• Theme discussion thread: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=172565#p756484
• Theme repository entry: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=4693

I am a fan.

Check out the screenshots below of the theme in action at Joedle.com (or check it out by logging in with student/student).

The theme is not yet available in the Moodle theme database, but it’s a great example of how even Moodle 1.9 can be skinned to work and feel like other sites across the web.  Of course there’s no micro-blogging feature included with this theme, but there are the same great Moodle capabilities and classroom management tools available still. My favorite part is the navigation bar across the top allowing quick access to profile, courses, messages and home (similar to the Moodlebar, but without the notification of online users).  Check out the screenshots and stay tuned to heard if/when the theme is released.

Of the unconference event, Dan says,

This is a fantastic opportunity for Moodle developers to geek out. The pre-Moot should serve as the perfect platform to enable developers to share, discuss, connect and socialise, I’m particularly interested to see what I can learn myself being somewhere between a developer and a designer.

Pre-registration is available now on the site where you’ll find more information as it becomes available: http://mootuk11.org.uk/

Checkout these great video archives from last year’s UK Moot: http://moodlemootuk2010.org.uk/videos/

It’s an apt analogy that shows how some Ajax (a programming language) might improve the efficiency of editing within Moodle.

Click here to go straight to the video: http://screenr.com/oYp

What do you think; is this an improvement?

The grassroots event is schedule for July 3rd, 2010 at Heythrop College in Kensington.  Already over two dozen individuals have signed up on the page to attend.

The event planning has been very open and collaborative, you can catch all of the great details (including the rules) at http://teachmeetmoodle.pbworks.com/.

Here are a few of the prospective (short) presentations:

• Parental Engagement
• Moodle and the School Council
• Moodle Best Practice – share my best course – explain why/how?
• Moodleb2ikiocs – “integrating” other stuff with Moodle
• 10 steps to a Moodle Makeover – venturing down the Resource and Activites drop down menu!
• Moodle Forum – work smarter not harder
• Online Group Dynamics
• Let there be clouds - A look at the free live services plugin for Moodle

Dan Humpherson (@moodledan) has been testing Moodle2.0′s Preview Release 1 this week and has discovered that Internet Explorer (IE7) doesn’t really like Moodle2 that much (or maybe it’s the other way around):

The good: Moodle 2 as seen on IE8,

The bad and ugly: Moodle 2 on IE7 (and previous versions),

Needless to say, the latter is a bit unbecoming for such a pretty LMS.  Note that tested on Chrome, Firefox and even Safari/Opera things are looking a lot better than how they do on IE7.  So if you’re contemplating testing out Moodle 2, using Firefox or even IE8 will give you less of a headache.

With the release of Moodle 2.0 beta preview, we’ll be posting about the new features and changes all week.

I’d heard and read that in Moodle 2.0 you will no longer be able to upload content to Moodle via FTP.  Some Moodle.org Discussions of interest relating to this subject:

• FTPing to my moodledata in Moodle 2.0: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=124529
• Where is the dataroot on Moodle 2.0?: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=145679

Typically I’d use FTP access to quickly and easily upload content to Moodle.  If you didn’t know you can connect to your pre-1.9 Moodle file server via FTP and upload content directly rather than using the Moodle front end – Particularly useful when dealing with large files or a large number of individual files.

However Moodle 2.0 has a new system for dealing with files – It’s called “Content-addressable-storage”.  More details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_storage.

This is great news for Moodle users!

Some of the details:

1. Make it easy to determine which parts of Moodle use which files, to simplify operations like backup and restore.
2. Avoid redundant storage, when the same file is used twice.
3. Fully support Unicode file names, irrespective of the capabilities of the underlying file system.

More technical documentation here: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:File_API

That all sounds great and it is don’t get me wrong, but if you install Moodle 2.0 and then check the root directory of the location you set as your file store you’ll find a text file named ‘Warning.txt’.  Inside is the following message:

This directory contains the content of uploaded files and is controlled by Moodle code. Do not manually move, change or rename any of the files and subdirectories here.

I’ve installed a copy of the Moodle 2.0 Preview Release 1 and uploaded a file to ‘Site Files’.  Usually I’d expect to find the file in a directory named ’1′ on the file server. This isn’t the case with Moodle 2.0.  What I found was a new directory named ’6e’, inside this directory I find a directory named ‘c8′ , inside this directory is another directory named ’06′.  Finally inside the ’06′ directory I found a file named ’6ec8061df7e8db71f2320ca07c603e27113be351′

Now for those of you not in the know that’s a PDF, I know ‘magic’.

Actually, it’s a file reference, that reference is unique to that file. Moodle has stored the file on the file server but all the details relating to the file, filename, location etc, are stored in the database.

The trouble is that file reference is only useful to Moodle, not to me as a Moodle Administrator. As such there is no way, currently, for me to mange site and course files via FTP.

My Question:

How can I easily upload large volumes of data to the Moodle file store quickly and easily?

From the official site:

Uploading files to Moodle has never been easier.  The Office Add-in for Moodle (OAM) is an add-in for Microsoft Office (versions 2003 and 2007) that allows teachers to open and save Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents to a Moodle website. Today, teachers who use Office and Moodle have to switch back and forth between their web browser and Office applications.  With the OAM, teachers can create, open, edit, and save Moodle documents from within the Office applications.  You no longer need to use your web browser when working with Office documents stored in Moodle.

This add-on requires zero modification of your server and is a simple download and extension from MS that is accessible through any of your Office documents.  It’s only been tested for Moodle versions 1.8 and 1.9.

Once installed, a simple authentication to the Moodle server, and your username/password are needed to connect your running Office program to your courses.

So what’s it all mean?

The plugin gives teachers and students a quick and easy way to upload, manage and maintain files submitted to or uploaded to a course’s file structure.  Additionally, it’s possible to organize the Moodle course file structure more efficiently and effectively with the plugin.  What it doesn’t mean is movement towards a goal of offline Moodle availability or improved accessibility.  Students will still need to download the PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents uploaded to a classroom.

However, the ability to update and manage a shared directory of required documents will certainly give this Add-on some shelf-life.  Below is a picture of a Moodle course’s file structure as displayed through Microsoft Word.

Kudos to Dan Humpherson @MoodleDan for checking it out, getting it working and sharing his success.

Related:

• Enhanced File Upload
• Office Addon for Moodle
• Martin Dougiamas highlights the new add-on: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=147494

EduMoodle – a clean, blue theme with the standard Moodle icon set

Junction – this funky use of color and images will make your Moodle pop off the page.

Pretty Simple – this is one of my favorite themes which accomplishes a stark and spartan layout.  Moodledan mentioned that it was created to be consistent with an existing Joomla theme that a school had already implemented;

Piranah – this theme featuring a cartoon fish might be a great template to show off a nice crisp theme with a great header image or a logo on white background.

Visit http://vl3.co.uk/moodle/ to demo or download the themes.  And don’t forget to thank MoodleDan for the great aesthetics on your site if you use them.

http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=3576

Related:

• MoodleMonthly covers the dock: http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/theme-mod-moodledock-by-kristianstill-moodledan/