Moodle News

RSS Plus – a new RSS Kid On The Block for Moodle 2.x

Frankie Kam — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:38:08 +0000

Totara LMS supports the work of Frankie Kam as he explores the many possibilities of Moodle for fun and to improve his college’s course site.

I. What RSS is

Do you use a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) block on your Moodle site?

Design by vectorarts.net, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Share Alike 3

The standard Moodle RSS block for Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.x was written by Daryl Hawes, with CSS code by Martin Dougiamas.

Figure 1. The standard Moodle 1.9 RSS block

It does a pretty good job in generating dynamic course content, such as news headline links, professor web links, blog postings, and much more.

At least one Moodler has modified the standard RSS block as did Mr. Badrul Mohammad’s work of displaying a link’s description in tooltips.

Figure 2. The standard Moodle 1.9 RSS block with a tooltip hack

Yet another good RSS block, for Moodle 1.9 however, is the Newsfeed block by Sam Marshall.

II. New Kid On The Block

As of 2nd April 2012, there is a new RSS block, for Moodle 2.x, named the “RSS Plus Block for Moodle 2.2 – Alpha Release”.

Figure 3. Both the standard Moodle 2.x RSS and the RSS Plus blocks side-by-side

In the screenshot above, the standard stock “RSS Client” block (that comes with the standard Moodle 2.2 installation) is shown on the left, AND on the right, the RSS Plus block. You can experience it yourself by logging to http://moodurian.com/m2/course/view.php?id=2 as
Username: student
Password: student

Its creator is Shaun Daubney, a Communications and eLearning Development Officer, of Further Education College. Special features of RSS Plus are:

it allows images to be displayed together with the RSS text description, but only for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) RSS Feeds, as far as I know. I’ve tried it with CNN’s technology RSS feed however the resultant RSS feed shows only text with no images appearing.
displays feed subject and description in a more organised manner

I’ve installed it on my Moodle 2.2 test site. Check out my video on Youtube introducing the RSS Plus block, as shown on my Moodle site.

The RSS feed in the video shown consists of a feed of 20 CNN news items AND 20 BBC UK news items. So 40 news items in all and NO SCROLL OF DEATH thanks to a vertical scrollbar CSS trick that I have added.

Here’s the trick:

Edit the file /block/rss_feed/styles.css

Add the two magenta lines inside the styles.css..block_rss_plus .content section.

styles.css..block_rss_plus .content {
padding-left:0 !important;
padding-right:0 !important;
height:500px;
overflow:auto;
}

That should do the trick of vanishing the scroll of death! In fact, you can also apply the same code for the Remote RSS Feed – i.e., the standard Moodle RSS Block. Give it a try! Thanks to Itamar Tzadok for teaching me that one.

Future features that Shaun would like to include, and is requesting for help, are

Display images from all feeds (where applicable)
Display other content such as video (where applicable)
Display feed favicon or channel image over main image

Personally, I’m excited about the RSS Plus block because it enhances my course pages. Images from the BBC UK RSS feed are a nice touch, and it helps to keep my Moodle content fresh.

Until my next post, keep Moodling!

Frankie Kam
Melaka, Malaysia

#iMoot2012, See you online!

Joseph Thibault — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:00:23 +0000

I heard that there are over 150 hours of presentations over the next 4 days. Starting tonight with a keynote and then jumping into two simultaneous sessions running 24/7 through Tuesday of next week the iMoot is really packing it in. With 100s of participants from around the world this is going to be one heck of an event.

I’ve been running through my presentation and what I want to say over and over and over. In any event, if you’re looking for a sneak peek to my session tonight see the embedded presentation below (note that I am likely swapping slides in and out, deleting slides, adding images, writing notes and rearranging as you read this; ah the beauty of drafts).

In any event, $80 is a very low price for 80 or so hours of unique video sessions with the top Moodlers from around the world (myself excluded). Even if you can’t attend tonight, register for a chance to learn later (all the sessions are recorded and available as archives to all registered users). Otherwise watch for some coverage here and elsewhere to get just a taste.

Registration for the Midwest Moot is now open #Mootusin12

Joseph Thibault — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:00:26 +0000

Early bird registration for the Midwest Moot is now open and is only $165 until June 16th. This year’s keynote in Goshen, Indiana is Stuart Mealor (@stuartrmealor), Managing Director of Human Resource Development (HRD), a Moodle partner in New Zealand.

The Goshen/Midwest Moot is in its 3rd year and is bigger than ever. Check out the program of sessions at http://www.learningcontexts.com/midwestmoot/sessions/.

