Version 2.x

Thank you for choosing ConnectLMS from Connectage for your LMS needs. ConnectLMS is a SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS for Joomla 1.5, with a simple intuitive interface for both administration and users.

This manual will help you to install and start using ConnectLMS. However if you have any questions or require further assistance, please either visit our forums at http://www.connectage.com/connectlms/forum.html or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will be happy to help you.

At Connectage, we offer many great products to and services to enhance your Joomla! site and we thought we might give you a brief introduction to some of these:

• Cartage - A Zen Cart™ - Joomla! integrator, combining the two frameworks to create one seamless user experience.
• Search Plugins - Zen Cart Finder for Zen Cart, Forum Finder for phpBB3 and Image Finder for your media.
• Taxonomy - allowing data to be structured in a multitude of ways and driving many exciting site features like sophisticated search.

What is ConnectLMS?

ConnectLMS is based on the SCORM 1.2 e-learning standard. It allows compliant e-learning packages to be published simply and quickly on your site, with the results being tracked and stored against personal profiles, as you'd expect.

What is Included?

System requirements

• A Joomla 1.5.9 installation or higher
• Our version of the xajax plugin (provided as part of the package)
• SCORM 1.2 Compliant Lessons

Installation / Upgrade Instructions

New Installation.

Follow these steps if you have never installed this or any other version of ConnectLMS.

1. Install the connectLMS component (com_connectlms.zip) using the Joomla! extension installer.
2. Install the mod_connectlms_students module (mod_connectlms_students.zip) using the Joomla! extension installer.
3. Install the mod_connectlms_teachers module (mod_connectlm_steachers.zip) using the Joomla! extension installer.
4. Publish the two modules (these can be published on all pages as they will only display information when a course is being viewed).
5. Install the plug_xajax plugin (if you already have a version installed, then please uninstall it [you may need to delete its files] and replace with this version)
6. In Admin-Extensions-Plugin Manager, publish the xAjax plugin
7. Set up your courses/lessons/modules!

Upgrading from Version 1.0

Follow these steps if you have previously installed an earlier version of ConnectLMS

1. Uninstall version 1 of connectLMS using the Joomla! extension uninstaller
2. Delete all database tables relating to connectLMS. These start with "jos_connectlms_" ^#
3. Install the connectLMS component (com_connectlms.zip) using the Joomla! extension installer.

^# The default database table prefix for Joomla! is "jos_". If you unselected or changed this option when installing Joomla!, please adjust this line appropriately.

Setting Up A Course

The ConnectLMS component has been developed with simplicity and ease of use in mind.

ConnectLMS allows you to create unlimited courses with unlimited lessons, enrol students and assign teachers from the administration or allow self-enrolment from the front-end of the site.

Create a Category

All courses must be assigned to a category, so ConnectLMS requires that you have at least 1 category.

• Click on the Categories menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Categories, by selecting the Categories item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or selecting the Categories tab.
• Click the "New" button in the toolbar
• Enter a name and description for the Category. Category descriptions are not seen by teachers or students.
• Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Create a Course

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
3. Enter the details of the course:
   • Course Owner - By default this is set to the access level Super Administrator.
   • Published - Whether the course is available to site users.
   • Category - The ConnectLMS category to add the course into.
   • Course Reference - An ID or identifying name for the course.
   • Name / Title of Course
   • Description
   • Course Available From / To - Enter a start and finish date for this course
   • Enrolment Required - Set to yes if only course students should be able to access course material.
   • Approval Required - Requires all front end student enrolments to be approved by an administrator / teachers.
   • Show Teachers - Show course teachers in the Teachers module?
   • Show Students - Show course students in the Students module?
4. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

As the person who created the course, you are automatically assigned as the course owner. This means that you have full course administration rights and are able to administer the course from the Joomla! administration area.

Please note: Users with an access level of Super Administrator can always access the administration for all courses.

Create a Lesson and Upload Modules

1. Click on the Lessons menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Lessons, by selecting the Lessons item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Lessons tab.
2. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
3. Enter a title and description for the lesson.
4. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

A lesson is nothing without a module for the student to use to learn, so to upload a module to a lesson:

1. Click "Add a new module" and enter the details of the SCORM modules you wish to include in this lesson.
   • Width and height for the lightbox that displays the module are mandatory. ^#
2. Click "Add this module" to save your module to this lesson.
3. Repeat these two steps to add additional SCORM modules.

^# Version 2.0 of ConnectLMS only.

Assign a Lesson to a Course

A lesson can only be selectable by a user once it is assigned to a course. To assign lesson/s to a course:

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our lesson to.
3. Click the "Lessons" button in the toolbar.
4. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
5. Select the lesson we want to add and click "Add" from the toolbar menu. You will now see that the lesson and its modules have been associated with the course.
6. We now need to assign a passing grade and the number of allowed attempts for each module in the lesson. Click the newly added lesson's name.
7. Click on each module's name, and assign a pass grade and allowed attempts for each module. Statistics will not show for completed modules unless a pass grade is set.

Adding Resources

A resource is a document that can be associated with courses to provide supporting information to students, teachers or users thinking of enrolling on a course.

