Changing password requirements

I thought I'd already done a post about this but apparently I haven't.

When I did a round of internal testing on the first Moodle site the biggest hitch people had was creating a password.  The Moodle default is to require people to have at least one upper case, one lower case, one number and one non-alpha-numeric character in their passwords.  Nobody knew what a non-alpha-numeric character was.

At first I was just going to change the wording of the text on the sign up page to clarify the password requirements but then I found out how to change them.

As an admin, go to Settings > Site Administration > Advanced Features > Security > Site Policies and scroll down to Password Policy.  You can either uncheck the box so users can have whatever password they want or you can change the requirements in the boxes below.

I just turned the password policy off.  I know having stupidly complicated passwords is supposed to protect us all from the evils of the internet but if that security comes at the expense of users who can't be bothered Googling non-alpha-numeric then it's a bit useless.  Besides, users can still have a stupidly complicated password if they want.

Enabling SSO between Moodle and Mahara (Mahoodle)

There are a couple of documents you can look at to help you get you Moodle and your Mahara talking.

There is this PDF which is a bit out of date for Moodle 2.0 and there is this slideshow which has details for 1.9 and 2.0.

I am writing this as I read through the PDF as not everything in there is correct for my Moodle 2.0 build. I only found the slideshow version after I'd finished so I can't vouch for it. I suggest you have this post, the PDF and the slideshow open and go through reading all three at each stage.

Have a Moodle and a Mahara set up. I'm running a Moodle 2.0.3 and a Mahara 1.4

In Moodle, log in as admin. Go to Site administration > Advanced Features > Networking dropdown to On (I also enabled Portfolios while I was there, I don't know if this makes a difference.). Save Changes

In Mahara (as an admin) click on Networking under Configure Site. Enable Networking dropdown to Yes.

Save changes.

Still on Mahara, go to Admin home and click on Institutions under Manage Institutions.

The PDF says at this point you can either edit the default institution or add a new one. Seeing as this Mahara might be used with more than one Moodle I am adding a new institution.

Fill the Institution Name. This can be only letters, no spaces or numbers.

Fill in the Display Name. This can contain letters, numbers and spaces.

Click Submit.

I think, going forward, you can change the Display Name. The Institute name can't be change but it isn't seen by users.

Still on the Administer Institutions page, from the Authentication Plugin dropdown choose XMLRPC and click Add. You'll get a popup. Enter an Authority Name. Only Admins will see this. I used "Learning XMLRPC" because I think I'll have to set up another one for the Student Association Moodle.

The Parent Authority is not in the same place as it is in the pdf, it's a bit further down. I've left it as none.

In the WWWroot box enter the web address of your Moodle including the http. For me this is http://moodle.companyname.org.uk

The pdf doesn't mention what to put in the Site Name box. From the help popup I think this is how the Mahara will refer to your Moodle so I've put "Learning Site" Hopefully this can be changed later.

Choose Moodle from the Application dropdown adn leave the port alone unless you know what this is. I don't.

I've chosen "They SSO in" from the dropdown and ticked all three of the boxes below. I think this means users can access the Mahara from the Moodle site (they will be automatically signed in to Mahara), Mahara will check the Moodle database for changes and update its own database every time a user logs in, Mahara will automatically create a database entry is it is a new user and finally users can import content from Moodle.

Click submit.

The popup should close and your new XMLRPC authentication plugin instance should appear on the Administer Institution page next to Authentication Plugin. If you've done something wrong you'll get an error message. Double check your settings. I can't offer you any more advice than that cuz mine worked. *smug*

Everything else on the Administer Institution page should be fine so click submit.

Back on Moodle go to Settings > Site Administration > Advanced Features > Networking > Manage Peers

Under Add New Host enter your Mahara web address including http and select Mahara from the Application Type dropdpwn. Click Add Host.

You should get a page with a big block of seemingly random letters. This means it has worked. You can change what is in the box marked Site. I think this is how Moodle refers users to your Mahara and is editable later too. Click Save Changes, the same you should get a changes successful message before being redirected back to the same page with new tabs at the top.

Click the services tab.

Leave Remote enrolment service and Portfolio services alone for now because the PDF is out of date and I don't know what those are for. Under SSO (Identity Provider) check Publish and under SSO (Service Provider) check Subscribe. Click Save Changes.

Go to Settings > Site Administration > Advances Features > Plugins > Authentication > Manage Authentication and open the eye next to MNET Authentication. (MNET means Moodle Networking which is what it used to be called.)

