Preface

For any organization that's considering implementing an online learning environment, Moodle is often the number one choice. Key to its success is the free, open source ethos that underpins it. Not only is the Moodle source code fully available to developers, but Moodle itself has been developed to allow the inclusion of third-party plugins. Everything from how users access the platform and the kinds of teaching interactions that are available through to how attendance and success can be reported--in fact, all the key Moodle functionalities--can be adapted and enhanced through plugins.

Using real-world examples, this book will show you how to enhance a default Moodle installation with novel plugins to authenticate and enroll users on to courses, new and interesting teaching interactions, new custom skins, and enhanced course layouts.

Obviously, a book of this length wona€?t be able to cover every single plugin type, but by the end of Chapter 9, Moodle Analytics, you will have a thorough grounding in Moodle plugin structure, a detailed understanding of how plugins should interact with Moodlea€?s internal Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and plenty of great ideas to help you enhance your Moodle installation with new, custom plugins. If you have developed a plugin you feel would be useful to the Moodle community, you should certainly consider submitting it to the Moodle Plugins Directory at https://moodle.org/plugins/.