Midwest Moot: July 25-27

2012 West Coast MoodleMoot – Martin Dougiamas will be there…

Marty Soupcoff — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:30:44 +0000

Want to meet Martin Dougiamas, founder and creator of Moodle? Well book a ticket to Southern California as soon as possible because he will be speaking at the West Coast Moodle Moot (July 31 – August 3)… well at least that is what is planned. The program committee has listed him as a keynote speaker for the event but cannot confirm yet if the keynote will be in-person or done remotely.

Martin, if you read this, would you rather hangout in sunny Southern California during our summer months or in Australia which will be in its winter months?

Sidenote: He presented last year at the West Coast Moodle Moot in Sonoma, CA so hopefully he will come again.

Presented by Moodlerooms, an official Moodle Partner, the West Coast MoodleMoot’s goal is:

…to share ideas, collaborate with other users, and learn about what’s new with Moodle. From faculty using Moodle for student engagement to systems administrators tuning servers for optimal performance, this conference will give you the opportunity to enhance your knowledge and use of this leading open source Learning Management System.

At this year’s conference, sessions will highlight all aspects of running a successful Moodle system, including: teaching, collaborating, supporting, coding, analyzing and managing Moodle. Get the most out of the conference by attending the pre-conference workshops, keynotes and concurrent sessions.

Los Angeles, California is the ideal location to extend your Moodle knowledge and partake in valuable conversations all while having a little bit of fun! Attendees include beginner, intermediate and advanced users from both K12 and higher education, government and not for profit, and the private sector. The Moot provides an excellent venue for sharing best practices.

In addition to Martin potentially speaking at the event, Moodle HQ will also be represented by Anthony Borrow, the Moodle CONTRIB Coordinator. Borrow will be presenting in two sessions; Moodle CONTRIB and Moodle Plugins 101.

The conference contains two other keynote speeches besides Dougimas. Dr. Richard Clark, co-director of the Center for Cognitive Technology at USC, will be the opening speech on August 2nd. Dr. Clark is a world-renowned academic technology expert who will be speaking about the “common misconceptions about the design and presentation of online instruction.” One of his principles that he has argued is “that media has no more to do with instructional effectiveness than a delivery truck has to do with the nutritional value of the groceries it delivers.”

Brief of Dr. Clark’s presentation

Dr. Cable Green, Director of Global Learning at Creative Commons, will be the closing speech on August 2nd. Dr. Green working for Creative Commons, a leading organization in the legal sharing of resources between users who then improve said resources, is a natural fit for an educational conference. Dr. Green’s presentation titled, “The Obviousness of Open Policy” will address the issue of taxpayers having to pay multiple times for curriculum materials and research products that are funded by grants and other public funds.

Brief of Dr. Green’s presentation

Besides the regular conference schedule, a series of pre-conference workshops will be held at California State University, Northridge on July 31st. These pre-conference workshops are not included in the conference registration price and will cost $75 each workshop. The pre-conference workshops will address a wide-range of topics from building your Moodle site from the ground up to tips for users switching from 1.9 to 2.x.

Approximately 350 people attended last year’s West Coast MoodleMoot in Sonoma, CA with some traveling from as far away as Europe and Africa. This year’s event will include more corporate sponsors than last year so hopefully you can pick up some cool swag while you are there. With limited space in both the conference and pre-conference events, sign up soon! More information and maps on the event can be found below.

Additional Details

2012 West Coast Moodle Moot Schedule

Dates: August 1 – August 3

Registration Cost: $375 – Deadline July 9
- On-site Registration – $455 (space permitting)

Location: Hilton Woodland Hills/Los Angeles
6360 Canoga Avenue
Woodland Hills, California 91367

Map from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport)

Map from BUR (Bob Hope Burbank Airport)

Pre-Conference Workshop Schedule

Pre-conference Workshops Date: July 31

Pre-Conference Workshops Registration Cost: $75 per workshop (space limited)

Location: California State University, Northridge – www.csun.edu
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA 91330

Map from Hilton Woodland Hills/Los Angeles

Map from LAX

Map from BUR

Happy oodling!

