Moodle: External tool connections

Teachers can link Moodle courses to several external software and publishing platforms to make it easier for participants to access course-specific resources on those platforms and/or to send grade or completion data to Moodle. 

Available external tool connections

Below are the platforms that can currently be linked to Moodle courses.     

NameCoach

NameCoach gives course participants a way to listen to recordings of how each others' names are pronounced. Learning names and pronouncing them correctly helps to create a inclusive and supportive classroom environment.

Panopto

Panopto is the College's lecture-capture and video-streaming service. Instructors can use Panopto to record lectures and instructional audio or video, share audio and video recordings with students, create videos with embedded quizzes, and for student video assignments.

Perusall

Perusall is a social learning platform designed to help students engage and better understand course readings through collaborative annotation and discussion.

Piazza

Piazza is a third-party platform for facilitating online class discussion. It is similar to Moodle's Forum activity, but has additional features for managing discussions, enabling student questions, and providing meaningful answers, particularly in large courses. 

Zoom

Zoom is the College's primary service for instructional meetings. Instructors can use Zoom to hold and record online class sessions. They also can use it for non-class sessions such as office hours or discussions with outside speakers.

Use External Tools Safely

• Review the external tool's terms of service and policies. In particular, make sure they adhere to the College's Acceptable Use Policy and Data Handling Policy. External tools' policies can be found on their publishers' websites.
• Minimize privacy and data security risks by removing identifiable records as soon as possible.  Identifiable records include any writings, recordings, or images linked to a student's name or other identifying metadata. The longer such content is online, the greater the opportunities for it to be hacked. If you need to keep materials for long periods, export archival copies to store locally and delete the online originals. 
• Carefully plan assignments or discussions about sensitive topics. You may want to switch to analog methods, use built-in Moodle tools or adjust settings to reduce risk so there's no risk if participants' contributions are hacked or disclosed. Consult with our educational technology specialists about best practices and options for particular assignments. 

Request new connections

If you’d like LITS to connect an online educational tool or textbook to Moodle, please contact the Help Desk to put in a request and a member of our Moodle team will follow up for more information. Some general guidelines:

• We can only connect to platforms that support LTI integration. 
• Adding a new connection typically takes 1-2 months. LITS and the Counsel's Office LITS must conduct a thorough legal, accessibility and data security review and LITS must work with the vendor to install, configure, and test the connection on our Moodle test site before adding it to our main Moodle site.
• We will only create connections that present minimal security risks. Moodle creates, collects, and stores Level 1 Regulated and other sensitive data as defined by the College's data handling policy, so we must be extremely cautious about allowing connections to it. 
• External tools are subject to the College’s Web Accessibility Policy and Accessibility Policy for Classroom Instruction. Many publishers provide detailed information about the accessibility of their products and/or a VPAT on their websites or on request.  

Questions?

If you have any additional questions or problems, don't hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk!

Phone: 610-526-7440 | Library and Help Desk hours
Email: help@brynmawr.edu | Service catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor