Architecture

A-plus is designed to be extendable. The ecosystem includes multiple web services that communicate with each other. The responsibilities are divided using interfaces so that the different services and modules can be individually changed and redesigned.

This page is a bit outdated. We have a new overview in the A-plus Manual.

Presentations

You can read or use the brief presentation slide set, that was used in Espoo twice in 2018.

The front

The front module is responsible to

• authenticate learners and educators,
• control learning module access by role and schedule,
• store submission and assessment data,
• create an accessible and effective UI.

The front does not store learning materials but loads everything from external services via HTTP. Also submissions are posted to external services that respond with feedback content.

• Software: https://github.com/apluslms/a-plus
• Description of the protocols
• Markup reference: https://github.com/apluslms/a-plus/blob/master/doc/CONTENT.md

In addition to standard A-plus front, a Moodle plugin exists that can connect A-plus learning materials as Moodle activities.

• Software: https://github.com/apluslms/moodle-mod_astra

The mooc-grader

This is the standard module to provide learning material and automatic assessment. Each course is read from index configuration that defines the course material hierarchy and links separate configuration file for each interactive learning element. The supported features are

• static content (HTML and resources)
• configurable forms to collect input/files (including synchronous assessment)
• asynchronous assessment code execution

Any assessment code can be executed inside custom container environment. Each assessment executes in new container that is destroyed at end. The mooc-grader includes a gitmanager module that offers a web interface to add new courses directly from Git repositories.

• Software: https://github.com/apluslms/mooc-grader
• Configuration reference: https://github.com/apluslms/mooc-grader/blob/master/courses/README.md

Schematics

   Student
      |
      | http      _________
      |          |         |                        Staff
A-PLUS-FRONT --->| Records |                          |
      |          |_________|                          |
      | http                                       _______
      |                                           |       |
 MOOC-GRADER <------------------------------------|  Git  |
      |                                           |_______|
      |-- index.yaml                                  |
            |                                         |-- index.yaml
            |-- exercise1.yaml                              |
                  |                                         |-- exercise1.yaml
                  | Docker
                  |
      apluslms/grading-python:3.5

   Student
      |
      | http      _________
      |          |         |                        Staff
A-PLUS-FRONT --->| Records |                          |
      |          |_________|                          |
      | http                                       _______
      |                               make html   |       |
 MOOC-GRADER <------------------------------------|  Git  |
      |                                           |_______|
      |-- _build/yaml/index.yaml                      |
             |                                        |-- index.rst
             |-- _build/yaml/ex1.yaml                       |
                    |                                       |-- chapter1.rst
                    | Docker
                    |
        apluslms/grading-python:3.5