Fresh out of the box Moodle sets each user’s default setting Forum Auto-subscribe: as Yes: when I post, subscribe me to that forum.

This can be changed by the user when they edit their profile. However, I have found out that many users do not know how to change this, that it can be changed or they forgot to change it. I’ve gotten several questions from teachers wondering why they are getting these strange e-mails from Moodle telling them that Sue Johnson has posted in a Forum in the Moodle Training course they were in months ago!

Now, we tell our staff in the training to change this setting in their profile but I think it would be much easier to make this feature an “opt-in” instead of an “opt-out”. There has been a lot of discussion about this issue and Martin Dougiamas explains that it basically encourages interaction. In my opinion, having this feature be an “opt-in” situation works best for our district. Teachers get enough e-mail and it will more than likely just annoy or frustrate them if they don’t know why they’re getting all of the e-mails or how to stop them from coming in. If a user wants to really follow a Forum they will take the time to click that option when they post.

Another problem with Subscribing to a Forum is that sometimes I want to follow just a post in a Forum, not the entire Forum! I think there should be a “Subscribe to Thread” option, like many of the Forums on the web.

Anyways, while searching the web and the Moodle.org Forums I found an answer to setting the Auto-subscribe setting default to be “No: don’t automatically me to forums” for new users and a way to change that setting for users already in the system:

If you have access to your database through phpmyadmin, then just do the following.

1. Select the mdl_user table
2. Click on the pencil (to edit) beside autosubscribe
3. Change the default value from 1 to 0

The above will change the default value for all new accounts.

1. Select the mdl_user table
2. At the top, click on SQL
3. Erase what is in the query field and enter the following:

UPDATE mdl_user SET autosubscribe = 0

4. Press “Go”

This will change all existing accounts to “No: don’t automatically subscribe me to forums”.

Note: It’s always a good idea to back up your database before doing anything like this. Use at you own risk

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=94386

I do not have the rights to phpmyadmin for our Moodle site but I was able tell our network person how to do this and it was done. It seemed to have worked but as we continue trainings some teachers are still getting the “Yes” option. I am currently waiting to try it again with our network person to check out the problem. Although, I am having problems with it working 100% all of my research has pointed to the above solution. Any information about this issue would be greatly appreciated! I may be missing another setting I need to cahnge. Any opinions or information on this?

Alfresco Software Inc., the leader in open source enterprise content management (ECM), today announced an OEM partnership with Remote-Learner.net, the provider of open source solutions for online learning management, record keeping and learning object storage to corporate, academic and governmental clients. The partnership will deliver solutions to allow learning organizations using Moodle’s open source course management system (CMS) to access Alfresco’s robust open source ECM repository to support content development and reuse. – read more

I take a great interest in this integration because our school district is looking into Alfresco as a possibility for document management. I have no experience with Alfresco but I have heard good things about it. There is a free version and an Enterprise version you can pay for. Learn more at Alfresco.com.

Remote-Learner is a Moodle Partner that hosts Moodle sites and is “a learning company providing technology services”.

Moodle 2.0 is impressing me more and more each day. I feel like there are many improvements (some free, some may be “paid-for” services) in file management and repositories. Glancing at the admin plug-ins section I can already see that they have made it easier for Moodle to integrate with a variety of sites and other software like Alfresco, Box.net, Flickr, Picasa, WebDAV, Wikimedia and YouTube.

Read more:

Alfresco Press Release -Alfresco and Remote-Learner.net Partner to Deliver Moodle eLearning Integration

Moodleman blog post -  Alfresco tie-in in Moodle 2.0

Moodle Docs – Repository API

The Moodleman Blog has recently posted a sneak peak at conditional activities in Moodle 2.0. Before I read the post I was not sure what this even meant but Moodleman writes

“Conditional activities now say that if a student has “completed” an activity/resource (or range of activities/resources) they can then see the newly created one.”

I never really thought of this concept but it makes complete sense and it could make a teacher’s life a lot easier! Moodle.org even has a forum dedicated to this type of thing. In earlier versions you will need a hack but it looks like it will be in the core of Moodle.org (I believe).

For more information take a look at Moodle.org Docs on Conditional Activities. Read more about the feature and watch a video walkthrough on Moodleman’s blog post: Moodle 2.0 Sneak Peak – Conditional Activities.

Realizing this ability in Moodle 2.0 makes me excited to show our users (in the way future..) that this is possible. I believe this will save teachers’ time by allowing them to do more at one time. For instance, instead of having a student complete an activity, then having the teacher go back to unlock or create a quiz and directing the student to complete it–a teacher is able to do everything at once instead of editing the course twice. I think this will also work great with motivating students to complete their work. Knowing they have the power to see or reach the next activity may motivate them–like a game.

I just wonder how easy this feature is to set up in Moodle 2.0. I might focus some attention on this on my dev site and post on it in the future.

Any thoughts?

I recently downloaded and installed Moodle 2.0 dev. I have not investigated every new feature and update but my early exploring left me quite happy. Moodle 2.0, in my opinion, is going to be much improved from earlier version upgrades.

A few things that I like in my early exploration:

• HTML editor 2.0 – The look of the editor is more pleasing to the eye. A few features are added like tables, layers, handling of Word documents, better for HTML code editing, better options for inserting images and media. Read more about the HTML editor 2.0.
• File API – The look and structure of file management  feels a lot different. A good different. When uploading an image (within the Editor) it opens a new window which a much better interface. I think users will fidn this new look easier to follow and understand. I had to add the “local files” repository and “show” it to be able to upload files within ‘site files’ then use it when in the Editor. I also had to “show” the “upload a file” to allow users to upload a file within the Editor. Looking at the documentation for the new File API there are a lot of improvements with file management and linking to files with the HTML editor. They may be still working out the kinks but I think this is going to be one of my new favorite upgrades.
• Repository API – Just looking at the repository possibilites excites me because it includes interaction with other software and sites like: YouTube, Alfresco, Flickr, Box.net, Picasa and more. Read more on the Repository API coming in Moodle 2.0.
• Portfolio API – Moodle 2.0 is going to be able to integrate with Mahara. It looks like it can also integrate with Picasa, Google Docs, Flickr, Box.net or you are able to do a file download (not sure how this works?). I have not worked with portfolios but I would think this will be a great resource for students. Read more on the Portfolio API documentation.

Those were the main areas of improvement I saw and that I think will be some of the best improvements. I only spent a day looking through Moodle 2.0 dev and it’s hard to know all the ins and outs of the new features and the new processes without having a real Moodle site to work on.

I have been expirementing on my Moodle Development site. I will continue to explore Moodle 2.0 Dev and review the above improvements (and more) on another blog post. This was just a rough review of my initial thoughts.

Check out the Moodle Docs Roadmap to Moodle 2.0 for further Moodle 2.0 information and updates.