Tokyo's thread on adding a small calendar seems to have sparked some interest in this issue again, so I thought I'd start a new one to talk about the design of a new calendar module.
After three months I'm still unsure as to what features most people want to see in it.
Just displaying the current date is not very useful (most computers already have this in the corner somewhere), so what ARE some good uses of a calendar in a course?
How closely should it be integrated with all the other modules?
Is the "monthly layout" format the best, or should it just be a list of "due dates"? Or some other format?
Should the calendar show all the "events" from ALL enrolled courses at once, or just the current course?
Hi,
in my opinion the best way is to show a list of the dates associated to a course (and, obviously, in the general page) in the top of the right columns... exactly as the news forum threads...
dd/mm/aa - Topic
each line should be clickable and a small pop-up window will open when you click on.
The teacher should decide the date format and should be able to insert, delete, modify dates, while the students should be able only to view the content of a date (in a pop-up window,not in the main page).
The teacher should also be able to indicate how deep in the future the calendar must show dates in the course main pages, but you can also insert a link to a complete view of the dates in a monthly format (as calendar.php and similar).
The calendar should also, automatically, catch the events from quiz, assignments,.. modules but referred to just the current course.
For the main course (the main page) the admin can select if the calendar should include all the events from all enrolled course or only the events he/she submit to the calendar...
in my opinion the best way is to show a list of the dates associated to a course (and, obviously, in the general page) in the top of the right columns... exactly as the news forum threads...
dd/mm/aa - Topic
each line should be clickable and a small pop-up window will open when you click on.
The teacher should decide the date format and should be able to insert, delete, modify dates, while the students should be able only to view the content of a date (in a pop-up window,not in the main page).
The teacher should also be able to indicate how deep in the future the calendar must show dates in the course main pages, but you can also insert a link to a complete view of the dates in a monthly format (as calendar.php and similar).
The calendar should also, automatically, catch the events from quiz, assignments,.. modules but referred to just the current course.
For the main course (the main page) the admin can select if the calendar should include all the events from all enrolled course or only the events he/she submit to the calendar...
One thing I'm thinking while reading your comments, Tommaso, is that it is probably wise to put as much control of this (eg ranges of dates etc) as possible in the hands of users (not just teacher and admin) so they (we!) can customise their own display to suit themselves. The right column also might get a bit long with dates, news and recent activity all together there.
I like your idea of a full calendar page with information that "leaks" current info onto the course pages. I'm thinking this would mesh very nicely with the MyMoodle page talked about elsewhere. Perhaps we can think of the MyMoodle page as mainly a big calendar in the middle with course lists, combined recent news etc around the edges. Students could add their own private/public dates to it (WebCT does this, as I recall).
I like your idea of a full calendar page with information that "leaks" current info onto the course pages. I'm thinking this would mesh very nicely with the MyMoodle page talked about elsewhere. Perhaps we can think of the MyMoodle page as mainly a big calendar in the middle with course lists, combined recent news etc around the edges. Students could add their own private/public dates to it (WebCT does this, as I recall).
This example is nifty. It belongs to a photo log, but shows detail on places with activity.
I would like to see the vertical list of dates (when using weekly course settings) changed to a calendar. Here is an example script I use: http://teach.flc.u-tokai.ac.jp/site/. Click on the small calendar on the month and you can see a larger calendar. This example is a is a calendar module for phpWebSite.
I think we tend to organize lessons better and remember due dates better when information is presented in a monthly block calendar format.
Cheers.
The one I use at home to stay organised is http://webcalendar.sourceforge.net/. My wife and I have been using it for two years (it's the default page on our LAN) and it's the first calendar I've ever really stuck with and used properly.
So I agree with you a calendar month view is very useful, sometimes. One thing it does is split things up into monthly chunks, which sometimes isn't so good. Also much of the weekly view won't fit nicely on a monthly block calendar - for example where do you put a journal that is open all week, or a resource? (all the Mondays will be full and it might end up looking like the weekly format does now, except squished into a 1/7th column
) So probably a calendar view should be added as an alternative view.
