WeBWorK is an online math homework system. It is possible to connect Moodle to WeBWorK so that students are automatically enrolled in WeBWorK by clicking on a link from within Moodle and have WeBWorK send grade information to Moodle.
There are two main ways to set up the connection between Moodle and WeBWorK. If you aren't interested in having WeBWorK send grades to Moodle or you only need the overall WeBWorK grade reported back to Moodle, it is easiest to set up a single link between the two systems. If you need to have the individual grades for WeBWorK assignments reported to Moodle, you will need to create a link to each WeBWorK assignment.
Setting your WeBWorK course
- Ask a colleague who is a WeBWorK administrator or submit a Help Desk ticket (support@swarthmore.edu) to set you up with a WeBWorK course. Provide the name and number of the course you want to configure.
- Log into your course at https://webwork.swarthmore.edu with your Swarthmore username and password
- If needed, follow the Instructions for copying a WeBWorK Course from one semester to another
Differences between logging into WeBWorK directly and via Moodle
You need to set up a WeBWorK account differently depending on how you (or your users) want to log in. If you want to log into WeBWorK directly, the login name needs to be set to the Swarthmore username. If you want to log into WeBWorK via Moodle, the login name must be set to the email.
For security reasons, Professors and TA's must create their accounts in WeBWorK directly and cannot create their accounts via a Moodle link. Once your account has been created in WeBWorK, you can log in via Moodle. If you are enrolling students via Moodle, they will be able to enter the WebWorK course from a link within Moodle, but not directly through the WeBWorK front page.
If you (as the professor) want to log into WeBWorK via Moodle, you need to first manually create a WeBWorK account using your Swarthmore email as the login name and permission of level of professor. Once this account is created, you will be able to log into WebWorK via Moodle. You may want to have two accounts for yourself: one with your username and with with your email so that you can log on both ways.
Setting up a single link between Moodle and WeBWorK
- Set up your WeBWorK course
- Go to your Moodle course and
Page lookup error: page "Moodle Home" not found.
If you're experiencing issues please see our Troubleshooting Guide.
- Click "Add an activity or resource" link, select "External Tool" and click "Add"
- Give the link a name such as "WeBWorK"
- Under "Preconfigured tool" select "Automatic, based on tool URL"
- Click "Show more..." to show all the configuration details
- Under "Secure Tool URL" copy and paste the URL for your WeBWorK course. The format should be https://webwork.swarthmore.edu/webwork2/<CourseName> (where
<CourseName>will be your actual course name) - If you'd like the grades for all the WeBWorK assignments to be entered into the Moodle gradebook, complete the "Grade" section. Otherwise change the "Grade" type to "None".
- Save your settings
You should now have a link to WeBWorK in your Moodle course. Students will be able to click on the link to access WeBWorK.
When a student clicks on the link to WeBWorK for the first time, their WeBWorK account is automatically created. However, Moodle does not send the entire class roster to WeBWorK, so if a student never clicks on the WeBWorK link, they will not have a WeBWorK account.
Setting up individual homework links between Moodle and WeBWorK
- Set up your WeBWorK course
- Go to your Moodle course and
Page lookup error: page "Moodle Home" not found.
If you're experiencing issues please see our Troubleshooting Guide.
- Click "Add an activity or resource" link, select "External Tool" and click "Add"
- Give the link a name corresponding to the homework set
- Under "Preconfigured tool" select "Automatic, based on tool URL"
- Click "Show more..." to show all the configuration details
- Under "Secure Tool URL" copy and paste the URL for your WeBWorK assignment. The format should be https://webwork.swarthmore.edu/webwork2/<CourseName>/<AssignmentName> (where
<CourseName>and<AssignmentName>are specific to your course and assignment) - Set the "Grade" parameters as you see fit.
- Save your settings
You should now have a link to a specific WeBWorK assignment in your Moodle course with a gradebook entry. Repeat for each assignment. Students will be able to click on each link to access a specific WeBWorK homework set.
WeBWorK only sends the percentage grade for each assignment back to Moodle and the two systems do not synchronize visibility, due dates, or point values. Most users let WeBWorK control the availability and timing of the homework sets and set the point value of the homework set to be 100. In addition, WeBWorK calculates the overall grade by adding up the number of points earned for all assignments divided by the overall number
Other Information
PiRates
If you use Moodle, you may want to enroll PiRates in your Moodle course with the Auditor role. This will allow them to see your Moodle resources and access your WeBWorK assignments via the link from Moodle, but does not create a Moodle gradebook entry. After they have logged into WebWorK to create their accounts, you may want to elevate their permissions in WebWorK.
More details
These blog posts from Geoff Goehle of Western Carolina University have some technical details at the beginning but instructor information towards the bottom of each post