Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Julian Ridden -
Number of replies: 34
Hi all. It has been a very long time between newsletters, and for this I apologies. The delay has been due to many factors, biggest of all being my small amount of free time. But this is changing.

After the first edition there was much feedback (mostly positive, thank God) and suggestions of how the newsletter could be made better. I have tried my best to follow up on most of these.

The biggest change is moving from a static PDF format to a more dynamic CMS driven layout on the web. That's right...we have moved the Newsletter into a content system. For those of you that know the Open Source CMS community, we are using a customized Joomla.

This will provide many advantages including; allowing users to add content online, faster to generate, better layout, easier for screen readers and lastly RSS feeds.

The newsletter finally also has a name. MoodleZine!

Great isn't it big grin

Now I need your help. We need content to get the next issue online. If you have content you could add please email newsletter@moodle.org and I can organise an account for you, or you can just email your article direct.

We are looking for articles on all things related to Moodle. This could include (but is certainly not limited to) Case Studies, event reviews, user experiences, development updates, related papers you may have written, ICT trends and whatever else you come up with.

Remember, this can only be successful with input for the community.

I have pasted the first issue in the new format at the temporary URL of http://playpen.monte.nsw.edu.au/newsletter. I hope to have a MoodleZine domain registered shortly.

Get those articles moving. smile
Attachment moodlezine.jpg
Average of ratings: Coolest thing ever! (1)
In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Art Lader -
Looks terrific, Julian. smile

Are there any guidelines for submissions?

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Art Lader -
Julian,

If people repond, I'll bet you will get an article or two from this thread - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=47210#216373

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Ulrike Montgomery -
Julian,

Great work - I wish I could be as artistic as you.
Art, I love your story. We should write something about our student exchange: 'Moodle - the bridge over the Atlantic' for the newsletter.

Ulrike
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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Julian Ridden -
That sounds like a great idea. Ulrike, would you like me to create an account on moodleZine so you can contribute?
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Ulrike Montgomery -
Julian,
There is no rush - it won't be before July - then Art and I will write something about our Moodle exchange ( with the help of our students - great idea, Art)

I'm looking forward to reading all the interesting articles on MoodleZine,

Ulrike

 
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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Art Lader -

Ulrike,

Let's do it, then!

-- Art

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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

Ulrike, Art,

Sounds like this would be an interesting article does this mean we need a languages category too or is it a success story or possibly both?

I'm trying to help Julian relaunch here a little and the reason why I'm so fixed on these categories is because I think the Moodlezine editions should contain an article in each category in order to address a wide audience.

If anyone who reads this can help me identify the categories then we can see where we have potentional content and where we are lacking  articles / content.  As it will be a new first edition I think this is a perfect opportunity to try and get the categories right first time by filling them with excellent content.  This should make it easier for future authors to identify their own target category too.  I hope this makes sense.

DC

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In reply to Darren Cooper

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Art Lader -

I would vote for putting it into the category of languages, but I do not have strong feelings about it.

-- Art

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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Art Lader -

Sure, Ulrike, we can do that.

Actually, some of the students could do some of it, no?

-- Art

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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Julian Ridden -
To be honest, not really. I will work as an editor and trim down or provide feedback as needed.

As long as you think others would be interested and that there is a Moodle relevance, then I'm sure it will be perfect smile
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Bernard Boucher -
Hi Julian,
great professionnal work again!

The online editable possibility is a must.

Is it possible to apply an ISSN number to that type of document?
( if so then my organisation ( who can't do donation ) and probably many others will subscribe to it )

Thank for your work and the playpen demonstration site,

Bernard

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In reply to Bernard Boucher

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

Bernard,

That's a great idea.

Can you please point me to a link which tell me how one would go about getting an ISSN number so I can investigate this very interesting idea.

Thanks

Darren

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In reply to Darren Cooper

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Bernard Boucher -
Hi Darren,
               Julian  applied some months ago for an ISSN  number.  My previous post was only to follow up.  Maybe if others actions are required, your help will be welcome.

