The following article explains how to download and install the Arlo for Moodle plugin on your Moodle platform. The Arlo for Moodle plugin is available as a free download or install from the Moodle plugin directory.
It also includes information about the configuration settings for the plugin, in addition to the settings required if you want to transfer grades and results back into Arlo once your users have completed their Moodle courses.
You must ensure all minimum Arlo for Moodle requirements are met prior to installing the plugin. If these requirements are not met, Moodle registrations will not be created and you will need to work with your Moodle host to resolve any configuration issues within Moodle.
- Visit the Moodle Plugin Directory.
- Open the Arlo for Moodle listing.
- Select the Versions tab.
- Download the latest version of the plugin at the top of the list and save locally to your computer.
- Log in to your Moodle platform as a user with Administrator access.
- Navigate to Administration Menu > Site Administration > Plugins > Install Plugins.
- Upload the ZIP file from your saved location.
- Press Install Plugin from ZIP File.
- Check the plugin validation report is successful.
- Press Continue.
- Press Upgrade Moodle Database Now.
- Press Continue.
- In Arlo, open the Contacts menu item.
- Click New Contact.
- In the First name field, type Moodle.
- In the Last name field, type Service Account.
- In the Email field, type moodleserviceaccount@<yourdomain>.com
- Open the Security section.
- In the Account type field, select Integration account (if you don't see this option you can tick the System administrator and Access to the API checkboxes instead).
- Press Save and close.
- Select the Moodle Service Account contact from the contact list.
- Click Activate Now.
- Enter a password for the contact. We recommend using a password generator.
Be sure to keep the password somewhere secure as you will need it later to connect Arlo to Moodle.
- Press Save.
You can access this page at any time by navigating to Moodle Administration Menu > Site Administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Arlo Connection.
- Enter your Arlo URL e.g. your-platform-name.arlo.co.
- Enter the username (email address) of the Arlo Moodle Service Account you created in Step 1.
- Enter the password of the Arlo Moodle Service Account you created in Step 1.
- Press Save Changes.
Once the connection light goes green (this may take up to five minutes), and as long as your Moodle instance meets the minimum requirements, you are now ready to connect Arlo courses and elearning to Moodle.
If the 'Enable webhooks' setting is disabled in Moodle, the plugin will go back to using the old syncing (non webhook) mechanism.
If re-enabled it will use the same Webhook as long as it is still active in Arlo. You can tell if it is active or not on the Enrolment settings > Webhook status page.
You can also disable the webhook inside Arlo by going to Settings > Advanced > Webhook endpoints, opening the relevant endpoint and changing the status to 'Disabled'.
Adhoc Task Setting - Only enable this setting if you plan to import a large number of registrations into Arlo. This will slow down the sync speed - e.g. not instant, but a couple of minutes, as it processes enrolments in batches rather than individually.
Webhooks must be enabled and set up for this setting to work.
It is not mandatory to change advanced settings however if required these can be changed. Navigate to Moodle Administration Menu > Site Administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Manage Arlo > Configuration to access these settings.
Match user accounts by setting
Before creating a new Moodle account the plugin will attempt to match against an Arlo contact record.
The options for matching are:
-
Method 1 (Default) - Arlo Contact FirstName, LastName, and Email
- This will attempt a match between the group of fields (Arlo Contact FirstName, LastName, and Email) and (Moodle user firstname, lastname, and email).
-
Method 2 - Arlo Contact CodePrimary
- This will attempt a match between fields Arlo Contact Code Primary and Moodle user id number.
-
Method 3 - Arlo Contact FirstName, LastName, and Email then Arlo Contact CodePrimary
- This Will try Method 1 if no match will then try Method 2.
If no match is found using any of the methods, a new Moodle user account will be created based on the Arlo contact information.
User account creation setting
This gives you the option to decide what method you would like to use to generate a username for a new Moodle user when new users are created by the Arlo for Moodle plugin.
In order to ensure that a username can be created, the available options are ranked in order. This means that if a user already exists with the username that has been generated, the next option will be used to generate an alternative username.
You can reorder the available options using the arrow buttons on the right hand side of the list.
- The Default role setting allows you to select the default role assigned to users enrolled using the Arlo for Moodle plugin. You can choose from the list below:
- Student (Default)
- Non-editing Teacher
- Teacher
- Manager
- The External unenrol action setting allows you to select the action that Moodle should carry out when a user enrolment is removed from Arlo, e.g. due to a registration cancellation.
- Unenrol the user from course. (Default)
- Disable course enrolment and remove roles.
- The Enrolment expiration action setting allows you to select the action that Moodle should carry out when a user enrolment expires (if you have an expiration date on your course).
- Disable course enrolment. (Default)
- Keep the user enrolled.
- Disable course enrolment and remove roles
The Welcome message enable/disable option is not available in plugin v.3.11.3 or higher
- The Send course welcome message setting allows you to select whether users should receive a Moodle welcome message email when they are enrolled in a course.
- Enabled (Default)
- Disabled
- This setting sends alerts to site administrators about the Arlo for Moodle plugin.
- This setting allows results to be pushed from enrolments to registrations in Arlo.
The communication settings article provides an overview and examples of the communication sent to users as part of the Arlo for Moodle integration and explains how to customise these emails.
Learn more about Arlo for Moodle's communication settings.
By pulling information from Moodle's gradebook, Arlo's integration with Moodle allows administrators to have real-time visibility and reporting on all your registrants in one place from your Arlo platform. This includes last accessed dates, learning progress, payment status, grades, and results.
Using completion tracking also updates your elearning registrants' statuses to completed automatically, allowing you to make the most of Arlo's automated certificates functionality.
Learn more about synchronising grades and results using the Arlo for Moodle plugin.
As per the information in Moodle's Installing plugins help article, "An administrator can enable updates deployment in Administration > Site Administration > Server > Update notifications. Then when updates are available, Install this update buttons are shown on the Plugins overview page. See Automatic updates deployment for more details."