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Get ready for the Mountain Moot 2022 from July 20-22

Mountain Moot is one of the most prominent Moodle Community events. Mountain Moot is back in 2022 with first in person conference since 2019. The last two years the conference was organized completely online with participants from all over the world. This year the conference will be held in the Mountains of Montana on the Campus of Carroll College like every summer.

Mountain Moot 2022 will be held from July 20-22 in Helena, Montana. There will be many interesting sessions, plenty of time for social engagement and informal collaborative learning during the Mountain Moot 2022.

You can register for the conference for $199 which includes all the sessions, swag, food and a great conference. In case you want to share your presentation you can participate for just $99. You can submit your presentation proposal here.

During the Mountain Moot 2022, there will be training workshops on interesting topics like Introduction to Moodle for Administrators, Newdle : Moodle for new Users & Rock your Profile. There are many other exciting sessions in the schedule. You can check out the Mountain Moot 2022 schedule here.

Here are the recordings of the sessions from Mountain Moot 2021:

To stay connected with the Mountain Moot community members, you can follow them on Twitter handle – @mtmoot or join the Slack channel.

Check out A Comparison of Canvas and Moodle Discussion Tools

Moodle is the world’s most popular open source Learning Management System (LMS) in the world. It has been in use since 318 Million users in 242 countries under the GPLv3 license. On the other hand, Canvas is a web-based learning management system, or LMS released under AGPLv3.

While both the systems are used by learning institutions, educators, and students to access and manage online course learning materials and communicate about skill development and learning achievement. There are advantages of both systems for online learning there are some differences also.

Rick Jerz, the Moodle Community member and professor at The University of Iowa shared a comparison between Moodle and Canvas in Moodle forums. The video is still half-cooked and will be updated by Rick based on the feedback.

A Comparison of Canvas and Moodle Discussion Tools

You can watch the video below:


Please login to Moodle Comparison & Advocacy forum to share your feedback about the difference between Moodle and Canvas.

Get ready for MoodleMoot Philippines (MootPH22) on July 27-29

MoodleMoot Philippines (MootPH22) will be organized from July 27-29 2022. This year the event will be hosted completely online with a lot of exciting sessions. During the MoodleMoot Philippines 2022 you can share, network, and learn with professionals from the Education, Research, and Development sectors.

The theme for this year’s event is “Educators thriving amidst the pandemic, adopting to change and learning as one.” This year the first day will be dedicated to Moodle Workplace while the other two days will see keynote speech by Dr Martin Dougiamas & others. The program includes talks from local and international experts on topics such as:

  • Hybrid Learning success
  • The future of learning analytics
  • Best Moodle Practices and Effective use of H5P
  • Teaching effective virtual classes using Moodle & BigBlueButton
  • Virtual Learning Environment Mobile App

The event will see local and international Moodle experts like Elias M. Sampa, Wilben Pagtaconan, Frederick Romero, Lach Sambath, Emi Hasniza, Frederick Dixon etc.

The MoodleMoot Philippines 2022 will be completely organized by Nephila Web Technology – Premium Moodle Service Provider in the country.

Check out registration options on MootPH22’s website.

Send email reminders to your learners in Moodle course using Custom Mailing plugin

Moodle Plugins are the best possible way to extend the core functionality. There are more than 1980+ plugins in the official Moodle Plugins directory which are contributed by almost 1100 developers. By default, Moodle send email reminders on specific activities like when an announcement is made to a forum, when students submit an assignment etc.

Custom Mailing plugin for Moodle provides you the capability to setup automated emails for learners for different conditions. You can configure to send the emails at course enrolment, after certain days of first access etc. You can also link it with Custom Certificate plugin to generate and send a PDF certificate linked to the mailing when conditions are met.

How to install Custom Mailing Plugin

Custom Mailing plugin is an activity plugin and it can be installed in your_moodle_site/mod directory. If you are new to Moodle, you can follow out beginners guide to install Moodle Plugins. You can download the latest version of the Plugin from Moodle Plugins directory here.

How to configure Custom Mailing Plugin

After installation process is completed, there are no major configuration steps as an administrator to be completed.

