Building Website for Learning Management System with Drupal

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Abstract—Recently, E-Learning becomes more dominant due to its flexible capacity in providing courses tailored to each learner demands and time schedule. An essential component in an E-Learning course is a Learning Management System (LMS). Beside open source code soft-wares for LMS, due to security reasons, many E Learning course providers now spend effort to build their own LSMs. This paper describes steps to build a LMS based on Drupal. Firstly, a short overview about Drupal. Secondly, relationshiption among Drupal, PHP, and SQL. Finally, I would like to shows all features of Test Gear Online Competition application.

Index Terms— E-learning, Learning Management System, Drupal, Website system

I. INTRODUCTION

In the era of 4.0 Industrial convolution, self-training new skills becomes vital. Internet has provided a powerful tool for such self-studying via E Learning. Usually, all access to and interactive in an E Learning course are provided via a LMS. As a consequence, E Learning providers concern building an efficient and low cost LMS [2]. To simplify the process and reduce initial investment, many E Learning providers have chosen to build a LMS themselves based on Drupal, which can address all communication demands between members in the system.[1][5]

There are many options for a free, simple, and efficient web design. Why is Drupal commonly used?[6] Briefly, Drupal is a frame to develop an open source code, module-oriented, content administration soft-ware based on PHP technology. Drupal is widely employed by web designers and users due to its intelligibility, high interactive, and simplicity.

II. METHODS

The Drupal becomes a powerful new tool set for LMS. Since Drupal is open source code, contribution from software developers reduces development time of Drupal modules. Drupal offers several form types, each with a base class extendable depending on custom modules.[4]

1. About Drupal

Drupal is an open source Content Management System (CMS) freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is a PHP and MySQL-based system for managing websites and is used by hundreds of thousands of

web developers around the world . It serves as a back-end framework for more than 2% of all websites worldwide – from personal blogs to corporate, political and government sites.[3][6]

Fig. 1. Drupal built on LAMP/ MAMP/ WAMP

Fig.2. The websites is using Drupal

2. Drupal From – FormAPI [1]

 Forms are defined by a single PHP array. Each key of the array is a form element.

 Each form is defined by a single PHP array. Each key of the array is a form element.

 Drupal builds and generates the html output for a form using FormAPI.

 Provide a standardized means to create, process and

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used to generate Forms. It allows to use all the features of Drupal (access control, input filtering, theme control), and apply them to a form.

 Provides safe form error handing and validation. Drupal allows to specify a validation functions for the whole form, or for specific elements. Validation takes place before the form is submitted, so we can do checks here for the absence of data. If the checks fail, we know the submission will not take place.

 Allow other modules to plug into the form and change it with the hook form alter. With the hook form alter, the entire form arrays passed to any modules who define this hook.

3. Building a Form [1]

Step 1: Define a new function that builds and returns a form array.

Step 2: Define a function that validates the form values.

Step3: Define a function that processes the form values on submit.

Step 4: Call the form function using drupal_get_form() to present the form on a page.

4. Properties allowed in all elements:

# type ; # access ; # after-build; # theme; # suffix; # prefix; # title; # weight; # default_value.

5. Modules modify the form a) Hook_form_alter()

- This is the primary way to override forms that are created by modules other than old ones.

- Any module that implements the hook_form_alter() can modify anything in the form.

b) Form validation:

Drupal has a built_in mechanism for highlighting form elements that fail validation and displaying an error message to the user.

c) Submit function

The submit function is the function that takes care of actual form processing after the form has been validated.

It only executes form validation passed completely.

III. TESTGREARONLINE WITHDRUPAL

TestGrearOnline is a project has begun for 3 years and been divided to multiple tasks with different releases. Mainly, this Industrial Software is written by ASP.NET and C# programming languages while using Drupal and PHP for Website system. The firm has formed a relationship with a regional university in Vietnam - the University of Danang and an Australian Registered Training Organization -Trainwest (RTO# 51807) for delivering courses and issuing certifications with international recognitions in among countries, i.e., Australia, Philippine, and Vietnam. Courses may be delivered with recognition by the ministries of Vietnam, of Australia, or of both. Training may be available elsewhere at client site on request. TestGearOnline can assist

training and doing business in many industries, especially in mineral, oil, and gas. It looks forward to forming a successful relationship with Trainwest (Australia) and with the University of Danang (Vietnam).

This part is a guideline that shows all features of Test Gear Online Competition application and how to use this application properly.

This document includes four main parts for Admin/Owner, Instructor/Assessor, Sale Agent, and Student:

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◦ Trainings Management



◦ Trainings Management

(Note: decentralization of authority)

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◦ Sale Agent Center

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◦ Student Center

Note: Admin and Owner are reserved the right to view and make change all tasks.

A. Admin/ Owner

From TGO dashboard, navigate and click on Training Management on menu bar.

Fig.3. TGO – Training Website dashboard It leads to the Training Management page as Figure 2-2 below

Fig.4. Training Management page

Under this page, there are totally ten (10) functions: (i) Manage Category, (ii) Manage Course, (iii) Manage Country, (iv) Manage Schedule, (v) Filter and Report, (vi) Manage Refund, (vii) Manage Student, (viii) Manage Certificate, (ix) Manage Promotion, and (x) Manage Class.

Fig.5. Manage Course – Training page

There are four (04) tabs in this page: List, Edit, Manage Fields, and Manage Display.

2) From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Course leading to Manage Course page

Fig.6. Manage Course page To create a new course:

-Step 1: Choose a category for a new course from Category drop-down box.

