Hi there Moodle Gurus,
I am in the process of setting up a Moodle site which will be used as a collaboration system as much as it will be used as a traditional LMS. I know that there are modules for blogs, forums, chat, etc, but I don't quite know how to "make them work".
When I go to my profile I can see tabs for "Forum Posts" and "Blog", but I would like to have blocks for these items always visible for all users. From a collaboration perspective my primary goals are as follows:
1. A user can subscribe to particular forum threads
2. A user can "watch" particular blogs (eg: the blog of a particular instructor)
3. A user can initiate a chat session with another logged in user
4. A user can search for "experts" in a particular topic/course
5. When a user logs in, there should be blocks for all the main collaboration tools - blogs, forums, chat, wikis, etc.
When I look at the themes from New School Learning (eg: http://newschoollearning.com/moodle/?&theme=superfresh_blue), this is very close to what I want to achieve. What I can't seem to figure out is how to "switch on" all the various blocks. My site currently only has the Calendar block.
When I browse to Administration > Modules > Activities > Manage activities I can see that all the Activities I am most interested in are enabled/visible (eg: Chat, Forum, Wiki).
How do I enable these collaboration features? How do I configure my installation so that there are blocks for each module/activity visible to the users?
NB: When I refer to a User, I am assuming it is an authenticated user, not an anonymous guest (although I may decide to allow guests to view things like forums and blog posts).
Cheers,
Paul Hobbs
Hi,
Moodle is more-or-less completely course based. Create a new course, go there, switch editing on and add activities as required.
If you don't touch any of the course enrolment settings you'll get what you want - any authenticated user can enrol on the course.
Does this help?
Moodle is more-or-less completely course based. Create a new course, go there, switch editing on and add activities as required.
If you don't touch any of the course enrolment settings you'll get what you want - any authenticated user can enrol on the course.
Does this help?
Kind of...
Does that mean that every blog or forum post, and every chat session must be linked to a course?
On the theme sample page which I mentioned in my original post (http://newschoollearning.com/moodle/?&theme=superfresh_blue), even when I am not logged in and just looking at the home page (ie: not a specific course), there are blocks for searching the forums, latest blog posts, etc. How is this achieved?
Cheers,
Paul
Does that mean that every blog or forum post, and every chat session must be linked to a course?
On the theme sample page which I mentioned in my original post (http://newschoollearning.com/moodle/?&theme=superfresh_blue), even when I am not logged in and just looking at the home page (ie: not a specific course), there are blocks for searching the forums, latest blog posts, etc. How is this achieved?
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Sideblocks are added through the front page admin interface, and not the theme.
To add more blocks to your site's front page, turn editing on while logged in as an admin and select the blocks you wish to display from the "Blocks" block that will appear.
Sideblocks are added through the front page admin interface, and not the theme.
To add more blocks to your site's front page, turn editing on while logged in as an admin and select the blocks you wish to display from the "Blocks" block that will appear.
Thanks Patrick - that helped a lot. My site is now looking much better. I noticed that on your site you have a block called "Blog Posts". I am able to add blocks for "Blog Menu" and "Blog Tags", but I can't figure out how to add a block for "Blog Posts". Is this by any chance a 3rd party module?
The blogs are linked to users and courses. This way you can see site wide blogs from the front page... Also you can search the forums of your courses from the front page...
Two things here.....
Most activities must be linked to a course. The exception (for better or worse) is blog which is (primarily) a user thing.
For most purposes the front page of the site is treated as a special case of a course itself. So, you can add all the same actvities and side-blocks. You just need to select the option to have a 'Topic section' in the Front Page settings.
BUT.... be careful putting interactive activities on the front page. You can come unstuck assigning users to roles. Make sure (if you need to say assign 'teachers' to the front page) that you assign them to the front page and not the Site. The latter is almost never what you want.
Most activities must be linked to a course. The exception (for better or worse) is blog which is (primarily) a user thing.
For most purposes the front page of the site is treated as a special case of a course itself. So, you can add all the same actvities and side-blocks. You just need to select the option to have a 'Topic section' in the Front Page settings.
BUT.... be careful putting interactive activities on the front page. You can come unstuck assigning users to roles. Make sure (if you need to say assign 'teachers' to the front page) that you assign them to the front page and not the Site. The latter is almost never what you want.
Regarding point number 4. This is quite an interesting one. How do you intend to identify experts?
Will it be based on their contributions to the topic? How others have rated them? Teacher defined? etc
I think we need to identify the intended process before we can suggest a solution.
Will it be based on their contributions to the topic? How others have rated them? Teacher defined? etc
I think we need to identify the intended process before we can suggest a solution.