Thanks for reading!

Not all of the 100+ languages are 100% completed, but you can get a sense of progress by visiting http://download.moodle.org/langpack/2.0/.

Bonne chance, genießen, enjoy!

The book is a very easy read and is definitely for new teachers looking for a guide on how to bring their current non LMS based course online and into Moodle.  It’s full of tricks, hints and easy to understand tutorial information on making a smooth and positive move to Moodle.  Read more about the book here: http://www.packtpub.com/moodle-2-0-course-conversion/book

2 Ways to Enter
1) Head on over to the book page and look through the product description of this book and leave a comment below to let us know what interests you the most about this book (be sure to enter your email as well).
2) Tweet this post and ensure that the #MDL2CC hash tag is included (there’s a nifty little “tweet” button at the top of this page to help you out).

It’s that simple.

You may also want to follow the author, Ian Wild: @iandavidwild

Winners from the U.S. and Europe can either choose a physical copy of the book or the eBook. Users from other locales are limited to the eBook only. Enter by 1/31/2012 to be eligible.

Moodle 2.2 is one step closer to acceptance by the Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) with the release of Moodle 2.2.1+LAE (Liberal Arts Edition) v2.0 beta 1.  While not a stable release this is a milestone for Moodle’s acceptance by the group considering their reservations aired in a Moodle 2 Status Report nearly 1 year ago (Feb 2011).

CLAMP’s beta 1 release is,

the inaugural edition of the LAE for Moodle 2.2. The goal of LAE is to provide a coherent package for modules, patches, and code developed (or improved) by the Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project.

This is a beta release, and is recommended for use on development or pilot instances; it is under active development as we assess what issues to resolve and features to include in the LAE.

This package consists of the code that the developers and instructional technologists at CLAMP schools have deemed essential to their operation of Moodle.

Several of CLAMPs featured modules (anonymous forums and quick mail) made the initial beta release while others are being worked on (specifically the LAE Grader report).  Some features like TinyMCE have been removed from CLAMPs distribution and are reflected as core pieces of Moodle code.

For more information about CLAMP or to download a copy of the beta 1 release of LAE visit http://www.clamp-it.org/.

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 status.

Well, I’ve done it on my Moodle site, and so can you. All thanks to a talented Italian PHP developer named Matteo Scaramuccia.  Thanks for help on the PHP code, mate! Much appreciated and credit to you, Matteo.

A trivial feature? Frivolous? Childish? A complete waste of time? Tell you what, give it a try on your victims, erm…I mean users. Inform them of this feature. Demo it to them. Then sit back and see what happens. If no one in the class sets a mood for others to see, then yeah, this is a waste of time. But if just one student sets his or her mood, then you might have chanced upon something here. Perhaps you have managed to make Moodle a bit more human-like. A bit more Web 2.0ish. Perhaps this one feature will make the Moodle experience a bit more social for your students.

If you would like to experiment with this feature on your students, read on! Otherwise, well, you can just hit the Back button of your web browser.

Still with me? Great! Here’s how we did it. >>

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 priceless. This block is useful for students and teachers to know who is online.

Two cases for invisibility. Why you should switch on the cloaking device.

 All this is well and good, but there can be cases where having the entire class see your avatar is not cool. Some teachers may not want to be seen online. You might be grading assignments online and would not want to be interrupted by an instant message, chat window or by an email by your students. This is a real possibility if you are blessed to be an effective teacher, one who is well-loved by your students. So how to stay focussed on that rubric or grading of online submissions when you are peppered with requests from students?

If you are a teacher for whom 24 hours is never enough time, the only time you might be updating your course materials is after office hours. To be specific, at night. To be realistic, past the midnight hour, when the spouse and the kids are asleep. So, you might not be comfortable being seen on-line by your students at an unholy hour.  So as a teacher, how do you feel about accessing your Moodle site in the wee hours of the morning, and to find that your students are just as hard-working as you, online on the site? For me, there’s always that funny feeling that the student might be on-line at the same time as I, and is wondering “Why is Mr. Frankie up late at night logged on to the Moodle site?”.

Of course you can also set the block (Site Administration | Modules | Blocks | Online Users | Remove after inactivity) to display users who have been online for 120 minutes. So if students see your avatar, it might have been because you logged on at 12 midnight and logged off a 12:30am and are now fast asleep. Only problem is, if you and your student are still logged on at 3:00am, then the game’s up. You’ve been found out.

Some students may wish that they too were invisible in spite of that infernal online users block sitting pretty on the course page. A student may feel uncomfortable about revealing their presence to the world during the early hours of the morning.

So…?
So is there a way to make a user invisible to the Online Users block? I mean other than removing or hiding the block, is there a way to give a choice for the user to click a button and hey presto! Avatar disappears from the block. If Facebook allows you make yourself invisible on the Facebook chat window, why not apply the same concept to the Online Users block? We certainly can! To be exact, a user (teacher, student or administrator) can choose to allow his or her avatar and username to appear or be invisible on the Online Users block.

