Transcript Tailoring Moodle to Your Own Needs Version 5, Updated 2007.6.1

Version 5, Updated 2007.6.1
Tailoring Moodle
to Your Own Needs
JALTCALL International Conference,
Waseda University, Tokyo, 2 June 2007
Don Hinkelman, Sapporo Gakuin University
Thomas Robb, Kyoto Sangyo University
Paul Daniels, Kochi University of Technology
Andy Johnson, Sapporo Gakuin University
Gordon Bateson, Kanezawa University
Peter Ruthven-Stuart, Hakodate Future University
Your LMS
 Learning Management System (LMS)
 Commercial or Open Source?
 Moodle LMS >> My LMS
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Types of “Tailoring”
Most difficult
 Module
 Plug-in
 Block
 Modification
(tweak, hack, mod)
 Customization
Easiest
 Theme
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Outline of Workshop
Modules
1. Hot
Potatoes
Modules
5.
Presentation
2. Lecture
Feedback
6. Media
Blog
3. Project
Module
7. Seating
Chart
4. SelfStudy
8. FreeMail
Plug-ins
9. Word Order
Quiz Type
10. Split
Screen Quiz
Type
11. Content
Choice Quiz
Type
Blocks
13. Lab
Attendance
14. Blogger
Links
15. Highest
Quiz Scores
12. Seat
Numbers &
Nicknames
Tom Robb
Don Hinkelman
Peter RuthvenStuart
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Paul Daniels
Tom Robb
Andy Johnson
Tom Robb
Don Hinkelman
JALTCALL 2007, Waseda University, Tokyo
Tweaks
16. Standard
Romaji
17. Cellphone
Addresses
18. Language
Menu
19. Multilang
Filter
20.Show/Hide
Activities
21. Useful
Links
22. Rotating
Banners
Gordon Bateson
Custom
23. Roles
24. Themes
25.
Language
Peter RuthvenStuart
Don Hinkelman
4
Basic Structure of
Moodle
 Moodle code directory (moodle)
 (See next slide)
 Data directory (moodle_data)
 Contains all uploaded files including user pix
 Numbered folders correspond to course IDs
 Database (MySQL or PostgreSQL)
 MySQL is preferable since the user base is far greater
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The Moodle Code
Directory
Most common directories for tweaking
 Block
 Course
 Many files herein can be tweaked to add/delete items that
are displayed on the course page
 Lang
 en_utf8 needs to include any new definitions
 Lib
 code that is used in more than one place
 Mod
 Themes
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Adding new modules
 Best to start by copying an existing
module, renaming all elements within to
a new name
 A custom module that is not complete
may wreak havoc with backups and
restores, as well as cause “white
screens” and other unpredictable
behavior
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Moodle Directory
Blocks go
here
Modules
go here
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Moodle ‘mod’ folder
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Moodle Database
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Moodle Table
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Module 1
Hot Potatoes Module
 Type: Module
 What it does:
 Takes activities created in Hot Potatoes…
 Drap and drop
 Matching
 xxx
 Converts into a Moodle activity
 Where to get it:
now a standard module
 Where to get help:
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moodle.org Using Moodle forums
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Module 2
Lecture Feedback Module
 Type: Module
 What it does:
 Collects student questions and summaries of
lecture-type classes
 Semi-automatic coding of student feedbacks for
printing (handout for next class)
 Takes attendence with numbered, printed slips
entered into a database (now separate module)
 Mobile phone option (in class) or Desktop
computer input option (after class)
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Module 2
Lecture Feedback Module
 Screenshot
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Module 2
Lecture Feedback Module
 Screenshot
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Module 2
Lecture Feedback Module
 How to install it:
 Contact Don Hinkelman directly for package
 Drop package into “mod” folder
 For mobile phone option:
 hire program developer to install and monitor
 Who to contact for help:
 Don Hinkelman (English) <[email protected]>
 Narumi Sekiya (日本語)
<[email protected]>
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Module 3
Project Module
 Type: Module
 What it does:
 Manages project-based language learning
 Slideshows, video speeches, audio recordings, essays
 Five connected modules
 Brainstorm
 Signup
 Submit
 Appointment
 Assessment
 Peer-assessment and Self-assessment
 Ratings (rubrics)
 Comments
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Module 3
Project Module
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Module 3
Project Module
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Module 3
Project Module
 How to install it:
 Download from:
 http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/
 Drop project folder into “mod” folder
 Drop lang folder into “en_utf8” folder
 Go to Admin menu, triggers auto-install
 Who to contact for help:
 Don Hinkelman (English) <[email protected]>
 Moodle.org Project Module Forums
 http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=6930
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Module 4
SelfStudy Project (an interim
report)
 What it will do
 Phase 1: (student) “QuestionMaker”
 Phase 2: (student) “QuizMaker”
 Phase 3: “AutoQuizGenerator”
 How to install it
 Please wait - beta testers will be needed
 Who to contact for information
 Peter R-S: http://www.petesweb.org/
 Jamie Pratt: http://jamiep.org
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Module 4
SelfStudy Project
(an interim report)
Screenshots:
 QuestionMaker Activity set up page
 QuestionMaker grade activity page
 QuestionMaker administration page
 Student QuestionMaker page
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Module 4
SelfStudy Project
(an interim report)
Advice: from the POV of a teacher getting a programmer to assist in a





