Moodle.org now runs on Moodle 2 and just as before boasts two main forum destinations.  You might not have paid them any mind in the past, but they are two very different user interfaces.

Using Moodle

The Using Moodle forums are actually a course.  This course is created using the Topic format (standard to Moodle) and boasts 6 topic areas (the top of the page is just a label or the topic summary with some choice activities and text describing the resource).

Each of the topic areas covers a different grouping of discussion forums, including Getting Started, Moodle Core, Moodle Contrib, Moodle for Teaching, Moodle Development and Other Stuff.  If you’re looking for Moodle help and can’t find a fitting forum here at the very least the General Problems forum is a great place to start.  Within the course you’ll also find blocks including the Navigation Block, Admin Block, Online Users, an HTML (ad) block, Recently Rated Posts and Recent Activity.

Each aspect of Using Moodle is easily replicable in your own environment with your own smaller community.

Moodle Lounge

The Moodle Lounge is Moodle’s non-technical, non-teaching and learning forum where anything goes.  It’s a great place just to touch base with the community at will.  The Lounge is also a Moodle course in and of itself, but this course is a prime example of the Social Format for courses.  The course summary includes and image with text describing the resource, but below the fold is comprised solely of discussion threads and replies.

This is possibly the best example of a Social Format available for the public to see, if only because it’s used every day and populated with interesting discussions that illustrate the flexibility and versatility of the Social Format for conversation.  Aside from the threads the course also has the standard Navigation, Search Forums and Online Users blocks.  The Lounge also boasts a Random Glossary Entry block which displays information, images and resources from the community MultiMedia Jukebox for the Moodle Lounge (M³).

In any event, if you’re looking for examples of how to create community resources for your school or organization, look no further than http://moodle.org/forums/.

The block was created and shared by Tõnis Tartes at Moodle.org and is available for download now: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=4665

Check out the screen shots below (or login to the Internet Safety Course at Joedle.com with student/student) to check it out.

Watch the full video of part 1 below if you’re looking for some ideas for making your own introductory video for students.

Using the Moodle Courseroom – The Basics, Part 1 [Direct link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18bwwTMjtKk]

Using the Moodle Courseroom – The Basics, Part 2:

Which is why the Forums Code of Conduct is so important for a Moodler: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle.org_forums_Code_of_Conduct

Tips for getting the fastest answer include,

• checking the FAQs and searching the forums before posting (it’s possible that other Moodlers have had and resolved your same issue!)
• find the appropriate forum
• post a clear and descriptive title to your post
• outline your Moodle version and specific hosting details (this will help the community triage and solve your particular issue)
• provide feedback

Be sure to read the quick tips about #Good_conduct as well which highlight the do’s and don’ts of posting at Moodle.org.  It’s a great community resource and I encourage all Moodlers to seek help in the forums (and to contribute answers where applicable).

The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) distribution of Moodle is based on the stable 1.9 core but incorporates a few additional and nifty tools which the collaborators have either developed themselves or vetted with input from their users in order to create the perfect Moodle installation for use in Liberal Arts College settings.  This newest release of their distribution includes,

• the CLAMP Grader Report (previously covered at Moodlenews)
• Simple file upload (@Moodlenews coverage)
• Assignment Zip
• Anonymous forums
• among previously integrated tools, modules and plugins (full list of features, bug fixes and changes)

Seems like they’ve made some great additions to 1.9.9 (not to mention that previous versions of LAE had already integrated TinyMCE text editor in lieu of the HTMLarea text editor standard in pre-2.0 packages); not to be forgotten are the bugs that have been fixed as part of the release.  Find out all you need to know about the CLAMP LAE distribution at http://www.clamp-it.org/code/.

For the release announcement check out the CLAMP blog: http://www.clamp-it.org/2011/02/moodle-1-9-9lae-v1-1-4

Negatives: I’m really excited for Moodle 2.0′s changes, including the message inbox which provides archives of messages received (something that wasn’t visible to end users in previous versions) in addition to a better contact list and presumably easier message management.  Unfortunately with my exposure to Moodle 2.0 at the new Moodle.org I haven’t found it to be very friendly.

