Category E. Useful models for practice
DM The Moodle conferences are usually a really great opportunity for sharing/venting/discussing issues directly with Moodle HQ staff
Dan Poltawski (DP) Related to your earlier comment - there is an interesting difficulty we have to be constantly mindful of though - that those users who are sufficiently motivated to go to a Moodle conference, or contribute on moodle.org are in some ways the users we've already 'won'. Its important (and difficult) to balance the needs of those users we hear from constantly against those we don't hear from because they never get far enough with Moodle to be interested. We don't want to end up in an echo chamber.
AB Moodle's strong point is that if there's something you'd like to do, there's probably a way to do it. That is for sure.
DCreferred to a useful new feature for practice-being an exception . . . : [MDL-43996] Atto: add image drag and drop capability in editing window - immediate saving every day for everyone who posts regularly in forums - a HUGE benefit.
DM Moodle HQ was aware that the core Moodle Themes looked really crap so dedicated various scarce resource to improve things - and are still working on improvements like the new elements library.
DMMore recently Moodle HQ have invested in dedicated designers and hiring people with good UX/UI knowledge... but the system is soo massive and the funding available is limited so we still rely a lot on community members volunteering time and knowledge.
DMThey have also split the development teams into back-end and front-end - now having a dedicated team to work on front-end facing stuff is also improving the UX (although it does feel like it's going slowly in some areas!)
DMThere are definitely some areas where Moodle doesn't do certain things as well as other newer shiny LMS and we do need to try and keep up.
Colin Fraser (CF) one size does not fit all, which is why I have enabled some plugins and disabled others in my three Moodles
Mary Cooch (MC) If they use drag and drop they can select a whole bunch and drag them in together
DC Point taken. Drag and drop images onto sections is great.
DC Private files. Click and drag to upload=good. I feel a bit embarrassed about having to say to staff sorry, no bulk delete/tidy up. Then to click click click to navigate to find. [Plus: The number of people I have seen try to drag and drop files to move them in private files]
JH If you are going to have repositories and drag and drop then the two need to work together at some level. For example some elements of the file picker should be available on the page and when you drag and drop you can select where you are dropping to (as in which repository).You should then be able to drag and drop files from repositories (recent files being a prime example) back into courses. As it stands users are not encouraged to use repositories, recent files etc, they are encouraged to keep dragging / dropping files from their desktop. One of Moodle's greatest strengths is its modularity, the fact "everything is a plugin", the downside at times seems to be "modular thinking".
Floyd Saner (FS) For now, I offer several suggestions that might make life easier for your teachers.
- Enable 'My files' in Site administration ... Plugins ... Blocks ... Manage blocks. Then have your teachers place a 'My Private Files' block on their My Home page. They can upload all files in that block, organize the files into folders - whatever. All the files are there, and will be available in the file picker across all their courses.
- In more recent versions of Moodle (I forget when this started), it is possible to drag and drop images (even with multiple selections) onto a course page.
- It is possible to enable drag and drop of text and links directly onto a course page from other programs - even from selected text on a web page or text editor. Even though this is 'experimental' with some browser limitations, it does work. The setting is in Site administration ... Development ... Experimental settings. Enable 'Drag & drop upload of text/links'
- Create repositories that teachers can use. These can be individual repositories, group/department repositories or site-wide repositories.
- Create a course or courses for teachers that you designate as 'resource course' (just a name, not an actual course type), and install the Moodle Sharing Cart plugin. Teachers can place files, images, activities, ..., any course item into the 'resource course' and quickly copy any of those items to a new course.
DA introduced the notion of pedagogical enhancement; tools that are fit-for-purpose in relation to bridging the gap between practitioner/learner user and dev goals, with the purpose of centralising educational value.
Ken Task (KT) Hmmmm ... who is moodle for? Thought the goal was to educate. Shouldn't students be included? or are some still stuck in 'sage on the page' thinking? There's a wild idea ... survey students who use Moodle or have used Moodle to get some feedback from them as well. Not just adult students, but students of earlier stages of education. Might even ask some knowledgeable students to be involved in the 'testing phases'. Uhhhh, aren't they the 'clients'? Besides that, have been reading that more and more younger folks now want to know how to code ... hmmmmmmm. Want to be creative. Where in Moodle can students do that?
CF Users should be able to just click and it happens, not click, then click, then click then maybe get what they want without a dialogue popping up that says something like "This resource already exists here, do you want to overwrite it?" Developers should be able to develop independent plugins that call from Moodle core, that allow things to happen without impinging on core code and breaking something.
CF Users need to be a little more proactive in how they learn to use a tool and not just expect that because they have always done this it is always the best way, or only way, of doing something.
JH Moodle makes an effort to support users it knows it will never make a penny from, who else is doing this to the extent Moodle does?
JH there is a plugin that allows you to organise your page in columns, but that affects the entire page. I don't see blocks as an answer, or course formats really. If you are going to take a "format" based approach as Moodle has it would make sense (to me at least) to apply formats at section level so users can mix and match things on the page according their requirements. Being able choose a layout for a section in a similar way to Mahara allows for a page would be good....
JH We have benefited greatly from features others said should not have been prioritised in Moodle like web services and roles / capabilities, those features open the door to many things.