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MOODLE REPORTING TOOLKITVersion 2.0
User Guide
J ISC FE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES PROGRAMME INNOVATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Project Team
Project ManagerIsmael Dabo
Software DeveloperJon Hampton
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction................................................................................1Prerequisites....................................................................................1System Requirements......................................................................2
Installation..................................................................................3Logo.................................................................................................3Database Links................................................................................3
Linking to ProAchieve...............................................................................4Linking to Moodle.....................................................................................4Links within the Toolkit.............................................................................5
Data Import................................................................................7Moodle Import..................................................................................7
Legacy Log Data......................................................................................7College Data Import.........................................................................8ProAchieve Data Import...................................................................9
Using Reports..........................................................................10Student Reports.............................................................................11Course Reports..............................................................................12College Reports.............................................................................12Teacher Reports............................................................................12
Settings....................................................................................13Change College Structure Order...................................................13Clear System.................................................................................15
M O O D L E R E P O R T I N G T O O L K I T
Introductionhe Moodle Reporting Toolkit can be used by Colleges to analyze the way in which their Moodle VLE is being used. It can aid identifying at risk learners, demonstrate use by learners for independent study, drive quality
improvement, identify good practice and provide evidence of the impact of the use of Moodle on achievement.
TThe toolkit draws information from Moodle, Compass ProAchieve and college MIS data and based upon a Microsoft Access 2010 database.
PrerequisitesThere are many different ways that Moodle is deployed and used within colleges as well as many different college MIS applications. This project aims to mitigate the differences between institutions and be quite agnostic in its requirements. Three sources of information are needed by the toolkit:-
1. Moodle VLE – A read-only ODBC connection is required to the SQL Moodle server. The toolkit mainly uses the log data so reporting will be available for only the academic years that there is log data.
2. Compass ProAchieve – A read-only ODBC connection is required to the ProAchieve MS SQL server. Like the Moodle data, there needs to be data within ProAchieve for the academic years to be reported on.
3. College Course and Student data extracted from the college MIS system into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
1 ODBCODBC
Moodle ToolKit (MS Access)
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Diagram showing the data sources required by the ToolKit
System RequirementsThe toolkit requires Microsoft Access 2010 (or later) to be installed with the required 32-bit ODBC connectors also in place on the client machine.
At the moment the toolkit is implemented as a single user system, it may be possible in the future to enable multiple users.
Although single user this does not mean that the application is ‘stand-alone’ a constant network connection to the data sources is required in order for the toolkit to operate correctly.
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Installationssuming Microsoft Access 2010 or later is installed on the client machine a folder should be created with an appropriate name and the Moodle Toolkit database file copied there.A
LogoEach report can be customized with an organization’s logo or graphic such as the one below.
The logo/graphic should be a maximum of 500 pixels wide by 180 pixels high and in the GIF file format.
The logo is changed on the settings screen as described here.
Database LinksThe two ODBC links required by the toolkit need a one-time configuration in Windows control panel and will only need modifying in the toolkit itself if it is replaced with a new version. It is likely that Microsoft Access uses 32bit ODBC connectors which are configured at this location C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe do not navigate via the Control Panel as this will open the 64bit version. If you are using a 64bit version of MS Office you will need to navigate via the Windows Control Panel using
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Then selecting ‘Data Sources (ODBC)’.
Either method brings up this panel:
The ‘ODBC Data Source Administrator ‘ panel looks identical in its 32 and 64bit versions.
It is advisable to only add sources via the second tab – ‘System DSN’.
Linking to ProAchieveAdd a new ‘SQL Server’ connection with the name ‘ProAchieve’ and a meaningful description (such as ‘ProAchieve’ as shown). The server name is then selected (this will probably not be obvious so will need to be supplied by IT/MIS).
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The DSN configuration tab with ‘name’ and ‘description’completed.
On clicking ‘Next’ you are taken to a screen where the access information need to be entered, how this is done is unique to your installation.
