Brand-new integration: meet the ONLYOFFICE DocSpace plugin for Moodle

Good news for Moodle users!

Our team has released a new plugin for the Moodle platform which makes it possible to connect ONLYOFFICE DocSpace rooms to Moodle courses as activities. With this integration, teachers can edit and collaborate on learning materials for their courses within the embedded rooms while students have the opportunity to view and download the files without leaving the Moodle interface. Read this article to learn more.

ONLYOFFICE DocSpace plugin for Moodle: an overview

The first version of the ONLYOFFICE DocSpace plugin for Moodle is already available in the Moodle Plugins directory offering the ability to embed public rooms from your DocSpace account into Moodle courses. This integration is designed to make it easier to share content and files within Moodle courses and allows teachers and course creators to store all learning materials in one place and effortlessly make them available to their students.

Unlike our other plugins, ONLYOFFICE Document and ONLYOFFICE Assign Submission which are used to attach and work on separate office files within your courses, the new plugin lets you embed whole dedicated spaces where you are allowed to store and manage dozens of files, including multimedia content, like videos, images and audio records. Within these dedicated spaces, also known as rooms, Moodle users can access and edit all files according to their access level, so you don’t need to configure access permissions for each file individually.

To cut it short, the ONLYOFFICE DocSpace plugin provides access to a room-based document management environment combined with a powerful online office suite, all within the structure of your Moodle courses.

New Moodle activity: ONLYOFFICE DocSpace

When embedded into a course as a new activity, a DocSpace public room appears on the course page, and Moodle users can interact with this room and perform various actions depending on their role and access level. Let’s take a closer look at what Moodle users can do under this integration.

Teachers, managers and course creators

Users with the Teacher, Manager and Course Creator role can create and edit files in the public rooms they have access to. What this means is that such users can create new documents, spreadsheets, presentations, fillable forms and PDF files, and collaboratively work on them together with other Moodle users who have the corresponding roles.

What’s more, teachers, managers and course creators can manage files in embedded public rooms, e.g. delete or rename them. They can also use the Version History feature to keep track of all changes made to documents.

Students

All other Moodle users (for example, students) can only access the embedded rooms for viewing purposes. In this case, they can’t edit anything but have permission to open all files for viewing and download them to their device. This means they can easily access all learning materials they need to complete assignments in their Moodle courses.

How to install the plugin

Moodle admins can install the plugin following the standard Moodle plugin installation steps. It’s available in both the official Moodle Plugins directory and GitHub.

After successful installation, the plugin can be accessed via Site administration -> Plugins -> Activity modules -> ONLYOFFICE DocSpace.

How to configure the plugin

Step 1. Get ONLYOFFICE DocSpace

Now that the plugin is installed, you need to have an ONLYOFFICE DocSpace account. If you have never used the platform, you can either create a free account in the cloud or deploy the self-hosted version on your Windows or Linux server.

Step 2. Configure your DocSpace platform

Log into your ONLYOFFICE DocSpace, go to Settings and access the Developer Tools section on the left-side panel. In this section, switch to JavaScript SDK and enter the URL address of your Moodle instance into the Enter the address of DocSpace to embed field.

Step 3. Configure the plugin’s settings in Moodle

Now you need to get back to your Moodle instance and access the ONLYOFFICE DocSpace plugin’s settings via Site administration -> Plugins -> Activity modules -> ONLYOFFICE DocSpace. Now enter your DocSpace’s URL and your credentials (DocSpace login and password) into the corresponding fields. Click Save changes.

Step 4. Export the Moodle users to your DocSpace

The final configuration step requires that you export users from Moodle to your DocSpace. To do so, click Export users in the plugin’s settings in Moodle. You will see a list of all Moodle users with the Teacher, Manager and Course Creator roles. Tick all the users you need and click the Invite to DocSpace button.

Please note that the list of all Moodle users allows you to check if a Moodle user has been added to your DocSpace or not in the DocSpace user status column:

• A green check mark means that a Moodle user with the specified email has been already exported to DocSpace and their synchronization was successful.
• A blank space means there is no Moodle user with the specified email in DocSpace. Such a user can be exported to DocSpace.
• An hourglass means that a user with the specified email exists in DocSpace, but there was a synchronization issue. When logging into the DocSpace plugin for the first time, the user will have to provide their DocSpace login and password to complete synchronization.

How to add a new ONLYOFFICE DocSpace activity

After everything is properly configured on the Moodle and DocSpace sides, you can add new DocSpace activities to your courses and embed your public rooms with educational content.

To get started, enable the Edit Mode in the upper right corner. Then open the My courses section and select one of the available courses. In the selected course, Click +Add an activity or resource button and opt for ONLYOFFICE DocSpace.

In the newly-opened window, enter a name for your activity, add a description if you like and click Select room in the Connect existing DocSpace room field.

After that, choose the required room from your DocSpace account. Don’t forget that only public rooms can be connected in the current version of the plugin. Click Select.

Finally, set up other parameters in your activity and click either Save and return to course or Save and display. That’s it. The created activity will appear on the course page.

Get started with ONLYOFFICE DocSpace

Make your Moodle courses more engaging and interactive with the new ONLYOFFICE DocSpace plugin. Use the functionality of public rooms to store, share and edit learning materials in different formats, including PDF and multimedia files. Create a free DocSpace account right now or install the self-hosted version on your Server:

START ONLINE           DEPLOY ON-PREMISES

Watch the video below or visit our website to learn more about ONLYOFFICE DocSpace and the features offered by its room-based collaborative environment:

ONLYOFFICE and Moodle integration: choose what you need

Apart from ONLYOFFICE DocSpace, the ONLYOFFICE and Moodle integration currently offers two more plugins to address a vast array of challenges that both educators and students face while using the Moodle platform. If you struggle to understand what you need as a Moodle user or administrator, here is a brief explanation of how the existing ONLYOFFICE plugins integrated into your LMS can make a difference in your learning process:

1. ONLYOFFICE Document

This plugin seamlessly integrates the ONLYOFFICE Docs office suite into Moodle making it possible to edit and collaborate on office documents online directly within Moodle courses. Using ONLYOFFICE Document, you can work on text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, fillable PDF forms and PDF files, and share them for viewing or real-time co-authoring.

Ideal for: online document editing within Moodle, real-time collaboration among Moodle users.

2. ONLYOFFICE Assign Submission

This is an additional plugin that only works in combination with the main ONLYOFFICE Document plugin. When integrated, ONLYOFFICE Assign Submission lets teachers create and share assignments based on complex PDF forms, documents, spreadsheets and presentations. When an assignment is shared, students can fill it out individually or in group while the teacher can collect their submissions and grade them at any time.

Ideal for: grading and assessing students’ work.