In this post, I present a practical and workable solution. I was the facilitator to this particular solution, and Mr. Matteo Scaramuccia of Genova Italy was the writer of the solution PHP code. Brilliant chap he is. So enough yacking around. Let’s roll up our virtual sleeves and get to work.

HOW TO – MOODLE 1.9

Step 1: Access the Create a User Profile field link.

Step 2: Create a new profile field

Step 3: Type in the settings values.

The short name will later be referenced in PHP code. The Name is what appears on the User’s edit profile page. Good to enter a brief and concise description. The “Display on signup page?” option should be set to “Yes”. Click the “Save changes” button when finished.

Return to your homepage. Click on your username. In my case, I have the Login & Logout block installed.

Scroll to the bottom of the page. See your custom, new user profile field description Stealth Mode? Great job so far! Tick the checkbox with your mouse and then click “Upate profile”. You’re halfway there!

Step 4: Modify MoodleSite/blocks/online_users/block_online_users.php

Moodlenews has teamed up with Packt Publishing to give two lucky winners a copy of Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion Beginner’s Guide book by Ian Wild. Keep reading to find out more about the book and giveaway.

Overview of Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion Beginner’s Guide

Move your existing course notes, worksheets, and resources into Moodle quickly. No need to start from scratch! This book shows you the quickest way to start using Moodle and e-learning, by bringing your existing lesson materials into Moodle.  Read more about this book and download free Sample Chapter: http://www.packtpub.com/moodle-2-0-course-conversion/book

2 Ways to Enter
1) Head on over to the book page and look through the product description of this book and leave a comment below to let us know what interests you the most about this book (be sure to enter your email as well).
2) Tweet this post and ensure that the #MDL2CC hash tag is included (there’s a nifty little “tweet” button at the top of this page to help you out).

It’s that simple.

You may also want to follow the author, Ian Wild: @iandavidwild

Winners from the U.S. and Europe can either choose a physical copy of the book or the eBook. Users from other locales are limited to the eBook only. Enter by 1/31/2012 to be eligible.

Pretty slick-looking (and I don’t think it loses anything by not having the analog clock).

8 Site for Storytell-ing

7 mobile Moodl-ing

6 Course-for-matting

5 a course about Jiiing

4 pretty themes

3 [awesome] plugins

2 Cheery images

and A freebie Christmas themed Glossary!

If it’s one thing the Moodle community is good at it’s creating video tutorials and screencasts to highlight Moodle’s features, how to tweak settings and how to navigate or do something novel with the software.  Nary a day goes by that I don’t have a new video in the queue of my Google Reader RSS for “Moodle Videos”.

At Moodlenews there are at least 370 posts with a (or many) video as the focus [http://www.moodlenews.com/?s=video].  Videos are so abundant that I even created a “video” category as one of the first tasks in setting up this site [http://www.moodlenews.com/category/resources/videos/].  Some of my favorite sites and sources for video tutorials are listed below.  If you get snowed in this holiday break, at least there’s something to watch!

1. UsingMoodle (@Moodlefairy) Mary Cooch’s wonderfully helpful Moodle video channel (53 videos)
2. @sbrandt’s Screenr page (at last count Shawn had over 50 Moodle related videos and tutorials listed)
3. http://moodletuts.com/ also hosted at http://www.screenr.com/user/moodletuts
4. 5 Minute Moodles by @lasic (great videos showcasing all sorts of Moodle features and tricks)
5. Professor Moodle on Youtube (16 Moodle videos)
6. Mount Orange School Moodle 2.0 videos (http://school.demo.moodle.net/)
7. A 26 video Moodle playlist by Youtube user Peliikt
8. KRegan’s Screencast library all about Moodle (11 videos)
9. Titan Tech Training (Moodle 2 videos made for Cal State Moodle integration)
10. http://moodle.drupalgardens.com/ (Gavin Henrick‘s Moodle site and videos, a full playlist is available here)
11. @BBCS_eLearning‘s Moodle channel on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/BBCSeLearning#g/u (27 videos)
12. Moot UK 11 presentation videos (longer form but definitely worth the watch)
13. http://www.letslearnit.org/en/moodle (26 videos)
14. Cannedmushroom’s video collection at Veoh: http://www.veoh.com/list/c/moodle-
15. Paul Treadwell’s Moodle tutorial collection: http://treadwell.cce.cornell.edu/moodle_doc/
16. NJIT’s Moodle tutorials for faculty: http://moodle.njit.edu/tutorials/faculty/index.php
17. Linn Benton Community College’s Moodle Playlist
18. Kim Hampton’s “Make Me Moodle” collection (20 videos)

Stay-tuned for more #Moodlemas.