The credentials will need to have been configured by MIS/Technical staff granting read access to the server databases. Test the link is working by clicking to the final screen and clicking ‘Test Data Source…’ - the configuration is now complete.
Linking to MoodleThe connection to the Moodle server is not quite as obvious as it can be hosted on many different platforms (e.g. Windows, Apple or Linux computers running MS SQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL etc.). You may already have a connection configured to Moodle and you just need a new one creating with the name ‘moodledb’. If you have no connection set up to Moodle the relevant ODBC driver will need to be configured first – remembering to install the 32 or 64bit version as necessary.
Further information about ODBC links and Moodle is found here: https://docs.moodle.org/20/en/ODBC
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On successful completion of the ODBC connector configuration the ODBC Data Source Administrator should look similar to this:
The System DSN part of the ODBC panel, after successful addition of the two required connections.
Links within the ToolkitThe database links should be preconfigured within the Toolkit but it may be necessary to refresh them (this will only need to be done once).
Launch the Toolkit by double-clicking its application file in Windows.
The first time you load the Toolkit you may notice this message:-
Just click the ‘Enable Content’ button to dismiss.
Now launch the ‘Linked Table Manager’ within MS Access which is located in the ‘External Data’ menu as shown.
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Image showing where to launch the ‘Linked Table Manager’
This should launch a panel as shown below:
The Linked Table Manager showing the various external database links used.
The links to ProAchieve all start with ‘dbo_’ and the links to Moodle all begin with ‘mdl_’. To establish/refresh a link ensure the ‘Always prompt for new location’ is ticked and select the links with a tick to the left as shown above. After clicking ‘OK’ the following is presented:
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Select Data Source dialogue box.
Select the relevant data source i.e. ProAchieve or moodledb then click ‘OK’ – it may be necessary to repeat depending on the number of links selected.
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Data Importhere are three sets of data required for the Toolkit to work, which need to be imported in order to ensure the required results. The first is the Moodle data, followed by College data (which comprises of Course and Student data)
and finally the data from ProAchieve. The toolkit can report on many different academic years but can only hold one year of data at a time.
TMoodle ImportAll imports are done from the toolkit blue home screen. Always select the correct year before any imports and ensure this remains selected for reporting.
Toolkit main screen showing academic year selector for importing and reporting. The two Moodle import buttons required for different versions of Moodle.
The majority of Moodle sites will be running a version higher than 2.5 so the right hand button is used. For those with older deployments prior to 2.6 the left hand button is used. The import may take several minutes to perform as there could be millions of lines of log to process – a dialogue will show when completed.
Legacy Log DataThe way Moodle stores logs was completely changed in version 2.6, it may be that your site has chosen to stay with ‘Legacy’’ logs or even has a hybrid of ‘Legacy’ and new – so if you have ‘Legacy’ data for a year you wish to report on, use the left hand button.
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College Data ImportThese two files essentially act as a bridge between Moodle and ProAchieve systems; they both have a similar format of just four fields of which two are mandatory. The structures are as follows:
Course File (Courses.xls) <Crs_Year> <Crs_Mdl_id> <Crs_Coll_id> <Crs_PA_id>
Student File (Students.xls) <Stu_Year> <Stu_Mdl_id> <Stu_Coll_id> <Stu_PA_id>
The two files are are both MS Excel .xls spreadsheets saved with the above fields as column headings. Only the mandatory fields in bold need to be included in the file.
An example of the ‘Course’ file with all fields present
An example of the ‘Student’ file with just one non-mandatory field
The ‘Year’ fields indicate the span of the academic year with four digits e.g 1213, 1314, and 1415.
‘Coll_id’ represents the student or course code as stored in the MIS system.
‘Mdl_id’ represents the student or course code as stored in Moodle.
‘PA_id’ represents the student or course code as stored in ProAchieve.
