Is There a Colaborative Document Function?

Is There a Colaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
Number of replies: 13
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Hi -

I'm new to Moodle, and I'm just getting my feet wet. I love this system, and I hope to actually dig into the code soon.

Looking at all of the modules, I haven't found one where I can have a group work jointly on a document - like a Wiki. Does such functionality exist anywhere in the system?

If not, is there plans to develop one (or should there be)?

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Tom Murdock -
Hi Mike,

Sorry I missed responding to your earlier note about Library/Glossary and wiki-bility in Moodle. I think a number of Moodlers are interested in collaborative modules, but the feature probably isn't ranked at the top right now (now, I make this claim right after being very, very wrong last week about the level of excitement over a grading feature that took off like a tornado blush).

In the meanwhile, two options exist right now for you that seem to work quite well.
  1. The first is to install something like phpWiki and to connect to it as a resource. Martin does this in his Developer Documentation Wiki on the front page of this course.
  2. The other way is to install the library add-on. Even with the current library code (which hasn't been updated lately), you can create documents with your students and have everyone edit them in versions. Right now the hyper-linking between Moodle and Library is a bit iffy (needs some changes in the config.php file that I couldn't figure out), but otherwise the add-on works just fine. If you had a need for hypertext links, I would use the glossary module.
I hope this helps.

-Tom
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
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Thanks Tom.

I hooked in the Library module, and while it appears to be a good compromise, the fact that it doesn't really quite fit into the application will be a difficulty for some of the people who will be creating courses. I was hoping to find some activity in creating one that was part of Moodle.

I was looking at PHPWiki. Does it hook in better than Library? I haven't tried connecting resources yet, so I guess I should (where's the best documentation on that?).

In the meantime, I was going to look and see how difficult it might be to incorporate PHPWiki as a module of Moodle. Do you know if this has bee tried yet?

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Martin Dougiamas -
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This would be a cool thing. It shouldn't be TOO hard - phpwiki supports external authentication already so you just need to configure it to point at the Moodle user database, and then train it to use the Moodle session.   Ideally, I suppose each instance of an activity in Moodle would be a page in a single Wiki (so that all them can link to each other etc.

There are probably lots of gnarly little issues that will crop up while attempting it but it would be nice to see a "proper" internal Wiki module.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
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Okay. I'll give it a shot. I'll probably have questions.

I looked at your Wiki (http://moodle.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=354). What did you use for this?

mike

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Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Martin Dougiamas -
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See that little white box that says phpwiki? big grin It's a simple installation at: http://moodle.org/wiki/ and then included in the course as a 'webpage' resource.

It was setup in about ten minutes and was never very well used, so it's not really a great example of what could be done with some effort.

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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
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Hi Martin -

Can you send me the database settings you used for PHPWiki to enable using the Moodle authorization? Its probably the PHPWiki/index.php file.

I'm just trying some experiments, and I wanted to see how you got that to work.

mike

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Martin Dougiamas -
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It's in the phpwiki configuration file.  I actually didn't get it to work properly in the end but I didn't spend much time on it.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
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Reviewing your post, I see:
"Ideally, I suppose each instance of an activity in Moodle would be a page in a single Wiki (so that all them can link to each other etc.".

What do you mean by this exactly?

mike

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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
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I've come across another Wiki tool called ErfurtWiki or ewiki. It written in PHP and uses MySQL. Unlike PHPWiki, it was written as a library to be integrated into other applications. I'm going to spend some time with this one - it may be easier to integrate into Moodle than PHPWiki.

Should we create a separate forum / topic for a Wiki application?

mike

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Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Yes, go for it, Mike.  A new topic in the 'Activity Modules' forum would be good for a start.

Oh, and what I meant above was just that Wiki pages should probably not be insulated.  For example, if a wiki document (or "cluster" of documents) is added in Topic 1 and another one added in Topic 2, then it should be possible for all the Wiki features (like Autolinking) to work between them.  A mini Wiki Universe, if you will, where the Moodle activity links are just portals into it at different points.

But start a new topic, yes, please.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Is There a Collaborative Document Function?

by Mike Churchward -
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Got ya.

How do I start a new topic in the Activity Module? mixed

mike

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