Moodle 1.9 top extensions cookbook : over 60 simple and incredibly effective recipes for harnessing the power of the best Moodle modules to create effective online learning sites

326 Pages·2010·9.426 MB·English

by  Michael De Raadt

Moodle 1.9 Top Extensions
Cookbook
Over 60 simple and incredibly effective recipes for
harnessing the power of the best Moodle modules to
create effective online learning sites
Michael de Raadt
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Moodle 1.9 Top Extensions Cookbook
Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing
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However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: November 2010
Production Reference: 1021110
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-849512-16-9
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Ed Maclean ([email protected])
Credits
Author Editorial Team Leader
Michael de Raadt Mithun Sehgal
Reviewers Project Team Leader
Mary Cooch Ashwin Shetty
Ben Reynolds
Project Coordinator
Acquisition Editor
Zainab Bagasrawala
Usha Iyer
Proofreader
Development Editor
Jacqueline McGhee
Meeta Rajani
Production Coordinator
Technical Editor
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Sakina Kaydawala
Cover Work
Indexer
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Tejal Daruwale
About the Author
Michael de Raadt is a regular family guy who lives in Toowoomba, in the state of
Queensland, Australia. He enjoys camping, hiking, and playing table tennis. Michael is
also a Cub Scout leader.
In his professional life, Michael wears a number of hats. He is a lecturer in Computing
Science (usually teaching programming), he is a researcher of educational technology,
and a developer of Moodle modules. He currently works at the University of Southern
Queensland where he is an advisor on teaching and learning matters. Michael holds
a PhD which he gained through research in computing education and has published
numerous papers in this research area.
Michael enjoys being a member of the Moodle Community. He helps out with the
management of modules contributed to Moodle. Within his local area, Michael is an
advocate for development of modules for Moodle.
I would like to thank my family for supporting me during the writing of this
book. I would also like to acknowledge the community of developers who
have contributed the modules reviewed in this book, and acknowledge
Anthony Borrow, who has generously offered his time overseeing such
contributions.
About the Reviewers
Mary Cooch (known online as the Moodlefairy) is a teacher, VLE trainer specializing in
Moodle and the author of Packt's Moodle 1.9 For Teaching 7-14 Year Olds and Moodle
2.0 First Look. She is based at Our Lady's Catholic High School, Preston, Lancashire, UK
and can be contacted for training and consultancy on [email protected].
Thanks, both to my family at home and to Mark at school for their support.
Ben Reynolds is a Senior Program Manager of CTYOnline at the Johns Hopkins
University's Center for Talented Youth (CTY). An award-winning fictionist, he began CTY's
face-to-face writing program in 1978 and launched CTYOnline's writing program in
1983. He began administrating CTYOnline's writing and language arts division in 1985.
CTYOnline serves over 10,000 students a year in writing/language arts, math, science,
computer science, advanced placement, and foreign languages. In the 1990's, Reynolds
left the classroom for full-time administration of both CTY's writing/language arts
program and of a residential site for CTY Summer Programs. Reynolds has also taught
writing and the teaching of writing for the Johns Hopkins School of Continuing Studies.
He holds a BA from Duke University, where he part-timed in the computer center, trading
printouts for punch cards, and an MA from Johns Hopkins in Fiction Writing. He is an
active member of the Using Moodle community.

Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Getting Modular with Moodle 5
Introduction 5
Getting modules you can trust 7
Adding modules to Moodle 13
Changing site-wide settings 20
Getting modules to speak your language 22
If it's not quite what you want... 26
Getting rid of modules 28
Allowing modules to access outside information 30
Chapter 2: Adding Content 33
Introduction 33
Adding video pages 35
Adding a Flash Video 38
Creating video blocks 41
Adding videos anywhere 44
Sharing image galleries 47
Working with books 53
Showing programming examples in Moodle 60
Getting geographical with the maps 63
Creating formulae easily 72
Chapter 3: Connecting to the Outside World 79
Introduction 79
Setting up the Translate Block 81
Allowing Moodle to access Google translator 84
In-course Web searching with Moogle 86
Allowing simple Web searches 90
Adding Wikipedia search to Moodle 93
Table of Contents
Adding links to Wikipedia 95
Searching for Tweets 98
Chapter 4: Getting Around In Moodle 103
Introduction 103
An easy table of contents 104
A menu block with the works 107
A customizable menu block 109
An organized My Courses block 114
Finding a course by name 115
Getting between Related Courses 118
Improving accessibility 121
Chapter 5: Effective Use of Space 125
Introduction 125
Squeezing main page content into a block 127
Organizing tree-based content 132
Collapsing sections 134
Creating dynamic tabs 137
Simplifying single section display with tabs 140
Using monthly sections for longer courses 143
Combining online users and people 144
Chapter 6: Assessing Students 147
Introduction 147
Using peer assessment 149
Recording audio for assignments 157
Replacing paper submissions 161
Allowing students to contribute to assessment 167
Getting more out of quizzes 172
Giving immediate formative feedback 179
Recognizing high performers 182
Chapter 7: Organizing Students 185
Introduction 185
Allowing students to form groups 186
Identifying people 190
Time managing students 195
Surveying students 199
Chapter 8: Encouraging Student Interaction 205
Introduction 205
Sharing mindmaps 206
Encouraging social bookmarking 212
ii
Table of Contents
Getting students to shout 217
Promoting chatter 220
Finding active forums 222
Encouraging blogging 225
Chapter 9: Informing Students 229
Introduction 229
Geolocating students 231
Gauging course quality 234
Notifying announcements 239
Counting down 242
Keeping time 247
Chapter 10: Handy Tools for Teachers 253
Introduction 253
Cloning activities and resources 255
Searching for users 258
Measuring dedication 262
Getting user statistics 265
Chapter 11: Just for Fun 271
Introduction 271
Celebrating birthdays 273
Adding emotions 277
Theme swapping 280
Awarding certificates 282
Rewarding with gold stars 288
Playing games 293
Creating a game in a block 300
Index 303
iii