Andrew James (aka Jim), from the EIS team has been really responsive to our requests for moodle add-ons. Thanks Jim! Add-ons are pieces of code which enhance existing functionality within moodle. Being able to do this is one of the main benefits of moving to an open source system like moodle, because it allows us to be flexible and responsive to the needs of staff and students.
The most recent add-on Jim has installed is a multiple file upload feature. Generally moodle only lets a user load a single file at a time, but this add on enables more than one file to be uploaded. Although the file upload procedure on moodle is not as smooth as it could be, this is another step towards making moodle as user friendly as possible.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
FDTM Moodle session reflections
Just finished a session with some colleagues from Theology. Their situation is unique in that they have outreach centres across the North in which Theology is taught by offsite tutors to a range of students in those areas. Ripon, Sheffield, York, Leeds are just a few. They teaching is done across 3 terms, not 2 semesters. We'll be piloting moodle with a few of these outreach centres after Christmas.
Here are some questions which arose from the session:
Can we increase the upload limit within moodle? It's currently set to 2MB, but that's not enough for some module handbooks.
The course formats were explored. The newly installed 'Page Format' seemed to confuse most users because it wasn't intuitive to use. 2 people got caught in a loop, which I needed to login as admin to reset. Wondering if this is a suitable course format and whether we should uninstall to avoid future confusion?
A request was made for moodle to detect module occurences (unlike BB), so that each of the students in the offsite centres has their own moodle area. Hopefully this will be resolved from within the SITS interface, so that administrators can set a flag to determine whether a module needs a moodle area. Wondering if this is still possible? It seemed to be from earlier conversations with Gareth.
Here are some questions which arose from the session:
Can we increase the upload limit within moodle? It's currently set to 2MB, but that's not enough for some module handbooks.
The course formats were explored. The newly installed 'Page Format' seemed to confuse most users because it wasn't intuitive to use. 2 people got caught in a loop, which I needed to login as admin to reset. Wondering if this is a suitable course format and whether we should uninstall to avoid future confusion?
A request was made for moodle to detect module occurences (unlike BB), so that each of the students in the offsite centres has their own moodle area. Hopefully this will be resolved from within the SITS interface, so that administrators can set a flag to determine whether a module needs a moodle area. Wondering if this is still possible? It seemed to be from earlier conversations with Gareth.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Changing more than the technology...
Hi,
I thought it might be worthwhile giving some of my thoughts about the non-techie aspects of the move to moodle. Most of what I way is geeky/techie so it might be a nice change of pace to step out of those shoes and speak a little about the wider context of moodle, VLEs, IT Systems and their role in the University.
First of all, let me say that a move to Moodle is a big step for us and not just a technological one. If anything the technology is a pretty minor thing - VLEs are pretty much a homogeneous breed. They've all got, more or less, the same tools and support the same formats and so on and so forth. Basically, with minor variations, they're all the same.
So - if ther're all the same - why are we moving to Moodle? The answer, in one word, is "Agility". And now I've made my best attempt to be pithy I'll slink back into my geek-corner and explain.
IT systems are strongest when they can be adapted to the needs of their users (I'm happy to debate this point but I don't think you will shift me from it). Frustratingly, for IT folk anyway, these needs change - sometimes on a daily basis. Consquently what we really want is IT systems that can adapt with us with the minimum of fuss, hassle and cost. This is really the holy grail of IT - having systems that work differently today from how they did yesterday and different for Bob than they do for Sue. Not an easy task and still one that's aspirational on the whole.
How does Moodle fit in with this? Well - Moodle is born out of a collaboritive effort of hundreds if not thousands of academics, techies and enthusiasts. It is Open Source software developed by its community of users. What this means is that there is no central 'owner' of Moodle and no commercial interest guiding the development. As a result adaptability is built in at a pretty core level - it has to be to satisfy that disperate group of people. Not only that but we can be one (or more) of those people. We can adapt it for our use and share those adaptions with the community.
Now - I hear what you're about to say - or at least those of you with your ear to the financial ground (is it paved with gold?). Surely taking something like that and spending time learning it, installing it, tweaking it, modifying it and generally making it into a YorkSJ system rather than a generic one is going to cost time, money, sweat and tears. The bad news is that the answer is "yes" on three of those fronts. The good news is that it is a big fat "no" on the money front. Moodle is actually saving us money over time as, because it is Open Source, it is free.
