We run courses which number more than 52 topics (seems to be the limit number of topics available in Moodle). So, if a course consits of 60 lectures which format can we use? 'Topics' seems to be the best but it is limited to only 52 lectures!
There IS a way you can change the code to increase the number of topics /weeks in a Moodle course- it is set to 52 because there are 52 weeks in a year. If you do a search you will probably find it on this site. However... it would make for an enormously long course and users would be scrolling down forever - so think carefully before you do it! You can make the number of topics look more without actually changing the code if you don't want to or can't change the code -just add a "label" (add a resource>label) in a topic and it can serve to split the topic into two sections so that the course appears to have more than 52 topics. I would suggest that as the best option if you really want 60 topic sections - use labels.
Hi D.
Unless you have a special reason, they don't all have to be visible on the main page in one long list, whether in separate topics or not, 60 is an awfully long list. There are various ways of presenting them in more manageable fashion - here are two:
- Dividing them up into, say, 6 groups; putting each group into a folder in the Files area and providing a link to each folder on the main course page.
- You could in fact put all your 60 lectures in one topic: present them through the Book plugin.
Cheers,
Glenys
You may choose, as Glenys says, to group your topics but I would add that in this case, related topics can be placed in a Book, so you may have 15 Books, but 4 topics in each book, this can make your course more manageable.
If none of these suggestions are viable then you can always hack the code and give yourself an additional week/topic or two or more. Go to the file course/edit_form.php and about line 125 (or close to it due to version issues) find the text:
for ($i=1; $i<=52; $i++) {
you can change that value to anything you like. This also works the same in Moodle 2.0 - but as the Book module is not quite ready yet, this may be a better option.
The value given in the "for" statement sets the limit of weeks or topics that are available in your courses. This is a site wide change and usually only effects those years that actually have 53 working weeks in them.
Thank you for your assistance- downloaded the 'book' plugin but do not know how to install it into our Moodel 1.9 program.The instructions tell us to:
"Unpack the zip file into the mod folder of your Moodle site", and forgive my ignorance but what is a 'mod folder' and where do I find it on our computers?!
Hi Glenys,
Thank you for your assistance- I'd like to try your 1st suggestion: however I note that at present we have 1 lesson per file, so how do we get 5 lessons, plus their assignments, into a separte file?
regards
Derek
Trying my best to follow your advice but if we add a label does it it have to be inside an existing topic? Each lesson consists of an actual 20/30 page lesson document plus an assignment, so how do we actually fit in 60/90 lessons into a topic by using labels?
Sorry for the ignorance!
Hello again. I think there is a little issue of semantics here -definining what we all mean by "lesson" or "lecture" or "topics". Could you post a screenshote of part of your course so we can see how it looks? Or if not, in each topic section what do you actually have available? You say you have a 20/30 page lesson document - is that a pdf file? Or Word? When you say "assignment" is that a Moodle assignment type? As Glenys says, you don't have to have one topic per lesson/lecture/whatever we call it, and as I said earlier, it is easy to divide up one topic section into 2 by using a label - but if we can see what you are doing it might help the explanations!
Hi D,
To make it easier to visualise what Mary and I are talking about, here's a screenshot of a topic/section divided up with horizontal lines place in "labels". You find labels in the dropdown resources menu in Editing mode.
Of course, your selection of resources and activities will be completely different from mine, but the principle remains the same. You don't actually need to see most of the content on the course page: it's just an outline.
Cheers,
Glenys
As Mary said, this is first an issue of semantics more than anything else, then it is one of design.
For background information, you may want to look at this book, Using Moodle by Jason Cole and Helen Foster. It is a free download and while it is more specificaly aimed at Moodle 1.8, the basics of Moodle are still the same from v1.8 to 1.9 and now 2.0 - they seem to be universals. It contains some excellent ideas and perceptions and explanations of what Mooglish (Moodle jargon) is and how it is used here. It also offers some great explanations of how to create courses, topics, lessons, quizzes and all that which are clear and easily followed. Then there is another book, aimed at designing courses which are interesting and visually attractive.This is Mary's book - an excellent resource which made me look very good when I started incorporating some of the things she writes about. While somewhat unfortunately titled in "Moodle 1.9 for teaching 7-14 year olds" - there should not be an age range these things apply to. Mary discusses universals of good visual design and gives clear explanations of how to achieve them. You have to buy that, I got it from Amazon.com, and I would seriously urge you to buy it.
I suggest you forget about hacking code, stick with the Book module.
To install the Book, talk to your Moodle Administrator, or find the person who has access to the core code of Moodle and ask them to download the Book zip file, if you have not already done it, then unzip it into its own folder, Book, then copy and paste the unzipped file to the moodle/mod folder. IT is easy to FTP it into that folder if you working on a server, and your Administrator should know how to do this - if not then your network techie or Webmaster will do it. Does not matter if Moodle is open or not, because then, your Administrator goes to Notifications page and it should automatically install itself. When you go into the course next, you should now see in your list of Resources, Book. (I will not be without it, I can tell you and am really hanging out for the Moodle 2.0 Book.)
I have been considering writing a short guide on using the Book module, but never seem to get the time. Using it is not that intuitive initially, but even so, it is not difficult to work it out. You can use it for almost everything relating to resources - a very handy plugin.
Thanks Colin- will follow up on your suggestions, in meanwhile herewith copy of my reply to Mary's response:
A collective hi and thank you again to all 3 of you!
What we do is the following:
1. in 'Add a resource' we click on 'link to a file' and follow the steps by selecting a lecture from our computer (always apdf file)
2. in 'Add an activity' we click on 'upload a single file' and then copy and paste the assignment in.
