Moodlerific.org » Modules

Revisited: Best Modules & Plugins

melissa — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:00:07 +0000

I’d like to revisit a topic I’ve posted about in the past, the best Modules and Plugins for Moodle. With Moodle 2 coming out, a revamp of the moodle.org plugins directory and the time since our last look at modules and plugins, I thought it’d be good to take another look.

Here are the modules I’ve posted about in the past:

Activity Module: Book
Activity Module: Questionnaire
Course Format: Collapsed Topics
Block: HTML Block (standard block)
Module: Database (standard activity)
Block: Quickmail
Resource Type: Lightbox Gallery Resource
Block: Birthday Block
Activity Module: OU blog
Activity Module: Dimdim Web Meeting Activity
Other: Moodle-GoogleApps Integration

Block: Accessibility Options
Block: Active Users
Activity Module: Certificate
Activity ModuleFeedback
Activity Module: Flash
Filter: Jmol
Block: Marking
Block: MRBS
Other: MySQL Admin
Activity Module: Face-to-face
Activity Module: Feedback
Activity Module: Attendance
Activity Module: Course Menu
Block: Administration Alert
Block: Trouble ticket

Revisions of previous Modules rationale

Integration: Moodle-Google Apps
I used to love this Moodle-Google SSO module but a few years later I prefer the other authentication option of Google Apps Directory Sync or even better, a custom solution tied to your Google domain and your other solutions (crossing fingers we can do this in our district). A few reasons why–quirky issues with the plugin that I was able to troubleshoot but just inconsistency in account creation, third-party services in Google Apps (like Aviary) did not work and features like organization management are available with the sync tool. However, moodle.org does have better documentation of this module.

Activity Module: Questionnaire
Still a great module, but I believe they are working on a new and improved survey module that combines the Feedback, Survey and Questionnaire module into a standard Survey module. It does not look like it’s come out yet or if there is active development. I have not installed Questionnaire yet on our Moodle 2 site but if the standard module doesn’t come out by Fall I will install it.

New Modules

Here are a few modules that are either new to me or ones that have jumped in rank in my opinion.

Certificate (activity module) 1.9, 2.1 and below
I’ve mentioned this before but I have only recently added it to our Moodle 2 site. I’d like to give this module an extra bump as it could be very useful for professional development and courses where credits or proof of completion are important. Works in Moodle 2.

Drag and Drop file Upload (block) 1.9, 2.x
This block could possibly make me our teachers’ new best friend. I’ve heard about this plugin for awhile but only recently installed it on our Moodle 2 site. Tried it once and got very excited. Just like the title says, this block allows a user to drag a file from their desktop onto a Moodle course. I still have to see how it works with other browsers but this could be a great help when we transition our users to Moodle 2 in the Fall.

Grid Format (Course Format) 1.9, 2.2 and below
I have not yet installed this Course Format but from what I understand it basically does the Compact Design for you. In the discussion thread there were a few bugs but it looks like it was updated last week which takes care of those. I still want to look a little more into it before installing but it looks great.

Onetopic Format and Topic Forums (Course Format) 1.9, 2.1 and below
I haven’t installed these Course Formats yet but they look pretty cool. Onetopic looks like it adds tabs for each section which will show one topic at a time. This would prevent the issue of the “scroll of death”. The topic Forums Course Format works the same way but it also puts a discussion forum in each of the section pages.

HTMLArea toolbar Extension (Other) 1.9, 2.1 and below
I have not yet installed/modified our code which enables this feature. It really got me interested and excited when I attended a session on it during last year’s iMoot. At that time I don’t think it was compatible with 2.x but it does look like it is now. Again, I need to look into this more especially because it involves modifying code. This module adds many different features to the WYSIWYG Editor. Definitely something I plan on installing in the future.

I installed the Certificate and Drap and Drop module last week in our Moodle 2 environment. I’m being cautious on installing a few of these and waiting a little longer so the bugs can get worked out. We’ll be transitioning to Moodle 2 next fall so I’m sure there will be more Modules I’ll find and report back on. If you have any favorite Modules please feel free to comment!

Related

Quiz Report: Detailed Responses (module for 1.9 standard in 2.0)

melissa — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:56:33 +0000

This morning I was emailed by a teacher in my district asking if there was a way to get a different type of summary for Moodle Quiz results. He wanted a better way to give a summary with original responses to print and attach to other papers for students. The way he was currently doing it was wasting a lot of paper.

What I need for moodle to do is be able to provide each student’s original response, right or wrong and score for each question and an overall score.

