I’ve seen a lot of Moodles. I can’t resist a new Moodle link, to see the theme, the apparent activity on the front page and the various courses that are available (even though they might be closed). Checking out a new Moodle always gives me new ideas for posts, and how to design my own Moodle sites or courses.
Overtime I’ve visited a few over and over because they are just so cool. So here are my all time favorite Moodle sites*
1. http://www.moodleinschools.org.nz/ – The theme and overall design of this site is AMAZING. I love the palette. As a resource site for New Zealand, it’s really a great destination for courses, learning and other information. If you’re running a state or country based organization promoting Moodle, then this is a prime example of how to encourage Moodle with all of the right resources.
2. http://moodle.leedscitycollege.ac.uk/ – In my opinion: Best theme ever. The Leeds Moodle team seems to be unleashing new features and aesthetic flavor every week. Just check out Lewis Carr or Sukhwant Lota‘s blogs for the new features and tricks their posting on a regular basis. Well worth a visit to any of their sites.
3. http://quantum.riverview.nsw.edu.au/ – Julian Ridden talks about this site and the basis for their design on a recent Moodlemayhem podcast. His thoughts: help students own their Moodle site. Another great example of a cool theme.
4. http://imoot.org – This was used in early 2010 for the first ever virtual Moodle Moot. It is the first site I recall seeing with a modified 2 column layout (where the block columns are both on the same side). It’s also had some cool features like Facebook Connect-based registration and the Moodle bar. The cake though was the scheduling utility that was used. It was both robust enough to manage scheduling for dozens of sessions but very easy to use. Unfortunately some of the images are broken due to the prepping of iMoot 2011′s v2.0 site (but it was glorious in action). Update 9/8/2010: the imoot site had it’s images restored (yay!)
5. http://moodle.aub.edu.lb/ – This was featured a few weeks ago because of the wealth of information provided to teachers and students through the use of the Moodle Books Module. Though the theme is generally standard and basic, there’s a certain aesthetic which makes this site one of my favorites (perhaps I’m swayed by the direct link to Moodlenews…).
What’s your favorite Moodle? Do you have an exemplary Moodle to share based on it’s theme, purpose or otherwise? Share a link in the comments
*I reserve the right to revise this list at anytime.
Related posts:
- Happy Friday: Nine Moodle 2.0 Themes to peek at & a final contest reminder
- Happy Friday: 11 Free Moodle hosting options
- Happy Friday: 3 Moodle Sessions Streaming Live Today from #et4Online (5 more archived)
- Happy Friday: @moodler hard at work (via @moodlerific via @drchuck) #mootusin10
- Friday’s #Moodle2pr News #moodlewish
Let me add another to the list http://learningspace.falmouth.ac.uk/
that site is wicked.
Thanks for sharing! Always nice to have some great examples to get inspiration from. Keep up the good work with Moodle News.
that first one was sweet!
[...] out @MoodleNews blog post, Happy Friday: my top 5 favorite Moodle sites, which lists some of Joseph Thibault’s favorite Moodle sites. I’ve always loved Leeds [...]
I feel flattered that we’ve made your list!
I’m flattered that you visit Moodlenews! Thanks for putting up such a great Moodle (it’s obvious that the students at Leeds enjoy their LMS)
I think http://www.moodleinschools.org.nz/ might be a Drupal Site! Still awesome though!
Lewis, you are correct. The whole front end of the site is Drupal, but once you find the course view (when logged into a sample course) you can easily identify the 3 column Moodle layout: http://www.moodlenews.com/wp-content/uploads/fav-real-moodle-in-schools-nz.png (still pretty slick). Not to mention that it’s SSO for the Moodle sample courses and forums.
Let’s not forget Newbury College – http://vle.newbury-college.ac.uk/
Shaun Daubney makes some of the best themes around!!
Chris, I agree completely. Shaun’s contributions to the Moodle theme database have all been great. I’m a huge fan of Aardvark and the variations it’s sired.
Woops. Didn’t notice the broken images. I have updated the database so that the old iMoot site works properly. Hope to make th new iMoot site even bigger and better.
Thankyou for listing two of my sites on your list. The challenge now is to make sure the next ones get even bigger and better than ever. I always like to focus on student engagement. This is WAYYYY more important than branding in my opinion
Julian (aka Moodleman)
Should also point out that iMoot was a variation on Shaun Daubney’s awesome Aardvark theme. So lots of the credit for that should go his way.
Julian (aka Moodleman)
I’ve been looking for COOL Moodle sites to get inspired and motivated to use Moodle to teach my students. This was an absolutely fantastic post. I AM inspired! Thanks!!!
Reviewing these sites again, I’d like to know if it’s possible for a non-developer to create a cool front page in Moodle. Is it as simple as taking an existing theme and modify it with new images, layout, etc.? Anyone know of a resource that lays this out, step-by-step? I’ve got a brand spankin’ new domain and (blank) website/webpage, ready to go at this for my moodle site. Thanks for any help you can send.
Tim, here are a couple of resources to start:
creating your own theme @thematoweb
Theme FAQ @Moodle.org
Julian Ridden (Moodleman) also has a pretty extensive video series (http://www.youtube.com/user/moodleman) for creating/customizing themes. I can say that the Moodle community is great at Moodle.org and if you have a question about customizing a specific theme (downloaded from Moodle.org’s theme db) then you should ask it there and the original author will most likely help you achieve your goal.
[...] Happy Friday: my top 5 favorite Moodle sites | Moodle News [...]
I can say that the Moodle community is great at Moodle.org
[...] Happy Friday: my top 5 favorite Moodle sites [...]
Your first theme is NOT a moodle theme. It is drupal.
Deepak, that’s acknowledged in the comments already. While it is Drupal, the site also has Moodle integrated and the theme is almost identical to the front end. It’s a great example of how Moodle can be themed to look like other open source products. Thanks,
Joe
[...] Finally, Moodle can be customized to look very nice [...]