Coursensu Course Companion for Moodle - Setup and Initial Configuration Guide

1. Overview

The Coursensu Course Companion is a dynamic Moodle block that brings the power of Coursensu's learning design directly into your Moodle courses. It operates in two modes:

• For Educators / Course Editors: When editing is turned on, the block appears and provides a powerful toolkit, providing insights, analytics, and access to your teams’ collection of learning designs within Coursensu to provide any Moodle editor with the ability to enhance their course structure, content and activities.
• For Learners: Not enabled by default. In development but offered as pre-release ‘alpha’. This block aims to provide an interactive Course Q&A assistant, answering student questions based only on course content to reduce instructor workload and provide on-demand student support.

This guide will walk you through setting up and using the Course Companion block.

2. Requirements

• One or more Coursensu accounts (trial or paid).
• Moodle 4.5 or later.
• Site Administrator access to your Moodle site for installation and initial configuration.
• REST protocol and selected web service functions enabled in your Moodle (or the ability to enable this).

3. Configuration in Coursensu

Before installing the Moodle plugin, you need to generate an API key in your Coursensu account.

A. Generate Your API Key

1. Log in to your Coursensu account - you’ll need to be a Coursensu Organisation Administrator.
2. Navigate to your user profile icon and select My team from the user profile menu.
3. Go to the Integrations & API tab.
4. Select Moodle from the Organisational LMS dropdown menu.
5. Scroll to Connect your app to Coursensu's API, enable the Generate new token toggle and then select the Generate token button. Note: This will overwrite any existing token.
6. Copy the token. You will need it to configure the plugin in Moodle. Keep this key secure, as it provides API access to your Coursensu workspace.

B. Invite Your Team (Optional)

For your course creators and instructors to use the educator tools, they must have an account in your Coursensu workspace.

1. In Coursensu, navigate to My team > Members.
2. Invite any instructors who will be using the Course Companion or Learning Designer features. Their Moodle and Coursensu email addresses must match.
3. If you’re using an SSO provider (such as Microsoft) you can set this up via Settings, then select ‘Invite via SSO provider’ checkbox before sending an invite. This ties the account to your organisation and your SSO provision.

4. Installation in Moodle

1. Request a copy of the Coursensu Course Companion plugin ZIP file from Coursensu.
2. Log in to your Moodle site as an administrator.
3. Go to Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins.
4. Upload the ZIP file. Moodle will check the package and prompt you to continue.
5. Click "Install plugin from the ZIP file" and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation. Moodle will run the installation scripts and report success.

5. Configuration in Moodle

After installation, you must first configure the block with your Coursensu API key and base URL. Then you will need to configure the REST protocol and related web services functions. This enables communication between Coursensu and Moodle.

Course Companion block configuration

1. Go to Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > Coursensu Course Companion.
2. You will see two required fields:
   
   • API Key: Paste the API key you generated from your Coursensu account here.
   • Coursensu Base URL: This should be filled with the following URL:
     https://app.coursensu.com
     Do not change this unless instructed by Coursensu support.
3. Click Save changes.

The block is now installed and configured for your entire Moodle site.

Web services configuration - Moodle

• Browse to Site Administration > Server and select Web Services

• Browse to web services on Moodle's site admin
• Enable web services (if set to No)
• Browse to Site Administration > Server and select Web Services

• Enable web services
• Enable REST protocol
  
  1. From Site Admin > Server > Web Services select 2. Enable protocols. 
  2. Select the eye / visibility enable REST protocol - a standard format for platforms to connect with each other.

• Enable the REST protocol
• Optional: Create a specific web services user (that allows a connection and configure Moodle)
  
  • If you need a new user: Create a new Web Services user - From Site Admin > Server > Web Services select 3. Create a specific user. 
  • This step requires you to then create a user, or select an existing user, that will be used for the remainder of the Web Services configuration.

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• Our admin user is selected, but you can choose another user (or create a specific Web Services user). Note: The user does not need a Coursensu account. 
• Configure web services for the previously selected user
  
  1. From Site Admin > Server > Web Services 
  2. Select 4. Check user capability. 
  3. Filter the permissions for that user by the word 'webservice' and ensure the permissions below are allowed for the selected user:

• Filtering Moodle's permissions by web service

• Next step - define the Coursensu web service. Select 5. Select a service and we’ll create a service for the functions needed to link Coursensu with Moodle
  
  1. Under Custom services you'll need to Add a new Custom service.

• Setting up the Coursensu web service: 
  
  1. Provide a memorable Name and Short name
  2. Ensure the new service is Enabled
  3. Select ‘Show more’ to allow Can download files and Can upload files
  4. No extra capabilities are required.
• Add Coursensu as a custom external service

• Setup Coursensu added as a new external web service
• Next: 6. Add Functions to the new custom Coursensu web service.
  
