Moodle Plugin: Syncing StudyStash to Courses (Opt-Out Mode)

FOR ADMINISTRATORS

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Purpose

StudyStash Course Sync is a Moodle local plugin that helps administrators roll out the StudyStash LTI activity across courses at scale. Instead of enabling StudyStash manually in each course, the plugin queues a sync task that checks every eligible course and adds the StudyStash activity only where it is missing. It is safe to run multiple times: courses that already contain the configured StudyStash activity are skipped, and only new or missing courses are updated. Admins can also exclude selected courses from sync and preview the result using a dry run before making live changes.

Action	Explanation
Dry Run	Previews which courses would get StudyStash based on current config/exclusions.
Sync StudyStash to Courses	Enables StudyStash in eligible courses that do not already have it.
Course exclusions	Lets admins choose courses that must be skipped by sync.

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Prerequisites

• Moodle version must be >= 2022041900 (Moodle 4.0+)
• Administrative access (moodle/site:config) to your Moodle Instance
• A valid preconfigured LTI tool for StudyStash already exists
• Cron running within Moodle
• Your Customer Success Manager has provided the Plugin via a ZIP file

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Step 1: Installing the plugin

1. Go to https://<your-moodle-instance>/admin/tool/installaddon/index.php
2. Upload the ZIP file provided to you by StudyStash by pressing “Choose a file…”
3. Press “Show more…”
4. Set the “Plugin type” to be “Local plugin (local)”

5. Press “Install plugin from the ZIP file”
6. After the validation message, press “Continue”
7. After the server checks message, press “Continue”
8. After the plugins check message, press “Upgrade Moodle database now”
   

   

9. If an “Upgrading to new version” message appears, press “Continue”

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Step 2: Configuring the plugin

After installing the plugin (step 1), you will be required to configure the new settings that are available.

1. Enter the following settings:

Setting	Value	Type
LTI preconfigured tool type ID	Select the correct ‘StudyStash’ LTI Activity Module from the dropdown	Required
StudyStash activity name	StudyStash	Optional
Placement in General section	Bottom	Optional

2. Press the “Save changes” button
3. Go to https://<your-moodle-instance>/local/studystash/index.php
   

   

4. Press the “Excluded Courses” tab, and optionally exclude any courses that shouldn’t be given the StudyStash Activity Module:
   

   

   1. Using the filters, narrow the search for the courses you are aiming to exclude
   2. Select the checkbox for any courses that are to be excluded
   3. Press “Save excluded courses”
   4. Return to the “Status” tab
5. Optionally, you can Dry Run the sync:
   

   

   1. Press “Dry Run”, and wait a few seconds/minutes for the task to complete (depending on how many courses you have)
   2. Press the “Logs” tab
   3. Examine logs to ensure behavior is as expected for each course
6. To complete the sync for real, press “Sync StudyStash to Courses” on the “Status” tab: