Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Andrew Dunn -
Number of replies: 9

I'd like to incorporate a "where are you from" map in my self-paced online course to try and foster a sense of community among the students.

I'd like them to be able to add a pin to their location/hometown/favourite place, and to see where their classmates are accessing the course from.

Has anyone done something similar in Moodle, and can you suggest tools that I could use to do this (free or OER preferred - we're a community college with zero money!)

Thank you!

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In reply to Andrew Dunn

Re: Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Megan Ellingwood -

I actually have the same question. Has anybody reached out to you about this?

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In reply to Andrew Dunn

Re: Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Mark Sharp -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
There isn't a plugin in Moodle that would do this, but for the mapping side of things, you could use leaflet.js or mapbox. Depending on how heavily you use it, you would probably need a subscription ($$) or self-host the map tiles (also $$). You would need to convert the names of places to latitude-longitude coordinates (you could use https://simplemaps.com/data/world-cities).
If you, or your students, are in Europe, there are also privacy considerations of revealing locations (GDPR).
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In reply to Andrew Dunn

Re: Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
As an alternative, you could use a Forum and simply ask students to provide their address. Then, with products like Tableau, you can create the chart. If revealing locations (as Mark mentions) is a problem, you can use a Quiz instead of a Forum.

Here is an example of where my MBA students in my summer online course are living. Actually, this was based upon their address in the university system. Some students are traveling and in different locations this summer.



Attachment Student locations.jpg
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In reply to Andrew Dunn

Re: Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Dave Balch -
I did something like this using the Database activity and a plugin I created, although development stalled when it got "good enough".
Probably not cost effective compared to the other suggestions, but I thought I'd mention it exists smile
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Megan Ellingwood -
Dave, I actually saw this when I was browsing plugins but was not sure it would work given that my version of Moodle is 3.9. But thank you for mentioning it!
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Interactive Map Tools and Moodle

by Sati Pasala NSW Inc -
Hi Dave,
I have downloaded your plugin but I am new to Moodle and at a loss as to how to use it. We want to show the users in a world map. Can you please give some guidance? Thank you Chamila
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