Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Darren Smith -
Number of replies: 13

I was just pasting some information from the online help into the moodle features demo course and noticed some of it is looking dated or incomplete (eg the assignment help only refers to upload). It seems that the same copy is in here.

I could rewrite it over there but is there a master version the community can edit or is it just down to one person to do all of the work?

Sorry if this is an obvious question.

Darren

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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by D.I. von Briesen -
Darren- this is actually a hot topic at the moment, the most recent conversation being at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=23983 just prior to your post - we're all hoping we get a consolidated location- probably starting as a wiki. We're eagerly awaiting said WIKI, but Martin's had his hands full getting 1.5 to beta and beyond.

You would definitely NOT want to rewrite everything yourself- but contribute to the larger body of material. I'd suggest getting comfortable with what's out there and then looking at where you could add/update. Submit it to the moderator/teachers of this (Martin and Prem would probably be the best two) if you've got some good stuff. I suspect once 1.5 is out of beta in a short while you'll see some quick progress on this, but don't be afraid to ask!

(I for one have so much to do with just the parts of Moodle I know well, it's hard to worry about the new stuff!)

d.i.
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In reply to D.I. von Briesen

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Przemyslaw Stencel -
Hi guys,

You can find the wiki at http://docs.moodle.org/ - it's still in very early stages, but if you'd like to contribute, you should be able to find your way around that site easily.

Just one important note (if you'd like to contribute):

Please, read the guidelines for contributors and the notes for contributors which have been scattered arround the place.

Cheers,
Przemek
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In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by D.I. von Briesen -
Przemek:

I understand that it'd be nice to use the standard theme, but I suspect that that'll lead to some hindrance in actually getting content. Take the 3 installs I work regularly with: Two are custom style sheets and one is one of the other themes.

I suspect many who want to contribute might be in a similar situation- as following this rule means having a standalone install - and doing the work there, as opposed to the normal place one would work.

Wouldn't it be better to include anything, but perhaps include annotation that it's 1.4, or a custom style? We might end up sacrificing content for clarity - and a lot of nothing is far less useful than a lot of variations of something.

d.i.

ps- I do understand that any moodle DEVELOPER of any salt would have their own install and can easily change the theme, and ought to be able to throw 1.5 on their box - but for most normal USERS, this is really not the case. Institutions would not want to upgrade production clients to 1.5 until it's out of beta, and it's between semesters (so early august for us) and users often have no control over the themes, and shouldn't be bothered to do a custom install if they care to contribute.
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In reply to D.I. von Briesen

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Przemyslaw Stencel -
Hi D.I.,

I think you're right about the themes. It doesn't really matter that much if people use screenshots which represent different themes. It will even help the documentation reader to acknowledge the fact that their Moodle may look different. I have changed the guidelines to say that the standard theme is preferred, but not required.

I'm not sure, however, about mixing Moodle versions in the docs. If we do that, we may end up with a lot of notices like "this feature is only available in version X.X and later". Might become messy. On the other hand, if someone writes something which applies to e.g. 1.4, there's a great chance that it applies to 1.5, too. So, I've changed the wording of that note, too.

Later on, when 1.6 comes out, we will just copy all of the contents of this wiki to a new location. The old location will remain in a more or less "frozen" state, and we'll write all the 1.6 info in the new location. That way, there will eventually be a number of wikis, each for a different version of Moodle.

Just thinking about the people who don't have access to 1.5. Maybe we could just provide them with a possibility to play with 1.5 some place? What do you think?
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In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Darren Smith -

Just thinking about the people who don't have access to 1.5. Maybe we could just provide them with a possibility to play with 1.5 some place? What do you think?

There is a features demo course on this site which people can use and take screen caps from if they wish to document 1.5 (They can log in as demo teacher for the teacher screen caps). I have put a forum in there for improvement suggestions so will keep an eye on it and try to accomodate requests (providing it stays withing the remit of features demo). There is also a sandbox type course which could be used.

