Designing for mobile and offline environments

Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Russell Schwartz -
Number of replies: 11

Today, I watched the webinar Designing for mobile and offline environments. The webinar explains in general terms what the designers did, and so does the Moodle News article Providing digital skills training for literacy educators globally. 

I would expect that the project team captured their learning in a written set of design standards that would explain in detail how configure a site and course as they described.

Does such a document exist, and how many I get one? I am using Moodle in Liberia, and my situation very closely resembles what the presenters described in terms of student and technology challenges.

Thanks,

Russ Schwartz, EdD
Liberia International Christian College

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In reply to Russell Schwartz

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
This was the Moodle US team - I passed the message onto them so hopefully someone will respond to you after the weekend.
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Russell Schwartz -
Mary,

Thanks for the referral, which got me a great response.

Sidebar: Thanks for all those videos. They were very helpful, and I have patterned some of my own Moodle videos for my students after yours.

-- Russ
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In reply to Russell Schwartz

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Lauren Goodman -
Picture of Moodle HQ

Hi Russ,

Thanks so much for watching the webinar recording and for your interest in this project.  I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have that aren't addressed in these documents.  The first two were created specifically for the UNESCO project, and refer to the Digital Literacies course, which is not yet available publicly, but will be, in the future.  The other resources come from Moodle HQ and were extremely useful to me as I designed and tested the course.

Resources Created for Digital Literacies Course

Moodle HQ Resources

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Best wishes,

Lauren

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In reply to Lauren Goodman

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Russell Schwartz -
Hi, Lauren!

You have probably heard the old exclamation, "It was like Christmas in July." Well, it's only March, but here in Liberia it feels like July. Many thanks for the resources.

Please note: The link to the Style Guide actually points to the Administrator Guide. I'd love to see the Style Guide, too.

I thank you, and my students -- who have to Moodle mobile because they have no computers -- thank you!

-- Russ
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In reply to Russell Schwartz

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Lauren Goodman -
Picture of Moodle HQ

Hi Russ,

Apologies!  Here is the correct link to the Digital Literacies Course Style Guide.

I'm glad we could help!

Take care,

Lauren

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In reply to Lauren Goodman

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Sorry from me too about the wrong link Russel! - I added the links on Lauren's behalf but I have corrected it in the original post - and I see Lauren has added it as well smile
And thanks for the nice comment about the videos.
You see -everyone in Moodle likes to help each other!
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Russell Schwartz -
Mary, you wrote, "You see -everyone in Moodle likes to help each other!"

I hope some day I will be able to help Moodlers. Right now, though, I am more of a student than a teacher. And that is a testament to Moodle -- it does so many cool things!

All the best,

-- Russ
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In reply to Russell Schwartz

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
I'm sure webinar brought the very powerful Moodle app offline features. Since you mentioned the high Internet costs, a model followed by some communities is to run a server on site, sometimes even without Internet. The people visit the site regularly and "load" their mobiles with the course content. At home they can engage with the content, not only by reading but also answering forum posts or even taking part in quizzes. When they visit the site next time their work will be "synchronized", i.e. their work gets uploaded to the server and they get the work of the others downloaded. No Internet costs for the community!

Ref. Chatterbox: Mobile Moodle micro-servers in rural Zimbabwe

Note: Please note that MoodleBox has its own community support. Visit their MoodleBox discussion.

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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Russell Schwartz -
At my site in Liberia, we have considered using the Rachel server:

https://racheloffline.org/

Rachel also has its own LMS, but I don't like it as much as Moodle. One does not have to use the Rachel LMS, however. One could still use Rachel simply to access its rich offline content.

I wouldn't be surprised if some clever person figured out a way to install Moodle on it. Rachel administrators have a fair amount of privilege, I believe.

For those who need more than content, The SmartBox provides a complete off-grid platform:

https://thesmartbox.net/

(SmartBox comment is off-topic for this forum, but I thought I should include it for completeness.)

Best wishes to all who pursue education in remote places with highly intermittent power supplies and expensive Web access. My heart is with you! ❤️

Russ Schwartz, EdD
Liberia International Christian College
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In reply to Russell Schwartz

Re: Designing for mobile and offline environments

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
The other way around, install RACHEL on a MoodleBox, is possible: https://discuss.moodlebox.net/d/79-add-rachel-usb-on-moodlebox. (There is a great "search the forum" function on that site.)

On "pursue education in remote places with highly intermittent power supplies and expensive Web access" underdeveloped infrastructure is one thing, underdeveloped ❤️ are something deeper.
sad

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