Just a few recent links I found through Twitter, RSS feeds, etc.
Please comment any other recent Moodle blog posts or links you have found this week!
I thought I would blog about a great source to get information about Moodle – Twitter! I love how Twitter connects you with people across the world that you have never met and may never meet.
Every day I see interesting links, get questions answered and see awesome Moodle-related resources via Twitter. Below are just a few that I follow.
I know I have forgotten many but there’s a start. Please comment your own Twitter handle or any that you recommend!
Related Links:
Five Moodlers to Follow on Twitter – Patrick Malley’s blog post
WeFollow: Moodle Twitter Users – A long list of Moodler users on Twitter
Twitter Group: Moodlers
Twitter in Plain English – Common Craft video explaining what Twitter is – if you don’t know : )
One thing I had trouble with when using Moodle is getting it to look “nice” and laying out the middle content how I wanted. This was a bit tough when adding resources and activities because 1.) you had to use the icon set for that resource/activity 2.) I could not change the font size or color and 3.) I couldn’t lay out multiple activities on the same line which made for one long list.
Then I stumbled upon Moodle Docs: Course Homepage – Tips and tricks. Basically, that link gives the idea to make resources or activities in a hidden section, copy the link then use that URL somewhere else giving you more flexibility to link to your content. Here are modified instructions from that link which I have used:
- Set your weeks or topics to 1 more than you need
- Create the resources or activities you want in that last section
- Choose a resource or activity that you just created, open it and copy the URL (this is the direct link to that resource/activity)
- Navigate to the place you want to link to the resource/activity you just copied
- Insert a label
- Insert text or maybe even an image and make that a link using the URL that you previously copied
- Go back to your course settings and set the weeks or topics one less (hiding that last section with the stored resources and activities)
How can this be used? I have used this method when I wanted the activity link to be bigger, a different color, an image or when I wanted to make multiple activities be on the same line. I have also used this method when I did not want the default icon for a certain activity.
In my opinion this method gives you much more flexibility in formatting your links look and layout. You can also use the copied URL direct link in an HTML block, compose a web page resource or any place where you can make a link instead of the label resource which I mentioned in the above instructions.
Check out Tips and tricks from Moodle Docs for a more in depth and varied ways of this method. I would like to hear if anyone else has a different method of accomplishing the same thing or would like to add their two cents!
Martin Dougiamas recently posted on Moodle Announcements that latest stable releases of 1.8.x and 1.9.x are now available.
There are many small bug fixes and some new features in each release, but the main two things you need to know about are the gradebook interface changes in 1.9.5 and some important security issues. – Read more
Related Links:
Release notes for Moodle 1.9.5
Release notes for Moodle 1.8.9
Moodle 1.9.5 and Moodle 1.8.9 are now available – Martin Dougiamas post
For some people this might be a “duh” tip but I know there are some people who are wondering why the News Forum keeps coming back after deleting it or wondering how to get it back because I didn’t know when I was first starting out!
The News Forum is a special type of forum that is in your course by default. Think of this forum as a one-way street of information. The teacher(s) can give out information but student can not reply (unless you tweak other things). Another useful function of this forum is that by default it forces everyone to be subscribed which sends out an email to students when there are postings. This can of course be turned off.
So, you don’t want that forum? Okay…
- Go into your course Settings
- In the drop-down menu “News items to show” choose 0
- Scroll down, Save Changes
- Delete the News Forum by going to your course, turn editing on, click the X
- Delete the Latest News Block (or hide it)
Yahoo, it’s gone and will stay gone!
Uh oh, you want your News Forum and Lateset News Block back?
- Go to course Settings and choose the number of News items to show
- Scroll down, Save Changes
- Go back to your course homepage and Turn Editing On
- Add the “Latest News” block
Done, you got it back!
I personally like the News Forum because it is a way to give important news to your students. I’ve used this for our district’s main page when there is news about our district’s Moodle site. This works out great because it emails the teachers that have Moodle accounts automatically, so I don’t have to hand pick each staff’s email. However, users use Moodle in such different ways that this may not be something they would ever do.
I was recently presented with an opportunity to read and review the book, Moodle Administration, by Alex Büchner. This book, which is published by Packt Publishing, is described as “an administrator’s guide to configuring, securing, customizing, and extending Moodle.” Packt Publishing also has several other Moodle Books.
I’ve never read any type of Moodle book before. Most of my learning has come from researching online or trial and error so I’m excited to take some time to read a full-length guide about Moodle. One good sign about this book is that it looks like this book has received a lot of positive feedback in other book reviews (Moodleman, Kassblog, Patrick Malley).
Being a Moodle admin in our district, I am eager to gain knowledge over several topics regarding Moodle. Our district has been using Moodle for almost 1 year now, and with staff spending hours creating and editing courses I think it’s my responsibility to make sure our Moodle site is reliable and well maintained. Looking through the complete table of contents it seems like this book will help me do just that.
I plan to write a few blog posts with short reviews on things I find interesting while reading this book and I will write a complete review after finishing the book. I’m very excited to dive into this book and learn a bunch of new information. Stay posted for the upcoming reviews on this book.
Related Links:
Buy this book
Read more about this book
Packt Publishing Moodle Books
Have you ever wished there was a way for students to draw or paint in Moodle? If so, you’ll be pleased to hear that one of our GSOC 2009 projects is a paint tool for Moodle.. read more
This is a bit late (first posted on Moodle.org on May 8th) but Helen Foster posted a Moodle Announcement about a paint tool being developed. Read more about it.
Helen Foster posts a blog about My Moodle in Moodle 2.0 :
Great news for My Moodle users: Mike Churchward is planning major improvements in Moodle 2.0 (MDL-19124). Please join.. read more
Sweet! I love the My Moodle feature and I think it has much potential! Take a look at Lewis Carr’s My Moodle development.
