eXeLearning resource for Moodle

ℹ️ The eXeLearning editor is fetched from the shared release and unpacked into the plugin when the playground boots, so the first load may take a few extra seconds. ELPX upload, viewer and preview work normally.

Activity-type Moodle module to create, edit and grade eXeLearning resources (.elpx) directly in Moodle, preserving eXeLearning's native navigation and supporting multiple gradebook items per activity.

For teachers and administrators: see the User Guide for step-by-step instructions on adding, editing and grading eXeLearning resources, plus site-administration and troubleshooting notes.

Activity-type module to embed eXeLearning v4 packages (.elpx) inside Moodle while preserving the package's native sidebar navigation and recording one or more gradable items per resource in the Moodle gradebook (e.g. a single resource with two quizzes registers two independent gradebook columns).

This plugin merges the best of two siblings:

• mod_exeweb — read-only viewer that keeps eXeLearning's native sidebar but does not grade.
• mod_exescorm — SCORM player with eXeLearning extensions; grades into a single aggregated column.

mod_exelearning keeps the native sidebar AND splits the grade into independent columns per iDevice. Click the Preview in Moodle Playground badge above to try it without installing anything.

Compatibility

This plugin targets every supported Moodle release from Moodle 4.5 LTS (the minimum required, see version.php: $plugin->requires = 2024100700) up to the latest Moodle 5.x stable.

Moodle branch	Status
4.5.x (LTS)	Supported (minimum required version)
5.0.x	Supported · default reference image
5.1.x	Supported
5.2.x (latest stable)	Supported · covered by CI

Older Moodle releases (3.x, 4.0–4.4) are not supported because the plugin relies on the multi-grade-item API (get_grade_item_names and the itemnumber_mapping interface) that was finalised in Moodle 4.5 LTS. The plugin is expected to keep working with newer Moodle releases as they appear; if you find an incompatibility please open an issue at https://github.com/ateeducacion/mod_exelearning/issues.

Requirements

• Moodle: 4.5 or later (see table above).
• PHP: 8.1+ (whatever Moodle 4.5+ requires).
• Database: any database supported by the Moodle release in use.
• Browser: any modern, evergreen browser with JavaScript enabled.

Quick test (no install)

The fastest way to try this plugin is Moodle Playground. Click the badge at the top of this README and you'll get a fresh Moodle in your browser with:

• mod_exelearning installed.
• A demo course EXEDEMO (Demo eXeLearning · ejemplo de uso).
• Teacher account teacher_demo / Demo!2026.
• Two enrolled students alumno1, alumno2 / Demo!2026.
• An activity preloaded with actividad-evaluable.elpx (2 gradable iDevices: trueorfalse + guess).

Nothing to install locally; everything runs in the browser via WebAssembly.

Installation

Important: It is recommended to install from a release ZIP, which includes the embedded editor pre-built for optimal performance. If the release ZIP does not include the editor, or if you want to install a newer version, administrators can download it from GitHub Releases via the Manage embedded editor page in the plugin settings.

Installing via uploaded ZIP file

1. Download the latest ZIP from Releases.
2. Log in to your Moodle site as an admin and go to Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins.
3. Upload the ZIP file with the plugin code. You should only be prompted to add extra details if your plugin type is not automatically detected.
4. Check the plugin validation report and finish the installation.

Installing manually

1. Download and extract the latest ZIP from Releases.
2. Place the extracted contents in {your/moodle/dirroot}/mod/exelearning.
3. Log in to your Moodle site as an admin and go to Site administration > Notifications to complete the installation.

Alternatively, you can run

$ php admin/cli/upgrade.php

to complete the installation from the command line.

Local development environment (Docker)

A docker-compose.yml is provided to spin up a self-contained test environment based on erseco/alpine-moodle:v5.0.7 + MariaDB:

cp .env.dist .env             # first time only
docker compose up -d          # start Moodle + MariaDB
docker compose logs -f moodle # follow the install/seed progress

Once the install finishes (~1 minute), POST_CONFIGURE_COMMANDS automatically runs scripts/setup_demo.php, which seeds the same content as the playground badge above:

=== mod_exelearning · setup_demo ===
  · Categoría creada: Demo eXeLearning (id=2)
  · Curso creado: EXEDEMO (id=2)
  · Profesor:    teacher_demo / Demo!2026
  · Estudiantes: alumno1, alumno2 / Demo!2026
  · Actividad creada: Actividad evaluable (demo) (cmid=2, instance=1)

Moodle is then reachable at http://localhost with admin user / 1234 (override via .env).

To regenerate the demo without reinstalling Moodle:

$ docker compose exec moodle php /var/www/html/mod/exelearning/scripts/setup_demo.php

To tear down keeping data: docker compose down. To wipe everything: docker compose down -v.

Configuration

Go to:

{your/moodle/dirroot}/admin/settings.php?section=modsettingexelearning

All settings live on a single admin page (see DEC-0009 for the rationale of dropping the eXeLearning Online integration — only the embedded editor remains):

• Embedded editor management (inline widget): install / update / repair / uninstall the editor, downloading the latest release from GitHub (exelearning/exelearning) without leaving the settings page.
• Styles: upload eXeLearning style packages (.zip), enable/disable the editor's built-in styles, and optionally block users from importing styles bundled inside an .elpx. A dedicated Styles admin page lists and manages them.