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Only if the Moodle (Mdl_id) or ProAchieve (PA_id) data differs from the College data do those two columns need importing and also only the values that are different need including i.e. fine to leave gaps in those two columns. The two files need to be saved as .xls (Excel 97-2003 Workbook) format in the toolkit directory with the file names ‘Courses.xls’ and ‘Students.xls’.
The files can now be imported using same screen as for Moodle import by pressing the two buttons respectively (order does not matter).
The ‘Course’ and ‘Student’ data import buttons shown respectively.
ProAchieve Data ImportThe final and simplest import is that of ProAchieve data. Simply use the final import button shown to finalize the data imports. This import should be run if any of the course or student data has been amended.
The toolkit is now ready to be used for reporting.
The ProAchieve import button
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Using Reportshe toolkit currently has four categories of reports, these are ‘Student’, ‘Course’, ‘College’ and ‘Tutor’. To access the reports screen press the button as shown below on the home screen – a new tab will open so any screen can be
easily navigated back to.T
The report screens all take a similar format with each one having a different colour to aid navigation. In the top right-hand corner there
is a close button which can be used to shut the current screen to return to the reports screen.
The four report screens are shown above.
There are several different types of report; the majority produces a formatted page ready to print or export, but some produce
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charts or tables allowing user configuration to produce the desired output.
Student Reports‘Actions by Course’ – This report shows Moodle actions by students by course broken down into six broad categories of action: ‘Views’, ‘Edits’, ‘Attempts’, ‘Submits’, ‘Updates’ and ‘Launches’.
Common to most of the reports is a floating dialogue which opens with the report as shown below. This particular filter box allows two different types of filtering which work independently of each other.
The top filter section (highlighted in blue) allows multiple selections from the three tier selection panes (i.e. one or more can be selected from each pane, with a minimum of just one value from a single pane required). After selection is made – click the Apply Filter button, to reset click the Remove Filter button.
The bottom filter section (highlighted in red) allows drill-down to one Tier 3 value. Select values from left to right starting with Tier 1 and the lists will automatically constrain, then press the bottom Apply Filter button.
Advanced filter box – with two different filter techniques.
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The report is grouped by the ‘Tiers’, then by Moodle course number and finally College course number. The status of the student is shown by a change in the colour of the student number as indicated by the key at the foot of the page.
‘Chart Action Data’ – On this screen student action data can be charted in an endless variety of ways. The default settings show total actions by gender by month for the academic year. Filtering can be actioned within the report itself.
Example of the chart screen
Everything on this report is customizable with over sixty fields of information accessible. The data used on x and y axis, as well as the chart area can be changed by drag and drop.
‘Pivot Action Data’ – This report is identical to the previous chart report but presents the data in a pivot-table format. Likewise the data presented can be altered using any of the available fields with the added advantages on this layout of being able to drill down or summarize.
‘Chart Course by Week’ – This report is a chart showing the total activity of a single course throughout the year by student. As only one course is selected a special filter dialogue is initially shown as below.
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Dynamic filter as used by ‘Chart Course by Week’ report
On selecting each tier filter, the list is automatically restricted to show only valid criteria, ending with the course selection. Press Open Chart when the required course is selected. This filter is a little slower to react than normal due to its dynamic nature.
The resultant chart displays a line of action activity for each learner on the course. The filter can be reapplied over and over from within the chart screen.
Course Reports‘Actions by Course’ – A similar report to that of the same name in the student section, but without the student level. The filter used by this report is the same as the top section of the filter as used in the student version. Also the total number of students per course is shown and the average number of actions per student. As with all the document reports the data presented is easily exported in a variety of formats from the data panel displayed above the report:
This panel in Access allows data from reports to be exported in various formats, including Excel, PDF and E-mail
‘MDL v All Success’ – This report compares the success rates of learners using Moodle to the rates of all users (including those using the VLE) at course level. As this report draws on
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achievement data it will only be of real value when used with complete ProAchieve dataset, the last year of which is 13/14.