You don't have to change any of the settings associated with this plugin but if you go into them you'll see the list of sites in your Moodle network, at this stage this should just be your Mahara.

Go to Settings > Site Administration > Advanced Features > Users > Permissions > Define Roles. Select Authenticated user and click the edit icon. Scroll to "Roam to a remote application via MNetmoodle/site:mnetlogintoremote" and check Allow. Save Changes.

Go to your Moodle homepage and turn editing on. Add a Network Servers block. This should have your Mahara in it and allow your users to be automatically logged in.

It didn't work for me and I don't know why yet so I'll update this post when I suss it out.

Edit: OK, so I went back into the Define Roles page and for some reason the box Roam to remote applications box wasn't checked even though I had checked it. Either way I checked the box and made sure I saved the changes and now the Network Server box displays the Mahara link properly. Success!

Edit 2:  I just set up SSO from a second Moodle (the Student Association site) to this Mahara following these instructions and it worked like a charm.  So my Mahara is set up so that users can access it directly from either of the Moodles but not from the Mahara sign in itself.

New Moodle (or Noodle if you will)

One of my colleagues has just talked to me about setting up a new Student Association.  She had in mind a website that, for a small fee, would allow users access to various forums, resources and job notices.  Sounds like a Moodle to me.

So I'm going to blog about this Moodle from the beginning like I should have done with the other one.  For anyone who has read my previous posts this Moodle will be referred to as the Student Association and the other one will be called The Training Portal (even though its name hasn't been decided yet).

Also, boss wants some kind of portfolio system set up alongside the training site so I'm looking into Mahara.  I think I'm going to try and set it up so users of the student site can begin a portfolio which they can keep using once they (hopefully) begin their careers and use our training programmes.  We could also offer a digital membership card to the student association that could remain in their portfolio as a kind of status.

I've had the IT man set up a new Moodle but it's just occurred to me the Student Association could just exist as a course within the training Moodle.

Terminology - What's in a name?

At the moment we're calling the Moodle site the 'Online Learning Portal' but my manager isn't sold on the name and neither am I honestly.  I have a meeting about the site tomorrow so I'm going to march in there with a list of words and make someone pick a new name.

Current Issues

Things are still quiet on the Moodle front as I've been updating course content but recently I've had a couple of meetings that have thrown up a few issues I need to keep in mind.

The biggest thing on the horizon is still the payment gateway which I talked about earlier.  Despite being told it would be up and running by the end of August it is still in the planning stages.  I have almost got it straight in my head how it might work but I have another meeting scheduled in a couple of weeks time to discuss it with all the relevant parties and they'll probably tell me I'm wrong.  I'll do a more detailed post about that later.

We've had a bit of a reshuffle at work and I've got some different responsibilities and one of my colleagues has been tasked with project managing the now training portal.  He probably should have been told this six months ago when I started working on it but that would have made too much sense.  In these meetings we've been having there have been a lot or paper work requirements thrown up such as risk assessments and action plans.

Fair to say I am more than happy to let him "project manage" the paper work and I'll just stick to the geekery.  Unfortunately, because I know the project and he doesn't, I'm probably going to have to chip in.

Some of the paper work he needs to make up devise is:

Action Plan: An overall plan or time line of what needs to happen.  I'm thinking a Gantt Chart might come in handy.


Course Format: I need to sit my superiors down and get the ultimate OK on how I am structuring the courses.  Since discovering the book module I've been converting courses to that but it has a more basic completion requirement than lessons do and I don't want to change all the courses just to have my boss decide that it's not good enough.

I also need to devise a set of rules that dictate how the course material is set out when it gets to me.  The course material I have been given so far has come as Power Point presentations, the trainers have thought about what they want the slide to look like and what font they want to use and then spent time making everything look pretty.  This, it turns out, is a complete waste of time because I have to strip all that formatting out before putting it into Moodle.  Also, some weren't including quiz questions or were suggesting games that weren't suitable.  So I need write a document that explains to them clearly what I need from them and how I want it as well as what games I can make.

Part of the course format is going to be writing the brief that customers can read before they buy the course (because I can't be bothered to write them) and also deciding what level the courses are aimed at (management, general staff, etc.).

Terminology: Currently the site is being called the Learning Portal and the courses are broken up into Lessons.  My boss said she doesn't like that so we need to decide what else to call them.  Ideas were tossed around to have a staff suggestion box but I think the best way of getting a result before I die of old age is if I make a list of all the terms I can think of and camp in my boss's office until she picks one.

