Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by David Smith -
Number of replies: 6

Hi, I am making an online defensive driving course in Moodle, and one thing that is extremely important to my client is that the site looks terrific.

I've gone through the themes here on Moodle, and honestly wasn't really impressed by many of them. I was wondering if anyone has experience with something called Joomdle? It apparently is a way to display Moodle using Joomla. Joomla is excellent at creating very nice looking websites.

Let me link to some online defensive driving course websites to show what I'd kind of like my site to look like.

http://www.texas-defensivedriving-courses.com/

http://www.defensivedriving.com/

http://www.comedydefensivedriving.com/

 

Is there a way in Moodle to make sites that look as nice as the above three, or would I need to use Joomdle?

I also did find some Moodle sites that I thought look pretty good (though admittedly not as good as the above three ties). Does anyone have some other examples of great looking Moodle sites?

http://oursubject.hud.ac.uk/

http://www.elearning.ac.nz/

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In reply to David Smith

Re: Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by Ray Hoskins -

I have worked with Joomdle, and Joomla with Moodle 1.9.  Haven't played with it in 2.0 and don't know if it has been upgraded.  I found it difficult, but tried it after I had users.

I have done several Joomla sites, and it doesn't lend itself to the look you seem to be going for.  But then, you and I have very different ideas of good looking sites.  I think all the ones you like are cheesy.

Moodle 2.0 can be modified pretty easily if you have someone who is good with CSS and understands the Moodle Themes.  If all you are doing is defensive driving courses, I suggest you contact a Moodle partner and discuss modifying a theme for you.  Cost some money, but keeps the structure simple.  Joomla will add a lot of power you don't need, and a good deal of processing overhead.

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In reply to Ray Hoskins

Re: Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by David Smith -

Thanks for the response.

I don't want to add a lot of processing overhead with Joomla, if it isn't necessary.

I could really acheive the appearance I'm going for so long as I can add persistent images throughout the course. For example, in addition to a persistent banner image that appears at the top of the page no matter where you are in the course, it would be nice to also have a few persistent images on the bottom and side that appear no matter where you are in the course. And for the main page, I definitely want lots of images displayed in the main area, not just the top, side, and bottom. Is such a thing easily acheivable in Moodle?

I would agree that the defensive driving sites I linked to look cheesy, but that is what my client wants his site to look like. Although, given the small budget he has given me, he's going to have to settle for something simpler. If I could get my site to look something like http://oursubject.hud.ac.uk/ I would be more than happy. How difficult would it be to make my site look like that? It was apparently all done using Moodle. I already have all the icons and images I'd need, I just need Moodle to display them where I want them displayed.

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In reply to David Smith

Re: Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by Ray Hoskins -

You can edit the CSS Header and Footer Files to have any pictures you want there.  You would have to do that in Joomla anyway.  Moodle 2.0 will allow you to place images on the front page, and there are lots of videos available here and on youtube to demonstrate using graphic elements.

As I am in a similar situation, starting to create Moodle only sites and moving away from Joomla, I haven't done it yet, only researched what is possible.  There aren't a lot of good Moodle 2.0 themes yet, in my opinion to work from.  Look on other sites in addition to this one.

Hope that helps.

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In reply to Ray Hoskins

Re: Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by Colin Fraser -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

David,

As a general commentary, when you talk about a GUI you are actually talking about 6 billion opinions. This is comparing your driving skills to everyone else's, your driving skills are great, but their skills suck. I have to agree that the average Moodle interface is not that good, but I suggest that is a result of the structure imposed by blocks and modules. I suspect, although I cannot confirm this, it is actually based on the older PHPNuke or Post-Nuke interface or something similar. These were, AFAIK the first of the "modern" (about 1997-8) truly OOP PHP based CMS' and influenced just about everyone in the time period that Martin was first designing Moodle. Having said that, this in no way implies anyone copied anything, just all our design structures are influenced by something, usually quite a lot, and we do not even realise it. This is also called social inertia, for truly radical designs are few and far between and are usually derided, sometimes for decades, before they are seen for what they are and their impact is properly assessed.

Moodle sites tend to be staid, secure, and non-controversial. Considering their essential product, is it any wonder. Being an older male, for me the three sites you put up are incredibly busy and quite tacky. A good design for me is clean, clear of clutter, easy to view and easily intuitive. For me, the original idea of Administrative matters on the left, site matters on the right and core materials in the middle is OK, but inflexible.  Some of the Moodle 2.0 themes move away from this and allow a number of alternatives. This is a step in the right direction, but we must always consider the dangers inherent in taking too many risks. You may want to look at this site, Vincent Flanders is an incredible observer of human perceptions and taste. Always an entertaining read, he really makes us consider what we think is good design, if we look, that is.

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In reply to Ray Hoskins

Re: Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by David Smith -

Great, thanks a lot!

I have noticed that there isn't much content out for Moodle 2.0 yet. Hopefully that will change soon. I might just make my own theme myself, though.

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In reply to David Smith

Re: Ways to make Moodle look as best as possible? Joomdle maybe?

by Ross Kennedy -

Defensive Driving For Dummies an online traffic school under the well known consumer brand, uses WordPress for their front end and a custom cutup CMS under the covers. This allows for things to be divided on a state-by-state basis allowing for variable pricing and other factors. For example, their Texas Defensive Driving course is different than their Florida Online Course site. 

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