Plugin to improve course search

Plugin to improve course search

by Dasu Gunathunga -
Number of replies: 4

Hi,

We want to improve moodle course search to search for entire string, not for individual words. We have many courses with similar words in the description, therefore it is really hard for students to find a specific course using this search. Is it possible to override this course search, using moodle tool plugin? Did anyone do something similar before?  


Appreciate your help. 



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In reply to Dasu Gunathunga

Re: Plugin to improve course search

by Marcus Green -
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Could you elaborate on what you mean by entire string not for individual words.
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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Plugin to improve course search

by Dasu Gunathunga -
Hi Marcus,

I mean when I search for 'active learning', I want to get courses with both of these words in, rather than search for 'active' or 'learning' .
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In reply to Dasu Gunathunga

Re: Plugin to improve course search

by Richard Oelmann -
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Isn't this standard boolean search though? If you put "active learning" including the inverted commas, does it not then search for the phrase rather than the individual words - effectively the same way Google, and other search engines do?
For example, if I search on here (moodle.org) for the term global search I get around 20k hits, for everything with the word 'global' and everything with the word 'search' in it. But if I search for "global search" I get around 3.5k, with only those articles with the full phrase 'global search'.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Plugin to improve course search

by Dasu Gunathunga -
Hi Richard,

Thanks for this reply. Moodle course search looks like this (Please see the attachment). It doesn't support double quotations or single quotations as you mentioned. We are using Moodle 3.5 at the moment. 
Attachment 2020-04-24 09_.png
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