There are probably other words on the site that some people won't like, such as calling students Learners, which need to be agreed on so I don't have to spend a week going through everything and changing every instance of the word 'forum' to 'message board'.

Proofing Process: Firstly all the information needs to be up to date and accurate, this ties into the review process.  There also needs to be a process to ensure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes, this is just basic quality assurance.

If the course content comes to me meeting the course format requirements I should just be able to copy and paste it into Moodle which will cut out quite a lot of mistakes (at the moment the text was spell checked when I got it but then I had to re-write quite big chunks and introduced my own mistakes.)  Once text is online changing one little spelling mistake is a bit of a job so I need to minimise the chance of them happening.  For quizzes and questions (especially using HotPot) changing a spelling mistake is even more arduous so it's really important the course format rules are stuck to.

Even assuming I've done everything I can to minimise the chance of spelling mistakes the online content still has to be proofed.  Luckily there is a lady in my office who is a self confessed officer in the grammar police and she works in my department so I should be able to pass the courses to her for a final proof.  This proofing process needs to be given a time scale so I can predict how long it takes to put a course online.


Testing Process: The whole portal needs to be tested for bugs and usability.  I already had people in the office look at it to get some feedback on how straightforward the site was to use and no one seemed to have any major problems (except not being able to create a suitable password but I already fixed that).

After I have the course format and visual style set in stone I think the site will need another round of internal testing.  I might even have to sit next to people and watch them use it so I can pick up on any areas that could be improved.  Then it will be on to closed testing, we'll find a bunch of people who fit into the target customer base and give them free access to the training site on the proviso that they answer a ridiculously detailed evaluation questionnaire.

When the site is ready for public consumption I think there will need to be at least six months of public beta testing.  This will basically be a disclaimer and a detailed evaluation questionnaire so the site can be improved and nobody will get their panties in a major wad if something doesn't work.  This initial period might contain a price discount as well.

Review Process: We recently had a situation at work with some of the companies existing online courses, someone complained that the content was out of date.  Turns out the course hadn't been updated since 2008.  To avoid this in the future I figure each course should be reviewed at least once a year.  They'd have to be reviewed by one of our subject experts because it'll be things like new legislation and terminology that they'll need to look at.  These are pretty busy people so I figure giving them assigning a month for each course to be reviewed would work.

Risk Assessment: What are the risks associated with a Moodle site?  The obvious ones I can think of:

• Data protection: Student data, especially once we start taking credit card details.
• Server Crashes: Resulting in people not being able to access the course they've paid for and us losing data.
• The site being hacked: Could result in learner details being stolen, data being lost or the site being vandalised.
• Accessibility issues.
• Learners not being satisfied with the quality of course material and complaining.

CPD Certification: We want all the courses to be CPD UK certified.  I have no idea what this entails so it's probably best we find out sooner rather than later in case they have to meet certain requirements. Somebody mentioned the courses have to count as a certain number of points or hours so that has to be figured out.

Price: As I mention, the price will probably change after we've had some initial feedback but we do have to decide how much we're going to charge for these courses.  Will they all be the same price?  Will there be a discount for multiple purchases?  How big a discount will members get?

Evaluation Questionnaire: There needs to be an evaluation questionnaire for each stage of the testing process.  I need to decide what I need to know from my colleagues who I trick into choose for my internal testing pool.  Then I need to decide what I need to know from the closed testing process and the public users.  And finally there will be an evaluation questionnaire that all customers will be asked to fill in, we need to decide if learners have to complete the evaluation before they get their certificate or if we make it optional.

How the forums will be used: This is one of Marketing's big concerns because they seem to think the boards will be hijacked by trouble makers who want to slag us off.  I don't think it will be as bad as that but I think comments will need to be moderated.  Initially I think we'll just use the News forum (which only admins and teachers can post to) to post news and updates.  I've set up a couple of boards and put links in courses to try and encourage learners to share specific ideas with each other.  I think this would be a good starting point as the boards can be moderated on the grounds that they are for specific conversations.  I don't think they will be so popular that I won't have time to moderate them myself but if they do take off more time might have to be given to their moderation.

Backups: A backup process needs to be hammered out to make sure nothing gets lost if something explodes.  Ideally this should be automated but I have yet to be able to find a way of doing it, it might be that I have to do a manual backup every Monday morning.

See?  I have a lot to think about.