Moodle in English: Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

by marvin cruz - Friday, August 24, 2012, 9:59 AM

Just want to ask if Moodle will fit our need.

We are forming an online Bible study community. Study groups will be composed of around 6 to 10 persons meeting weekly via Google+ Hangout. They will be discussing a lesson each week. After each discussion, they will be wathcing a teaching video to support and confirm the discussion.

Here's specific needs:

I know we can embed the PDF and Vimeo videos on Moodle, but can moodle have an option to hide topics that aren't yet to be discussed? (Topic 1 is for today, students can see it, but topic 2 for next week should be hidden).

Is there a way to use the same course with different groups, while maintaining the groups separated (people can see members of their group, but not of other groups). And with that, still has the capability to do the above (hiding topics) even on a group level (groups will not meet on the same time, one group might start a few weeks later after the first one).

Track attendance for the group members (I know Moodle can handle this).

I just want to know if it's doable. Not asking for specific plugins or step on how to do that.

Thanks.

Re: Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

by Steve H. - Friday, August 24, 2012, 10:40 AM

If you would have asked me this before I got to trying to setup Moodle 2.3.1 then I would have said yes. I loved Moodle back in the 1.9x era. Now I can't even get the ability to add pages to the front page as I use to.

Worse than that I posted a request for help which never got any a hint of an answer.

Based on this I would have to recommend ATutor.

I have a degree in computer science with an emphasis on programming as well.

So the fact that I can't get answers to solve this very pertinent task this is not looking good.

Average of ratings: Not very cool (3)

Re: Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

by Richard Oelmann - Friday, August 24, 2012, 2:25 PM

Steve,

I am very disappointed to hear you found the support lacking from the community - support which I have always found outstanding - particularly for a query as basic as adding resources and pages to the front page, which is answered several times in the forums and in the moodle docs anyway.

To add pages to the front page you have 2 options - you can either add them to the MainMenu block (exactly the same as in 1.9) or, by adding a topic section to the front page (again just like 1.9) you now get the option to add activities and resources through that topic section (of course you will need to Turn Editing On) - a feature which I believe was not there previously.

So your comment that this cannot be done now in 2.3 is, I believe, incorrect, and is in fact more readily available and more flexible in 2.3 than it was previously in 1.9.

Also the implication that you need a degree in computer science and programming (I have neither!) to be able to use basic features and find support like this in Moodle would be a concern to many thousands (millions?) of ordinary teachers who use moodle's standard features day in and day out without such experiences - while they may be useful for anyone developing for moodle code, plugins, etc, surely you do not find that this level of experience is required for general use - or moodle could not possibly have grown the way it has!

HTH

Richard

Average of ratings: -

Re: Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

by Don Hinkelman - Friday, August 24, 2012, 12:06 PM

To answer your specific questions:

Yes, you can hide topics. Each item can be hidden or each section/unit in the course can be hidden.
Yes, you can have separate groups within a course. There is a lot of flexibility to set up groups. I have done it with three teachers and we could do some things separately and some together. But I don't think you can hide an activity from one group--but maybe the new conditional features can do that.
Yes, attendance tracking. I use the third party Attendance Module.

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Re: Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

by Mary Cooch - Friday, August 24, 2012, 5:16 PM

Hi Marvin and welcome to Moodle I think Don Hinkelman's reply should give you all you need to get started and in future please come back and post any other queries.

Steve (and Richard) I'm sorry you feel you didn't get the help you needed - I looked at your profile and this is the query you haven't got a response to http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=209594 so perhaps someone might offer some suggestions today.

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Re: Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)

by Richard Oelmann - Friday, August 24, 2012, 6:56 PM

Thanks Mary - I didn't have chance to check onto Steve's profile before work this morning, so I assumed that the query was the one he had raised in the post

I've had a look at the one you've linked to and @Steve - I'm sorry I'm not able to answer that one myself as I've not come across it before, but hopefully someone will! Like I said, I'm very sorry that you have found that not to be the case on this occasion and perhaps someone will be able to shed some light for you soon.

Richard

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Is Moodle for us? (Here's what we need)