Turn Moodle into an open educational resource publishing platform by “opening” and “closing” all or just parts of a course with the OpenShare block.
In This Document
- Requirements
- Known Issues
- Download OpenShare
- Overview
- How to Setup OpenShare
- How to License, Open, or Close Modules
- Restricted by Group and Grouping
- The Open Learner Role
- Additional Modification for OpenShare
Requirements
- Moodle 1.9x
- Groupings enabled
Known Issues
- Warning: This is a beta release and may not be fit for production-level Moodle servers.
- Warning: Because this mod uses Groupings and Groups, extensive testing with courses that use Groupings or Groups is needed.
- Problem: In OpenShare Modules the Javascript is overly-aggressive in matching license to open-status and open-status to licenses.
Fixes or updates will be noted below in the Comments.
Download OpenShare
Download the OpenShare block for Moodle
Overview
The OpenShare block for Moodle provides controls for setting one or more resources or activities in a course as closed (private, for enrolled class members only) or open (available to the public). This allows you to use Moodle as a publishing platform for opencourseware or open educational resources.
Open and Closed Modules (Resources and Activities)
Once a course has enabled OpenShare, you are responsible for marking all course resources or activities (aka modules) as closed or open. The default is open! You should also indicate the license for your resources and activities. Note that in order to mark any module as open you must first change it’s license from “Copyright” to Copyright-cleared, Public domain, or any specific Creative Commons license.
How to Setup OpenShare
Installation on the Moodle Server
Notifications- Download and unzip openshare.zip
- Move “openshare” into your moodle/blocks/ folder
- Login to Moodle as an Administrator and click Notifications
- Ensure Admin settings for Miscellaneous > Experimental > Groupings is ON.
Setup in a Course
The OpenShare block in Moodle- With Editing on, add the OpenShare block
- Enable OpenShare on the block–NOTE: the default status for all course modules is OPEN
- Use OpenShare Modules to set the licence(s) and open/closed status of one or more course modules
- Determine public access to the course through course Settings:
- As Guests (Allow Guest Access) with access to Open modules except activities.
- As Open Learners (Allow Registration; Default Role = Open Learner) with access to Open modules including some activities (e.g. quizzes)
How to License, Open, or Close Modules
The fastest way to mark the license of course resources or activities and list them as open or closed is en masse through OpenShare Modules on the OpenShare block. Here you can apply a change to the entire course, to whole module categories (e.g. Forum), or to individual resources or activities.
License, Open, or Close Resources & ActivitiesIf you have the optional modification to the Moodle core files (course/view.php and course/lib.php) you may also change the license or open status of individual modules from the course topics view when editing is turned on.
Restricted by Group and Grouping
OpenShare should set everything up for you with respect to Groups and Groupings. Here’s an overview of how it works:
The functionality of the OpenShare mod for Moodle is based on the (“experimental” in Moodle 1.9) “Groupings” feature. Thus, use of OpenShare requires that “Groupings” is enabled at the server level. Talk to your Moodle server admin about turning this on.
OpenShare “protects” closed modules from the public by setting those resources into a special Grouping called “Closed”, and making students, teachers, and editing teachers part of a special Group called “Course Members”. Both the “Course Members” Group and the “Closed” Grouping are set up automatically when you enable the OpenShare mod in your course.
OpenShare sets up a Group and GroupingAll other users (e.g. non-registered public users) may access open course materials one of two ways:
- as “Guests”–Guest access must be allowed in your course settings
- as “Open Learners” with self-enrollment–a custom role that allows enrolled non-student users to engage in course activities for self-learning, e.g. quizzes.
The Open Learner Role
Open Learners can interact with most activities in Moodle, but your system admin can customize this role to restrict activities (e.g. forums or any instance where they upload files). This is important because Open Learners may create a student information security danger if you mark collaborative or interactive activities as open–for practitioners in the USA I strongly encourage you to NOT allow Open Learners to access discussion forums, chats, or wikis because of FERPA law.
It’s also important to note that allowing Open Learners access to a live course may cause teacher confusion. The Course Members group and the Open Learner role help make it easy to filter out non-enrolled students.
The safest bet is to instead simply Allow Guest Access, however Guests are unable to interact with most Activities in Moodle and do not maintain their own Moodle identity, diminishing the potential impact of the OpenShare mod.
Notes on enabling and supporting the Open Learner role in OpenShare:
- Open Learner is a custom role installed automatically with the OpenShare block.
- By default this role does not allow forum access, but can be modified to allow for this.
- Enabling the OpenShare block in a course sets the Default Role to OpenLearner.
- For an Open Learner to “enroll” and access open content, you must set Course Enrollable toYes in your course settings.
- In order for the public to create user accounts on your Moodle server and take advantage of OpenShare courses, the server admin must allow self-registration under Users > Authentication > Manage authentication > Self registration
Additional Modification for In-Course OpenShare
This version of the mod requires no modification of core Moodle code. I do, however, have two snippets of code that modify course/lib.php and course/view.php and provide advanced usability of the mod.
An optional modification allows for OpenShare changes on the fly.