customisation project
Familiarise yourself as much of possible with the workings and
limitations of Moodle
Make it clear what you want the end product to do from Teachers' and
Students' points of view
Be prepared to describe User Interfaces; both teacher and student know what’s possible, look at other module UIs
Be prepared to lose control over the development, just don’t lose sight
of the ultimate objective
Think about the future of your customisation:
 Who will make the necessary changes to it when the Moodle core is
updated?
 Who will pay for those changes?
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Module 4
SelfStudy Project
(an interim report)
Advice: from the POV of a programmer assisting a nonprogramming teacher in a customisation project
 (coming soon)
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Module 4
SelfStudy Project
(an interim report)
Advice: being a Moodle administrator and Tinkerer
 Set up some experimental Moodle sites:
 On a hosted server site
 On your laptop
 On your own server
 Regular backups!
 Keep a record of changes you make
 Mark files that you’ve changed
 Don’t rush - try out changes on an experimental Moodle before
a production site
 Get to know your database
 Use CVS to do regular updates
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Module 4
SelfStudy Project
(an interim report)
Advice: being a Moodle administrator and Tinkerer
 Files Folders & Tools that you should know about:
 The Moodle admin pages: MySQL Admin tool
 PHP configuration:
 php.ini file -> Resource Limits, File Uploads, Data Handling
 Apache configuration
 httpd.conf -> MaxClients
 The Moodledata directory: language packs and course data
 Moodle.org & tracker.moodle.org
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Modules & Blocks
 Presentation
 Lecture Questions
 Seating chart
 HotFlash
 Attendance
 Display Data
 Media Blog
 Mail Quiz Module
 Moodle & Gallery 2 Integration
 FreeMail
 Moodle Grades
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Presentation
Module
 Description:
 Upload PowerPoint presentations & view in Flash
 Add comments to presentations.
Flash
Player
 Install:
 Copy ‘presentation’ folder to Moodle ‘mod’ directory.
 Visit to admin page to finish installation.
 Download/Support:
 eng.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/digital
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Presentation Thumbnails
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Presentation View in
Flash
Flash
Player
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Seating Chart
 Description:
 Manage data with an interactive seating chart
 Install:
 Copy ‘seatingchart’ folder to Moodle ‘mod’ directory.
 Visit to admin page to finish installation.
 Download/Support:
 eng.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/digital
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Seating Chart
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Seating Chart Data
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Media Blog
 Description:
 Add voice, sound recordings and video
 Post from web or by email.
 Install:
 Download and unzip media blog module.
 Copy ‘blog’ folder to Moodle ‘mod’ directory.
 Visit to admin page to finish installation.
 Download/Support:
 eng.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/digital/
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Media Blog
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Media Blog
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FreeMail
 Description:
 Upload content to Profile, Blog or Gallery using
(mobile) email.
 Install:
 Copy ‘freemail’ folder to Moodle ‘mod’ directory.
 Visit to admin page to finish installation.
 Download/Support:
 eng.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/digital
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text
images
Blog
FreeMail
audio
video
Gallery
Profile
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Moodle Development
 Advice
Familiarize yourself with Moodle’s backend.
database & directory structure
 Read up on PHP and MySQL.
 freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/php/
 webmonkey.com/webmonkey/programming/php/tutorials/tutorial4.html
Find a programmer to work with long term.
Scriptlance, Getafreelancer or RentACoder
Try out some easy jobs first.
Project management skills are crucial.
Set aside some extra funds for bug fixes.
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Plug-in
Ordering Question Type
Available: contact Tom Robb for latest download
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Plug-in
Split Screen Mode
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Plug-in
Content Choice
Question Type
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Plug-in/Hack
Seat Numbers & Nicknames
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Plug-ins & Modifications
Advice
Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
Creating plug-in and “mod” proposals
Testing & debugging
Overall experience
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
 Skills/experience recommended to work
with non-teacher programmer (in order
of useful to least useful)
Software user
Experience with computers in classroom
Basic skills with graphics programs
Novice PHP/MySQL programming skills
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
 It’s not enough to simply describe in
general terms what you want your hack
to do. You must explain in detail (better
yet, visually show) what you want to
happen on every stage.
 <show Word HOs here>
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
Make sure you and programmer are
using exact same version of Moodle.
Check in various browsers and in
both Mac and Windows platforms.
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
Don’t test/debug new modules in
active Moodle (i.e. one with real
students’ data)
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
 Thoroughly check for bugs in every possible
situation
Log in as a student and test (i.e. just
switching role to student is not enough); If
you are an admin, also log in as a teacher
and test.
You find different bugs testing as a single
teacher than when you test a whole class
full of students.
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
 Use movies to show bugs to programmer
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
Nothing is ever 100% done; New
bugs will always be found.
Make sure you have a programmer
who offers “after-service care” and is
willing to make minor modifications
over time.
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Working with Non-teacher
Programmers
You can’t rush it. Testing and
debugging is a lengthy process.
The more time you spend at this
stage, the easier actually
implementing the new module into
your active Moodle will be.
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Finding a Programmer