This is probably a very amateurish way to do it but it has worked well for us, until we ran into the 52 topic limit.
I thought it might make it plainer if I gave you temporary access to a specific 'course' on the platform (www.ewaplatform.org) - then use 'moodlecoach' as user name and '123456' as your password. This will take you into the course'Wine Regions of the World'.
Hi D,
I've been to have a look at your course and it seems to you could easily have, say, 7 Sections/Topics - one for each country, and put the corresponding PDFs and Assignments in each.
It's very easy to move around the resources (PDFs) and Activities (Assignments) you've already created especially if you turn on Ajax as Admin and in your profile.
Another simple possibility: put all the PDFs for each country in one Folder in the Files area and put a link to the folder on the main page. (You'd probably want to have sub folders for France.)
Can I join your course? I want to do the homework: Taste 90 wines.
Cheers,
Glenys
What Glenys suggests is an excellent approach it tidies everything up, except for the way in which a Student may access the materials in each folder. Unless there is some compelling reason for them to complete each assignment in order, you may find that you are getting assignments out of sequential order. If you insist on continuing your current approach, hacking the code is the only way to achieve more than 52 topics. Your site Admin or Webmaster should be able to do it easily enough as described above.
As a general observation I am going to comment on your course design, but please do not take this in a negative manner, it is only meant to get you thinking in that way that you may not have considered before. When I started out using Moodle I fell into the trap of PDF-Assignment-Upload single file-PDF-Assignment-Upload single file endlessly repeating itself, varying it only with a Word doc. This works for a week, maybe two, but then students get bored and they start not completing assignments. To get around this, I try an jazz mine up with visual materials, videos, images, audios, trying to mix things in together. I use single uploads, multiple uploads, online responses, printed and folios, handouts for completion and return, often maps or specific charts, quizzes and sometimes just face-to-face discussions to assess someone's progress. You may be surprised that just getting someone to talk about a topic for a few minutes can be far more revealing than a gruelling three hour exam. I also try, trying is good, to use humour from time to time. I may use a newspaper comics that make comment on human nature that can be relevant to the materials I am putting out there. Many of these are also available online, as are many others I never knew existed, and they can lighten a page dramatically - while it does not happen often, some cartoons are just right on the mark for the materials and the kids laugh too, they get the point. Many cartoons can be used in most courses as "fair use" rules apply, - all are copyrighted, some may need permissions - so be careful. Calvin and Hobbes, Footrot Flats, Wizard of Id, even Blondie can come up with something relevant. (Hard for your topics, but I am sure there is any number of other strips that deal with wines, French or France that may be relevant.)
After reading Mary's book, I had to ask myself "how can I make my stuff less boring?" OK, I am dealing with adolescents rather than adults, so some challenges are different, and I do not suspect you would be dealing with people who's concentration span is shorter than a gnat's on speed. The materials are fascinating, even for me, detailed and clear, and obviously show the Author's understanding and depth of knowledge. They also demonstrate the passion with which the Author approached their subject, a huge positive for any course. However, you still need to make it intellectually stimulating and challenging for the reader - they can really only touch that passion in face to face contact. (I live between three of Australia's finest wine regions, and do not touch the stuff, but it is still an interesting topic. Some of the schools I have taught in around here have wine making as a course.) And, while being pedantic, the topic, Wine Regions of the Worrld, may be better expressed as Wine Regions of the World. Nothing will destroy your credibility faster than obvious mis-spelt words. (I now, becoz stewdints alwaiz tel me i got it rong.) Thank you for allowing access, even temporarily, it was very interesting to revisit some of my own early courses.Cheers...
Thank you Mary,Glenys and Colin, the net result is that the solution was so simlpe after all that we are all a little embarassed, thank you for your help- as a token of our appreciation we would like to give you a 10% discount if you should wish to follow any of our courses.
By the way, and apparently no one knows the answer to this: many of our individual lectures are used in various courses, but each time we have to re-upload a lecture from our central computers.It would be so much simpler if Moodle had a central sort of "bin" or "library" where we could store the lectures and then simply go there and collect a specific lecture, instead of having to go through the whole procedure.Seems so obvious?
Moodle 2.0 added repositories. I'm yet to play with them much but this should solve your multiple-copy issue.
Colin, many thanks for your suggestions, we will be looking at them this week.
A collective hi and thank you again to all 3 of you!
What we do is the following:
1. in 'Add a resource' we click on 'link to a file' and follow the steps by selecting a lecture from our computer (always apdf file)
2. in 'Add an activity' we click on 'upload a single file' and then copy and paste the assignment in.
This is probably a very amateurish way to do it but it has worked well for us, until we ran into the 52 topic limit.
I thought it might make it plainer if I gave you temporary access to a specific 'course' on the platform (www.ewaplatform.org) - then use 'moodlecoach' as user name and '123456' as your password. This will take you into the course'Wine Regions of the World'.
A collective hi and thank you again to all 3 of you!
What we do is the following:
1. in 'Add a resource' we click on 'link to a file' and follow the steps by selecting a lecture from our computer (always apdf file)
2. in 'Add an activity' we click on 'upload a single file' and then copy and paste the assignment in.
This is probably a very amateurish way to do it but it has worked well for us, until we ran into the 52 topic limit.
I thought it might make it plainer if I gave you temporary access to a specific 'course' on the platform (www.ewaplatform.org) - then use 'moodlecoach' as user name and '123456' as your password. This will take you into the course'Wine Regions of the World'.