#Moodlewish Wrap Up: Let us know what you think

Joseph Thibault — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:37 +0000

So we collected a quality list of Moodlewishes by participants over the last two weeks as part of our iMoot ticket giveaway (you can still register btw). Here’s a quick run down of some of the best submissions:

Full editing and management functionality on mobile devices
Quick reference to see how large courses are (at a glance)
Had drag and drop functionality (can’t wait for 2.3)
A better file management system, allowing for easier file deletion, modifying.
A built in upgrade utility (similar to WordPress) at least for point releases. Being able to so easily upgrade the core and third party plugins would make it a lot easier for non-technical audiences to experiment and explore Moodle, and to keep it up to date and secure.
Anonymous Grading (for exams and assignments) to eliminate bias (this sounds like a module)
Could be offline as well as online.
Had the ability to assign graders, like in Lightwork! [http://lightworkmarking.org/]
To emulate Facebook in embedding URLs and recognising the images or videos that come with the URL.

Moodle 2.3 is bringing usability to the forefront of Moodle; but these suggestions are definitely others to consider (and some are very low handing fruit).

What do you think? Is there something on the list that should be included? Are you working on something listed above?

2 Winners of Free Registration to the iMoot

Joseph Thibault — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:00:28 +0000

Congratulations to Mike Hughes and Cindi Sawchuk who will be getting free registration for the upcoming iMoot. They’ve won by being randomly selected from all of the “I wish Moodle…” survey which has been open at Moodlenews.com.

We’ve had some great suggestions (each worthy of their own posts). Stay tuned Friday for a wrap up of all the Moodle wishes.

Were you planning on a free registration and didn’t win? Well not to worry registration is still open at iMoot.org. Register today!

Ajax Marking Tool: the end of your grading queue woes?

Joseph Thibault — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:30:59 +0000

When you’re managing loads of students across multiple classes getting to their work to provide evaluation, feedback and grades can take a lot of unnecessary time. Efficiency in grading and feedback is key for meeting the demands of today’s students. This new plugin in the Moodle.org database recently caught my eye and purports to provide an easy way to manage grading from a glance (all through the main navigation block).

I’ve had a brief chance to install and test it and it works exactly as described showing all submissions by course for any courses for which you have the teacher role. The plugin solves that issue of consolidating every submission that “needs grading” right from one location (and serves them up as a popup without changing your location!). A little more testing is needed to see if it carries the same integration with other tools like TurnitIn, Quizzes, and other grade based assignment submissions.

For more information or to give it a go check out http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=block_ajax_marking

T Minus 2 Days til the iMoot #iMoot2012

Joseph Thibault — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:57 +0000

The iMoot kicks off this friday with a keynote from Michelle Moore of Remote-Learner and her presentation “the Best Moodle Tools You’ve Never Used!” It’s followed by hours and hours of great sessions (including my own which is at 6pm EST), literally running around the clock.

Stay tuned today to see who else is getting a free registration to the iMoot through their participation in the #Moodlewish entry form. Get your entry in by 10:30 AM for a chance to get in on the action.

Or if you don’t want to take your chances: go register!

Help Moodle HQ test Moodle 2.3 now

Joseph Thibault — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:23 +0000

QA Testing for Moodle 2.3 (due in June) is now underway [announcement].

If you’re interested in checking out all the new features (like the new activities, new course formats, etc.) this is your chance (while contributing back some handy work and feedback to Moodle HQ).

From Tim Barker (HQ Test Manager),

We expect the 2.3 file usability stuff to land shortly. However, other major 2.3 features such as the new Assignment module and Paged Course format are ready for testing.

http://qa.moodle.net/ is up to date and ready for you to log in and start your testing. Please see http://docs.moodle.org/dev/QA_testing for instructions on running a test.

The QA tests for 2.3 are at http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDLQA-1814.

What am I looking forward to most at #iMoot2012?

Joseph Thibault — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:30:34 +0000

The end of this week will mark both the 3rd annual and my 3rd time presenting at the online iMoot event. This year I’ll be presenting what I think the contemporary considerations must be for achieving an excellent online classroom environment (tools, design, setup and policies), specifically for online college level delivery.

In years past I touched on how to get started blogging, the Moodle community as an unofficial driver of the code and features and what your options are if you’re planning to use free hosting.

One interesting thread at iMoot.org is currently “what are you most looking forward to?”

First and foremost I look forward to getting through both of my sessions successfully (being interesting, clear and loud enough). But otherwise I love dropping in on sessions to learn from peers regarding their Moodle user stories and successes. This year has a lot of sessions on the program that I can learn from, not to mention the great keynotes that the iMoot staff has lined up.

A few sessions that look especially good:

Moodle in the cloud
Moodle 2020 (who doesn’t like thinking about the future?)
Moodle and Google Analytics
Essential Moodle Plugins

Not only that, but dropping in and sharing information that I’ve learned in the sessions lasts for weeks and weeks. There’s a ton of great information to be learned at any Moot event. If you’re not registered yet: you should be.