Recently, Angela Warlow posted “MMU – enhanced VLE integration into Moodle (with screenshot)“. In this article she talks about how MMU have used list-linking and Item-linking APIs provided by Talis Aspire Campus Edition to display core sections within their VLE. Nice one Angela, and thank you for sharing!

Integration into the VLE is a great way of building your reading lists into the heart of your student’s learning experience. The standard approach we recommend all customer’s take is to use a widget to dynamically generate the link from the VLE directly to the appropriate list within Talis Aspire. However, MMU have gone a step further by surfacing the relevant resources from a reading list within the VLE, to create a much more connected experience for students.

This also surfaces an interesting question about what the relevant resources are based on specific context. Some reading list authors have gone with a structure based on importance of reading resources, while others have chosen to structure their list by week. Now that is  a separate discussion!

If you have not taken a look at the APIs yet, Ian Corns has written a very useful article on Integrating Talis Aspire with your VLE. If you want to dig straight into the API specifications, take a look at the List Linking API specifications article by Chris Clarke, or the article on What VLE solutions does Talis Aspire Campus Edition integrate with.

Are you considering or have you already used these APIs to create better integrations with your VLEs? Please share your thoughts and ideas in comments below: