Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project » Hack/Doc Fest at Smith http://www.clamp-it.org Building tools and sharing solutions for liberal arts colleges Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:43:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Requesting Hacks, Fixes and Documentation for Hack/Doc Fest IV http://www.clamp-it.org/2009/05/requesting-hacks-fixes-and-documentation-for-hackdoc-fest-iv/ http://www.clamp-it.org/2009/05/requesting-hacks-fixes-and-documentation-for-hackdoc-fest-iv/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 18:40:03 +0000 Staff http://www.clamp-it.org/?p=132 Hack/Doc Fest is coming soon, and we’re starting to put together our list of possible tasks for the event. We’re in the process of gathering and reviewing the usability tests that a number of schools conducted in the spring, and we expect a good chunk of our work to be guided by those results.

As always though, we’re looking for suggestions from the community about things *you* want us to look at and work on. These can be bug fixes, hacks, functionality improvements, documentation, road testing, etc. 

Note: You don’t have to be attending Hack/Doc Fest to make suggestions — we’d like suggestions from the entire community. 

Here’s a rough list based on brainstorming by the steering committee. None of this is set in stone (save for updating the Moodle: Liberal Arts Edition package to Moodle 1.9.5 and rolling in all of our fixes/patches/commonly used modules, etc.)

Instructional Technologists
  • Move existing documentation to CLAMP-IT.org
  • documentation for 1.9.5 Gradebook, Groups, Roles, …
  • QuickStart Guide for novices
  • Usability testing
    • 2nd round
    • Verify bugs
    • Index videos
    • Generate list of User Interface Design issues
  • Review CLAMP-IT.org
  • Instructions for how to customize Moodle
  • Build CLAMP illustrated bibliography of presentations, etc.
  • Implement Documentation Workflow:
    • Wiki: first page menu to sections, page for each section, page for each piece of documentation  
    • Tracker issue for each post to assign workflow elements
    • Post to Redmine (any pasted data should be text only; all formatting in Wiki)
    • Post draft, assign to reviewer
    • Review, assign back to poster
    • Revise, elicit feedback
    • Finalize
    • Post to CLAMP-IT, etc.
  • Create Audio-visual documentation on vanilla LA version, create scripts that can be made specific to institution
  • Create series of “Moodle Minute” entries — short tidbits or “Did you knows?”
Coders

  • Create LA version for 1.9.5
  • Debug Roles and security reports for roles
  • Create Autorun process for testing script
  • Formalize Census module
  • Evaluate NanoGong for inclusion in LA version or create separate package for it (use CK editor and Tiny MCE)
  • Develop patch for integrating CKEditor and TinyMCE into Moodle 1.9.5.
  • Repair Assignment Zip
  • Polish and possibly broaden Course Block
  • Fix major bug in Scheduler
  • Tweak Single File Upload – correct display of icons
  • iTunes Block
  • Bug List
  • List of regular Hacks to potentially include in LA version

Graphic Designer (from Smith) in conjunction with instructional Technologists

  • Create a CLAMP Theme
  • Screen mock-ups as result of usability testing
  • Potentially brainstorm My-Moodle design

Please add your ideas to this list! Not sure if something fits? Just ask! Feel free to post a comment or email me at newquisk@lafayette.edu.

]]> http://www.clamp-it.org/2009/05/requesting-hacks-fixes-and-documentation-for-hackdoc-fest-iv/feed/ 1 Hack/Doc Fest at Reed College: Post Event Report http://www.clamp-it.org/2009/03/hackdoc-fest-at-reed-college-post-event-report/ http://www.clamp-it.org/2009/03/hackdoc-fest-at-reed-college-post-event-report/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:00:55 +0000 Staff http://www.clamp-it.org/?p=79 Hack/Doc Fest III was held at Reed College, January 7-9, 2009. The big issues tackled at the event were the Gradebook and Moodle usability (with the two colliding more often than not). In the Gradebook, we’ve created documentation explaining how to simplify and streamline it using existing Moodle options and one or two easy-to-apply patches.

We’ve also created a rough draft of a “simple grade report” that will be polishing into shape after Hack/Doc Fest. We engaged the Moodle community on how to assign weights to all assignments on a single page (MDL-15680) as well as the just-forged movement to introduce the much-easier-to-use Louisiana State University gradebook variant into Moodle core (MDL-17807). Both are major initiatives scheduled to be included in 1.9.4, and would have a huge impact in Gradebook usability on our campuses.

On the usability side, we’ve created scripts to test how faculty and students handle certain tasks within Moodle. The goal is to assess what works and what doesn’t, create our own patches and fixes to address these issues, and report our findings (and patches) back to the Moodle community.

Addressing a long standing need to keep track of all the enhancements and patches we create, both at Hack/Doc Fest and on our own, we’ve created a “Moodle: Liberal Arts Edition” package that incorporates the third-party modules that NITLE schools use most (Feedback, Scheduler, Quickmail), fixed versions of broken files, and home-grown solutions like the “Filtered Courses Block” and the new “Census” report. We’re also setting up a web site to allow for individual downloads of the various fixes.

The Census report builds on the work of Earlham and Carleton Colleges, and allows schools to instantly see how many active courses they have, how many students are in one or more courses, and much more. It also includes an optional reporting option that sends summary data about what how many courses the school is running as well as what blocks, modules and reports it is using, back to a central database. This will greatly help with our collective support of Moodle, as we’ll no longer need to gather this data through one-off surveys of the NME community.

Hack/Doc Fest IV at Smith College 

Hack/Doc Fest IV will be held at Smith College from June 3-5, 2009. It is being in held immediately after the NITLE Moodle Camp at Smith earlier that week in the hopes that we can increase attendance from developers and instructional technologists.

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