Last updated on 26 June 2024
The use of learning management and collaboration platforms in teaching, such as Moodle, Chamilo, OpenOlat and others, greatly facilitates the work of teachers and trainers.
For each course and group of students, it is possible to create a resource base, a library and designated assignments to which students will have access at any time. However, document management also needs to be digitalised. The ONLYOFFICE office suite provides all the necessary features for educational platforms.
ONLYOFFICE Docs is one of the open-source editors for working with text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and PDF files. This suite allows collaborative document creation and editing in a secure environment. GDPR compliance, data control via self-hosting, data security guaranteed through JSON Web Token (or JWT) and HTTPS facilitate the use of ONLYOFFICE in the public sector, of which educational institutions are part.
This article about Tools Tice has already presented, a few months ago, the possibilities of ONLYOFFICE for education, as well as its dedicated offers. Since then, the suite has been continuously updated and evolving. Detailed review of the latest news.
Table of Contents
Creating forms, questionnaires and tests with ONLYOFFICE Docs
As an alternative to Microsoft content control and Adobe forms, ONLYOFFICE forms provide a creation of documents with fields to be filled in. Using these fields of different types, you can create forms from scratch or add them to an existing DOCX document, edit and collaborate with other users in real time.
Teachers will be able to create control tests with several types of answers: single or multiple choice (with checkboxes, radio buttons, drop-down lists), text input with a limited number of characters (character limit functionality), free response (text fields) or add an image.
In addition, in the new version 7.2 of ONLYOFFICE Docs, forms are enriched with new types of fields for emails, phone numbers and complex fields. The optimizations also bring the new formats of the fields: numbers only, letters only, correspondence with a regular expression, correspondence with a mask.
The test can be saved in RDF or OFORM format, in native ONLYOFFICE format and sent for completion. Thus, students cannot change the body of the document and the parameters of the fields, they will only have access to the filling. This reduces the circulation of paper documents.
Adding fillable fields is available in the top toolbar in the Forms tab when you create a form template (in DOCXF format).
Here are the simple steps to follow to create a fillable document:
- Enter the document text.
- Insert images, tables, shapes if necessary.
- Add fillable fields.
4. Customize the added fields in the right sidebar.
5. View an overview of the form.
6. Save the file as DOCXF if you want to continue editing it or OFORM to distribute for filling.
Creating and Editing PDF Files
Forms and other types of Files can be saved in PDF format so that fillable fields remain interactive. This is a convenient way to create PDF files: you work in a familiar interface without buying additional applications and then save in PDF format. This format has long been popular because of its versatility: it can be opened in many applications and in all browsers.
To view PDF, XPS and DjVu files, ONLYOFFICE Docs also offers a viewer that allows you to open them on the client side. The interface has a page thumbnail bar and a navigation pane.
In addition, you can convert PDF files to DOCX format for later editing.
Organisation of video and audioconferences
Communication and sharing play an important role in e-learning, from sharing experiences and opinions between teachers to creation and follow-up of a joint project by a group of students, which cannot be done without live exchanges. Audio and video calls with Jitsi or Rainbow are easy to organize directly in ONLYOFFICE Docs, which avoids having to quit and launch additional applications.
Additional features
In addition to organising calls and videoconferences, publishers can expand text-writing capabilities. For example: integrate spelling and grammar checking tools LanguageTool for texts in different languages and Grammalecte for French.
Translation also becomes simpler. ONLYOFFICE integrates three translation tools of your choice: Google, DeepL or Apertium. This allows you to get a translation of a highlighted word, sentence or passage in seconds.
Diagrams, tables and graphs are increasingly used in courses. With ONLYOFFICE, teachers can use the Draw.io plugin to create a wide variety of diagrams: flowcharts, heuristic maps, diagrams, infographics, etc.
ONLYOFFICE integrates all these tools into its editors via add-ons in addition to those already mentioned: EasyBib, Mendeley, Photo Editor, Thesaurus, Typograf, YouTube, Zotero. You can access ONLYOFFICE App Directory from the publisher and choose the services you need. After installation, the module appears in the Add-ons tab.
A new version ONLYOFFICE 7.2
In September, ONLYOFFICE Docs editors were updated to version 7.2. It improves the work with fonts, namely the management of ligatures. This makes it possible to merge several symbols into one, and thus manage new languages. With the option to insert and edit spreadsheets in text and presentation documents, you will be able to add statistics.
The user interface also inherits a new search bar. In the left panel, you can set detailed search options and navigate between results.
A new "dark mode" option makes it easier to work in low-light environments. You can automatically switch to dark or light mode depending on the theme used in the system. New shortcut keys can also be used to select or cut text at once.
Integration with Moodle
ONLYOFFICE integrates with the Moodle platform. Students and teachers thus have access to the edition of documents attached to the courses.
To get started, you must have an instance of ONLYOFFICE Docs and download the integration application in the library Moodle Plugins. Then, from your administrator account, install the connector and configure it. Finally, add an ONLYOFFICE document activity to a course page where you want to enable file editing.
Users can:
- create and add ONLYOFFICE files to course pages;
- modify text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and forms attached to Moodle courses;
- create and edit files in collaboration with two co-editing modes (Rapide and Strict), Change Tracking mode, comments and built-in chat;
- view and edit DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, TXT and CSV files; view PDF files; edit ODT, ODS, ODP, DOC, XLS, PPT, PPS, EPUB, RTF, HTML and HTM files through conversion to OOXML;
- configure and manage ONLYOFFICE integration through the settings page.
As for the security of your data, documents, folders and separate sheets can be protected by passwords to limit access. Teachers can hide the protection settings so that students cannot set a password for the files. To protect course elements, administrators and teachers can choose to enable or disable downloading and printing.
Connecting to other learning platforms
ONLYOFFICE Can connect to most platforms. If your institution’s document management and storage system is organised with professional platforms such as Alfresco, Nextcloud, ownCloud, Drupal, Chamilo, Xwiki, Jalios, exoPlatform and many others, ONLYOFFICE offers integrations to these services via ready-to-use connectors developed by ONLYOFFICE or to integration applications created by third-party partners.
A specific offer for education
On the occasion of the start of the new school year, ONLYOFFICE offers discounts for educational institutions of all levels and sectors. You will find more details on their blog. You can also contact by email at sales@onlyoffice.com.
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