Online User block

Online User block

by Kathy Ward -
Number of replies: 4

Hi There, We are looking for a sticky block that allows a user to see who else in thier course is online at the same time, and communicate with those people. The closest thing to this seems to be the Online User block integrated with the messaging system. However, if added the online user block does not allow participants to 'appear offline' and it is also not completly live. Essentially we are looking to replicate a msn chat type function. Has anyone tweaked the online user block in this way or have any other soultions?

 

Thanks

Kathy

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In reply to Kathy Ward

Re: Online User block

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Moodle blocks are not going to be completely live because of the nature of web connections. Any data on a moodle page will only be as up to date as the most recent "refresh", i.e. you have clicked something that refreshes the page. Any chat feature in Moodle is never going to live up to the dedicated features of a tool like MSN/Yahoo as they have an entirely different way of using the internet than web pages do. I recently tweaked my own online block to show a count of students currently online so I can see at a glance if the number in the room is greater than the number logged on.
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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Online User block

by Kathy Ward -

HI Marcus,

Thanks for your repsonse. The fact that it is not totally live is not such a big deal. It's more the ability for a user to 'appear offline' if they wish. For example is a teacher is up late marking or making a post, they may not want to chat at that point in time.

Do you know if there is any solution to this avaiable?

Regards

Kathy

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In reply to Kathy Ward

Re: Online User block

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

That sounds like a rather good enhancement. However I am fairly confident that there is no solution currently available to do that. I was looking into modifying it so a teacher could select a group and it would only show the students who were NOT logged in (i.e. who needed to be urged to get on the system).   I got as far as a very basic prototype that that gave me an insight into the functionality of the block.

Your requirement raises the question of if you would want visibility to be toggled on a per session basis or in the users profile. 

What you want would be doable but would take quite a few days of programming (at least).  If you have any funding you might consider approaching one of the Moodle partners.

Marcus

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