We've been using Moodle for online learning for several years in an international market (though entirely in English). We have almost 200,000 enrolled students (not all active at any given moment), but we're mostly reaching a 40 year old + demographic. We're looking at developing for mobile devices as one possible way of encouraging younger users.
The iPhone is already well established. With the newer Android smartphones (Nexus One, Droid...), that sport 800x480 or 854x480 screens (which we can safely assume will also be available on the iPhone sometime soon) we'd like to try delivering Moodle with a theme that keeps the interface inside the 800x480 screen size 800 (horizontal).
We don't want to reinvent the wheel if it's already rolling. Has someone already developed a them for this smaller screen size? Is anyone working on one? We're just starting on this and would love to hear from anyone who's already moving in this direction.
We're wanting to test a normal web installation designed with the smaller screen in mind, rather than using a special iPhone app or Android app. That may not be the best way to go, but we want to at least try it. An appropriately sized theme seems to be the quickest way to test the concept.
Thanks for any input from any of you who are farther along in this than we are.
Ken Glass
moodledev@flashriver.com
Have you seen this site:
http://mle.sourceforge.net/
They have both a small screen moodle format as well as an app.
It looks pretty nice on my Android phone.
Jenny
http://mle.sourceforge.net/
They have both a small screen moodle format as well as an app.
It looks pretty nice on my Android phone.
Jenny
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.
I'm beginning to wonder if the resolution of phones like the Droid and the advent of devices like the iPad may make designing for small screens an unnecessary step. I guess I need to buy a Droid and try designing for it and see what happens.
Ken
I'm beginning to wonder if the resolution of phones like the Droid and the advent of devices like the iPad may make designing for small screens an unnecessary step. I guess I need to buy a Droid and try designing for it and see what happens.
Ken
Fyi - there's some talk at iMoot 2010 about developing a Moodle iPhone App after moodle 2.0 release. I'd reckon it will run on iPad, also. will post any more news as it comes to hand.
Reporting back from imoot...
Martin Dougiamas says that "...mobile apps are definitely something we will be working on here at Moodle HQ this year as soon as Moodle 2.0 is more settled.
We'll start simple with very basic functionality such as messaging and calendar events (a sort of My Moodle), and slowly add more features based on what people want.
Some work is being done on this by others too. One is a consortium involving Nokia, and another is a University in HK doing research into the interfaces students want. We're working with them to help define what our iPhone and Android apps will look like.
Yeah they'll work for iPad too, but the size of that thing brings other possibilities. I see years of interesting work ahead"...
Fyi - there's more chatter over at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=104599
Martin Dougiamas says that "...mobile apps are definitely something we will be working on here at Moodle HQ this year as soon as Moodle 2.0 is more settled.
We'll start simple with very basic functionality such as messaging and calendar events (a sort of My Moodle), and slowly add more features based on what people want.
Some work is being done on this by others too. One is a consortium involving Nokia, and another is a University in HK doing research into the interfaces students want. We're working with them to help define what our iPhone and Android apps will look like.
Yeah they'll work for iPad too, but the size of that thing brings other possibilities. I see years of interesting work ahead"...
Fyi - there's more chatter over at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=104599
Interesting Post - so are you saying the world should get ready for m-learning?
Gee Whiz...............
Gee Whiz...............