Moodle: External tool connections

Teachers can link Moodle courses to several external software and publishing platforms. This can make it easier for students to access course-specific resources on that platform and enable the platform to add grades to Moodle's gradebook.

Safety and ethical considerations

Before you ask your students to use third-party platforms, please make sure you and they understand and know how to mitigate any risks:

• Review the platform's terms of service and privacy policy. When you use a third-party platform, you are bound by its policies; you should find links to them in the platform or the publishers' website. Pay particular attention to sections concerning ownership of content and data users upload, how the company will use them, and how long they will keep them. (Note that these terms complement, but do not supplant the College's acceptable use, data handling and web accessibility policies.)
• Minimize privacy and data security risks by deleting identifiable records as soon as possible. The longer content is online, the greater the opportunity for it to be hacked. You can mitigate risks by deleting student-submitted content, grades/feedback, and recordings or images of identifiable students at the end of each semester. (Export archival copies of records you need to keep longer before deleting them and store on your computer or a secure network drive.) 
• Be especially cautious about assignments and discussions involving sensitive topics. Consider using offline approaches or built-in Moodle tools instead, or deleting submissions immediately after the discussion or assignment ends. 
• Consult with our educational technology specialists if you have any questions about particular tools or need advice on best practices and mitigation options for particular assignments. 

Available external tool connections

Below are the platforms that are linked to Moodle.     

JoVE Education 

Add natural sciences and psychology content from JoVE Education to a Moodle course.

LinkedIn Learning

Use this tool to link to over 16,000 e-learning courses hosted on LinkedIn Learning. You also can link to playlists you create. All Bryn Mawr community members have automatic access with their college email. 

Macmillan Learning

Add ebooks and assignments from Macmillan Learning, including those contained in its online learning system, Macmillan Achieve.

McGraw Hill

Add ebooks and assignments from a major education publisher to your Moodle course. This can be done through two McGraw Hill platforms, Connect and Go. 

NameCoach

Build a more inclusive and supportive classroom environment by encouraging course participants to record and listen to the pronunciation of each other's their names.

Oxford Learning Link

Use this tool to connect to ebooks and activities from Oxford University Press.

Panopto

Record lectures and instructional audio or video, share recordings with students, create videos with embedded quizzes, or create student video assignments.

Perusall

Help students engage with and better understand course readings through collaborative annotation and discussion.

Piazza

An alternative to  Moodle's Forum activity with additional features for managing discussions and meaningful Q&A in large courses. 

Zoom

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

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. A member of our Moodle team will follow up for more information. 

Some general guidelines to keep in mind:

• We can only connect to platforms that support LTI 1.3 integration. 
• 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 outside connections to Moodle. 
• External platforms should comply with the College’s Web Accessibility Policy and Accessibility Policy for Classroom Instruction. Many publishers provide detailed accessibility information on their website; if not, ask the sales rep for a VPAT.  
• Adding a new connection typically takes 1-2 months. LITS and the Counsel's Office must conduct a thorough legal, accessibility, and data-security review before we can approve a connection, and LITS will work with the vendor to install and configure it on our test instance of Moodle to ensure it doesn't conflict with existing features, before adding it to our main Moodle site.

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