Bye,

Bernard



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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Ralf Hilgenstock -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi Julian, great work.

But ... please change the colours. Its not funny to read white text on dark background or yellow text on brown background. Nobody likes to read longer texts in this way. Dark text on a light ground will be much better.


Ralf
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Don Schwartz -
Julian, Great!  I'll get a case study to you this week.
But more importantly.  There are lots of us wanting a clean, fully integrated, login sharing Moodle component for Joomla.  If you are using Joomla then you'll know what I mean.
I build all my sites with joomla and I'm currently bringing in some Moodle in wrappers but mostly using external links to the moodle site. Full integration would allow for single login, no need for subdomains and mod_rewrite stuff.  Joomla's template assignment would allow me to specify a variable, full width template for the moodle piece and I would be in heaven if a fantastic coder like you would look into a solution.
big grin Love the newsletter idea, just more of them.
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - And there was movement at the station

by Julian Ridden -
With many thanks to ever impressive Steve Hyndman the moodleZine is being registered today in all three main flavours (com, net and org). I thought this deserved a MAJOR pat on the back as I was unable to do these myself at this point.

I have allready received a few requests for contributor status. These will be actioned in the next day or so and I will email you with login details. Keep those account requests coming. smile

JR
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - And there was movement at the station

by Art Lader -

Perhaps a crass question, but nevertheless a practical one: Will you be selling advertising?

-- Art

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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - And there was movement at the station

by Julian Ridden -
Not a crass question. A good one. Unknown at the moment.

One option is to provide advertising (as banners) free of charge to subscribers. Could encourage some extra articles.

Another idea is to limit it to prevent missuse. My first thought is to prmote Moodle Moots and other Moodle events.

At the moment though, to be honest, it has not been properly thought through. I am more than open to suggestion.
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - And there was movement at the station

by Paul Andrews -
Ello.

How do I contribute to this then? - it looks very nice indeed!

big grin


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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

Julian,

Congratulations this is brilliant, Thanks!

You can count on my help

Darren

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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -
Julian,

>>>Are there any guidelines for submissions?

I think we need categories to focus areas on:

I wonder if any of these are usable:
Name
Description
News
Moodle feed from HQ, last 4 weeks + future outlook of things worth mentioning
End Userusers of a moodle system
Teachereducators using moodle to teach
Developer
active community developers of core / add-on freatures
Admin
people who run a moodle system
Business
experiences from commerccial environments
Event
pre or post news of a Moot
Other
Other content which don't really fit into any of the above

And maybe a type too:

- Case study - tell us the whole story + results
- Site review - tell us about your site, wat you use why, where etc.
- experience tale - tell us about a particular event or use of feature or good / bad experience
- Question - answer a question for us that you had trouble answering yourself

And then the content details.
Text: depending on type lenght could be recommended
Image: I think input should have aan image of the autors choice we can use these on the front page too.
Link: where possible/public links could be provided

would anyone care to give me some  feedback on these so we can progress to create a category suggestion scheme for the Moodlezine and maybe some keypoints for a submission guide.

Regards
DC
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Julian Ridden -
The Domains Steve has kindly donated are now up. You can now access the new online eZine at:
If you still can't find it..your beyond my help tongueout
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by M Y -
Sorry I am last to respond, I have been on holiday smile

That is GREAT Julian!!!!  surprise  You never cease to amaze!

Can I help? I have lots of time on my hands.

Martin
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In reply to M Y

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Julian Ridden -
As I said above (don't people read tongueout ) email me at newsletter@moodle.org and I will be setting up accounts this weekend to get content flowing.

I will reply to all your emails with login details and basic instructions so you know where to start. It is a pretty easy app to pick up.