What do you think about making the calendar central to a MyMoodle page? You could have a widget on the side where you choose which courses you wanted displayed: eg Course 1, Course 2, Private events etc
Of course, as soon as such a beast existed there will be a flurry of requests for Palm compatibility, iCalendar support, etc, so it might as well have these from the start
So I agree with you a calendar month view is very useful, sometimes. One thing it does is split things up into monthly chunks, which sometimes isn't so good. Also much of the weekly view won't fit nicely on a monthly block calendar - for example where do you put a journal that is open all week, or a resource? (all the Mondays will be full and it might end up looking like the weekly format does now, except squished into a 1/7th column
What do you think about making the calendar central to a MyMoodle page? You could have a widget on the side where you choose which courses you wanted displayed: eg Course 1, Course 2, Private events etc
Of course, as soon as such a beast existed there will be a flurry of requests for Palm compatibility, iCalendar support, etc, so it might as well have these from the start
I agree that the monthly layout leaves little room in each box and and doesn't work well with the weeky schedule. A tiny monthly calendar in the right column on the same page as the current weekly course format would work well. Then you can link the tiny monthly calendar to another page which has a personal calendar like http://webcalendar.sourceforge.net/. The tiny monthly calendar can be turned on or off by the user. See http://150.7.45.58/courses/course/view.php?id=2 (login as guest).
So what (in an ideal world) would be in the tiny calendar?
Nothing would be in the tiny calendar, maybe it is just me 
, but I need a block calendar in front of my face to organize anything. For example, if I look down the weekly outline view, I can see the date but I can not easily tell if that assignment is 1, 2 or 3 weeks away, it is just a long list of dates. So what I do is look at the long list of assignments and then glance at the tiny block calendar to register the assignment into my head. The tiny calendar also tells me what day today is. Many of my students don't know what day of the week it is never mind what day it is .
, but I need a block calendar in front of my face to organize anything. For example, if I look down the weekly outline view, I can see the date but I can not easily tell if that assignment is 1, 2 or 3 weeks away, it is just a long list of dates. So what I do is look at the long list of assignments and then glance at the tiny block calendar to register the assignment into my head. The tiny calendar also tells me what day today is. Many of my students don't know what day of the week it is never mind what day it is
Ah... (Did you notice the current week is highlighted in a different colour?)
I guess it doesn't help that your install is still missing dates for some reason.
I guess it doesn't help that your install is still missing dates for some reason.
Tokyo, my students and I discussed the calendar [escalendar.php] and agree with your visual approach to planning. One students suggested that any dates that assignments are due are highlighted, in a different color to todays date. I made the month a link to the students 'across curriculum assessment task calendar' that exists on our Intranet. Also created a timetable link beneath it which pops up a version of the individual students class timetable. This way the students have a fair deal of info for decision making re. planning their work shedule.
There was no support for a "task organiser" style of interactive calendar.
There was no support for a "task organiser" style of interactive calendar.
On the general issue of Calendars, I wonder if anyone out there could adapt the PBCS calendar http://www.pbcs.org/index.php to use Moodles authentication.
It looks like quite a comprehensive and flexible tool. The Aqua interface of the latest beta 0.6 is rather cute too. However the function which I really latched on to this calendar for rather than any other is its LIST display option, which just shows all events without showing the blank days.
If anyone can hack it to work with Moodle I'd be most grateful.
ED
It looks like quite a comprehensive and flexible tool. The Aqua interface of the latest beta 0.6 is rather cute too. However the function which I really latched on to this calendar for rather than any other is its LIST display option, which just shows all events without showing the blank days.
If anyone can hack it to work with Moodle I'd be most grateful.
ED
What a coincidence, From all the webCalendars I analysed, I choose the functionality of WebCalandar for integrating with Moodle. I create a frontend for students in WebCalendar with hyperlinks to the "backoffices" of Moodle.
Before going in details, we first have to realise that there are levels of integration in using an eLearningsystem in an Institute.
