Awesomebar, similar to the “Moodle bar” gives users an easy shortcut menu including

• home,
• profile
• course administration (for teachers)
• switch role
• my profile settings
• site administration (for admins)
• and a settings search

Similar to the new WordPress administration blog (for logged in users only) this is a great time saver for jumping around your site while editing and managing Moodle.

To get the new theme for your Moodle 2.0 site you can download it from Lei Zhang’s Github: https://github.com/leizhang/.  Read more in the Moodle forums: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175572.

Check it out in the screen shots below or download it from Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=4735

All themes available at Moodle.org can be found at http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6552

The FAQ is a particularly good resource: http://moodlehelp.uvic.ca/faq/index.php

Check out the site at least to see how they’ve organized their help files and documents for Moodle .  The easy navigation is a great example of how to make learning and using Moodle easy (and this is just the support docs!).

Additionally, it’s worth to check out their Moodle (http://moodle.uvic.ca/) for peek at their nice theme, their Moodle bar implementation and all the custom themes they’ve developed to help faculty differentiate their courses from one another.  Pretty slick use of allowing course themes.

• Dropdown menu system
• The Moodle Bar [details]
• The Aardvark user profile picture
• Easily customizable theme colors
• Fresh icon set

Most aspects of this theme are editable and the comments within the theme files are a huge help for the non-tech savvy.  For example it’s relatively easy to see how and where to edit the dropdown menu links:

It’s also as easy to edit the theme colors.  In fact they have 5 color scheme ingredients laid out for you in the colors.php file

Here’s a sample of what the theme looks like with the “Cola” color configuration.

Want the theme for yourself?  Visit: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=3892

Here’s the line of thinking that led to the collaborative effort to create the mod:

Our Moodle front page, like many schools Moodle front page, showcases our subject areas with icons. Easily/large click-able cons linking to courses… but what if these icons were much smaller? That would free up space for much needed prime space for school communications. (http://kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=1276)

The MoodleDock was recently released to the public on KristianStill.co.uk for anyone to download (including a great tutorial and all of the sharp icons used in the original dock).  The icons were all created by Craig Sumner (and are available for you to use, where applicable, on your own MoodleDock).  If you opt to create your own icons the instructions are well marked in the download .zip file in the supporting documentation and tutorial (here’s a quick Jing of the animated dock in action: http://goo.gl/XQuT).

Kristian is submitting to Moodle.org (to the theme repository) but the dock is available now from his personal site.

The dock was created collaboratively by Craig Sumner and Kristian Still of Hamble College and the renowned Moodledan.  For more information:

• Download the MoodleDock and supporting documentation: http://kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=1348
• See the Moodle dock: http://vle.hamblecollege.co.uk/
• MoodleDock video (in case you do not have Java scripted enabled): http://goo.gl/XQuT

Note also the implementation of the MoodleBar on the bottom of the page.

As promised, I have released the Moodle Bar.   The release date coincides with the iMoot 2010.

It is available direct from this website by following this link:

http://bit.ly/du5RNQ

Please feel free to use it, hack it, modify it and do with it what you will.

Do send me an email though so I can see it in action on your Moodle sites.

Visit Lewiscarr.co.uk to read more.

Related:

• MoodleMonthly coverage of the Moodle Bar: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/moodle-bar/
• Lewis Carr’s original Moodle Bar post: http://lewiscarr.co.uk/content/moodle-bar-almost-ready-public-release
• http://twitter.com/lewiscarr

The Moodle Bar is an always available navigation tool which creates quick shortcuts to all of the most often access Moodle activities and resources.  The content is completely based on a user’s enrollments and new content directed towards them (including messages, the user’s profile and any other direct links as specified by the site administrator).  Like popular social networking sites like Facebook, the bar is always available and constantly updating.

As an improvement on standard Moodle features, the Moodle Bar will alleviate any issues with message pop-ups which often are blocked by browsers today.  Additionally, the shortcuts provide a brief tool bar linking directly to many of the most sought areas of a Moodle installation; creating a more personal and user-centric experience within the site, not to mention advancing the overall “social” character that has previously eluded Moodle.

The Moodle bar will provide each logged in user with links to:

• My Moodle page
• Profile
• Messages
• Calendar
• All blogs
• Adding a new blog post
• All Tags
• additional links

Here are two images of the Moodle Bar deployed (click to enlarge).  Note that each Moodle Bar takes on characteristics of the main theme; the bar also is located at the bottom of the Moodle page (similar to the Facebook notification bar).

The above is from http://iMoot.org, which uses the Moodle bar but is customized by Julien Ridden (http://moodleman.net)

The lower example of the Moodle Bar can be seen at http://moodle.parklane.ac.uk/

As a point of reference, this is the Facebook bar:

According to Lewis Carr, the Moodle Bar will be released to the Moodle community early this year.  He says, “I expect to see lots of variations of it once it comes out.  There are some talented coders who there who will rework it.  I’m looking forward to seeing what others do with it.”

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