If that's not enough (and it should be!) then I have some sites running the beta and have aloud regulars / positive contributors to have courses to play around with.

HTH

Darren

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In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Darren Smith -

When I looked the teacher manual was empty aprt from the structure.

Are you wanting people to contribute from scratch? If so I'll wait until I can see the direction it is taking as I am only a casual visitor here. That said, I could paste bits in from the existing documentation and tweak. That would evolve into something more substantial - probably beyond recognition but at least it would be a starting point for us noobs.

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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Darren Smith -

OK, I have bunged some stuff into assignment:

http://docs.moodle.org/index.php/About_Assignments

Is this along the right lines as a starting point? It's been a long time since I have done any wiki work so I didn't format anything shy

I must admit I am a little confused as to the layout of the teacher manual page. What is the difference between the managing and resources and activities links as there is a lot of repitition.

Also ..

How active / pro-active is it in here?
Should I be posting this kind of this somewhere else?
Edit: Just noticed each page on the wiki has a discussion tab - should I use that in the future?

Hope I am being helpful big grin

Darren

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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Przemyslaw Stencel -
Thanks, Darren. Yes, please go ahead with adding stuff there smile

I must admit I am a little confused as to the layout of the teacher manual page.

My reasoning was that the pages which aggregate all activities of a certain type would be explained under the "Activities" block, because that's how you can access them. However, they can also be accessed e.g. from within the navigation bar, so it's probably better to move these pages to the Moodle Resources and Activities section. Will do it in a few minutes.

Should I be posting this kind of this somewhere else?

I think we can use the discussion tabs in the wiki to discuss specific pages, take notes about them, etc. But the general discussion about the dcumentation I think should go on here - there's more people here (= more opinions, more input, etc.)
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In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Darren Smith -

Thanks for the reponse.

Would it be possible for someone to somehow get the current documentation into the wiki automagically or should we have a copy/paste fest?

Also, would it be possible for the wiki to be linked from the main course page now (perhaps in the topic section below) as, as far as I can tell, the link only exists in here and I have 1000s of unsorted bookmarks blush

Regards,

Darren

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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Przemyslaw Stencel -
somehow get the current documentation into the wiki automagically

I don't know of a way to do it, unfortunately sad. Actually, let's look at the bright side of this smile - when doing the cut/paste job, we'll be able to review and modify the text.

would it be possible for the wiki to be linked from the main course page

Yes, I'll do it after the weekend.
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In reply to Darren Smith

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Przemyslaw Stencel -
OK, I have bunged some stuff into assignment:
http://docs.moodle.org/index.php/About_Assignments
Is this along the right lines as a starting point?

Yeah, let's get it rolling smile - we can create the docs in small steps, gradually building on what we have and rearranging stuff whenever necessary.
I've moved some of your text  from http://docs.moodle.org/index.php/About_Assignments to http://docs.moodle.org/index.php/Course/mod/assignment.

It's been a long time since I have done any wiki work so I didn't format anything

I've done some formatting of your text - you can now have a look at it in the "edit" mode - it'll give you some idea about wiki formatting.

Hope I am being helpful

Absolutely! big grin
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In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel

Re: Moodle documentation: Up-to-date documentation?

by Darren Smith -

Oh I see. That makes sense. I will chip away at assignment and hope others join in. Any suggestions where in teacher manual we should focus our attention?

OK, so how do we get others involved? There are thousands of registered users on this site and it can feel intimidating changing other people's work. 

Perhaps Martin would like to make a main news forum post about this new wiki? I know that's a privilege not to be abused but I feel a concerted effort is required to get this off the ground. If not then perhaps something in the using moodle course? Perhaps a competition? Hmmm. Ran out of ideas now.

I tried a wiki years ago for UK ICT teachers and these things are pointless unless lots of people chip away rather than just one or two with a vested interest / vision.

Thoughts?

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