What this plugin does
Engage shows who from your courses is online right now, with teachers listed separately. If you choose to share a town, it also shows people online near you and a map of places with online people — never the position of a person.
Who this is for
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Learner | Sees who is online, optionally shares a town, finds people nearby |
| Trainer | Sees online learners of their courses and appears as a teacher to them |
| Platform administration | Maintains the custom places |
| Site administrator (eLeDia) | Switches Engage on, selects the location policy, tunes the limits |
Core concepts
Online
Someone counts as online while Moodle's own online-users rules say so (recent activity). Anyone who hides their online status in Moodle never appears in Engage.
Place
A town you choose from a directory of about 16,600 towns and populated places in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, or a custom place added by the administration. Distances are measured between town centres, not between people.
Location policy
Before you can share a town you agree to the site's location policy. Without agreement Engage still shows who is online, but no places, nearby list or map.
Journeys by role
Learner: see who is here
- On the Dashboard, the section Who is here lists people from your courses who are online, teachers first.
- Select See everyone to open the Engage page Who is online. The People tab shows Teachers online and People from your courses.
- Select Send a message next to a person to write in Moodle's messaging.
Each list has a limit; a notice says when more people are available. Reload to refresh the lists. Course membership, separate groups and personal visibility choices are respected.
Learner: find someone who can help now
- On the Engage page, the first group Available now lists teachers who are on duty and fellow learners who are open for questions, teachers first. On the Dashboard, they appear at the top of Who is here.
- Select Send a message, or Join call when the person offered a call room.
- When nobody is available, the page suggests the next free office hour of a teacher from your courses; select Book an appointment. Without a free office hour you can write to your teachers instead.
Learner or teacher: show that you can help
- On the Engage page, under Your availability, select I am on duty (teachers) or I am open for questions (learners).
- Choose how long: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or until the end of the day. Optionally add a call room: a BigBlueButton activity from your courses or an address starting with https://.
- Select Show me as available. Your status ends when the time is over or when you go offline, whichever comes first. End now ends it earlier.
Instead of a duration you can tick Show me as available whenever I am online. Then you are shown as available every time you are online; End now pauses it for the rest of the day.
Only people who already see you online in Engage see your status.
Learner: share your town
- On the Engage page open the tab Manage my place.
- Select Read the location policy and decide whether to agree. After agreeing you return to the place form.
- Search for your town, or select Find my town and allow location access in your browser. The browser finds the nearest directory town locally; your device position is never sent to the site or saved. Check the suggestion.
- Choose Who can see it: Nobody, People in my courses or Everyone on this site.
- Select Save changes. Your Moodle profile shows the section My place to you only.
Small villages may be missing from the directory; choose the nearest town. Cancel returns to the people view.
Learner: see who is online nearby and on the map
- After choosing a town, the People tab includes Online near my place: visible online people from your courses within the configured radius (default 50 km).
- The Map tab groups visible online course peers by town. A marker appears only when at least three people are visible there (the administration may raise the minimum); smaller groups only add to an anonymous total.
- Select a marker or its link in the list below the map to see the people there. Drag to move, use the zoom buttons, or focus the map and use the arrow keys, + / − and 0 to reset; Shift moves further, Escape leaves full screen.
Learner: stop sharing your town
- Open Manage my place and select Remove my place, then confirm with Remove my place on the confirmation page. The entry is deleted right away. This also works when places are switched off.
- Declining or withdrawing the location policy removes your place too. After a new policy version your place stays hidden until you agree again.
Trainer: see your learners online
Trainers see the same page. In their learners' lists they appear under Teachers online, with the shared course named.
Platform administration: maintain custom places
- Open the page Engage places under Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins (site administrators: → LernHive), or directly at
/local/lernhive_engage/places.php. Managers see the entry as well. - Select the Add a place icon (plus) in the page header for a town the directory lacks, or edit and hide existing places. Directory towns are added automatically when a learner saves them.
- Each name/country pair must be unique. Hiding or deleting a place clears the choice of every learner who picked it; nobody is moved to another town.
Site administrator (eLeDia): set up Engage
- In Moodle's policy editor create a policy with Agreement optional = Yes and Show policy before showing other policies = Yes, and activate it.
- Open Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → LernHive → LernHive Engage and select it as Location policy.
- Adjust the settings below if needed.
Settings that matter
All settings belong to the site administration.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Enable Engage | Switches every Engage surface on or off. The School flavour recommends off. |
| Enable places, nearby and map | Switches the location part off while course presence keeps working. |
| Location policy | The optional policy learners accept before choosing a place; without it places stay off. |
| Nearby radius (km) | Radius of Online near my place (default 50, 1–1000). |
| Minimum people per map marker | Smallest group shown on the map (default 3, 3–100). |
| People per list | Limit per list on the Engage page (default 50). |
| People on the dashboard | Limit of the Dashboard section (default 5). |
| Course limit | How many of a person's courses are considered (default 200). |
Limitations
- Engage shows who is online now; it keeps no history and sends no alerts.
- The map covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland only; other places stay reachable in the list below the map.
- The directory contains towns and populated places, not every village.
- There is no CSV import or export of places.
- For course-only presence, use Moodle's Online users block; the optional In my area block shows up to five nearby people from all your courses.
Troubleshooting
Places, nearby list and map are missing. → Places are switched off, no location policy is selected, or you have not agreed to it yet.
Someone is online but not listed. → They hid their online status in Moodle, are in a separate group, or their place visibility excludes you.
The map shows no marker. → Fewer people than the minimum are visible at each place; the list below the map explains it and links to the people view.
"Find my town" does not work. → The browser denied location access or the position is outside the directory's coverage. Use the search instead.
Screenshots
No screenshots yet.