- On the bottom of the system lives Moodle: here you organise all the related activities and resources of a course or a project. Only when a student wants to use a resource he remembers from another Moodle or when he wants to make an appointment with people, also people outside the current group, they look over the fence of the current Moodle.
- In my current solution students always have to go one level higher to webCalendar to fulfill both wishes..
- The third level is that of the schooladministration. My trick is to accept that "as it is" and then try to exchange your information with that moloch.
In My moodles I integrate on the top of the right column, in monthview the Easily Simple Calendar(yes, from the Moodlelist.) with only current day as functionality. It is a nice little agenda, fitting in the style of the current theme. I wish me an icon in the header with the title PLANNER, underlined when you hoover over and with a hyperlink to webCalendar.
(a Remake of Easily Simple Calendar should follow the choosen language? otherwise I implent as many as there are languages at my school )
If a student is working inside a Moodle and wants to use a document from another Moodle, he has in my solution to crawl up to WebCalender(1) choose the other Moodle(2,3) take the document(4+..) go again back to webcalendar(5) and go down to the original Moodle again.(6,7)
That are at least seven mouse-clicks...
I was wondering.. If I login in a Moodle, that Moodle could look up which other courses I Also follow... Why not show these courses in RED (as a warning that you leave this course) at the bottom in the "goto"-dropdownbox? going to that other course(1), grap that doc(2+..) and go back(3) would be reduced to three mouseclicks..
For the solution of that other problem, making and sharing appointments, webCalendar(WC) comes in:
- you can give every student a password protected personal agenda
- calendar entries can be exported to Palm and iCal-format (what is iCal?)
- students can bring in appointments, even complex ones like: every monday and friday until day...
- IF THE STUDENT MAKES AN APPOINTMENT WITH HIS ALTEREGO, HE GETS A TODO-list-entry!! (he can open the entry to write down the running details...)
- every entry in a agenda becomes a hotspot
- if you hoover over a hotspot, an informationsheet of that entry pops-up
- if you left-click on that entry (and you have rights) a fill-in-form for that entry opens up
- you can organise students and their mentors in groups
- members of the group can place the calendars of the others as a kind of overlays over their own planner, but I advise them to use for that purpose the "create view" option. (see later on)
- BUT I USE THIS OVERLAY OPTION IN ANOTHER WAY: I place the timetables that I get from the school also in "personal" calendars...
- IN THE INFO-SHEETS OF TEH ENTRIES WE CAN PLACE THE URLs OF THE MOODLES!!....THAT BECOME ACTIVE HYPERLINKS!!
- Students can place these timetables as transparant overlays over their own calendar, but cannot change them, (change is only allowed in their own layer)
- CREATE VIEW: this is an interesting option: students and teacher inside a group can make and store in the menubar several additional views: each view shows the calendars the owner ot that calendar chooses for that view in columns, for example:
- all the members of my projectgroup and our schooltimetable
- a mentor can make sets of groups of the students he wants to monitor as a group etc..
Everything OK Then?
No, in the current version I have to click first on the calendarentry, then the infosheet opens-up and then I can click the URL. I want:
1. If I hoover over the infosheets opens (can stay this way)
2. If I rightmouse-click the fill-inf-rom should open if I have rights (is now right-mouse-click)
3. If I leftmouseclick, the entry should behave as a hyperlink to the URl that is fillid-in in the sheet (new)
I did ask this the last time on the forum of webCalendar on 2003-05-07 but still no reaction, maybe some php-moodle-expert could help me?
The other point is a bigger problem. If you use webCalendar in small groups, everything is OK, but a dropdownlist of hundreds of students in the admin-page is not funny anymore. I start now with a group of students to study this problem.. How to cut down a list of 4000 students in to small groups and feed these to webCalendar.
Both products can support LDAP, so that makes rights-handing-over-easy?
So these are my wishes for the specs-list..
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a side question: do the others get an email, everytime when I close and reopen this-edit-window?
