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Get ready for the Moodle Users Association’s town hall meetings on 5 & 12 July

Moodle Users Association (MUA) is the community of Moodle Users which gives direction and resources for new developments. In the January-June Project development cycle, MUA selected Bulk edit activities in course view page.  In July month, MUA will be hosting town hall meetings on July 5 & July 12 for Eastern hemisphere and Western hemisphere respectively.

For the Eastern Hemisphere Town Hall, Don Hinkelman from the Moodle Association of Japan will introduce a teaching scenario using video assessment. While for the Western Town Hall, Don McGuire, from sabier.org, will be talking about how OER and Moodle benefit each other.

The schedule for the town hall meetings is as below:

  • 5 July, 2022 8 am UTC
    • Title: Performance-based Assessment with Video in Moodle
    • Speaker: Don Hinkelman (Moodle Association of Japan)
    • Meeting link
  • 12 July, 2022 6 pm UTC
    • Title: OER and Moodle Are Good for Each Other
    • Speaker: Dan McGuire
    • Meeting link

In the upcoming months, the MUA Team will be working on several topics including – Different Moodle integration possibilities for collaborative document editing, the MoodleBox project, the European framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) and Matrix (improved messaging system) in Moodle.

You can check out the ongoing happenings by joining the Moodle Users Association here.

Create interactive content directly on your device using Lumi

Interactive content is the requirement for a modern day learning environment. All Learning Management System have leveraged the Interactive content integration to improve the learning experience. There are many tools to create Interactive content but most of them are either paid or else need LMS integration.

Lumi Education is the solution to this problem as it is completely open source and free. As of now it allows you to create H5P based interactive content without using any LMS or CMS like Moodle or WordPress. Later on integration with other tools is also planned.

Lumi is an Open Source desktop app that allows you to create, edit, view and share interactive content with dozens of different content types. The goal behind the development of Lumi is to make learning accessible, individual and exciting.

Lumi is based on H5P to create Interactive content with over 40 content types. You can also save your content as all-in-one HTML files that work nearly everywhere and send it to your learners. Learners can download their progress with Lumi’s reporter tool and send it to you for analysis. You can also export your content as SCORM 1.2 packages which can be used in any compliant LMS.

You can download Lumi from the official website here: https://lumi.education/#download

As of now it seems an interesting tool for educators. I will be reviewing the same and posting a detailed review in coming weeks, stay tuned. What are the other interesting tools you are using for teaching? Please share with us in the comments section below.

Canvas LMS collaborated with TimelyMD for integrated virtual care of learners

In a recent collaboration Instructure’s Canvas LMS has collaborated with TimelyMD to extend the virtual care to the learners. The partnership between Instructure based Canvas LMS & TimelyMD integrates virtual medical and mental health care into learning management system.

TimelyMD is the leading virtual health and well-being solution in higher education. With the integration between two platforms, learners will have access to much-needed medical and mental health services right within Canvas, for care at moments that are likely to increase stress.

About 40% of all mental health visits through TimelyCare occur after hours, and we know academics are a significant source of stress. It’s important to meet students where they are and offer as many on-ramps to care as possible,” said Luke Hejl, CEO and co-founder of TimelyMD.

“Focusing on academics and taking care of oneself are not mutually exclusive. We are grateful to Instructure for embracing TimelyMD’s mission to improve health and well-being of students by making virtual care available to students through Canvas.”

Mental health remains a concern area for educators and learners with the issues affecting mental health are increasing day by day. The integration will be supplementing the on campus medical offering by providing a virtual option for students to seek care within an academic setting.

“Instructure is pleased to partner with TimelyMD to extend access to medical and mental health care to learners everywhere,” said Tara Gunther, VP of Partnerships at Instructure. “This valuable addition to Canvas will benefit learning institutions as they seek to break down any barriers to providing students equitable access to health care.”

Check out the most voted project in Moodle Users Association Jan-Jun 22 cycle

The deadline to vote for your favorite projects has come to an end for Moodle Users Association January-June 2022 cycle. Out of the top 5 projects which were left for voting for the final voting cycle, “Bulk edit activities in course view page” has been the most voted project.

