a not for
profit member organisation.
• LIS contributors include Oracle, Ellucian,
Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Psydev 
• www.imsglobal.org/developers/lisalliance

7. Why use a standard like LIS?
• Built by a wider community
• Removes need for people to code to many
individual APIs across lots of systems.
• Conformance Test support
• Avoids lots of “pairwise” integrations
• Easier migration path
• Opens opportunities with partners

8. Current State of Play
• Oracle and Ellucian have passed
conformance on the SIS end.
• Psydev (Moodle / Ref), Desire2Learn and
MoodleRooms have passed conformance
on the LMS end.
• Testing now for moving grade data to SIS
• Work now going on to look at Timetabling
and Scheduling

9. The Moodle Integration
• Psdyev had already created Gateway, a
“vanilla” database backed implementation
for LIS.
• We wanted to see if our approach would
work with an actual LMS.
• Moodle is well known to us, so it was a
natural choice.

10. How
• Use Psydev’s existing Gateway as the LIS
“Listener”:
– Java based / Tomcat / DB / VM, independent
of SAIP and Moodle
• Write a Moodle driver for Gateway
• Write moodle plugins to extend API where
required.

11. The Challenges
• Data Mapping between SAIP / LIS and
Moodle
• Service Mapping between SAIP / LIS and
Moodle
• Limitations / Differences in Moodle’s API
(at the time)
• Testing (BIG thank you to Oracle staff in
California, and NDUS)

12. What we learned
• Approach does work
• Bulk processing of SAIP extracts is strong
• Need to handle custom work, but
framework allows this
• Need to handle deviations from the LIS
model
• Approach extensible to other systems
(talking now to EPortfolio companies, but
also applicable to home grown)

13. What’s Next
• LIS Outcomes
– Code is written and internally checked, need
to get some testing time with Oracle
• Software As A Service
• Keep pace with Moodle (2.2, 2.3, 2.4 …
now 2.5)
• Other partner systems
• LIS 2.1 (next year?)

14. The Video
http://youtu.be/Mtr5OE4llBc

15. Links, Q&A
SAIP Moodle Video: youtu.be/Mtr5OE4llBc
Psydev’s white paper on LIS: bit.ly/15092xa
Moodle Integration Factsheet:
bit.ly/14seGs3
Spec: www.imsglobal.org/lis
IMS Global: www.imsglobal.org

16. Contact Details:
www.psydev.com
pjn@psydev.com
www.linkedin.com/in/philnicholls
@psydevuk