We do have to buy servers to put it on, backup tapes to store backups, network equipment to connect it up and so on. However, the big cost with our previous VLEs (WebCT and Blackboard) have been the commercial licenses and Moodle is most definitely free in that respect. What this means is that the University saves money whilst still being able to fund development work on Moodle. And in these financial waters we're currrently swimming in, savings + flexibility = WIN!
So - where does that leave us? With a shiny new system and a lot of techie friends accross the world to help us develop it the way we would like it to be. It won't be perfect out of the box and it will probably never be perfect but we certainly have the power in our hands to bring it closer than we have been before. That's where the real change is with Moodle - the power is in our hands.
I thought it might be worthwhile giving some of my thoughts about the non-techie aspects of the move to moodle. Most of what I way is geeky/techie so it might be a nice change of pace to step out of those shoes and speak a little about the wider context of moodle, VLEs, IT Systems and their role in the University.
First of all, let me say that a move to Moodle is a big step for us and not just a technological one. If anything the technology is a pretty minor thing - VLEs are pretty much a homogeneous breed. They've all got, more or less, the same tools and support the same formats and so on and so forth. Basically, with minor variations, they're all the same.
So - if ther're all the same - why are we moving to Moodle? The answer, in one word, is "Agility". And now I've made my best attempt to be pithy I'll slink back into my geek-corner and explain.
IT systems are strongest when they can be adapted to the needs of their users (I'm happy to debate this point but I don't think you will shift me from it). Frustratingly, for IT folk anyway, these needs change - sometimes on a daily basis. Consquently what we really want is IT systems that can adapt with us with the minimum of fuss, hassle and cost. This is really the holy grail of IT - having systems that work differently today from how they did yesterday and different for Bob than they do for Sue. Not an easy task and still one that's aspirational on the whole.
How does Moodle fit in with this? Well - Moodle is born out of a collaboritive effort of hundreds if not thousands of academics, techies and enthusiasts. It is Open Source software developed by its community of users. What this means is that there is no central 'owner' of Moodle and no commercial interest guiding the development. As a result adaptability is built in at a pretty core level - it has to be to satisfy that disperate group of people. Not only that but we can be one (or more) of those people. We can adapt it for our use and share those adaptions with the community.
Now - I hear what you're about to say - or at least those of you with your ear to the financial ground (is it paved with gold?). Surely taking something like that and spending time learning it, installing it, tweaking it, modifying it and generally making it into a YorkSJ system rather than a generic one is going to cost time, money, sweat and tears. The bad news is that the answer is "yes" on three of those fronts. The good news is that it is a big fat "no" on the money front. Moodle is actually saving us money over time as, because it is Open Source, it is free.
We do have to buy servers to put it on, backup tapes to store backups, network equipment to connect it up and so on. However, the big cost with our previous VLEs (WebCT and Blackboard) have been the commercial licenses and Moodle is most definitely free in that respect. What this means is that the University saves money whilst still being able to fund development work on Moodle. And in these financial waters we're currrently swimming in, savings + flexibility = WIN!
So - where does that leave us? With a shiny new system and a lot of techie friends accross the world to help us develop it the way we would like it to be. It won't be perfect out of the box and it will probably never be perfect but we certainly have the power in our hands to bring it closer than we have been before. That's where the real change is with Moodle - the power is in our hands.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
2 Minute Moodles
This is a collection of 2 Minute Moodles - an attempt to simplify and show how to use a range of Moodle features to a busy teacher.
http://vimeo.com/channels/44004
The tutorials try not to assume too much previous knowledge and are presented for the pragmatical and not necessarily tech-savy users.
If you don't know where to start, see the entire 'progression' list at
human.edublogs.org/moodle-tutorials-2-minute-moodles/
http://vimeo.com/channels/44004
The tutorials try not to assume too much previous knowledge and are presented for the pragmatical and not necessarily tech-savy users.
If you don't know where to start, see the entire 'progression' list at
human.edublogs.org/moodle-tutorials-2-minute-moodles/
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Right, let's get started
Thanks for visiting this blog. It's a place for communicating what's happening with our plans for moving from Blackboard to moodle in September 2010.
Feel free to use the blog to include comments, suggestions, advice, queries or just to have your say. You can comment anonymously if you want to.
Our supporting website for moodle is available here:
http://w3.yorksj.ac.uk/e-learning/e-learning--ysju/moodle.aspx
Feel free to use the blog to include comments, suggestions, advice, queries or just to have your say. You can comment anonymously if you want to.
Our supporting website for moodle is available here:
http://w3.yorksj.ac.uk/e-learning/e-learning--ysju/moodle.aspx
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