Author: Ken Newquist

Day 2 at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Winter 2012

Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Tulane continued on Thursday, January 13, 2012. Here’s what we did:

OM Local

  • For the last few years we’ve been using the “OM” tool to quickly create new instances of Moodle based on code from our Git repository and pre-made database profiles. Daniel Landau (Reed College) has created a local version of this tool that can be run on Unix-based operating systems (Mac OS X, Linux)

Moodle 2.2 Documentation

  • CLAMP’s Moodle 2 documentation has been updated to reflect Moodle 2.2. View the documentation.
  • New documentation is being written for:
    • Time release of resources
    • Advanced Grading/Rubrics
  • New administration documentation is being written for the following repository types:
    • Flickr
    • Dropbox
    • Google Docs
    • Youtube

Rubrics

  • We evaluated rubrics, which seem to be working pretty well. There are some gotchas in terms of how grades are weighted, which will be covered in the documentation.

Quickmail

  • LSU quickmail works pretty darn well. Allows multiple attachments. Nice browse interface.
  • There is a bug involving the capabilities “can_send_mail” and “can_students_use_quickmail?” Depending on how these settings are configured, they may not work at all. Caroline Moore (Smith College) and Damon Blanchette (Smith College) is debugging this.

Files:

  • When exporting and restoring coures, Moodle 2 does a better job of relative linking so that the file links don’t break.
  • Private files: Is there a way to back up and restore private files? (a la course backups?) There doesn’t appear to be one. This could be an issue for colleges that run semester-based or academic year-based instances of Moodle, and want faculty to have access to their previous private files.
  • We questioned if private files should even be turned on, but weren’t sure what the implications of leaving it off would be. If nothing else, the mobile app expects mobile files to be on in order to upload images, audio, etc. to Moodle.

Enrollments

  • A major issue with Moodle enrollments under 2.0 was that student data — particularly grades — was lost when a student was unenrolled from a course and then re-enrolled (a not uncommon scenario).
  • Under Moodle 2.2, grades come back with the student, but only if you check a hidden advanced option to restore grades for that particularly student when re-enrolling them in the course.
  • We think there should be a system-level checkbox for administrators so that they can default this option to “yes”. This would allow Moodle 2.2 to operate as Moodle 1.9.x did.

Presentations

  • IPAL Web-based Clickers by William Junkin, Eckerd College
    • William did a live presentation of his IPAL web-based clicker for Moodle 2.1.
    • Students can respond with any web-enabled device. During the presentation most used smartphones.
    • Responses arrive (and are displayed) in real time.
    • You can copy IPAL questions in from Questionnaire.
    • IPAL does not do grading, but there are folks who are working on that.
    • The interface currently only allows you to see current student responses; there isn’t an export tool for responses. The responses are stored in the database, so they could be retrieved for use in a report.
    • A version for 2.2 will be released; there is no 1.9 version.

Moodle 1.9.16+LAE v1.6 Beta 1 Released

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.16+LAE v1.6 Beta 1. Full details about this release can be found in the LAE_readme.txt file in the download. Note: This is a beta release for testing purposes only; it is not recommended for use on production web sites

  • Code freeze was Friday, Jan. 13, 2012
  • Moodle 1.9.16+LAE v1.6 Beta 1 was released Friday, Jan. 13, 2012
  • Moodle 1.9.16+LAE v1.6 final is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012

Visit the release’s home page to download the code:

Day 1 at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Winter 2012

Moodle Hack/Doc Fest is under way at Tulane University. We eschewed our regular end-of-day recap on Wednesday because we ran out of time; instead we re-capped this morning.