P.S. Please note above line was delivered with dripping sarcasm..not eveil intent smile
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In reply to M Y

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

Martin,

The site you run sounds like a brilliant example of a community building project using Moodle as a communication platform, maybe you could submit an article talking about your experiences running a site like that. Or do you teach with the system too. I see Communities is a category that missing in the category list. Feedback about the categories would be good too.

just a thought.

Darren

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In reply to Darren Cooper

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by M Y -
Hi Darren,

I would be happy to write about my site. No I dont teach wink The teacher I host the site for is not using it at the moment as we had one of those moments when you bang your head on the wall and marvle at your own stupidity, if you see what I mean. ;) (I have started running backups now!)

She does one to one singing lessons, she was using Moodle to store lesson notes and host backing tracks which pupils can download as well as for forums and other community activities. Recently, inspired by Helen F. , we setup a MediaWiki for use as a knowledge base.

Martin
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In reply to M Y

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

I wonder if we could draw up a suggest tabel of contents that other authors could also use just to ensure most facts / sections are there:

Title:
Key phrase:  
Category: 
Keywords:
Summary:
Text:

Links:
Date:
Hardware/Software:

What else do you think should go in a suggested list of information.
I'm not sure which properties are default in Joomla, I guess we'll see that next week. Would you have to have a look around and see if there's anything I've missed?

I think for the different type of articles we could have a different suggestion list as they are essentially different in nature. So like a quick column is very different to a case study. etc.

Or is this going too far with guidelines, like I said it should serve as a suggestion.
DC

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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Roger Emery -

I understand your reasons for the new format, but will there be an easily printable version? And will it be versioned/have issue numbers or be constantly in flux?

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In reply to Roger Emery

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

If there is a demand for such a version we will probably look into providing such a version.   Is there as demand ??

A possible print flow "suggestion" could like like this:

1. online mag updated frequently but "full edition" launched monthly

2. monthly edition Joomla => PDF Generator and publish as thin mag such as the "O'Reilly" PDF Guides.

3. these could go into safari bookshelf and possibly be published into a year book with additional chapters from the community / product itself.

This is an still an ambitious idea at the moment but if there was enough subscription support for an ISSN the "ZineBooks" idea might become a reality.

Can anyone advise me on Joomla-> pdf automated generation or would this be a manual job?

 Darren

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In reply to Darren Cooper

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Darren Cooper -

Quote: If there is a demand for such a version we will probably look into providing such a version

Sorry, please replace "we will" with "I could"

DC

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In reply to Roger Emery

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Julian Ridden -
Hi Roger.

the magazine will stay in an Editioned format due on a Monthly release cycle. This will of course depend on getting enough articles from the community to create the edition but this is looking good.

The curent version will allow for PDF generation of each page..I could assemble this into one printable edition if there is enough interest. The idea at the moment is that you can print the articles you like at the moment.
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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Apply to be a contributor

by Julian Ridden -

Thankyou to those who have emailed already. Thanks to you we now have 13 contributors already on the books. But I want more!!

If you have time to write one article a month (thats all I need) then you can be an editor. I have now put an online form together to facilitate this process better (it only takes a minute). You can click here to access it.

I have a had a few questions from many interested in contributing along the same lines. So I thought I would post the answers here.

  • Yes, you can submit e-learning papers you have or are looking to present.

  • Content does not have to be about Moodle, but should definitely be related to the subject.

  • Content does not have to be exclusive. If it has been published elsewhere, unless you have some kind of agreement with the previous publisher, it can still be published in MoodleZine.

  • You can publish material from your blog/website with MoodleZine as long as you think the users will like it and it has relevance

  • You do not have to be a moodle expert. If you have used moodle for 3 weeks and wish to submit a case study. Go for it. smile

That's it for now. I would like to think I will have a new edition ready for end of next month. So lets get cracking.

JR

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In reply to Julian Ridden

Re: Major Moodle Newsletter Update - Help needed!

by Ludo (Marc Alier) -
Great Work Julian!
I look forward to the next issue.
Regards
Ludo
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