1. Moodle.org Module Repository:   The Module and Plug-in repository has well over 600 Modules, Plugins and Blocks that you can add to your Moodle to do any host of tasks, tricks and additional functionality.  Though they are unsorted and unranked, it’s a great place to start if you know what you’re looking for.  To get a better feel for what the most popular modules are, consider reviewing the Moodle.org download statistics: http://download.moodle.org/stats.php.  As you can see the top four most popular modules and plugins are the Questionnaire, Certificate, Presenter and Book.
   
2. University of Iowa plugin Matrix: This site documents the features of some of the best modules available in an easy to navigate format.  While it was primarily for internal use in evaluating the desired functionalities of a Virtual University for UofI, the site offers a peek at the characteristics of over 50 extensions (acting as a clearing house of many other sites that have reviewed plugins and modules in the past).
   
3. Lambda Solutions top 20 Modules:  This Moodle partner provides a sneak peek of the most sought Moodle modules available and includes a quick screen shot some.  All are listed in alphabetical order.  It’s a great list of some of the modules they’ve learned to be the most popular, presumably through the relationships with their clients.
4. Moodleman’s Playpen: This site maintained by Julian Ridden (@Moodleman) has an awesome combination of Moodle extensions including the Accordion Course format, a sharp custom theme, and around 10 great 3rd party extensions (including the Book, Nanogong, WizIQ and several image storage plugins).  If  this were a production Moodle site it certainly would make it’s users happy.

If you’ve got a favorite source for Module/plugin/block information, leave it in the comments!

Help desk at Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=4086 (the module was contributed by Jonathan Doane)

After uploading and unzipping the block to my Moodle site, it was a snap to setup.  One thing you may opt to do immediately is to change the role permissions (if you have administrative rights for your Moodle site) to allow all authenticated users to submit tickets (otherwise the help desk block will only be available to Admins by default).  Set “Help Desk Asker” to “Allow” for authenticated users and all users will then be able to submit new tickets.

Even if you’re just using it as a bug and ticket tracker for Administrators the help desk has easy tools to help you assign technical issues to different members of your staff (and to track their progress).

Here’s a view of a submitted ticket and the various tracking and assignment options:

Download the block at http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=4086

OUWiki is an alternative wiki activity for Moodle which is fully supported and updated by the Open University.  Instead of using the current wiki syntax/markup included in Moodle, the OUWiki uses a text editor for markup.  Note that the new wiki included in Moodle 2.0 is not based on OUWiki [link].

Download/more information: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1015

Check out this great 3 minute video that shows how to use the OUWiki in production (provided by Hazel Owen at http://ictelt.blogspot.com):

Presentation:

I wasn’t able to attend the session by Dr. A. T. Wyatt (@awyatt) which focused on the Microsoft OAM [http://www.educationlabs.com/projects/officeaddinformoodle/].  But the slides are available online.  The session focused on how to use/install the MS OAM, it’s pros and cons and future release information.

Through Blackboard’s documentation and website I was able to test out their new Mobile app (Mobile Learn) which was provided to all licensees for testing (Blackboard also provided free iPads for testing purposes).  The app was released in June, was supported on Android and iOS (both iPad and iTouch/iPhone).  The apps renders Bb on the iPhone and Android using a similar approach to the apps we’ve seen for Mobile Moodle so far, but with the iPad they made a huge shift.

Honestly, the iPad app is one of the most innovative approaches and retooled mobile apps I’ve seen for an existing LMS.  It’s hardly resembles the student experience online, instead providing a robust level of Blackboard’s collaborative tools through the app.  There are downsides too (no test taking, which in my opinion is one of the most important and must have functions of a mobile app); but even the video demo got me excited about trying out the app:

Now, there’s a flurry of activity surrounding the development of Moodle Mobile (http://www.moodlenews.com/tag/mobile-moodle/) and it’s all positive (the more apps in development, the better off the community will be; but Blackboard has the advantage of concentrated effort).

The apps under development for Moodle all have a generally similar look and feel (which is not a bad thing), but there is a developer that’s thought quite outside the box for their organization specific iPhone/iPad app which pulls data from the Moodle quiz module: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/unio-pagesos-cuestionarios/id346456267?mt=8#.  According to the translated app site [translate.google.com],

Farmers Union uses Moodle as a tool for managing your online training. Thanks to an amendment to the authentication plugin, the iPhone/iPod can directly access the campus, and through export of the questionnaires as these are displayed on the iPhone/iPod.

The user can respond to the questionnaires, see the photos and videos associated and know their score.  Scores are calculated and stored directly in Moodle.

It’s a pretty far cry from the current Mobile Moodle apps, but it’s the kind of development and out-of-the-box thinking needed to differentiate the Moodle app from just a mobile rendering with a similar look and feel to Moodle on a compute screen.

In my opinion, the Blackboard apps matter to Moodle because Blackboard has the lead.  In other aspects of development, Moodle has outpaced Blackboard in terms of flexibility, community building and ease of use (not to mention providing an outlet for 1000s of other capabilities through 3rd party plug-ins).  Mobile though could prove to differentiate LMSs very soon as it becomes more and more of a necessary feature for schools and teachers world wide.  Though cost prohibitive to some, the availability of a polished Mobile application (compatible with the various mobile OS’s) may be a deciding factor as licenses come up for renewal in the coming years.

The obstacle is harder yet to overcome due to the decentralization of development efforts.  Maybe Moodle.org will step to the plate.

What do you think?

They’ve created various levels of tutorial resources and documentation that are always available and just a click away.

http://moodle.aub.edu.lb/mod/book/index.php?id=1

Not only are there three progressively advanced general Moodle (I, II, and III) tutorials, but there are also over two dozen tool specific guides such as,

• The Office Addin for Moodle
• Book module
• Quiz
• Questionnaire
• Forum
• Adding activities
• Assignments
• Attendance
• and much, much more

It’s a wealth of resources available, including text and images in an easy to navigate format.  Enjoy!

• easier manipulation of gradebook on the screen
• browser compatibility improvements
• easy letter to numeric grade conversions

Thanks to Bob Puffer of Luther College for letting us know.

BBB is only 2 years old and is an open source synchronous education tool.  In response to the acquisition, the official BigBlueButton blog says,

But what if universities and colleges had an open source web solution that integrated with Moodle and Sakai?

What if they had a really good open source alternative that offered real-time collaboration, virtual classrooms, and enabled any student anywhere in the world to have a high-quality learning experience?

What if that alternative was truly an open source project, not just in name, but in the way it has supported its global community of users and developers over the past two years.

And what if that alternative that was backed by not one company, but by a global community of companies all improving the software for the benefit of everyone?

That’s what we’re working hard to provide with BigBlueButton.

We believe that the real-time learning space will explode in the next two years as networks get faster, access spreads to remote students, and universities and colleges increasingly become global educational intuitions. [link]

Unlike Elluminate and Wimba, BigBlueButton will require some technical expertise to set up a server to run the software.  You can however check it out at their demo site [http://demo.bigbluebutton.org/].

From a cursory review I can say that the software opened seamlessly, without any trouble on my laptop (which is running Linux Ubuntu and Chrome browser).  It’s very slick and could certainly mean a new page for synchronous, open source educational tools that integrate into Moodle.

Did I mention that there’s already a Moodle plugin? [http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=3524]

Will you make the switch?