Mobile App
Nate Swart (Lafayette College), Cort Haldaman (Furman University) and Bill Junkin (Eckard College) looked at the mobile app and theme.  The mobile app for iphone is lackluster. It has very basic functionality; the highlights are:
  • Upload photos or voice to “My Private file”.
  • Browse a course and use the participant list to mail, text or email students. This is the theory; we need to test it further.
  • Course listing is for consuming content
    • can’t post something.
    • can only look at resources
    • Web button takes you to web mobile interface.
Mobile Web Theme
  • Can’t upload videos, audio or pictures, but can do choice, forums, and quiz activities.
  • The theme only loads the TinyMCE editor reliably on Android; TinyMCE is wonky in iPhone.
  • Nate Swart (Lafayette College) is looking at JQuery theme roller for the mobile theme.
Scheduler
  • A test instance of Scheduler for Moodle 2.x is setup, but it needs to be tested for gotchas.
Course Generator
  • The random course generator that ships with Moodle is out of date and doesn’t have a maintainer. What ships hasn’t been updated in a year or half.
  • It doesn’t work with current versions of Moodle and needs to be updated.
Moodle 2.2 status review
  • Ellen L Freeman (Colby College) began updating the Moodle 2.x report, focusing on Moodle 2.2. We will release the updated report on the status of Moodle 2 after Hack/Doc.
Moodle 2.2 File System Resources
  • Courtney Bentley (Lafayette College) reviewed the File Upload and Repository documentation from the Summer 2011 Hack/Doc and verified that it is is all accurate. She then presented on the file interface so that everyone was up to date on it. Here’s a recap of what we saw:
    • There is no files link. If you like to have people go in and get organized through files, then they need to go to my private files and click on “Manage My Private Files”. They can organize it or dump a whole bunch of files into it.
    • At Eckard College (which runs Moodle 2.1), no one uses my private files. Instead they use a File folder as as a hidden view.
    • The big gotcha: you must click “save changes”. Kevin Williarity (Wesleyan) is working on an alert to if you surf away.
    • To add a file, they go to “File” or “Folder”.
      • Choose Upload a File. Doesn’t force you to stay on the file management screen.
      • Note: As always, the issue is that you can add more than one file, but only one file will be the main display file. Useful for web page.
      • Pulls the file over into the course, as a copy, not linked to the original in any way.
    • Creating a folder.
      • I can create a folder, and then add files. Files need to be added individually; you can’t point to an individual file; you can’t select multiple files.
    • Recent Files:
      • It has the last 50 files of whatever type you’re trying to add. If you use TinyMCE, and go to add an image, it shows just the last 50 images.
    • Server files
      • They have access to nything they have access to on the system.
      • Faculty see everything on the system, but only lets me drill down into what I see.
      • Can you hide server files? Yes, but how would they get to their other courses
      • There is no filtering of any kind; there is no “My Course Files”.
      • We should look at Tracker and see if there is a “My Course Files”.
      • Charles Fulton (Kalamazoo College) will look at files to see what is happening, and see if “My Course Files” could be done.
    • The question was asked: How do you collaboratively manage and edit documents on the backend?
      • Basically you upload files to the course in a files section. You need to manage course files through the course interface, rather than the backend file interface (as was the case in Moodle 1.9)
    • Quota for My Private files? Can you set it by role? No.
    • At Eckerd College they created a script called “Easy Posting for Professors”. It allows folks to easily add files to their course (it’s as easy as attaching a file to an email).  If they follow the link, they get a Syllabus and/or course files.
    • Drag and Drop File Interface from Moodle 2.3.
      • Charles Fulton (Kalamzoo College) demoed.
      • You can drag and drop individual files or multiple files, but not folders.
      • It does not solve the “surf away” problem with the files interface.
  • Remote Repos
    • When you’re adding your own files from your flickr account, the license information doesn’t carry over in flickr. You need to specify it again when copying. Mediawiki works the same way.
    • Public Flickr Lets you search by license, but there’s no attribution or licensing when you copy files over. No link info for license, no link back.
    • Can we confirm it isn’t point to the remote file?

Moodle 1.9.16+LAE 1.6

  • We will be releasing Moodle 1.9.16+LAE 1.6 as a beta at the conclusion of Moodle Hack/Doc, with a final release to follow shortly.
  • This release will include the latest updates from 1.9.16; it is a maintenance release.

Moodle 2.2.1+LAE 2.0

  • We will be releasing a Moodle 2.2.1+LAE 2.0 after Moodle Hack/Doc.
  • It will include:
    • Support for converting files uploaded using “Simple File Upload” to the standard file type. If you attempt to upgrade an 1.9 LAE instance (or restore a backed up course) to Moodle 2.x and have courses that use Simple File Upload, it will fail because Moodle does not recognize the file type assigned in the database. This fixes that issue.
    • Anonymous Forums: The 2.2 version of Anonymous Forums will be packaged into this release.

Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Winter 2012 Project & Presentation List

The project list for Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Winter 2012 is available as a publicly viewable Google Doc. Check out the list.

We also have a number of ad hoc demonstrations scheduled for Hack/Doc. Here’s the schedule:

Wednesday
10:30 a.m. Course Evaluations using Questionnaire by Bob Puffer, Luther College
2:30 p.m. Language Lesson by Carly Born, Carleton College

Thursday
10:30 a.m. IPAL Web-based Clickers by William Junkin, Eckerd College
2:30 p.m. eReserves by Daniel Landau, Reed College

Friday
10:30 a.m. Kaltura by Deb Sarlin, Bucknell University

Alternate:
Mahara ePortfolios by Bob Puffer, Luther College