(I saw other product s that have a kind of preview before sending.. some Nukes and Wikis have)
You asked a question about iCal. If you haven't heard yet, it's Apple's free calendar application (Mac OS X only).
Since I teach regular term classes and have to maintain attendance a calendar is important to me to help setup class dates for different schedules (M, MWF, or TTH), exclude holidays from the list, create attendance roosters, plan course lectures and assignment due dates etc.
I have been using Excel to setup my attendance roosters and as an online gradebook. I think the addition of calendar module to moodle would be a great addition to an already useful tool. If I can help develop a specification, please let me know. I do like PHP as a language and when I get my classes "moodilized" I want to start coding. Probably will start with importing quizzes, first.
While Martin is preparing his speech for Edmedia and also is working on the Cohort-solution, would You please help me with this, Kam Vento?
I have the situation where students have to follow courses in more then one Moodle, and came to this solution:
Outside Moodle:
- On top level I give every student his personal planner in webcalendar.
- Students can make appointments with other people AND with their own alter-ego: ToDo's
-
Mentors and students can make several views for coaching/mentoring
-
I fill one (or more) of these personal calendars with the class-time-table(s)
-
It is possible to put these timetables as a kind of "transparant" calendar on top of every personal planner (student point of view)
-
Every appointment in webcalendar has an information-sheet. On that sheet I put in the timtables the hyperlinks to the moodles
-
I only wish to have these hyperlinks as a left-mouse-click-action in the timetable headers...
Inside Moodle:
- I place the small calender from the Moodle-discussionlist (Easily Simple Calendar) in the third column of the Moodle Course Startup Screen: it adapts to the current theme.
- I show it in montlyview
- I Only wish me a small button in the header of this small calender that brings me back to the webcalkendar level
I made a simple calendar display in my weeks and topic view. you can see it here as guest.
http://www.designatecc.com/course/view.php?id=13
you could edit the calendar to add a link anywhere. but the calendar is JUST a display in a monthly view.
I used escalendar (not sure where I got it from though.
If you like it I can help you with it.
Loren
http://www.designatecc.com/course/view.php?id=13
you could edit the calendar to add a link anywhere. but the calendar is JUST a display in a monthly view.
I used escalendar (not sure where I got it from though.
If you like it I can help you with it.
Loren
Saw your website. You explain very nice the parts of a Moodle to your first-time-users.
I will look at it again when I setup mine in Dutch, if it's ok.
You have the same calender on the same spot, I see.
Ok, about the help you offer:
- To stay in the style of the Moodle menu's It should be an icon (calendar) with a text like "Back to Planner" and a hyperlink to my webcalendar
- In HTML I would write something like:
<img src="clock1.gif"><a href="http://myserver/webcalendar >Back to Planner</a>
But now, how to put it somewhere in the calendarScript in the weeks.php and the topics.php
You suggest that it is simple, so I tried this:....
It works with this ugly "html-escape", but is that the correct way?
// Print calendar
print_side_block_start( "Calendar", 210,"");
echo "";
?><html>
<img src="../../HSLstijl/clock1.gif">
<a href="http://localhost/webcalendar"> Back to Planner</a>
</html><?php
include("../calendar4/escalendar.php");
echo "";
print_side_block_end();
The block set is the way I "included" the calendar script for the monthly view.
This script can be modified for a link as well. I like the monthly view for figuring what day it actually is.
As for the content, I got this from one of the other moodlers (sorry I forgot his name).
Loren.
This script can be modified for a link as well. I like the monthly view for figuring what day it actually is.
As for the content, I got this from one of the other moodlers (sorry I forgot his name).
Loren.
Ger
Please note: I am in the "newbie" class on this Forum, not even an apprentice to an apprentice wizard yet
I've just got Moodle setup and am adding class materials and starting to experiment.
From the quick look at the webcalendar screenshots on sourceforge it looks interesting. It sounds like you are already putting it to good use.
I couldn't access the "https"website link on your profile page. Wanted to see how you are using the calendar.
I'll work on loading it on my website this week.
Happy to help if I can, but wizard skills not up to speed yet.
Kam