Qualifications:
 MySQL, PHP experience
 Moodle and open source
 Track record, and willing to give references
 Good communication (English, Japanese)

Costs:


Developed Nation Fees: 3,000--20,000 yen/hour
Developing Nation Fees: 1,000--3,000 yen/hour
Recommendations: Moodle Partner, JALTCALL members, …
 Moodle Partners: Manabu, Mits, Moodle HQ
http://moodle.com
 Open Source Specialist: Chrisranjana (good references)
http://www.chrisranjana.com
 Bidding Sites
http://www.admiz.com/
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Blocks
Lab Attendance
Available:
contact Tom Robb for JALTCALL
latest download
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Blocks
Blogger Links
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Blocks
Highest Quiz Scores
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Modifications & Tweaks
Overview


Seven mods or “tweaks”: easy -> difficult
Can be implemented by:
a)
b)

Moodle administrators
Moodle teachers
Arose from collaboration between:
a)
b)
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programmer-teacher: GB
CALL-teacher: teacher with previous experience
using yahoo.com for CALL
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Tweak 1
Standardize romaji

What it does:
•
•

Demonstration:
•

standardizes the romanization of user’s first name,
last name and city
converts any double-byte roman letters, spaces and
punctuation to single-byte equivalents
http://call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp
/moodle/english/2007/login/signup_form.php
Where to get it
•
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http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/1.standardize-romanization.txt
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Tweak 2
Cell phone email
addresses

