📡 Course SMS – Send SMS Messages to Course Participants
🔍 Overview
Course SMS is a Moodle local plugin that empowers instructors and administrators to send SMS messages directly to course participants from within Moodle. This tool provides a direct and immediate communication channel, perfect for urgent announcements, reminders, or personalized messages.
The plugin features a user-friendly interface that allows for sending messages to all participants, or targeting specific roles (like all students) or groups within a course. All sent messages are logged with detailed reports on successful and failed deliveries, providing a complete audit trail.
⚠️ Important: Requires an SMS Gateway
This plugin facilitates the sending of SMS messages from Moodle, but it does not send SMS messages for free. To use this plugin, you must have an active account with a third-party SMS gateway provider.
Moodle's SMS system supports various gateways, which you can configure in:
Site administration > Messaging > SMS gateways.
You will need to obtain API credentials from your chosen provider and enter them into Moodle. Without a configured and enabled gateway, this plugin will not be able to send any messages.
🚀 Key Features
" Targeted Messaging: Send SMS messages to:
- All enrolled participants in a course.
- Users with a specific role (e.g., all 'Students' or 'Teachers').
- Members of a specific group within the course.
" Personalized Messages: Use placeholders like {firstname}, {lastname}, {sender}, and {coursename} to automatically insert recipient and course details into your messages.
" Comprehensive Logging: A detailed log of all sent messages is maintained, including:
- Who sent the message and when.
- The message content.
- The targeted group or role.
- A list of successful and failed deliveries.
" Permissions Control: The plugin includes capabilities (local/coursessms:sendsms and local/coursessms:viewlog) to control who can send messages and view logs. By default, this is available to Managers, Course Creators, and Teachers.
" Seamless Integration: Adds a "Course SMS" link to the course navigation for easy access.
'🏫 Target Audience
- Moodle Administrators: For site-wide implementation of SMS communication.
- Course Creators & Teachers: To directly and quickly communicate with their students.
- Educational Institutions: That need a reliable and fast way to send announcements and alerts.
📦 Installation & Setup
Download the Plugin: Download the plugin ZIP file.
Install the Plugin:
- Log in to your Moodle site as an administrator.
- Go to Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins.
- Upload the ZIP file. Default installation settings are usually fine.
- Moodle will guide you through the installation process, including upgrading the database.
Alternative: Manual Installation:
- Unzip the plugin files.
- Rename the plugin folder to
coursessms.
- Upload the
coursessms folder to the local/ directory of your Moodle installation.
- As an administrator, go to Site administration > Notifications to trigger the installation.
Configure Permissions:
- Go to Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles.
- For roles that should send SMS (e.g., 'Teacher'), allow
local/coursessms:sendsms.
- For roles that should view logs, allow
local/coursessms:viewlog.
Set up SMS Gateway:
- This is critical. Go to Site administration > Messaging > SMS gateways.
- Select and configure your chosen SMS gateway provider with the API credentials they provide.
- Without this step, the plugin will not function.
- How to Use
Navigate to a Course: Go to the Moodle course from which you want to send an SMS.
Open Course SMS: In the course navigation menu, click on "Course SMS".
Compose Your Message:
- Two tabs appear: Send SMS and SMS Log.
- On Send SMS, select your target audience (All participants, Role, or Group).
- If Role or Group is selected, a dropdown will appear to select the specific one.
- Type your message in the Message content box. Use placeholders as needed.
- Click Send SMS.
Check the Log:
- Click the SMS Log tab to see all messages sent for that course.
- Click View details on any entry to see full content and delivery status.
- Failed deliveries usually indicate missing phone numbers in user profiles.
⚙️ Technical Details
Database Tables:
local_coursessms_log: Stores records of every SMS batch sent.
Capabilities:
local/coursessms:sendsms: Allows sending SMS messages within a course.
local/coursessms:viewlog: Allows viewing SMS logs for a course.
Support This Project
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📄 License
This plugin is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 License.
