The Docs are available as a complete .zip download from http://wimski.org/docs/ and the 250MB download, once unzipped give you access to all of the Moodle docs for easy viewing offline.  According to the download site,

These packages allow you to browse Moodle documentation offline. Certain links, such as “edit”, “history” or “recent changes” still lead to the online version of the documentation. Packages are built using HTTrack website copier plus custom shell scripts for packaging the contents.

Download a copy today [http://wimski.org/docs/]!

Read the full brief at https://ecampus.fiu.edu/whatsnewmoodle2.php.

Features include:

• A new way to nav
• Docking
• New file picker
• New text editor
• Activity tracking/completion
• Conditional Activities
• Blogs
• Messaging
• Comments (everywhere)
• New quiz features (question flagging)

In addition they have much more in-depth tutorials that cover the new features in easy to read “Moodle Quick Guides”.  A treasure trove of “Moodle 2-torials”.

I tried it out and used http://www.colorpicker.com/ to edit the colors to my linking.  Check it out yourself by downloading it from http://moodle.org/plugins/pluginversions.php?plugin=theme_zebra.

As a bonus, Danny Wahl (theme creator) has built-in some of the responsive design that Stuart highlighted in my previous post (resizing the window changes how the columns display).

A few highlights from the white paper which I highly recommend as quick lunch-time reading material:

• Gavin breaks down each of the standard Moodle themes and some of the 3rd party contributions to let readers know which can be customized (and how) from the Administration panel;
• There are some really great examples in the appendix of cool Moodle sites (including the usual suspects: Newbury, Leeds, iMoot, etc);
• Good overview of theme settings and possibilities in Moodle 2 (how many columns,where they are, docks, etc.)

For more information or to grab a copy of the white paper go to http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/.

My personal favorite (and new to me) is this really great login screen at University of Canberra (which changes each time you visit).  It’s the little things that make a big difference aesthetically: https://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/login/index.php. Where’s your favorite Moodle 2.o theme?

• for both 1.9 and 2.0+
• easy to configure
• still supports blocks
• aesthetically oriented
• no page loads navigating to topics
• no scroll of death
• intuitive
• easy to edit/configure

10 reasons to move to Moodle 2

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpOwbbttYyY
• http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/10-reasons-to-move-to-moodle2-from-moodle-19-part1

10 reasons to move to Moodle 2 Part 2

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap3p5gcKRGY
• http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/10-reasons-to-move-to-moodle2-from-moodle-19-part2

10 reasons to move to Moodle 2 Part 3

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd75ubRA–I
• http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/10-reasons-to-move-to-moodle2-from-moodle-19-part3

If you’ve been curious why you might/should make the transition from an older Moodle model to the newest these are some great resources to check out.  You can also join in a little community discussion by posting your top modules to the comments at Gavin’s post: http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/.  In any event, you should DEFINITELY subscribe to Gavin’s blog (http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/).  This great resource provides loads of reviews of Moodle modules and plugins and is a wealth of knowledge if you’re looking for a little bit of information on the new 3rd party integrations and tools available for Moodle 2.0.

Cool stuff:

• Easy to use and pretty slick.
• Blocks are persistent throughout the course which is nice
• The “jump to…” option gives alternate navigate through courses
• Customizable tab names
• Colors match your theme
• Current tab is identified by a different color

Download the format from here: http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_onetopic.  Install it to the course/formats folder for your Moodle and voila!

To check out more of the course formats we’ve reviewed and tried out visit http://www.moodlenews.com/course-formats/.

This is a re-make of the original Aardvark 2.1 theme which Shaun created, and I have added to it.

This theme is a fluid width, three column Moodle 2 theme, which allows blocks to be moved into the Profile Bar

Along with Aardvark 2.1, this theme incorporates the expandable profile menu which has quick link shortcuts to the most used tools in Moodle (messages, calendar, courses, private files, etc.). The latter addition of blocks to the profile bar is pretty neat, students could add any of the default blocks or perhaps later Google Docs repository block or any HTML embed-able code.

It’s pretty slick.  Download your copy today from: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=5042

Check out the great video tutorial and examples below.  Note that the video highlights the process in Moodle 2.0 but course files in 1.9 also supports this process. Video [direct link] created by John Patten.

Moodle 2.0 – Creating a Course Secure Pseudo Web Server from John Patten on Vimeo.