Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Enhancing communication and collaboration

Richard Heath (richard.heath@port.ac.uk)Senior Educational Technologist, University of Portsmouth

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Background

• Approx. 23k students

• Moodle in use for 2 years

• Currently running Moodle 2.4

• Google Apps for Education (staff & students)

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

What are Google Groups?

• Mailing list

• Discussion board

• Access mechanism

– Google Docs

– Google sites

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Solution

• Create a Google Group for each Moodle course

• Enrol members of course into Google Group

– Lecturers as owners

– Students as members

• Synchronise membership regularly

• Create Google Groups from Moodle groups as needed

• Expose groups inside Moodle

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Aims

• Provide a RELIABLE mechanism for contacting students WITH attachments EASILY

• Allow sharing of Google Documents easily

• Create a simple method to facilitate online document collaboration

• Provide a foundation for further development

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Solution

• Local plugin

– Sync script (CLI) for mass creation

– Event listeners:

• Enrol/unenrol users

• Create/delete/edit courses

– Cron to process events

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Solution

• Block: My Google Groups

– List a user’s groups

– Provide email link

– Provide web link to group

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Roll-out

• Currently evaluating with academics in a number of departments

• University-wide roll-out for next academic year

Google Groups Integration with Moodle

Future development

• Creation of Google+ Communities?

• Integration of timetabling data to create groups

• Closer integration with Google Apps