LearnPlug Podcasts (mod_learnplugpodcasts)
LearnPlug Podcasts is a Moodle activity module for teacher-authored podcast publishing inside a course, with optional public distribution via RSS and public landing pages.
What this plugin does
- Creates one podcast series per activity instance.
- Lets teachers create, edit, publish, unpublish, delete, and reorder episodes.
- Supports episode audio, episode artwork, transcripts, and optional attachments.
- Supports timed caption tracks (
.vtt) and subtitle rendering over the episode image.
- Provides learner-friendly in-course playback with resume and progress tracking.
- Supports optional learner notifications when new episodes are published.
- Supports completion rules based on playback and listening thresholds.
- Optionally pushes deterministic grades (0-100) to the gradebook.
- Generates public podcast RSS feeds suitable for manual submission to podcast directories.
- Optionally exposes public podcast and episode pages.
- Includes native Moodle App support with episode playback and offline download actions.
- Includes teacher analytics reports with overall activity KPIs and per-episode listening performance.
Platform and compatibility
- Moodle
4.5+
- PHP
8.1+
- MariaDB/MySQL compatible
Installation
- Copy folder
learnplugpodcasts into mod/.
- Visit Site administration > Notifications.
- Complete database upgrade and capability installation.
- Configure plugin defaults in Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > LearnPlug Podcasts.
Teacher workflow
- Add LearnPlug Podcasts activity to a course.
- Fill series metadata (title, subtitle, author, language, category, cover image).
- Configure display, completion, and optional gradebook behavior.
- Add episodes from the activity page:
- Title/subtitle
- Description/show notes
- Publish date/time
- Season/Episode number
- Audio file
- Optional artwork, transcript, attachments
- Draft/published state
- Publish episodes when ready.
- Optional timed captions workflow:
- Upload one or more
.vtt files per episode.
- Select caption track in the learner player.
- Optional notifications:
- Admin can enable/disable notifications globally in plugin settings.
- Teacher can enable/disable Notify learners about new episodes per activity.
Public distribution workflow (Apple/Spotify/etc.)
- Enable public pages and RSS at site level.
- Enable public access and RSS on the activity.
- Copy the RSS URL from the activity page.
- Submit this RSS URL manually in the external podcast platform.
This plugin does not push directly to Apple/Spotify APIs in v1.
New episode notifications
- Provider:
mod_learnplugpodcasts:newepisode.
- Trigger: when an episode transitions to published.
- Delivery channels depend on Moodle messaging settings and user preferences (web, email, mobile push).
- If Moodle App push is configured on your site, learners receive push notifications on mobile devices.
Completion and grading behavior
Supported completion rules:
- Completion on view (core Moodle option)
- Any playback started
- Listen to at least X% of one episode
- Listen to at least N completed episodes
Gradebook integration:
- Optional, activity-level toggle.
- Grade range is
0-100.
- Grade is computed deterministically from configured completion/listening rule.
Capabilities
mod/learnplugpodcasts:addinstance
mod/learnplugpodcasts:view
mod/learnplugpodcasts:manageepisodes
mod/learnplugpodcasts:publish
mod/learnplugpodcasts:viewreports
mod/learnplugpodcasts:viewpublic
mod/learnplugpodcasts:downloadmedia
mod/learnplugpodcasts:grade
Privacy notes
The plugin stores learner listening progress:
- Playback position
- Accumulated listened seconds
- Listened percent
- Completion state
- Last playback state
Progress is exportable and deletable through Moodle privacy APIs.
Developer notes
- Uses Moodle File API for all media and assets.
- Uses Mustache templates and AMD modules for frontend behavior.
- Provides external AJAX functions for search/progress/publish/reorder.
- Includes scheduled tasks for metadata refresh and log cleanup.
Changelog
Version 1.0.0 Stable (2026060601)
- Added listening heatmap analytics with most listened zones per episode.
- Added learner hotspot reporting to identify the strongest listened zone per learner and episode.
- Added teacher/admin reset controls for listening progress and analytics:
- reset one learner
- reset all learners in the podcast
- Improved listening report grade display so it matches Moodle gradebook data more reliably.
- Fixed user name rendering in analytics reports.
- Fixed grade reset workflow to clear gradebook values correctly during progress reset.
- Extended course reset support to also clear listening heatmap analytics.
- Included the new analytics data in privacy handling and backup/restore support.
