Not to worry though, this release is going to be well worth it.  A few of the things that you can expect,

• File usability enhancements
• new Paged course formats (YES!)
• Assignment mod refractoring
• Book module becomes standard/Core

Despite the delay I am still very excited for this next summer release which I think will go a long way in creating a more usable and friendly Moodle platform.

Check out the full roadmap at http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Roadmap

Check out the idea here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=202512

Vote it up in the tracker here: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-30554

Do you use the Assignment activity for your students to upload their work?
Do you have relatively large numbers of assignments to laboriously download and grade? If you answered “yes!” to both questions, then you will love this Moodle 1.9 Assignment activity hack by  T. A. Prilianto. Thanks to John Holmes of Jakarta International School for sharing this with the Moodle community.

This hack (or plugin) allows you, the teacher, to download a single zipped file containing all students’ uploaded assignments of an assignment activity. This sure beats downloading individual assignment links for class of thirty to fifty students!

Here’s a typical link to assignment submissions:

Clicking on submitted assignment work.

Here’s what a typical assignment screen would like like without the plugin. No surprises here. So in the example, you have only 8 submissions. But 8 submissions still means 8 individual clicks of the mouse to download the student work. What if you had 50 submitted assignments? Imagine the amount of work (and mouse clicks) required if you were to individually download 50 student uploaded files!

Now the same screen, but this time with the download hack installed. Check out the red zone:

Ah, did you notice the extra link?

Now that’s NEW! Click on that very link and the below box (sample only) will appear on your screen:

Just in case you’re confused, the name of my assignment, in this example, is “SFB – Upload Excel Exercise Pg15 (Data = labels, constants and formulae)”. You would have to right-click on the blue download link and choose “Save as” to save the zipped file  to your computer.

After the zipped file has been downloaded to your computer, you can explore or extract its contents to your heart’s content:

Would you like to watch a video of this hack  in action? Check out this video by John Holmes that shows the teacher bulk download feature in action:
http://dragontales.jisedu.or.id/?c=343&k=1353a903e0

Installation Steps :

1. Download the hack from https://www1.jisedu.or.id/webapps/moodlex/downloadupload.zip

2. Edit  moodle/downloadupload/db.php.
Locate line4 where it says

require_once(‘../config1.php’);

and delete the 1 so that the line reads as:

require_once(‘../config.php’);

Therefore db.php should now look like this:

<?php

//ini_set("display_errors","on");
require_once('../config.php');

$dbprefix = $CFG->prefix;

if(!$conn = mysql_connect($CFG->dbhost,$CFG->dbuser,$CFG->dbpass))
{
   die("Couldn't connect to database");
}
if(!mysql_select_db($CFG->dbname))
{
   die("Database not exist");
}
?>

2. Extract the zip file and put on your Moodle folder. You’ll see folder downloadupload under Moodle folder. Make sure this folder writeable.

3. Open the file <your Moodle>/mod/assignment/lib.php

4. Go to line 1065 or around that line. Find scripts like below :

if (has_capability('gradereport/grader:view', $course_context)
   && has_capability('moodle/grade:viewall',
   $course_context))
{
   echo '<div><a href="' . $CFG->wwwroot .
   '/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=' . $course->id . '">'
   . get_string('seeallcoursegrades', 'grades') .
   '</a></div>';
}

5. Replace with this script:

if (has_capability('gradereport/grader:view', $course_context)
   && has_capability('moodle/grade:viewall',
   $course_context)) 
{
   echo '<div>';
   echo '<a target="_blank" href="' . $CFG->wwwroot .
   '/downloadupload/download.php?c=' . $course->id .
   '&a='.$assignment->id.'&g='.$groupid.'&t='
   .$USER->id.'">Download Assignment Files</a> | ';

   echo '<a target="_blank" href="' . $CFG->wwwroot .
   '/downloadupload/upload.php?c=' . $course->id .
   '&a='.$assignment->id.'&g='
   .$groupid.'&t='.$USER->id.'">Upload Responses
   Files</a> | ';

   echo '<a href="' . $CFG->wwwroot .
   '/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=' . $course->id . '">'
   . get_string('seeallcoursegrades', 'grades') .
   '</a></div>';
}

So that’s how it’s done.

Why not try investing 30 minutes to implement this hack? If successful, then sit back, relax and bask in the satisfaction of knowing that the job of grading assignments with Moodle just got a whole lot easier.

If you have successfully implemented this hack and you like it, then why not post a comment here? It would encourage met. Knowing that it has helped someone on the Moodle Community will bring me great joy.

Happy downloading
Frankie Kam.

