Moodle@Kidderminster College An insight Into the College VLE Graham Mason gmason@kidderminster.ac.uk

History VLE’s are like a phenomenon that moves sometimes at a ferocious pace and then sometimes at a pace that can infuriate Within the College we have had a VLE for a number of years (about five years) and always had a strong cohort that are willing to have ago I don’t need to convince you to use Moodle, Moodle will do it for you JISC advocates open source technology JISC Core Middleware Bid 04/2004

The Project “Birth of KC-ROLO” Securing a successful JISC Bid as lead institution 04/04 Started with an IdP on Linux (Fedora Core 2) Although the Internet2 documentation was accurate in its description of how Shibboleth works The technical guidelines were generic and not specific, this was apparent in creating an “SP”

Get the Documentation in place Our main ally was documentation Log progress at each step With pre-written scripts to download Continually updating scripts

What is “Shibboleth” It’s “Middleware”

KC-ROLO Identity Provider The Project “Where to Start?” KC-ROLO Identity Provider Handle Service connected to Active Directory via Apache auth_ldap Then PubCookie from the University of Newcastle (good cookbook) Finally IIS “Integrated Windows Authentication” for a true once only login experience Attribute Authority connected to Active Directory (commonName) (department) (mail) We haven’t implemented the “EduPerson” class

KC-ROLO Service Provider Used different platforms to gain experience in each one Repository SP on a Windows 2003 Box VLE’s SP on a Linux Box

How we’re using Shibboleth To share internal VLEs with different sections To share VLEs with partner institutions To share learning objects with partner institutions

Moodle Use Moodle for Virtual Learning Environment Latest versions Shibbolized out of the box Split into sections, students/staff may need access to other Moodles

Repository Open Source repository (in PERL) Contains learning objects, NLN and custom materials Search front end protected by shibboleth, no code change Shibbolized repository submitter, only members of Kidderminster College with the “Staff” attribute can submit.

Without Shibboleth

With Shibboleth

Benefits to the Users No multiple logins to put them off Access to resources at other sites provides greater choice of materials Students & staff can collaborate with members of other institutions

Federation

Demo http://kc-vle.kidderminster.ac.uk/portal

Future Developments

Summary We now see Shibboleth as an intrical part of the College JISC and other communities are very helpful Has helped to link ICT Services and the LRC through collaboration Shibboleth in Further Education Report

Questions? More info at: http://www.kidderminster.ac.uk/kc-rolo /