Send email reminders to your learners in Moodle course using Custom Mailing plugin
Custom Mailing Moodle Plugin settings page

How to use Custom Mailing Plugin in the Moodle course

As a teacher you need to enter the Editing Mode and add a new Custom Mailing activity to your Moodle course. By default, the activity is marked as Hidden from students, unless you want to display in the course page. Once added, you can create a new mailing for specific conditions.

The conditions allow you to specify the emails on course enrolment, After certain days of course enrol date, after certain days of course access. You can also use the students first name and last name as the variables in the email body.

What are the other ways to send email reminders to your learners in Moodle course? Do share with us in the comments section below.

Final MUA Project Cycle voting open now through June 19

Final Voting for the Moodle Users Association (MUA) Project development cycle Jan-June 2022 is now open. The votes for the projects which were selected in the initial voting is now reset completely. So, you can vote for your projects before June 19.

Initially there are 10 projects which have been shortlisted for the Jan-June 2022 development cycle. The top voted projects were as below:

  1. Bulk edit activities in course view page – 32957
  2. Team mode for Workshop – 31158
  3. Enhanced Forum Reports, Enhanced Forum Exports, and Enhanced Discussion Metrics – 16065
  4. Improve Moodle Reporting – 11554
  5. Make it possible to use completion criteria in if-conditions for grade calculations – 5383
  6. Moodle Wiki export and import – 4033
  7. Bulk upload of offline performances to assignment module – 3945
  8. Add the Ordering question type (qtype_ordering) into Moodle core – 3910
  9. Default Settings for Activities and Resources Completion Criteria – 1890
  10. Improve online text assignment submission screen – 1155

All individual members of MUA can cast 100 votes while the Gold, Silver & Bronze members can cast their votes as per their eligibility.

According to the forum post by Steven Miley, Some proposals were removed from final voting due to the scope of the project being too large for MUA funding, or other reasons denoted in the description. So, you will not be able to allocate votes to those projects.

You can cast your votes at the project development cycle site here.

Join the Moodle Developer meeting – June 2022 on 14 June 2022

Heads up for Moodle developers – The next Moodle Developer meeting will be held on 14 June 2022. The developers interested in joining the Moodle developer meeting can join the same at 08:00 UTC.

Here are the details for this Moodle Developers meeting:

Details

Tuesday 14 June 2022, at 08:00 UTC (Check this time in your location)

Meeting room: Developer meetings BBB on moodle.org

In this developer meeting, Sander Bangma – Head of Moodle LMS at Moodle HQ will share updates about Moodle LMS from HQ. In addition, Andrew Lyons will share updates about the Moodle New DevDocs.

You can also access the recording of last developer meetings here.

How to add a live poll to your Moodle course?

Moodle – the world’s most popular open source Learning Management System is used for online teaching & learning by educational institutions, corporates, medical institutions etc. In the modern age, many times the teachers needs to have online polling to get the feedback from their learners. There may be many other different use cases for including a live poll in Moodle course.

Luckily, the Live Poll plugin for Moodle is there which helps you to add a live poll within the Moodle course. It can be used for example with a teacher giving a video lecture and simultaneously getting the feedback from the learners.

How to Install Live Poll Plugin:

Live Poll is an activity plugin and it can be installed in your_moodle_site/mod directory. If you are new to Moodle, you can follow out beginners guide to install Moodle Plugins.

How to add a live poll to your Moodle course?
Live Poll in Moodle Course

How to configure Live Poll plugin:

As per the developers of the Live Poll Moodle plugin, you need to create an account on Firebase. For the people who are unaware, Firebase is a Google-backed application development software that enables developers to develop iOS, Android and Web apps. Firebase provides tools for tracking analytics, reporting and fixing app crashes, creating marketing and product experiment.

