We are looking at using moodle to be our e-learning solution, however certain stakeholders in the project want some more meta functionality allowing users to interact on a level outside of courses, and have some additional functionality. Does anyone have any experience using Moodle like an API? Or possibly wrapping a larger system around moodle and calling it for the e-learning functionality?
~Scott
I use Moodle for the class discussion forum, for publishing homework assignment descriptions and (occasionally) for multiple choice tests. But all of my background reading materials are published separately using a more powerful, more E-textbook-like CMS (content management system). Each (moodle-based) homework assignment description includes clickable links to appropriate pages in the externally-published E-Textbook.
Moodle does (I think) have a file-upload mechanism that can be used as way for students to upload homework assignments (essays and computer programs in my case). But I don't use it. My students upload their homework assignments to a separate, password-protected website that allows me to view all such assignments. But students can only see their own assignments.
My system does require each student to login twice: once to Moodle and one more time to gain access to their upload site (which is actually a per-student personal website). But that's a small matter of programming. I hope to have that fixed by next semester--so one login grants access to both systems.
Because so many other software systems do a better job for E-Textbook publishing, I think that's a good model to use. (I like this new online editor, by the way. Is this now TinyMCE instead of FCK?).
Hi Sandy,
Always intereting to read how other teachers work.
What is your "externally-published E-Textbook" ?
Cheers,
Glenys
I'm a software guy, so I use my own home-rolled system for publishing Textbook-like websites.
I'm the only person who knows how to use it. Someday (once it's ready) I'll put it on sourceforge.
But it's a long way from publishable yet.
I am currently working on a program that would take any epub file as its input, that would produce
something like the following as its output. There is a lot missing yet, like page numbering, next page,
previous page, goto page and Seach. But what follows is a simple example, such as it is:
Adding a "me too!" admiration here.
wow, thanks for the responses. Sandy, are you at MSU or know someone there? I got my Master's from UM. Anyway to the point. What we are looking at is how difficult it is to use Moodle as part of a large system. We are looking at wanting almost like a system that is part social network, part wiki, and part e-learning environment. Users would generate content for courses but this content (if the teacher allows) would also be available to the community at large in later years as they are doing research and increasing their knowledge of a given subject. It would also allow for collaboration, and interaction of users with similar interests that might not be in the same current course.
I should specify that we are not a University but an education tour company that is trying to increase as much as possible the educational aspects of our tours. We feel that this type of system would help with this.
~Scott
Yes, I work at Montana State. I'm not a professor. I'm an adjunct and programmer supported by various grants, one of which involves Little Big Horn college on the Crow Indian reservation.
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Collaboration is a problem with all Learning Management Systems I've seen. Even with the bigtime expensive ones. The LMS parts of each course tend to get written by one person at a time, because (on large, ambitious projects) authors over-write each other's work. So cooperation becomes difficult. Moodle itself needs to somehow support version control, so multiple authors can work simultaneously, and so the software highlights editing conflicts, and thereby enforces cooperative merging of conflicting texts. That's how open source software projects work (one team leader and multiple keyboard soldiers). The first LMS that supports that will squash all the others--and reign supreme.
One reason I limit the use of Moodle to forums and assignment descriptions only (and tests) is just that: by using a CMS for the bulk of the written text (background reading resources), I can and do use version control (even though I'm the only author so far). Version control is good for single authors too. I use it for everything from programming codes to HTML content. That way nothing is lost, and I can go back and see what I zapped six months ago, any time I want. Collaboration is power.
......one final highly-technical note:
Moodle needs to have a "widget" capability. Right now Moodle only knows how to present itself a totally independent HTML page. If Moodle could be configured to stuff itself into the contents of an arbitrary HTML division <div id="moodle"> .... </div> ....then it could be more easily be integrated into anything. This would likely require an entire re-write of the code base. But that's the future. Open source discussion forums and all other modular web-applications would be better off with that ability. Drupal forums can insert themselves as a widget into any arbitrary Drupal installation, so all surrounding navigation remains intact. But Drupal forums can only be inserted inside Drupal. If they could be inserted into any arbitrary application, like a modular plugin, then you'd really have something.
Sandy,
Well, that pretty much answers my question. Not in the way I was hoping for You hit the nail on the head with many of the problems. It would be very nice if Moodle could be setup as an API allowing a larger system to use the functionality of Moodle. Or even as you suggested in Divs. What's frustrating is that in order for the company to use Moodle there would be excessive work arounds which is not a good way to start a project, but reinventing the wheel is not an option either.
I was at a 2-year college "distance learning" convention last March.
There a zillion new (proprietary) LMS systems popping up all over. Researching them all would take days of effort. It's possible there is one out there that does what you want. But it would not be free and open source.
has anyone tried playing with the web services feature of Moodle?
This just popped up in my email and reminded me of this thread.
We are going to production with Moodle wrapped in Mahara - it's been done in many places under the "Mahoodle" model. This is because Moodle is one of several systems in use and all students wll come through the Mahara gateway to connect with various learning destinations.
Along with the single login, Mahara also offers a really special sense of personal ownership with a file repository, a blogspot and social networking facilities.
Cheers, Paul Jacobson.
RE> "We're going to production with Moodle wrapped in Mahara"
Thank you!
I didn't know about Mahara. I'll definitely have to experiment with it. Open source social networking sounds like a good thing. When you say you have wrapped Moodle inside Mahara, what does that mean?
A single login is easy enough. But what does Moodle look like when the users follow a link from Mahara to Moodle? Do you switch back and forth between systems, or do the two systems maintain a common navigation system and graphical appearance somehow?
That does sound VERY interesting, and very plausible solution. Does anyone know of any working Mahoodle demos? I too would be interested in seeing how it looks and feels for users as they migrate from the mahara feature system to the Moodle system.
Scott
I don't know the technical details; and haven't seen the results yet. We need a Gateway because our students (across several hundred qualifications) use several LMSs and a range of resources. Mahara is appropriate because it is a neutral starting point. In Moodle Docs you will find http://wiki.mahara.org/@api/deki/files/196/=Mahoodle.pdf
It is also worth checking out the Mahoodle forum moderated by Julian Ridden: http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/view.php?id=30