Being a Moodle admin and not having much “real life” experience with Quizzes – grading, viewing reports – I needed to take a look at the default reporting in Moodle 1.9.9 and then head over to Moodle.org to check out the modules & plugins.

After visiting Moodle.org, a CTRL + f and a find “quiz” I quickly found a promising module that could work – Quiz Report: Detailed Responses.

This quiz report plug-in displays all the responses given by students at the quiz in one big table. It allows this table to be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet.

In Moodle 2.0, this was moved into the core distribution.

I installed it by following the instructions I found in a comment:

Create a folder called “responses” under /mod/quiz/report/
Copy the report.php and styles.css files included in the zip file to the newly created “responses” folder: /mod/quiz/report/responses/
Create a folder called “quiz_responses” under /lang/ent_utf8/help/
Copy the help files that are in the lang/en_utf8/help/responses/ folder in the zip file (three .html files) to the newly created /lang/en_utf8/help/quiz_responses/ folder.

This module creates a new link called “Detailed responses” when you View your Quiz and then click the Results tab. It’s essentially the same report as “overview” but it shows the student’s original responses instead of just a score.

The columns are: Name | Total Score | Question #1 | Question #2 | etc

Green = Correct Answer
Red = Incorrect Answer

So, a simple report but it could be very useful and efficient for teachers – maybe that’s why they made it standard in Moodle 2.0!

Related Links

Extending the Moodle Database Activity with CSS, templates & HTML

melissa — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:26:06 +0000

I was recently given the task in my district to develop a solution for a searchable forms database on our new web site. These forms include staff forms for HR, district permission slips, enrollment forms, etc. We just migrated our site to a paid for service which included many features except a way to store, search and display forms (files).

I decided to use a Database Activity in Moodle. A few obstacles I initially saw:

Integrate the activity into the district site seamlessly
Integrate the look into the district site
Customizing the display
Meeting the district’s needs of menus, filters and search

Integrate the activity into the district site seemlessly

A simple solution for this, although I don’t particularly enjoy using them, was to use an iframe on our district web site. I only had a WYSIWYG Editor to use that allowed HTML. Clicking a link on the district site which opened a link in Moodle wasn’t an option. It needed to be embedded within the web site and not be noticeable that it’s using another product or site. So, iframe it was.

Integrate the look into the district site

The biggest issue was the header and footer in Moodle. I was able to remove all of this using the CSS template in the Database Activity. With much help from Mary Evans in the Moodle Forums on Moodle.org I used Firebug to accomplish hiding the header, breadcrumb navigation, description box and footer.

Below is the screenshot pointing out each section and below that is the code corresponding to each section in the screenshot.

/*Hide header, banner*/ #mod-data-view #header { display: none;} #mod-data-view #banner { display: none;}

/*Hide breadcrumb navigation*/ #mod-data-view #page .navbar { display: none;}

/*Hide description box*/ #mod-data-view #intro {display:none; padding-top:0px;}

/*Hide footer*/ #mod-data-view #footer { display: none;} #mod-data-view .paging {margin: 0px;}

Customizing the display

I lucked out in that the theme I picked, Leatherbound, matched most of the colors for our district site. Now, I wanted to add in some highlighting and shadowing. I lucked out again that Moodle.org has documentation on “How can I add highlighting like on the Modules and plugins page?“. I modified it a bit and put it in my CSS template.

Meeting the district’s needs of menus, filters and search

Finally, I needed to add in some drop down menus to departments and buildings. I got tons of help again, from the Moodle.org forums. Itamar Tzadok helped me out in several Database Activity Forum threads.

I put that HTML in the “List” template. I was able to get direct links to each “field” by manually searching for that field and copying and pasting it as a link. ‘Department’ and ‘Building’ were fields, so I was able to search (filter) and get the link.

After a lot of testing and troubleshooting here is the final product (you can see the Moodle Database Activity bordered in black)

You can see it live by going to http://bloomington.k12.mn.us click on “Quicklinks” in the top right, then click on “Forms A-Z“.

Moodle Nanogong Assignment

melissa — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:15:18 +0000

I found this great blog post and screencast from Mary Cooch on her Moodle Blog explaining a new Nanogong assignment.

Similar to the “upload a single file” type where students can browse and send you their work for marking , the nanogong assignment presents them with a little sound recorder into which they can record themselves , play back to check and then send to you. read more

I just wanted to post a quick link to her post and screecast. This looks like a great module that I know the teachers in our district would use! I hope to test this out soon and possibly add it to our Moodle site if I get some time for it. Thanks Mary!

