‘Development’ Archives
Blackboard’s newest release to showcase major usability enhancements
In my day job we utilize Blackboard Learn 9.1 (we're on the latest service packs as soon as they become generally available). Upgrades for hosted services are upgraded as part of their cost, at our convenience as long as we schedule 1-2 weeks out. Recently Blackboard announced its newest Service Pack which was introduced by Ray Henderson and [...]
How to increase forum participation exponentially with the New Forum Replies block by Niall Barr
I am sure that you are familiar with the Recent Activity block. This block does what its name indicated, which is to list recent activity, most commonly, forum posts. You can also get a full report by clicking on the link "Full report of recent activity". This is useful when you want to view recent forum posts. Information Overload It [...]
How to increase the width of the Book module’s reading area (Moodle 1.9.15)
Peter Skoda (http://skodak.org) and Mojmir Volf are the authors of the Book resource. The Book resource is one of the major reasons why I love Moodle. It's a brilliant resource because it allows me to group related articles and webpages in a nice package. Something like the HTML frameset objects which were very common during the early days of HTML [...]
CLAMP releases Moodle 1.9.16+LAE v1.6
The newest version of the Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) flavor of Moodle (Liberal Arts Edition) has now been released. CLAMP is a collaboration of 26 liberal arts colleges across the US which produces a ready to use Moodle distribution with several key additions and improvements which we've highlighted previously. A few of [...]
Feeling moody? Show off your mood on the Online Users block for Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.2!
WHAT IF you could display your mood or status on the Online Users block by Andy J. Davis? Imagine with me if you will. You're on your Moodle course page. Just before you go to make phone call, you display a BRB (Be Right Back) status next to your username on the block. Or before you attempt a quiz for the next one hour, you display a Busy [...]
Super Simple navigation with a little HTML and the Topics format
Some simple HTML + the "Show One Topic" option in the Topics Course Format can be used to create a much improved course interface. No more scroll of death and students can easily navigate the course. This can be accomplished in both Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.x. First things first you'll want to construct your course and have it all ready to [...]
@Moodlefairy shows off the Subpage module: another way to prevent Scroll of Death
The Sub-page module gives Moodle course design additional flexibility in creating nested activities and organizing resources on their own page. If you've ever used Blackboard for course creation you'll be very familiar with the concept. Sub-page is developed/maintained by the Open University for Moodle 2.1+ but has not been officially [...]
Want to see some cool course design? Checkout the Moodle at University of Sussex
From the great looking theme to the awesome course format (with linear organization and pages) the University of Sussex Moodle is one of my favorites around. And you can get a look by just checking out the site with guest access. Login as guest at https://studydirect.sussex.ac.uk/login/index.php I really like the feature which by clicking [...]
How to be invisible on the Online Users block. A Moodle 1.9.x and 2.x solution.
Learning Outcome: at the end of this post, you will know how to allow your Moodle 1.9 and 2.0 users to hide themselves on the Online Users block. Now I don't know about you, but I like, no, LOVE, the Online Users block by Andy J. Davis. It lends an air of Web 2.0 for Moodle. The feeling of a learning community that the block helps to foster is [...]
Doc of the Day: LTI Provider
Earlier this week I posted a cool video by Charles Severance (@DrChuck) that highlighted Juan Leyva's LTI provider. I just wanted to follow up that posting with two additional resources to help you get a handle on LTI and start exploring. Moodle Docs for LTI Provider is a nifty overview of the utility, how and why it might be used and some [...]
