User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Jonas Lima -
Number of replies: 10

Where do I find examples of great designed Moodle Themes - of the dashboard and course sites?

I have found dozens of sites showing “the best” moodle themes - but all focus on the front page, where the courses are advertised. I’m looking for examples of how to make moodle very easy to use and look cool for the learner after registering. So I guess that will be mainly the dashboard and the course sites (but of course all sites should have the same look and feel).

E.g. Are there ones which leave the old 3 columns look? Are there course themes that look like popular mooc-sites (e.g. edx/ udacity) or slick as udemy?

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In reply to Jonas Lima

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Mary Cooch -
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Hello. By 'course sites' I presume you mean 'courses'? As well as themes,  you might find exploring Course formats could be useful - they can dramatically change how courses are displayed. Regarding the 'old three columns look' , you don't have to have that with the new Boost theme  if you don't wish to.

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In reply to Jonas Lima

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Stuart Lamour -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Jonas,

in the Snap theme we have a personal menu which acts as a replacement for the nav block and dashboard in Moodle.

Here is a quick video showing the personal menu with course cards, deadlines, feedback, messages and forum posts for the user.


On course pages Snap displays a single column (with the option to add a table of contents to the left/right depending on if you're using a rtl language)



 

Hope this helps in what you're looking for!



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In reply to Stuart Lamour

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Jonas Lima -

Thanks for the examples! This does indeed go in the very direction I was looking for.  

I have a few follow up questions: 

1) How much does the Snaptheme cost and does the licence allow me to change it?

2) Assuming I want to create my own design - lets say similar to the attached examples of MOOC platforms. How much would the customization ROUGHLY cost/ how many hours of a moodle expert and web designer? I know its hard to estimate, but would be help full to get a ballpark figure.

3) Are there similar good themes for the mobile app? Costs to customize it similar to what I said in 2)?

Thanks!





Attachment edx - dashboard .png
Attachment edx - kursseite.png
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In reply to Jonas Lima

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Marcus Green -
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I believe the cost is everyones favorite price

https://github.com/moodlerooms/moodle-theme_snap

And as for the cost of customisation, that is probably something to ask Moodlerooms about. I believe they have at least one Moodle UX/Theme ninja on the payroll....


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In reply to Jonas Lima

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Stuart Lamour -
Picture of Plugin developers
Hi Jonas,


its free and open source - you can get it from the Moodle plugins db https://moodle.org/plugins/theme_snap and modify it as much as you like.

Here is an example of what Cass business school did to make it fit their needs.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8urjKTUZJxISmx0U2lDNFExcTA/view#

As far as i'm aware moodleorooms don't do customisation except for clients, so just finding a good web developer with some familiarity with moodle/jquery and bootstrap will be your best bet.



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In reply to Stuart Lamour

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Jonas Lima -
Thanks a lot for the answers! From what the video of the Cass Business School shows this is very much the direction I'm looking for! Actually looks even better made, then the big MOOC-Platforms I mentioned. 


Does anyone know, if there are mobile app versions that correspond to this kind of theme? Is the mobile app working well in generell? 

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In reply to Stuart Lamour

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Germán Valero -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

@Stuart,

Unfortunately, The Snap theme plugin has a concatenation problem with the English language strings, which causes that this theme can not be translated in AMOS for Moodle branches above 2.8. Being a non-English Moodler very interested in using this highly praised theme, I would consider this a major usability issue sad

Not being a programmer, I would guess that this should be rather easy and quick to fix; perhaps by Stuart himself smile

Thanks in advance for your help.

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In reply to Germán Valero

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Stuart Lamour -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi German,

Guy and David are watching the github repository, but i will remind them as soon as we start work in the morning as this is more their area - thanks for the heads up both here and on github - it is very important to us to get feedback on what users need, both code wise and in terms of usability.

Thanks again,

Stuart

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In reply to Germán Valero

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Jonas Lima -

Follow up question: 

So far I haven't found a few themes that I like, but none that I find perfect for all the views. 

So I am wondering: is it a sensible approach to 

1) customise a theme for our needs

2) combine several themes (e.g. one for the courses, one for the rest of the LMS navigation)

How problematic is this - e.g. in terms of updates of moodle versions? Same question also concerning the Snap theme and even more the fork done by the cass business school, that I liked a lot.


General recommendations how to approach the setup of moodle in general / what to keep in mind?

So far my idea is to work 

3) with a UX-Designer to go through one or several Moodle Themes and define look and navigation of each page.

4) find a developer/ agency specialised in moodle to realize the customisation and hosting.

Very thankful for answers and hints!

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In reply to Jonas Lima

Re: User centered, neat moodle themes - for dashboard and course sites

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Simple and clean based off Boost.  You should see what an animated GIF does for the login page and then each course can use one for the header.  Here are some examples:

Not as drastic as Snap for user experience but we are working on a simpler user experience.  We have a new enrollment plugin in the works that will be integrated with the Fordson theme in that on the homepage a user will enter a 6 digit code and then be instantly enrolled into a course/group.  We are even exploring having a QR code to do the same so that when scanned they are automatically enrolled.  

The third part after the theme and enrollment plugin will be a course format.  It will allow for a tab for blog-style forum on the main course homepage, a tab with standard topic format for arranging learning materials, and a teacher dashboard with widgets for the teacher to quickly assess classroom activities plus view/manage their QR codes and 6 digit access codes for the enrollment plugin.

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