[Moodle] Moodle and Maze

Thu Nov 12 09:39:44 EST 2009

When we started our Moodle we used self enrolment with a College email
address required for the confirmation.  We had two problems with this.
1.	Students could enter their own name.  They would regularly enter
inappropriate words instead of their name.  LDAP method sucks in the
students name from AD and then locks it so it can't be changed.
2.	Students set their own password.  They would then get confused
with their network password and would need us to reset it for them (Yes
Moodle has the ability to do that without assistance but at least 25%
had issues with this) 

We have a policy of trying to reduce the number of usernames and
passwords a person must remember. Using LDAP we now have all students
and 90% of staff down to just one username and password for everything
to do with the school.

Worth thinking about as once Moodle is a main part of the schools
infrastructure it can be hard to change the way it works.

Stephen Bloomer
sbloomer at stpeters.vic.edu.au 
Network Manager
St. Peter's College
Cranbourne-Frankston Road
Cranbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3977
Phone  +61 3 5996 6733
Fax      +61 3 5996 8277
-----Original Message-----
From: moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Laurie Savage
Sent: Thursday, 12 November 2009 8:46 AM
To: 'The Moodle Users' in Schools Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [Moodle] Moodle and Maze

This seems an overly complex solution to a simple problem. We've been
running Moodle for about 4 years now. I initially imported all the
students
by way of a csv file that I cooked in a spreadsheet. All enrolments
since
then have been done by the students themselves. I lock down the email
verification system so it will only work with legitimate college email
accounts. When a student creates a new account a confirmation email is
sent
to them, so the account must exist for them to verify their enrolment.
The
only checking I need to do is the occasional scan of the users' file to
see
if they have kept to our naming policy. It's stress free.

Laurie Savage
PVGC

-----Original Message-----
From: moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Paul Maxted
Sent: Wednesday, 11 November 2009 9:26 PM
To: The Moodle Users' in Schools Mailing List
Subject: RE: [Moodle] Moodle and Maze

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

We are still looking at all our options but I think we are settling on
Maze (MSSQL) exporting a csv file of student name, ID, course1, course2
etc (same with teachers) once per day. Cron will run a proprietary php
script to pick up the csv file and import it into Moodle's MSSQL dB
updating any differences i.e. students who have changed courses. At
least
that is my understanding...I might be quite wrong :)

I did float the idea of self enrollment that Julian proposes in one of
his
YouTube videos but our ICT committee was concerned that students will
get
the course keys from other students and start to muck things up.

I also floated the idea of putting more student info in the LDAP server
to
not only authenticate the user but also get the personal info.
Hmmmm....silence.

So I am back to internal authentication for the time being and trying to
sync Moodle and Maze via csv files.

regards
Paul

I think we are
> We do not use Maze so I can't help with that, but I think the main
> question will be what do you want as your final result?  Does maze
give
> you your class enrolments or is this just to identify users?
>
> If this is for authentication then I believe the best way to go it
link to
> Active Directory.  When a user logs in to Moodle for the first time
Moodle
> sucks the information from Active Directory to create the account and
> populates all information required, username, first and last name and
> email address etc.  When this is set up correctly you will never have
to
> create a new account again.  All I do is log in about once a year a do
a
> search for people who have not logged on for more than 180 days and
delete
> their account.  This is just to clean up old students as when students
are
> removed from Active Directory it automatically prevents them accessing
the
> Moodle site.
>
> For class access we use the enrolment key system.  This is especially
good
> at this time of the year.  Courses for junior years might not start
until
> Jan but the VCE subjects are already looking at giving out work for
the
> Christmas period so they can enrol their students now.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Stephen Bloomer
> sbloomer at stpeters.vic.edu.au
> Network Manager
> St. Peter's College
> Cranbourne-Frankston Road
> Cranbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3977
> Phone  +61 3 5996 6733
> Fax      +61 3 5996 8277
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: moodle-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Paul Maxted
> Sent: Wed 11/11/2009 8:51 PM
> To: moodle at edulists.com.au
> Subject: [Moodle] Moodle and Maze
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> About 4 months ago we installed Moodle 1.9.5 on a server in our own
server
> room at school. We connect to it via SSL and it is accessible for
teachers
> and students from within the school intranet and from home. We are now
> committed to rolling out Moodle to the whole school community next
year.
>
> At the moment I have been exporting students from our Maze v8 database
via
> a pdf, converting that to a csv file and importing that into Moodle.
This
> has been successful but clearly not a long term solution for 1200+
> students.
>
> Have you or do you know of anyone who has been able to synchronize
Maze
> with Moodle?
>
> thanks
> Paul
>
>
>
>
> --
> ICT Coordinator
> De La Salle College
> (03) 9508 2391
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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Teachers
> Association Inc

-- 
ICT Coordinator
De La Salle College
(03) 9508 2391

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http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
Moodle Mailing List kindly supported by
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_______________________________________________
http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
Moodle Mailing List kindly supported by
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
Authority and
http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
Teachers Association Inc