Course category overwritten by "Front page description"

Course category overwritten by "Front page description"

by Shaun Moncrieff -
Number of replies: 4

Hi,

I have updated to version 1.0.6.3 and have a problem when i select "show list of Courses" in the front page format of the site settings. When users log on and go to the front page, and are still logged on, the first course category is pushed to the right of the 'my courses' section and then the  "front page description" from the site setings page overwrites this first course catergory. The remaining course categories display perfectly, below the "my courses' section.

This is more of a hassle then a "problem" for me, as i just change the front page to display the news articles rather than the list of coourses.

Other than this I have had no problems with Moodle, and think it is an excellent resource. I have been an administrator for Blackboard and Moodle is approaching it for features, ease of use and is much easier to administer. All this under a GPL, compared to the tens of thousand a year blackboard charge.

Well Done.

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In reply to Shaun Moncrieff

Re: Course category overwritten by "Front page description"

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
This is a small HTML bug which was found and fixed in 1.0.6.4 (will be released tomorrow and will be exactly the same as the latest nightly unless anything else comes up).

Cheers!
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In reply to Shaun Moncrieff

Re: Course category overwritten by "Front page description"

by John Windmueller -

Glad to hear the fix on the way. I had the same trouble and 'workaround'. 

And yes, Moodle is fantastic--particularly when considering that its "competition" is so expensive.  The university that I'm teaching at uses WebCT, which is quite expensive, and so far my students and I have far preferred Moodle.  The intuitive forum space and ability to have students submit assignments on and offline, grade and make commentary on those assignments, and then to have those grades dumped into an easy to use grading spreadhseet is by far my favorite feature. 

Interestingly enough, the university isn't very keen on faculty using their own initiative for finding better online alteratives.  Despite the net's inherent value on decentralization, they get very skeptical of faculty going "offsite" to host class material, while at the same time giving faculty members very limited web hosting (no cgi, php, or ability).  This year the university also instituted and official policy that faculty were only to use university email accounts when corresponding with students.  They cited privacy and security reasons--though I'm still baffled at it considering the university itself has a dismal track record of security. 

John

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In reply to John Windmueller

Money and universities

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
I heard somewhere that WebCT spent 37 million US$ last year on R and D ... you have to wonder where that money goes!

Your description of your University sounds a lot like my own experiences, John. Here in Australia goverment funding for education has been steadily dropping, and Universities have been forced to tighten things up ever further. In many places currently budgets don't even cover staff salaries. In all the rationalisation the actual processes of education often seem to get lost, and the freedom to innovate seems to be linked (by administrators) with freedom of spending. One of my hopes is that wider awareness of free software can help re-awaken the spirit of academic experimentation and self-research.

But this is the wrong forum for this ... one feature I should add is the ability to "move" discussions to new forums. wink
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Money and universities

by John Windmueller -

It's sad (and yet reassuring, in a sense of shared struggle) to hear how this sorry state of affairs drifts across academia..  My own university made a long jump in short order from being a tangential "extension campus" of a state university to a sizable independent university, in part due to a progressive university president who rewarded innovation and change.  Sadly, a recent shift to bureaucratic entrenchment amidst budget crunches and a turnover to "professional academic management" seems equally swift. 

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