Here are the steps reproduced from the Moodle plugins documentation:

  • Go to Firebase and create an account
  • Once in the Firebase console, create a project
  • We’re using the real time database for this project. So, create a database.
  • A popup will appear to configure Cloud Firestore, select any type of security (Locked/Test) mode.
  • Switch from Cloud firestore to Realtime database (Top part of the page)
  • Access Rules and set these rules: { “rules”: { “.read”: “auth != null”, “.write”: “auth != null” } }
  • Enable anonymous authentication, if anonymous authentication is not setup, the poll will not work.
  • From the project overview page in the Firebase console, click Add Firebase to your web app. If your project already has an app, select Add App from the project overview page.
  • You can copy and paste the API Key, Auth Domain, Database URL and the Project ID to add them to the Moodle plugin settings page. Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Live poll

How to use in the Moodle course

Once the plugin is installed and configured properly, you can add a new Live Poll activity in the Moodle course. Turn the Editing Mode on and add a new activity.

What are the other tools which you are using to create real-time interaction with your students in Moodle course? Please share with us in the comments section below.

Nephila Web Technology become a Moodle Premium Certified Service Provider in Philippines

Nephila Web Technology has become a Moodle Premium Certified Service Provider in Southeast Asia. Nephila Web provides IT solutions, e-learning services and LMS to Schools, universities and organizations. Established in 2011, Nephila Web have been Moodle Partner since 2016 in the Philippines.

They offer a full suite of Moodle based services including hosting, training, support, consulting, integration, content development etc. By becoming the Premium Certified Service Provider, Nephila Web Technology will now be able to deliver Moodle Workplace to its corporate clients.

On this special occasion, Sheryl Villaroman, Chief Executive Officer of Nephila Web says:

“Becoming the first Premium Moodle Partner from Southeast Asia speaks of our pioneering efforts to make Moodle part of the conversation about innovation in education in the region.

Becoming a Premium Partner adds to our integrity and credibility as a Moodle Services Provider. We believe we will be able to gain more trust from our clients and leads of higher value, which we now feel more confident to pursue.”

Nephila Web clientele includes Philippine Science Highschool, University of the Philippines (UP) Law Complex & Philippines’ Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Insynergy Consulting (ISYC) becomes Moodle Premium Partner in Spain

Insynergy Consulting (ISYC) has now become a Premium Moodle Certified Service provider in Spain. Insynergy Consulting (ISYC)  is one of the first partners in the Moodle Certified Service Provider network and the first partner in Spain for more than 15 years.

As a Premium Moodle Certified Service Provider – Insynergy Consulting (ISYC) will provide organisations access to Moodle’s enterprise learning management platform, Moodle Workplace. ISYC CEO – Francisco Moren Sanz, said:

Joining this select club of Premium Partners is recognition of our great professional work and will allow us to expand in the business world. In particular, to take advantage of the trend of large companies to equip themselves with their own LMS platform.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic, learning and development have become critical drivers of performance and talent retention in workplace settings. The corporates in Spain are looking to implement tools to engage diverse learners and maximise employee training outcomes. Moren Sanz added:

The business market has always been an important sector for ISYC. Access to Moodle Workplace will allow us to better service learning and development requirements for certifications, automation, reporting, course design and training.”

ISYC clientele includes a deep track record in Spain which includes Heineken, Grupo, EURUNI, Specific Home Portal for Students/TeachersGrupo Alecop, El Corte Inglés etc.

Participate in OSS4SDG Hackathon to Contribute towards Sustainable Development Goals for Quality Education

The Open Source Soſtware for Sustainable Development Goals – OSS4SDG Hackathon is the first of a series of hackathons. It is a joint collaboration between the European Commission Directorate-General for Informatics and United Nations Office of Information, Communications and Technology.

The goal of the first hackathon will be to tackle SDG 4 Quality Education with Moodle selected as the first open-source community. The last date for submissions has been extended till 13th June 2022 to give participants some more time to work on their submissions.

During the Hackathon, the team is looking for proactive ideas and solutions in these areas to help improve performance, expand video conferencing functionality, and consequently reach more students. There are two challenges in the hackathon which are:

  1. Mobile app challenge: Improve or extend existing Moodle plugins (or create your own) for the Moodle mobile app, so that users can access all Moodle functionalities via mobile devices.
  2. LMS VidCon challenge: Improve or extend existing Moodle plugins for video conferencing so that users can further easily switch to virtual classes with little effort.

While all participants who qualified will receive a participation certificate and a participation Moodle badge. The winners will receive formal recognition from UN officials and the European Commission and their proposals will be used and published. Additionally all winners will receive a special certificate and special Moodle Badges.