Embedded editor management

The plugin supports two editor sources with the following precedence:

1. Admin-installed (moodledata): downloaded from GitHub Releases via the admin management page. Stored under moodledata/mod_exelearning/embedded_editor/.
2. Bundled (plugin): included in the plugin release ZIP at dist/static/.

An admin-installed version always takes precedence over the bundled version. If neither source is available, the embedded editor cannot be used. The management page requires the moodle/site:config and mod/exelearning:manageembeddededitor capabilities.

Gradebook behaviour

When a teacher uploads a .elpx, the plugin extracts the package and detects gradable iDevices from content.xml. The default gradebook model is per-iDevice only: one visible column per detected gradable iDevice (itemnumber=1..N) and no overall column — the two models are symmetric, with no hidden overall stub (DEC-0038). Pass-grade completion targets a registered gradable item directly (Moodle's completion-by-grade). The teacher can switch the activity to overall only when a single aggregated grade is preferred (SCORM-style). The former "both" mode was removed in DEC-0008 to avoid double-counting and gradebook complexity. See docs/GRADEBOOK.md for the full model.

Each submission is stored as an attempt (see DEC-0007); the gradebook value is the configured aggregation (highest / average / first / last / lowest). You can cap the number of attempts, let students review their past attempts, and delete attempts from the teacher report (the grade is recalculated). Completion can require a passing grade (SCORM-style, see DEC-0010).

Grading runtime uses a SCORM 1.2 bridge: a small window.API shim installed by view.php accepts LMSSetValue calls from the iDevice's bundled pipwerks wrapper and forwards them to track.php, which calls Moodle's grade_update(). xAPI support via core_xapi is on the roadmap.

Web services (Mobile API)

The plugin exposes external functions for the official Moodle App and other external clients, all registered under MOODLE_OFFICIAL_MOBILE_SERVICE and enforcing context, login and capabilities in code (DEC-0040):

Function	Type	Capability	Purpose
mod_exelearning_get_exelearnings_by_courses	read	mod/exelearning:view	List instances in courses (warnings for inaccessible ones; packageurl only for teachers).
mod_exelearning_view_exelearning	write	mod/exelearning:view	Log a view (event + completion).
mod_exelearning_get_exelearning_access_information	read	—	The user's can* capability flags.
mod_exelearning_get_user_attempts	read	mod/exelearning:view (own); :viewreport (others)	A user's attempts.
mod_exelearning_get_user_grades	read	mod/exelearning:view (own); :viewreport (others)	A user's per-iDevice grades.
mod_exelearning_save_track	write	mod/exelearning:savetrack	Submit per-iDevice scores for the current user.

Limits / security. save_track reuses the same server-side pipeline as track.php: scores are routed by stable iDevice objectid (unknown objectids are ignored), the overall grade is recomputed server-side from the per-iDevice scores (the client overall is never trusted), scores are clamped to the grade range and the attempt cap is enforced. Tracking is SCORM 1.2 (score per iDevice + overall); xAPI ingestion is on the roadmap. The navigable package content itself is served via pluginfile, not through a web service.

Roadmap

See research/decisiones/adr/ for the full set of ADRs. Highlights:

• DEC-0003 — tracking standard and multi-grade-items (SCORM 1.2 now, xAPI roadmap).
• DEC-0006 — preview vs grading modes (done).
• DEC-0007 — multi-attempt support (done).
• DEC-0008 — overall vs per-iDevice grade aggregation (done).
• DEC-0009 — embedded editor only, no eXeLearning Online (done).
• DEC-0010 — SCORM-style completion by passing grade (done).

Technical documentation

Developer/administrator reference docs live under docs/:

Document	Scope
ARCHITECTURE.md	Responsibility map and request flows.
EXTERNAL_SERVICES.md	Web-service contract (classes/external ↔ db/services.php).
GRADEBOOK.md	Multi-item gradebook model (OVERALL vs PER-ITEM).
TRACKING.md	End-to-end tracking pipeline + security model.
ELPX_PACKAGE.md	.elpx parsing, iDevice detection and XML hardening.
EMBEDDED_EDITOR.md	Embedded editor source/lifecycle and postMessage bridge.
PRIVACY_BACKUP_FILES.md	Privacy, backup/restore and File API.
RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md	Objective beta→stable release gate.
AUDIT_FOLLOWUP.md	Reconciliation of the comparative report against current code.
USER_GUIDE.md	Teacher/admin step-by-step guide.

Development

For development setup, build instructions, and contributing guidelines, see DEVELOPMENT.md. The full research history, including ADRs, source fixtures and analysis notes, lives under research/.

Support

Please report bugs and feature requests on the GitHub issue tracker: https://github.com/ateeducacion/mod_exelearning/issues

About

Copyright 2026: ATE (Área de Tecnología Educativa) / Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Curricular en Sistemas no Propietarios (CeDeC) / INTEF (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y de Formación del Profesorado).

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should receive a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program.