Martin Dougiamas

In Moodle 1.9 this is a standard feature already. You specify this when you define the new fields.

Testers, please lend a hand!

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Weekly_Code_Review

Note the key is optional and just for convenience, and many developers will be used to them from other systems ... that's why it hasn't yet got much documentation probably.

But I've started this doc now: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:SSH_key and linked to it from a few places (such as the form where you need it) and this Moodle docs page about the whole page: http://docs.moodle.org/en/mod/cvsadmin/view .

Please add to the SSH instructions as necessary and link to it wherever else it's mentioned. Thanks for highlighting the issue!

Yes indeed, student data will be most valuable, and yes we'll happily make them anonymous.

Pedagogy is in people for sure, but IMO tools do also contain some 'bias' towards the use for which they are designed. That's what design is about.

For example, a cup works well for carrying liquid, and a hammer is great for forcing nails into wood. Of course you could carry liquid with the hammer and bang a nail with a cup, but it's going to be a more fragile and less efficient situation.

Likewise, lots of people use Moodle in a very transmissionist way (eg just resources), and that's fine. It can do a reasonable job of that. With some thinking and work you can also use another tool designed for content in a very interactive and constructive way.

Hopefully, however, those who do want to explore giving more control over the course content to their students find Moodle is an easier tool for the job than some others. (We still have a lot of improving we can do, for sure).

About the news forum, it gets recreated only when the Latest News block is active (because it needs something to display). Delete that block and the forum will stay deleted too.