-Step 2: Fill all information required in Course Name and Course Price.

-Step 3: Browse files (recomment *.rar and *.zip) and locate them at Course Overview Document and Course Full Documents.

-Step 4: Give a description of this new course. -Step 5: Click Save.

To modify or delete existing form, click on Edit or Delete in Operation column in Manage Course table.

3)Manage Country

From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Country leading to Manage Country page

.

Fig.7. Manage Country page To create a teaching location:

-Step 1: Selecting options on drop-down box Category and Course.

-Step 2: Under the box Manage Venue, select a country name at Country drop-down box, and fill the city name in City box.

-Step 3: Click Add.

4) Manage Schedule

From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Schedule leading to Manage Schedule page.

Fig.8. Manage Schedule page

This page is used for managing teaching schedules; Admin can add new schedules, modify or remove the existed ones. To add a new teaching schedule:

-Step 1: Select an item in Category, Course, and Country drop-down box.

-Step 2: Select Start Date and End Date locating at Schedule Management box.

-Step 3: Click Save 5) Filter and Report

Fig.9. Filter and Report default page

Under the field Report By, there are four (04) actors to be filted: User, Course name, Country, and Time.

6) Manage Refund

From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Refund leading to Manage Refund page.

Fig.10. Manage Refund page 7) Manage Promotion

From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Promotion leading to Manage Promotion page.

Fig.11. Manage Promotion page

In this page, the Admin/Owner can modify Commission and Promotion Code of a sale agent. Additionally, the

Admin/Owner can remove sale agent.

Noting that, the commission is the value set, so that the sale price through Sale Agent is caculated as:

Agent’s Price = (Price – Commission)*Quantity. To modify Commission or Promotion Code:

-Step 1: Click Edit in Operation column.

-Step 2: Make necessary changes on the form Edit Promotion for Re-seller.

-Step 3: Click Submit to save your change or Cancel to discard your change.

To remove a sale agent, click Delete in Operation column and confirm request on the following page.

8) Manage Certificate

Fig.12.Manage Certificate page

By clicking Download from Cerfiticate File column, the Certificate of a specific user will be downloaded as PDF format. The Admin should review the order number in Number of Copies column and print off the exact number of certificate copies.

Further more, the printed ones should be sealed manually by TGO and by its partner (i.e.,University of Danang). Later, the finished copies will be sent to student via Post Mail.

B. Instructor/Assessor 1) Mange Student

From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Student leading to

Fig.13. Manage Student page

On this page, an instructor may manage students by individual or by class by clicking By Student or By Class

2) Manage Class

From Training Management page, navigate and click on Manage Student leading to

Fig.14. Manage Class page The page Manage Class is designed to help

instructors/assessors input assesment results faster and easier. To input a class’s assesment result:

-Step 2: Make necessary changes in the downloaded file.

-Step 3: Click Choose File and select the edited file to upload.

-

.

From TGO dashboard, navigate and click on Sale Agent Center on menu bar.

Fig.15. Sale Agent Center

On this page, a sale agent can be able to view and print off receipt what s/he had purchased

Fig.16. Sale Agent Center page To view and print off receipt:

-Step 1: Click Details.

-Step 2: Click Print for printing off the first part of receipt or Print (full) to print off the whole receipt.

-Step 3: Download to save the receipt as PDF file. D. Student

From TGO dashboard, navigate and click on Student Center on menu bar.

Fig.17. Student Center

It leads to the Student Center page as below

Fig.18. Student Center Page

To activate a course, student should:

- Step 1: Click Activation Code on the page Student Center. - Step 2: Insert the code, which might be provided by the system

or by sale agent.

Fig.19.Activate Code

-Step 3: Click Activate button to execute or Cancel to discard. Whether your activation process is sucessful or not, the system will notify you. To cancel a course:

-Step 1: Click Cancel in Status column.

-Step 2: Click Confirm to send cancel request to the system or Cancel to discard the request. The system will notify you once cancel request has been sent sucessfully. Then, you will be directed to the page Student Center. Going to the page List of Purchase Course, the status of canceled course had been changed to Pending Refund.

Under the Courses’ Activities, students can view status of completed course: Fail or Pass. On each passed course, student can request additional certificates.

IV. CONCLUSION

The article outlines the design and implementation of the TestGrearOnline, a application web for managing online master programs to recognize that Drupal is content-rich tools for building a website to support their classes and site administrators and technology integrators working within schools or training organizations. Easy to support in Learning Management System achieve the following goals: Manage all features; Satisfy the requirements of many subjects; interactive environment between teachers and students; Security functions; Multi-device compatibility of access devices

REFERENCES

[1] James G. Robertson, Bill Fitzgerald, Drupal for Education and E-Learning, June 2013.

[2] Ramon Garrote and Tomas Pettersson, “Lecturers' attitudes about the use of learning management systems in engineering education: A Swedish case study,” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, pp. 327-349, Jan. 1959.

[3] Huang, C.K., Lin, C.Y. & Chiang, Y.H., “Incorporating Competency-based Blended Learning in a Chinese Language Classroom: A Web 2.0 Drupal Module Design,” International Journal on E-Learning, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 529-548, October 2010.

[4] Coombs, Karen, “Drupal Done Right,” Library Journal, vol. 34, no.19 pp. 30-32, Nov 2009.

[5] Tofan, Cristina, "The Application of Drupal to Website Development in Academic Libraries" (2010). Library Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations. Paper 2. http://encompass.eku.edu/faculty_staff/2 [6] Saša Nikolić, Jurij Šilc,”Drupal 8 Modules: Translation Management