Because many of my students do not know how to use or simply do not use email (which is the default communication channel for Moodle), I am considering trying to integrate Moodle messaging with Line (overwhelmingly the most popular chat application in Japan). I have spent a couple of hours searching both in Japanese and in English for ways to do this, but have only come across a paywall-protected article that likely will not help.
If anyone has a notion about how to get started with such integration, please reply.
5 comments
Not sure how exactly it would work, but you could try using IFTTT – Line can integrate with it and I found this plugin for Moodle that can send Moodle events to external services (such as IFTTT, although I didn’t look at it specifically). So, if you can send event triggers to IFTTT and Line also integrates with IFTTT, you should be able to make a command like “If [Moodle event] then [Line message]”.
Maybe stumble thru moodlejapan.org and their conference presenters (at their yearly MoodleMoot), for someone who looks like they might know, or know who to refer you on to. Next idea might be a faculty member at a school now using moodle–e.g., ICU uses it, so if you know or can contact someone there, they may be able to help or redirect you.
Is there an API for it?
Moodle is inherently open and you can easily create a new message provider for Line. The difficult will come in how you associate and link accounts, assuming there is an API.
MAJ are very proactive in the Moodle community.
Moodle integration with the outside is not simple. It must be even harder when it’s in Japanese.
If I were in your shoes, I’d adapt the course to just use Line as a complementary tool. I do this already with Discord in my courses.
After dealing with it for more than 10 years, I just let Moodle do what it’s good at: quizzes, question banks, homework submissions. I don’t even store content on Moodle anymore, since the alternatives at my university are easier to use (Office 365, Google Drive, etc.) and students already have accounts on them.
For an instructor (and students) to click through the Moodle GUI to upload/download content (especially if you want to make continuous improvement), it’s just clunky. The only added value is that students don’t have to look elsewhere for the content – that is solved by putting a single link to content on the Moodle site that points to the content space.
Make an Open Chat for your class on Line, embed the QR code for the openchat on the front page or somewhere else highly visible on Moodle.
Else, embed a QR code for your own line on there if you think it appropriate.
Openchats have the advantage of not requiring or exposing personal account details of their members.