  1. Select Functions from the new Coursensu custom web service we just created
  2. You'll need to add / enable the following functions to have a fully operational connection between Coursensu and Moodle: 

Added functions for the service "Coursensu"

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Moodle function requirements explained: 

Yellow highlighted items provide the additional Coursensu Sync Services, a secondary plugin required for Course Companion to add and modify Moodle core activities and resources, and for Coursensu to convert learning designs into Moodle courses. These are read/write functions.

User profile and course enrollment functions provide the functionality to check, list and update only the courses which each specific user has access to.These are read-only functions. Create courses, upload files and enrol users are read/write functions. 

Mod_x_get_x_by_courses is Moodle’s set of web service functions that permit an API to read the activities and resources within a course. These are read-only functions.

• Next is to 8. Create a token for your selected Coursensu web services user
  
  1. Tokens enable the Moodle and Coursensu platforms to safely and securely communicate with each other. You need to add a new token for your custom web services so the platforms can connect and communicate.
  2. You can review allocated tokens, and create tokens, from this page.

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• Setting up the token for our previously selected Coursensu Web Services user 
  
  1. Once the token has been generated, you’ll only get to see it once from Moodle - so you need to either story it securely in an approved password manager application, or enter it directly into Coursensu. 

• Our web service user and their tokens assigned. Note that no expiry is set.

Add the Web Service token to your Coursensu team integrations. 

1. Log into Coursensu with a Coursensu Organisational Admin account
2. Select the user profile icon and then My team - to load the Team admin page.
3. Select Integrations and API. 
4. In the Add integration page, enter your Moodle’s connection information. Note you only need to complete three fields: 
   
   1. Platform - Moodle
   2. Private key - Your Moodle Coursensu Web Services Key (just generated in the steps above).
   3. URL - Your Moodle base URL (note - https and no trailing forward slash)
5. Select Add to finalise setup and connect your Moodle instance with Coursensu. 

6. Using the Course Companion in Your Courses

A. Add the block to a course

Instructors / Admins and Course Editors can now add the block to any of their courses.

1. Navigate to the course page where you want to add the block.
2. Click "Turn editing on" (top right).
3. In the right-hand block drawer, click "Add a block".
4. Select "Coursensu Course Companion" from the list.
5. The block will now appear on the course page

B. Access the educator tools

The block's toolkit for instructors is revealed when editing is enabled.

1. Ensure you have added the block to your course page.
2. Click "Turn editing on".
3. The Course Companion block now appears and shows the full educator toolkit, loading the Coursensu interface directly within Moodle.
4. Alongside the block are also a range of integrated buttons throughout the course: 
   
   1. Review tools for course-wide quality checking at the top
   2. Contextual advice and dynamic suggestions for activity and resource items.
   3. Suggest next with AI or your team’s Learning Designer templates, at the end of each section.

7. Extending Course Companion's Functionality

A. Using Coursensu Learning Designs

Within the educator toolkit, you have access to your Coursensu learning designs created by your teammates. Educators can use this, and the AI suggestions, to browse, adapt, and get inspiration for course activities and structure without ever leaving their Moodle course.

B. Unlocking Full Power: The Coursensu Moodle Sync Plugin

While the Course Companion block provides insights and a window into Coursensu, even more capabilities are unlocked when you add the Coursensu Moodle Sync Plugin.

This separate plugin is a local plugin that works in the background. It provides the API that allows the Course Companion block to create, update, and modify Moodle activities and resources directly from the Coursensu interface.

With the Coursensu Moodle Sync Plugin installed, you can:

• Apply a learning design from Coursensu and have it automatically create the corresponding activities (Assignments, Quizzes, Pages) in your Moodle course.
• Update course content based on Coursensu's AI recommendations with a single click.

Please refer to the Coursensu Moodle Sync Plugin documentation for installation and setup instructions.

8. Troubleshooting & FAQ

• The block shows an error about configuration.
  
  • This usually means the API Key is missing or incorrect. Please ask your Moodle administrator to verify the key in Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > Coursensu Course Companion.
• The block is empty or shows a loading spinner that never finishes.
  
  • Confirm with your administrator that the "Coursensu Base URL" in the settings is correct (https://app.coursensu.com). Also, check your browser's developer console for any network errors that might indicate a firewall is blocking access to Coursensu.
• The block shows “Setup incomplete”.
  
  • Ensure a Coursensu Administrator has generated an API key and added the Moodle integration details into the Integration and API area. 
• I can see the ‘Connect’ button next to a red circle (in the Course Companion block).
  
  • This is required to connect your Coursensu and Moodle accounts. You’ll only need to connect once. Users must ensure they are using the same email address between systems, are logged in and using their organisational SSO account.

9. Support & feedback

For any questions, technical issues, or feedback, please contact support hello@coursensu.com - we’re always keen to hear from you.

We also want to hear your feedback, good or bad. It all goes into a continuous cycle of developing and improving the platform. 

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