Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Juan Leyva -
Number of replies: 6
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hello there,

I was presenting/attending at the last Moodle UK&Ireland Moodlemoot and some people asked me (in person and by twitter) about supporting blocks in the Moodle Mobile app.

Initially, we chose to not support blocks because we thought it would generate usability problems for students. There are several reasons:

  • Blocks are intended to display additional course information on the side of the page, in mobile apps with the screen size limitations we can't display them
  • We thought that a good course design should not rely on blocks
  • Some of the functionality provided by blocks is already supported in the app (like calendar events, badges, search, messages, private files, self completion)

What are your thoughts on this?

Do you think we should support at least the HTML block?

Where would you add this new information in the app? A new option in the course main menu? In the sections list?

Thanks for you feedback


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In reply to Juan Leyva

Re: Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Douglas Broad -

That might be helpful. Without them, the courses are much cleaner and easier to navigate.  Our courses include an instructor HTML block. Typically this includes contact and schedule info.  Such blocks could be implemented like collapsed sections after the last section. Might be nice to have block settings that toggle whether it should be visible in the mobile app.

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In reply to Juan Leyva

Re: Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Farzin Khalilzadeh -

All the points you noted are correct. It wouldn't be neat to use block in the small screen sizes of mobile phones. However I think we also should consider tablets and desktop apps. It would be great to have the ability to use blocks on these platforms since they have enough space for them. I'm not sure how would the UI look like with blocks in these platforms but surely UI designers would make something out of it.

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In reply to Juan Leyva

Re: Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Stefano Tirati -

Dear Juan,

I am using Mentees block to disply cohort members on Dashboard and indeed it would be great to be able to render this information also via Mobile App. In addition, within courses, we use the plugin "Completion progress" which is very much appreciated by our users and also accessible only via a block. Any plans to support block in the near future?

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In reply to Stefano Tirati

Re: Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Juan Leyva -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Stefano,

with the new version of the app (coming in May 2018) it will be possible to support Moodle plugins (like blocks) easily in the Mobile app. It will require server side (PHP) development but it won't be complex at all.

Subscribe to this discussion if you want more information (I'll publish today the link to the spec draft)

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In reply to Juan Leyva

Re: Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Stefano Tirati -

Thank you Juan for your prompt and positive reply, we look forward for this important and very valuable improvements.

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In reply to Stefano Tirati

Re: Supporting course blocks in the Moodle Mobile

by Dnyaneshwar Somwanshi -

Hi Juan and all,

I think it would be nice to add blocks. It can be added 3dot drawer. Ux designer can put them on right place.

We are eagerly waiting for moodle mobile 3.5.

Few questions.

1) can quiz attempt offline(without internet)?

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