What it does:
•
Allow Moodle signup using (cell phone) email addresses,
which can contain “invalid” character combinations:
•
•
•

Demonstration:
•

repeated full-stops, “..”
a full-stop just before the at-sign, “.@”
e.g. [email protected]
http://call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp
/moodle/english/2007/login/signup_form.php
Where to get it
•
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http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/2.validate-email.txt
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Tweak 3
Language menu on all
pages

What it does:
•

Demonstration:
•

Adds a language menu to every page which has a Moodle
header
http://call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
Where to get it
•
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http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/3.language-menu.txt
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Gordon Bateson: Moodle Tweaks (4)
Improve multilang filter

What it does:
•
•

Demonstration:
•

allow nested <lang> and <span> tags in multilang blocks
accommodates htmleditor which in some browsers uses
<span> for bold and italic, causing the standard multilang
filter to terminate multilang blocks prematurely
http://call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
Where to get it
•
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http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/4.multilang-filter.txt
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Gordon Bateson: Moodle Tweaks (5)
Show/Hide section
details

What it does:
•
•

Demonstration:
•

adds a toggle switch to hide and display specified activities
on the course page.
makes display of sections containing many activities more
manageable
http://call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
Where to get it
•
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http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/5.show-hide-activities.txt
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Gordon Bateson: Moodle Tweaks (6)
Useful links block
 What it does:
• combines the useful links from several other
blocks into one single block
• different links for teacher or student
• text shown in user’s preferred language
 Demonstration:
•
http://call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
 Where to get it
• http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/6.useful-links.txt
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Gordon Bateson: Moodle Tweaks (7)
Rotating banners and
links

What it does:
•
•

Demonstration:
•

displays a rotating selection of images in an html block
the advanced version can optionally allow a link for each
image
http://bateson.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/16/ms/
Where to get it
•
•
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http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/7a.banners.txt
http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp
/downloads/bateson/7b.banners-and-links.txt
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Gordon Bateson: Moodle Tweaks
Advice
 You can do quite a lot with Javascript
 won’t interfere with CVS and upgrading
 Small changes to your Moodle scripts are usually OK
 if you use CVS, changes are automatically merged
 otherwise you need to keep patching, manually or semi-
automatically (e.g. WinMerge)
 Offer code improvements on the forums or tracker
 small improvements that have been tested
 even then, the developers may be too busy to implement the
changes.
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Gordon Bateson: Moodle Tweaks
Links
 http://englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson
/Tailoring-Moodle.BATESON.html
/Tailoring-Moodle.BATESON.full.doc
/Tailoring-Moodle.BATESON.ppt
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Roles
 From Moodle 1.7, you can add your own
roles.
 A role is a set of permissions for a person in
a specific context
 Classic Roles:
 Teacher
 Student
 Admin
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Roles
 New roles you might try to create:
 Moderator: a person who can edit or delete a
forum post
 Seminar Leader: a student who can make
activities in a single course, but cannot view or
change grades
 Quiz-maker: students can make quizzes but no
other teacher functions
 Super Teacher: a teacher with limited admin
functions, can add/edit users
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Roles
 How to Make a New Role
 Go to the Admin menu
 Click on Users >> Permissions >> Define Roles
 Click button: Add a new role
 Assign the permissions you want, a little complex
so read documentation in Moodle Docs
 Then assign *people* to the role you create in
the specific context (ie: course, not site) where
they will use the role. The role will apply to them
only in that context.
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Themes
 Simplest way to “tailor” your site
 Change themes
 Go to Admin >>

Edit themes
Themes: header.html, footer.html
 Get Firefox Web Developer Toolbar

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Language
Annoyed by a Moodle phrase on-screen?

Language: you can edit those strings
 Go to Admin>>Language>>Edit Language>>Edit Words or Phrases
 Select the module and file you think it is in (trial and error)
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Help & Discussion
 Moodle for Language Teaching
 http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=31
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