The deadline for casting the votes was June 19 and after the voting has ended the votes received by each project are as below:

  1. Bulk edit activities in course view page41,206 Votes
  2. Add the ordering Question type in Moodle core – 19,302 Votes
  3. Improve Moodle reporting – 18,754 Votes
  4. Default settings for Activities and resource completion criteria – 8,995 Votes
  5. Moodle Wiki Export & import – 4,768 Votes

Bulk edit activities in course view page

The project introduce the possibility for a multiple selection of course activities at the course view page for trainers/course creators. When the user selects the activities & resource on course page, then he may be able to:

  • hide/show
  • duplicate
  • delete
  • move (to somewhere else in the course)

Moodle Tracker – https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-74018

The selected project will now go into Moodle development cycle afterwards it will be included in Moodle core in upcoming versions. You can also join the Moodle Users Association to propose & include the functionality in Moodle Core based on the votes by Association members.

Moodle US partnered with PoodLL to leverage audio and video in online courses

Moodle US have signed a partnership with popular Moodle plugin – Poodll to offer enhanced language learning services. Poodll is a popular Moodle plugin since last many years which offers audio and video recording and language learning solution for Moodle.

Poodll is a Moodle certified integration plugin and being used by training organizations, universities, language schools, companies and high schools worldwide. Poodll offers its services in two main packages – Poodll Media and Poodll Languages.

Poodll Media offers a suite of activities and tools that add advanced audio/video playback and recording features to online courses. While Poodll Languages provides teachers with a toolkit of powerful applications specially designed for language learning. These activities feature speaking, word learning, oral reading, pronunciation and more.

On the occasion of the partnership with Moodle US, Justin Hunt – Head of Poodll said: “We have worked closely with members of the Moodle US team for a long time and are excited to continue to work together to provide cost effective language solutions for US students.”

“Moodle US’s commitment to open source and our shared values are a cornerstone of our relationship. I think we can look forward to a series of great projects, big and small.”

While Jonathan Moore, Head of Moodle US said – “Poodll offers a fantastic suite of products for language organizations and any instructor who wants to leverage audio and video in their online courses. We’re excited to be able to offer this functionality to current and future customers.” 

Poodll offers a set of plugins in Moodle plugins which you can check out through this link.

Join Moodlemoot Mexico 2022 on June 30 – July 1 2022

Moodlemoot Mexico 2022 is being organized from June 30 – July 1 2022 in Mexico. The event is organized by the Latin American Moodle Partner – Emprove. The event is the educational technology conference dedicated to users, developers, and administrators of Moodle LMS.

The Moodlemoot Mexico 2022 is a great place to share and learn with professionals and experts from the education, research, and development sectors of the Moodle community, either virtually or in person. You can attend the conference in person or completely online also.

The conference will be a great conference to connect with professionals and experts from the education, research and development sectors of the Moodle community. The event will he organized at the Gran Hotel in Mexico City.

The event includes many interesting sessions like:

  • Innovating MOOC gamification.
  • Customization of the basic Moodle to an interactive Moodle.
  • Gamification with H5P and Moodle.
  • Creating new hybrid learning experiences through active methodologies with Moodle tools.
  • Empowering Moodle with the integration of learning tools in the study of physics, calculus and statistics.
  • Structure of competences in iconographic classrooms with Moodle.
  • Moodle data extraction, for decision making.
  • Adapting the Moodle interface for a rich media environment.
  • Impact of Moodle technology in Agricultural Sciences.

For more information about MoodleMoot Mexico 2022, please visit the official website here.

To book your tickets for Moodlemoot Mexico 2022 – please check this link.

Provide adaptive learning based on learning style using Personalised Study Guide (PSG) course format #MoodleTips

Moodle is highly customizable in nature as you can add new features easily by adding plugins. There are more than 1988 plugins contributed by the Moodle community developers in the Moodle Plugins directory. Recently, a new plugin – Personalised Study Guide (PSG) has been added to the directory.

Personalised Study Guide (PSG) is a brand new plugin for Moodle which has been developed by Ted Krahn & Maiga Chang. The plugin is developed with the intent to offer an adaptive course format which can replace the Topics format in Moodle core.

Personalised Study Guide course format change the course learning resources based on learner’s learning style. It uses Behaviour Analytics (BA) block to determine learning style (Felder and Silverman) relevance score. Based on the score, each individual will see a different course layout.

You can download the latest version of the PSG course format from Moodle plugins directory here. It is available for Moodle 3.4, 3.9, 3.10 & 3.11 versions. You also need to install the Behavior Analytics Block plugin. You can see this guide to learn how to install a Moodle plugin.

What are the other course format plugins which you are using on your Moodle site? Do share with us in the comment section below.

Moodle administrators – How to add stack overflow like forum discussions in Moodle?