• Meet Moodle!
• “But How Is This Teaching?”: How to Make the Online Classroom Work
• Advancing your Moodle course to meet the multiple needs of learners
• Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Upgrading to Moodle 2.x from an Instructional Admin Perspective
• Moving an Elephant to 2.0
• Take a Load Off: Real Life Moodle Clustering
• Integrating Moodle with Adult Learners
• Writing uploadable questions for Moodle quizzes
• Teacher Book Study 24/7 – Using Moodle to Move Professional Development Online
• Rolling out the red carpet to new employees
• Leveraging Moodle For Students’ Creative Projects In The Arts
• Using Moodle and staying out of trouble with the FAA
• Using Moodle to Support Collaborative Learning
• Using Moodle from Math to Art
• Creative Uses for Moodle Modules
• Using Moodle Resources and Activities to Promote Interactive Learning and Develop Deep Thinking
• Getting in Bed with Embedding

And a whole lot more.  Register and find more information at http://www.learningcontexts.com/midwestmoot/.

Videos include:

• Forums
• Uploading files
• Messaging
• Grades
• Course pages
• Resources and activities and more

Below is the video highlighting Moodle forums [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54cr0Gjusm8].

Check out all of the videos here http://www.youtube.com/user/ncihbcc/videos?query=Moodle

If you’re interested in getting free registration to the largest online Moodle event just enter your idea in the form below.

http://goo.gl/ihoJ0

If you’re interested in heading to the iMoot this May (the program will be released soon) enter here for your chance to win free registration: http://goo.gl/ihoJ0

Otherwise visit iMoot.org to register on your own as it’s sure to be the virtual Moodle event of spring.

If you’re headed to the Australia Moot this July in Queensland then you’re in for a treat: the program is now available and the sessions look great: http://moodlemoot.org.au/mod/page/view.php?id=31.

From preconference workshops like “Strictly FTW: Moodle Games Lab” and “Beginning with Moodle Development” to regular conference sessions highlight all sorts of great possibilities,

• A keynote by Martin Dougiamas (with Q&A)
• unveiling of new plugins and addons
• white papers exploring institutional integration/adoption of Moodle
• creating more user-centered Moodle experiences
• teacher training and tutorials
• using Moodle as a community meeting place
• and more and more

Registration for the Moot is still open but don’t delay, early bird registration ends today (save $100!) otherwise regular registration runs through 5/31 and will run you AU$874.  Register here.  Load more information is available on the official site of the Australia Moot at http://moodlemoot.org.au.

And if you’re still on the fence then maybe one of these great promo videos will convince you [promo videos].

I know what you must be thinking,

“I don’t need a Twitter account. All they are used for are telling your friends where you are or taking pictures of the supposedly the BEST DINNER EVER!!! It’s useless for my Moodle team and me.”

(disclaimer: I don’t know who that girl is but I wish she would have shared).

Well I’m here to tell you… you are pretty much right. However, there may be certain instances where a Twitter account can save you and your Moodle team from disaster.

In the world of information technology (IT), things happen. Servers go down, databases get corrupted or some random act of God causes your Moodle site to crash at 4:50pm on Friday delaying your happy hour karaoke with your friends. While you and your team scramble to find the cause and get your site back online, your user base may be panicking as well because they  have an assignment or quiz due in ten minutes. Depending on how your team’s outage plan, users could encounter a multitude of scenarios when trying to reach your Moodle page. Best case scenario they are forwarded to another webpage that informs them of the outage. Worst case scenario they just hit a dead webpage. There could be an instance though that your best case scenario turns into your worst case scenario. For example, when your Moodle site goes down, they are forwarded to your IT website. Well what if your entire system goes down; Moodle, your IT website, everything! Twitter could be your saving grace in this case. By posting an outage tweet, any subscribers will be notified.

“But what if not all my users have Twitter accounts?”

No problem. Your user base can subscribe via an RSS feed. My personal favorite is FeedMyInbox.com where all you have to do is enter the page you are subscribing to and your email address. Whenever there is an update, you will then receive an email straight to your inbox.

“Well how do I tell everyone about the Twitter feed in the first place?”

That’s easy too. I would recommend setting up an HTML block on your splash page. There you can embed a Twitter widget and set the widget to display a single tweet at a time or an entire feed. Besides posting about outages, you could also post links to any help guides your site has, special events happening, etc.

“Okay I’m convinced. How did you come up with this idea though?”

Experience. Bad ones. After a couple of crashes, my team and I decided we needed to change things up a little. So we decided this was one of the easiest and simplest ways to do that.

Happy oodling!

Direct video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRRy0huMdqE

Check out more videos from the Moodlerooms Youtube channel (covering standard features of Moodle and special features and functions available only through joule): http://www.youtube.com/user/MoodleroomsVideo