1. Click on the Resources menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Resources, by selecting the Resources item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Resources tab.
2. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
3. Enter a title and description for the Resource
4. Click the "Browse" button to find, on your PC, the file to be used as the Resource
5. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Adding Resources to a Course

A resource will only become visible to users once it is assigned to a course. To assign resource/s to a course:

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our resource to.
3. Click the "Resources" button in the toolbar.
4. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
5. Select the resource we want to add and click "Add" from the toolbar menu.
6. To restrict who can access the resource, click the name of the resource.
7. From the drop down menu, select the appropriate access level for this resource.
8. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Assign a Teacher to a Course (optional)

Teachers are able to administer the course from the Joomla! front end. To assign a teacher to the course from the ConnectLMS administration:

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our teachers to.
3. Click the "Teachers" button in the toolbar.
4. Click the "Add" button in the toolbar.
5. Tick the boxes of any site users you wish to assign as teachers of this course.
6. Click the "Assign" button in the toolbar.

Student Enrollment

This section outlines the various ways that students can be enrolled in a course, and how to approve students for courses where approval is required for students after enrollment.

Student Enrollment in a Course

Students can be enrolled in a course in three ways:

• They can be added from the administration, by the course administrator:
  1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
  2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our students to.
  3. Click the "Enroll" button in the toolbar.
  4. Tick the box next to the names of the site users you wish to add as students for this course
  5. Click the "Enroll" button in the toolbar.
• A Course Teacher adds them through the frontend administration tools:
  1. Log in to the Joomla! site.
  2. Go the ConnectLMS section of the site.
  3. Select the course you wish to add the student to.
  4. Select the "Manage Course Students" link.
  5. Click the "Enroll" button.
  6. Tick the box next to the names of the site users you wish to add as students for this course.
  7. Click the "Enroll" button in the toolbar.
• Or the student Enrolls themselves. If your course requires approval, students will have to wait for a teacher / course administrator to approve their enrollment before they can access lessons and modules.

Please see the Subscription section for information on how to enable commercial courses that students must pay to enroll in.

Approving Student Enrollment

When a site user enrolls in a course, if the course is set to require approval, a course administrator / teacher must approve the enrollment before the student can access course lessons.

• From the administration, by the course administrator:
  1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
  2. Click the name of the course that we want to approve students for.
  3. Click the "Students" button in the toolbar.
  4. Tick the box next to the names of the students you wish to approve as students for this course
  5. Click the "Approve" button in the toolbar.
• From the site, by a course teacher:
  1. Log in to the Joomla! site.
  2. Go the ConnectLMS section of the site.
  3. Select the course you wish to approve the student on.
  4. Select the "Manage Course Students" link.
  5. Tick the box next to the names of the site users you wish to approve as students for this course.
  6. Click the "Approve" button in the toolbar.

Subscription Based Courses

ConnectLMS is designed to integrate with third party subscription components. To be able to charge for course enrollment, you must install your own subscription component.

As shipped ConnectLMS has the ability to integrate with the following subscription components:

• Joomsuite Member (http://www.mightyextensions.com)

Please contact us for instructions on how to use another subscription component.

Creating the Integration

1. Click on the ConnectLMS Configuration menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Configuration, by selecting the Configuration item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Configuration tab.
2. Click on "Subscriptions".
3. Select your subscription method.
4. Optional: Add a text message to display to site users when they need to subscribe to a course.
5. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Statistics

ConnectLMS provides statistical analysis of student's progress for administrators via the Joomla! administrator and for teachers via the Joomla! front-end.

Please Note: A pass grade must be set for each module associated with a course. Without this pass grade, ConnectLMS cannot calculate the statistics for a student enrolled in the course. To set up a pass grade see "Assign a Lesson to a Course" above.

Course Statistics

Course statistics show:

• Teachers assigned to the course.
• Lessons that are part of the course.
• Total enrolled students
• For each student, statistics are shown for:
  • Last attempted lessons.
  • Last attempted module
  • Total attempts at all modules on all lessons within the course
  • Whether they have completed the course.

To access the course statistics as a course administrator through the Joomla! administration:

1. Click on the ConnectLMS Statistics menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Statistics, by selecting the Statistics item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Statistics tab.
2. Click the course name you wish to view statistics for.

To access the course statistics as a course teacher:

1. Log in to the Joomla! site.
2. Go the ConnectLMS section of the site.
3. Select the course you wish to view statistics for.
4. Select the "Manage Course Statistics" link.
5. Tick the box next to the names of the site users you wish to approve as students for this course.
6. Click the "Approve" button in the toolbar.

Student Statistics

To view the statistics for a student, follow the steps outlined in "Course Statistics", and then select the student to view statistics for by clicking on the student's name.

Statistics available for students are for each module, and include:

• Which lesson the module is part of.
• Module Status - Completed / Incomplete / Passed
• Module Result - Total score, and a percentage (e.g. 13 / 20 - 65%) ^#
• Attempts at module completion.
• Last time module attempted.
• Amount of time spent attempting the module across all attempts.
• Which lesson the module is part of.

^# Only displays if a pass grade has been set. See the section "Assign a Lesson to a Course".