Stack Overflow is world’s most trusted developers community and is a question and answer website for professional and enthusiast programmers. Have you ever thought of adding similar forum threads in Moodle course to increase engagement for your learners?

Luckily there is a Moodle plugin – Moodle Overflow which can add Stack Overflow type forum discussion. The plugin is actively maintained in the Moodle Plugins directory. It is available for all major Moodle versions including the latest Moodle 4.0.

Moodle Overflow similar to Stack Overflow adds non-linear, non-chronological discussion forum with straightforward question-and-answer discussions. In addition, users rate posts and gain a rating score (“reputation”) by being rated by other users.

Moodle Overflow Plugin
Moodle Overflow Plugin

How to install Moodle Overflow plugin

You can install the Moodle Overflow plugin from Moodle plugins directly. Here is the plugins homepage on Moodle Plugins directory. Since it is a Activity plugin, so you can install it in your Moodle/Mod directory otherwise you can follow this guide here to learn how to install a Moodle plugin.

Configuration as Site Administrator

Once installed, you can configure the plugin as Site Administrator. You have options to set the number of discussions per page, the maximum attachment size or read tracking etc.

On the course level configuration, as a teacher you can configure settings like maximum attachment size or read tracking. You can also configure if helpful or solved posts are displayed first and how the reputation will be calculated.

What are the other exciting Moodle plugins you are using? Do share with us in the comments section below.

Moodle for Beginners – How to enable Self Enrollment in your Moodle course?

Moodle™ is the world’s most popular open source Learning Management System. The main reason behind Moodle’s popularity are that it is completely open source, comes with a good community support and great documentation. However, there is a small learning curve for newbie teachers to get acquainted with the Moodle terminology. In this post, we will see how as a new teacher you can allow the learners (students) to enroll themselves in your Moodle course using self enrollment method.

First things first, in Moodle terminology logging into the Moodle site is called as Authentication process. Once a learner is inside logged in Moodle, she can only see the courses in which she is enrolled. As a teacher, you may want to share your Moodle course for all users who are coming into Moodle. The process of allowing learners access a course is called Enrollment.

Moodle offers many ways for student enrollment and it will depend upon your Moodle administrator to configure them. In Moodle core, you have many ways e.g. Manually enroll students or users enrolled in other courses are given automatic access. Additionally you can install Ernollment plugins to further enhance the enrollment methods. One such fantastic plugin is Auto-Enrol plugin which allow users to enroll automatically in the course upon certain conditions.

How to enable Self Enrollment for your Moodle course

Self enrollment is the method whereby users can choose to enrol themselves into a course. Before you can use it make sure that it is enabled by Administrator on site as well as course level.

In order to Enable the self enrollment method in the course, follow these steps:

  • In your course, click the Participants link from Course navigationMoodle for Beginners - How to enable Self Enrollment for your Moodle course?
  • From the dropdown select click Enrolment methods.
  • Open the “eye” icon next to the Self enrolment method:
    In case you have the Admin access
    Enable Self Enrollment by Turning “eye Icon” On.

    If you click the Gear icon, you will reach the setting page for configuring the self enrollment instance. Here you can setup various aspects like:

  • Adding an enrollment key to a course
  • Setting the Enrollment Period
  • Enrollment duration
  • Deciding Max users
  • Unenrolling inactive students
  • Customizing the Welcome email

With these steps hope you will be able to configure the self-enrollment method on your Moodle course. What are the other areas where you need support for Moodle course? Please share with us in the comments section below.

Register for the free Moodle Webinar – Choosing the Right Tools for the Task: Making the Most of Moodle Functionality

Moodle – the Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment is having many tools to extend the functionality. You have different types of activity modules & resources in Moodle core which can be extended by using Moodle plugins. Moodle US team will be hosting a free Moodle Webinar to address Tool selection & optimal use of functionality in Moodle.

For all learning designers – understanding the larger goal for your course, evaluating how learners should demonstrate proof of mastery of the content, and identifying how to support them in meeting their individual goals should be the driving factor.

The Moodle Webinar – “Choosing the Right Tools for the Task: Making the Most of Moodle Functionality” will be hosted on Tuesday, June 28, 2-3 PM ET (US & Canada). The speakers for this webinar are – Amy Sudduth & Vanessa Royce from Moodle US team.

During the webinar the participants will be able to learn to:

– Consider backwards design when creating course content
– Create a logical flow to course content culminating in a rich learning experience
– Avoid common mistakes with Moodle tools
– Utilize a variety of course activities

You can register for the Moodle Webinar through this link.