Book Image

Moodle 4 Administration - Fourth Edition

By : Alex Büchner
Book Image

Moodle 4 Administration - Fourth Edition

By: Alex Büchner

Overview of this book

This updated fourth edition of the classic Moodle Administration guide has been written from the ground up and covers all the new Moodle features in great breadth and depth. The topics have also been augmented with professional diagrams, illustrations, and checklists. The book starts by covering basic tasks such as how to set up and configure Moodle and perform day-to-day administration activities. You’ll then progress to more advanced topics that show you how to customize and extend Moodle, manage authentication and enrolments, and work with roles and capabilities. Next, you'll learn how to configure pedagogical and technical Moodle plugins and ensure your LMS complies with data protection regulations. Then, you will learn how to tighten Moodle’s security, improve its performance, and configure backup and restore procedures. Finally, you'll gain insights on how to compile custom reports, configure learning analytics, enable mobile learning, integrate Moodle via web services, and support different types of multi-tenancy. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to set up an efficient, fully fledged, and secure Moodle system.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)

Configuring Moodle web services

First, you must activate web services via the Enable web services setting in Site administration | General | Advanced features. The setting is linked to the Enable web services for mobile devices parameter on the same page; the latter cannot be enabled without the former.

Important note

Enabling web services is a potential security risk, as you grant Moodle access to outside users and systems. The mantra should always be “open up as few services and functions as possible.”

Second, you have to enable the Web services authentication plugin (Site administration | Plugins | Authentication | Manage authentication). No configuration is needed, as Moodle handles all handshake operations and communication internally.

Moodle supports two types of external services that can connect via web services:

  • Built-in services: These are preconfigured services where the set of supported functions cannot be modified. The Moodle mobile web...