College Reports ‘MDL v All By Area’ – Like the course level version but at ‘Tiered’ or ‘Area’ level, giving an overview of how the college use of Moodle compares and impacts on success rates. This report also requires complete ProAchieve data to give a true reflection.
Teacher Reports These two ‘teacher’ or ‘tutor’ reports are unique to the toolkit in that they only use Moodle itself for reporting. They both rely on course enrolments of ‘Teacher’ as Moodle has no standard way of identifying teachers at user level. Depending on how the Moodle is administered this may result in more teachers appearing than expected. There is no ‘Tier’ information from ProAchieve in these reports as tutors and Moodle courses could belong to multiple categories.
The information shown will be as per the year that the Moodle data was imported – changing the year dropdown on the front screen subsequently will have no effect on these reports.
Both current tutor reports use the same filter made from information drawn directly from Moodle as shown in the figure.
The two-pane filter as used by the Tutor reports
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‘Teacher Activity’ – Filtered report that shows teacher Moodle activity sorted by teacher name then course.
‘Teacher Activity by Course’ – Filtered report that shows teacher Moodle activity by course then sorted by teacher.
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SettingsT he settings page is accessible from the main screen by clicking the icon at the top right hand side as shown. On this screen maintenance tasks are available to the user which
affects the behavior of the toolkit.
On navigating to the settings screen two options are currently available; ‘Change College Structure Order’ and
‘Clear System’.
Click for Settings
View of the Settings screen
Change College Structure OrderThis option allows the ‘Tiers’ imported from ProAchieve to be swapped around to give different reporting options. On pressing this button another screen is presented with 3 buttons:-
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Options shown on the ‘Change College Structure’ screen
ProAchieve has the ability to hold the structure of a College in a scheme of up to four layers. The Toolkit is able to make use of the first three of these layers or tiers as they are known.
A typical College structure could as an example be Faculties-Schools-Cost Centres or it may be arranged geographically such as Site-Department-Section.
In the above structure it might be advantageous for site to be moved down to tier 2 or even tier 3 to split the presented data differently. This is easily achieved on this screen and will result in a change to any future reports that are run. Re-importing ProAchieve data from the front screen will reset any changes made on this screen.
In order to show the current structure and any changes made to the structure instantly, the bottom half of the screen shows the first record of the structure file.
Site
Dept
Section Section
Dept
Section
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
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Image of structure file record which in this case shows Curriculum Area- Section-Site
Clear SystemThis option on the settings screen will very simply clear the toolkit of all imported data. The below dialogue will be shown to confirm the deletion of data:-
Clear System down dialogue box
Changing LogoThe current logo in use is shown in the box on the settings screen.
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To change the logo, but the database into design mode by clicking on rightmost icon in the bottom right of the window :-
No logo installed yet
Design mode icon as selected
Left-click on the Insert Image button in the ribbon bar at the top of the screen then move the mouse down to where it says Logo, the area will turn orange. Next right-click and select Update from the menu that appears. A file browser will appear, navigate to and select your logo graphic from here. The image selected will instantly appear on the screen and be used throughout the toolkit.
Insert Image selected
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Finally, revert back to form mode by clicking on the left hand icon in the navigation bar used earlier.
Form mode icon as selected
Use Excel for ChartingBelow the change logo box is a setting to enable the charting for the Toolkit to be displayed outside of the program using Microsoft Excel.
This functionality requires that the accompanying spreadsheet ‘JISC Toolkit Charts’ is available in the same directory as the
project.
Radio button clicked to use Excel
The default is for this setting not to be selected when the Toolkit is opened. If using Microsoft Office 2010 it is not necessary to use this functionality, but it may be useful for the convenience of having charts in a spreadsheet format. However if using Microsoft Office 2013, the charting facility of Microsoft Access has been removed, so the only way to view the charts is by using this option.
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