Now when I log into Moodle 2.0 I see that I have messages via my personal block in myMoodle.  Unfortunately none of those are personal messages.  Instead, as Moodle docs tell us, each forum post or email sent by Moodle is now treated as a message [link].  So all the emails I’ve received from the forums on Moodle.org (a lot of emails) are archived in my message center.  In theory this is great: I now have access to archived “messages” in Moodle.  But in functionality it’s a little messy because it makes differentiating between forum posts and direct messages a pain (honestly I haven’t figured out how to tell the difference yet).

Instead of organizing posts by the forums/threads in which they originate, instead they are organized by user which adds a layer of confusion.

So now with the upgrade at Moodle.org, instead of receiving a quick pop-up upon login of new private messages (user to user) I instead see a synopsis of all forum posts as well.

Positives:  I will say though that the organization of the messages overall (including all the forum posts) is pretty simple.  With a quick drop down from your message center you can see easily a list of your contacts, all “unread” messages and can see a full participant list for each course enrollment.  In previous version the contact list was not-so-friendly.

Verdict: Featuring the messaging system more centrally as part of myMoodle is a step in the right direction, providing a nice segue toward a more social experience with Moodle.  Activity streams anyone?  But it falls flat with the clutter created with the new definition of “message” as treated by the system; especially for very active sites.

I’ll be curious to see what direction developers go from here. Certainly a more typical interface to the “inbox” would create some familiarity in usability at the very least.

In addition, for simplicity and easier management, I think it would be better to segment personal messages from forum posts, even if they are displayed on the same page/within the same block.  It would make the inbox (block seen to the right) a lot more manageable for users and would create a much bigger value in the new Message inbox.

A few notes/caveats:

1. Moodle.org is not indicative of many Moodle sites, so I do believe that there will be an added value out of the box for school-based Moodle sites which are no utilizing the forums as heavily as Moodle.org’s community.  The volume of messages/forum posts I receive daily through community posts (from forums I’m subscribed to) is around 50.
2. I can turn off the email connection in my profile, which would eliminate the duplication of emails compared to messages in the new inbox (but this would require me to login daily to check for messages which would be a negative in my opinion). One of my favorite Moodle capabilities is how nicely it cooperates with my email, letting me know when a new post has occurred and when someone has connected with me directly.
3. Building on 1. and 2. for students without email addresses in the system, the messaging inbox is probably much more attractive as a central management destination for messaging.
4. There are a lot more configuration options as well for Moodle’s new messaging, but it skirts the issue of streamlining inbox management:

Agree/disagree?  Share your opinion in the comments.

More information at: http://poznajmoodle.pl/ (note the site is in Polish and you may want to translate)

http://moodlelearnings.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/moodlelearnings/

An example of the streamlining that Moodle created is the easy way in which discussion forums can be used to create announcements and deliver them to students via  the automated messaging system and email integration (something many Moodlers may take for granted),

I personally faced issues when we wanted to pass information to students.  We either had to tell them in their classes or paste notice on the notice boards… When we asked [students] “have you read the notice board?” they [hadn't] read it and some students even told us that notice was not their on the notice board.

We tried displaying notices on our website, but volume of the notices were so large that website was not able to handle this.  We also had to ask the website admin to upload the notices, again an issue!!

How many other schools have struggled with something similar?

One point that Guarav doesn’t pull punches on is that while Moodle is a “simple” piece of software, the learning curve could be upwards of 6 to 12 months to learn (if you have no previous exposure to a learning management system).

Links:

• Check out the Inmantec Institution Moodle at http://cms.inmantec.edu/
• Read Gaurav’s post or subscribe to his blog http://moodlelearnings.wordpress.com/

Here’s a cool clip about how (and the all important “why”) to use forums in Moodle from the video section of the site:

Visit the site: http://e-blahblah.com/index.php/2010/03/teacherbites-creating-a-forum-on-moodle/

The idea is to create an informal points system in Moodle that represents “Moodle Bucks”.  Basically a bank account for student users so that they can accumulate (and perhaps spend) bonus/special points through the Moodle system.

Back in 5th grade we did the same with paper and stickers.  Students got a sticker (or more) for helping out a fellow student, getting a high grade on an assessment or for many other academic and non-academic reasons.  At the end of the year we had an in class auction (using the stickers accumulated) to buy toys and little treats from the teacher.

Would Moodle Bucks be a good addition to your Moodle?  Let us know and visit the forum to weigh in: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=144963