Hi There! I'm a Moodle newbie and very excited to get my site going!! Moodle has come highly recommended from a few folks who use it for online learning communities.
Here are my questions:
1) Do I need special Moodle "plug ins" (forgive me if this is not the right terminology) to embed Youtube Videos or MP4 videos as course material?
2) Can the students/members profile pages be customized? For example, if I want all members to answer 3 required questions about themselves that will be posted to their profile - can this be customized?
3) Can students/members upload a photo gallery in their profile?
4) Can I (teacher) or students upload streaming MP3 content?
My intention is to use Moodle as the base for my online membership/learning site but to support the members in expressing themselves in a basic "social networking" way.
Thanks in advance for any guidance, examples or insight you can offer.
Happy Friday!
Marie
Hi, Marie,
Here goes:
Sounds like Moodle will do the job for you.
I hope that helps a bit.
Regards,
Art
Here goes:
- Do I need special Moodle "plug ins" (forgive me if this is not the right terminology) to embed Youtube Videos or MP4 videos as course material?
No special plug-ins needed. You can embed videos in Moodle. - Can the students/members profile pages be customized? For example, if I want all members to answer 3 required questions about themselves that will be posted to their profile - can this be customized?
Yes, this is possible, if I understand what you want to do. You would add user profile fields to do this - http://docs.moodle.org/en/User_profile_fields - Can students/members upload a photo gallery in their profile?
Hmmm... Well, yes. They could certainly upload images to a database or a glossary and link to that from their profiles. Or you could give them permission to upload to a lightbox gallery. - Can I (teacher) or students upload streaming MP3 content?
Yes, no problem.
Sounds like Moodle will do the job for you.
I hope that helps a bit.
Regards,
Art
Hi Marie and Art,
May I try to add a little to your earlier comments, Art? I am thinking, Marie, that you may be asking "how to?" as well as "can I?"
1. Embed Videos
- in each text box in Moodle (in a forum, in a description of an activity, or almost anywhere) there is a toggle switch "<>" to turn on source code view of the text editor. Turn this on, and then paste the Youtube, Voicethread, or other code snippet that you want to embed. I have never actually done this with Youtube, only other types of web 2.0 content, but it should work the same.
2. Profile Page Customization
- see Art's link to Moodle docs
3. Photo Gallery Upload
- not really as you imagine. I think it would be easier to have students maintain photo galleries elsewhere (Flickr?) and paste a link to them in their personal profile. I notice there are some third party plugins for photo galleries into Moodle, but I have never tried these.
4. Upload streaming mp3 content
- do you mean upload an mp3 file? Yes, a student can attach a single file to any forum. Also, the assignment activity allows students to upload a file. Moodle autodetects mp3 files (when the filter is turned on) and displays a nice, compact player bar to turn on/off the sound file.
- if you mean streaming audio from another source, you can do the Youtube procedure I described above.
- if you mean, as a teacher, how to embed mp3 audio into lessons, use the "link to file" button in the text editor toolbar. First, upload the file into your course files area. Then highlight some text you have written, and click the link button to connect to it.
Does that help?
May I try to add a little to your earlier comments, Art? I am thinking, Marie, that you may be asking "how to?" as well as "can I?"
1. Embed Videos
- in each text box in Moodle (in a forum, in a description of an activity, or almost anywhere) there is a toggle switch "<>" to turn on source code view of the text editor. Turn this on, and then paste the Youtube, Voicethread, or other code snippet that you want to embed. I have never actually done this with Youtube, only other types of web 2.0 content, but it should work the same.
2. Profile Page Customization
- see Art's link to Moodle docs
3. Photo Gallery Upload
- not really as you imagine. I think it would be easier to have students maintain photo galleries elsewhere (Flickr?) and paste a link to them in their personal profile. I notice there are some third party plugins for photo galleries into Moodle, but I have never tried these.
4. Upload streaming mp3 content
- do you mean upload an mp3 file? Yes, a student can attach a single file to any forum. Also, the assignment activity allows students to upload a file. Moodle autodetects mp3 files (when the filter is turned on) and displays a nice, compact player bar to turn on/off the sound file.
- if you mean streaming audio from another source, you can do the Youtube procedure I described above.
- if you mean, as a teacher, how to embed mp3 audio into lessons, use the "link to file" button in the text editor toolbar. First, upload the file into your course files area. Then highlight some text you have written, and click the link button to connect to it.
Does that help?
Hi, Don,
By all means! Thank you for jumping in.
See what a great community this is, Marie?
Regards,
Art
By all means! Thank you for jumping in.
See what a great community this is, Marie?
Regards,
Art
Hi Art!! You guys are AWESOME!! thank you so very much for your thoughtful answers. I'm super excited to get my "Moodle" on and come back and share the website with ya'll.
Thanks again and have a great day! Marie
Thanks again and have a great day! Marie
You are very welcome.
Happy Moodling, Marie.
-- Art
Happy Moodling, Marie.
-- Art
Hi Don! I just wanted to thank you both for your replies...excellent and yes, your answers are extremely helpful!
I will see what I can find out about that third party plug-in for a photo gallery and report my experience.
I'm currently using Ning.com as a "Private Online Community" to supplement to a telecourse I'm teaching.
What I like about Ning is that it's very cool that all the students can "personalize" their page and share photos and videos.
My goal is to use Moodle as a more robust learning environment (so people can access many courses and levels of learning) that also supports the "social networking" aspect of building a like-minded community as well.
If there is anything else you guys think I should know (or know about as it relates to Moodle!) I'm all ears.
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Marie
I will see what I can find out about that third party plug-in for a photo gallery and report my experience.
I'm currently using Ning.com as a "Private Online Community" to supplement to a telecourse I'm teaching.
What I like about Ning is that it's very cool that all the students can "personalize" their page and share photos and videos.
My goal is to use Moodle as a more robust learning environment (so people can access many courses and levels of learning) that also supports the "social networking" aspect of building a like-minded community as well.
If there is anything else you guys think I should know (or know about as it relates to Moodle!) I'm all ears.
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Marie