Read the full post and watch the screencast explaining how to install and use it.

Moodle Activity Module: Focuspad

melissa — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:08:09 +0000

I was recently (well actually quite awhile ago but I’ve been so busy) asked by Ryan Chadwick to take a look at a recently developed Moodle Activity Module called Focuspad by Mintranet.

Focuspad is a Moodle module/activity aimed at encouraging and supporting creative writing. Pieces of writing are saved as posts and managed through the library. read more

Here is some “about” information for this Moodle activity taken from the ‘find out more‘ page on the module’s official site.

Focuspad is similar to blogs and assignments that are already in Moodle but differ in a few key ways that make it a cleaner solution for a lot of tasks.

Unlike blogs, Focuspad posts can be graded.
*Unlike assignments, Focuspad allows you to submit multiple items.

Focuspad also has these features:

Word limits on posts.
Time limits on posts.
Autosave of documents every 5 minutes.
Templates on posts so that you can guide students writing.
Notes area so that you can encourage students to plan their work before diving in.
A streamlined marking process. Run through the posts smoothly as you mark them.
Pause posts. For some students with special needs it is not uncommon for them to be allowed to pause their assessments. Focuspad allows for this.
An editor designed to maximise focus and minimise distractions.

*I think the standard assignment activity, “Advanced uploading of files”, does allow this

What can you do with Focuspad?

Basic Blogs – but in a more localised, managed manner.
Essay based assignments and assessments.
Learning Logs/ Journals
25 word or less style competitions (works great in conjunction with a specially set grading scale).
Allow for a fun component in student election campaigns.
Guided learning on how to write essays or reports (by use of templates).
Open creative writing (let the students form their own targets).
Fill in the blanks, use a template to provide the framework for a story and let the students expand on it.

Review

I played around with Focuspad as a student as well as a teacher. At first glance it looked very elegant and smooth but it seemed a little confusing as to what everything was meant for and did. For example, I didn’t know if this was public or only the teacher saw it, I was unsure if clicking “done” meant I could not edit it again and I was just unsure of how the whole thing operated. It took me only a few minutes to get the hang of it and now it seems pretty darn easy! It is a one time cost of $99.95 (for every Focuspad sold $5 will be donated to Moodle). You are able to put it on as many installations in your organizations and you have access to any upgrades.

There are two elements to Focuspad: the library and the editor. The library is open source and the editor used is what you have to pay for. The general idea of Focuspad is a Moodle activity where students can write (within Moodle – no uploads of Word files) an essay, fill in blanks from a template, fill out a learning log, etc. and hand it into the teacher. It is a very slick and attractive activity. It works very much like Microsoft Word and it’s really cool because the students see the entire piece of paper and layout. It’s not like Moodle’s WYSIWYG editor, where you see a small box with some buttons in the middle section of a page.

What I liked:

A student can make their post public or private. This is a great option to allow a teacher to make an assignment for their eyes only when students should not be able to see other student’s work, but you can also choose to make it public to share their work and findings with their classmates.

The ability to edit multiple times within Moodle (if that setting is set) is a real convenient feature in my opinion. A student can start an assignment and finish it later or add on to it later like a journal.

The ability for teachers to create templates. This is a pretty awesome thing to be able to do. If there are guidelines or a certain format the teacher wants students to use they can create a template. The only drawback or issue I see is I was able to edit the template, so students could accidentally (or on purpose) edit the template. There may be a lock on this but I did not see it.

Everything is done within Moodle!!! This is the best part of the module. Kids do not have to have a word processing program or worry about uploading files. No worries about versions of Microsoft Word or viewing PowerPoints.

In Conclusion

I think this Moodle Activity Module is a very smooth, easy to use and useful feature. It sort of combines the blog, the journal and the advanced uploading of assignments into one. The fact that a student can work on an assignment, stop, come back the next day and finish it and then hand it in – all within Moodle is great. Moodle does have an “online assignment” but it does not compare to Focuspad. I think teacher’s would love this activity. I haven’t seen any other comments or reviews on Focuspad but I would be interested to see other reviews. In conclusion, after playing around with this Moodle activity I see it as a very useful tool that is more enhanced and robust than any standard writing assignment activity. I will be interested to see what upgrades they have to this activity and any other resources they come up with. Before actually purchasing and installing this feature I would have to test it out and see if there are any bugs but it is something to definitely take a look at.