David Scotson

Very nice!

I had permission problems for the orange one (though this might be something I did wrong) and had to chmod the theme's files to get it to work correctly. The subtle orange dots are a nice touch, though the hide-show block control that sits on top of them seems slightly off-centre. Maybe it needs nudged upwards to accomodate the orange baseline?

I really like the Apple inspired header backgrounds in the other theme, though I notice the text 'Subscribe to this forum' is difficult to read on the front page news forum (blue text on blue). Do you have any pointers on how to create that glossy Aqua effect?

Well the basic concept is that you have two background-images, one of which stretches from one corner and continues for as far as it possibly could need to (the equivalent of the middle and one side cell combined in your table version). The other image then overlaps the first image on the other side to provide the other corner.

In order to have two background images you need two tags to attach them to e.g. a div and h3 tag, though various different combinations can be used as appropriate.

Because you have a fixed height, you don't need as much complexity as you would if you wanted to grow the box in both directions, you just need to make the images 100 pixels high.

That's not a great explanation but you'll find various different implementations here (all with code and usually screenshots):

rounded corners on the css-discuss wiki

The slighly more Zen answer is why are you trying to use a table-based presentation technique and then force it into a CSS mold rather than starting with one of the many cool CSS effects that can be more easily applied. There's plenty of nice CSS only sites for you to find inspiration from, and the code's only a view source away. You'll find they have a certain look, just as table based sites do and that creating one with the other may be more work than it needs to be.

Also note that tables are XHTML valid, and are fairly accessible unless overused, they're just not semantically correct unless you are using them for tabular data and can add unnecessary complexity and bloat to your PHP and HTML code.

I have a constructive suggestion, but first can I suggest that the Prisoner's Dilemma is quite counter-intuitive (particularly in its standard 'two accomplices to a crime' format) and I'm not sure how much learning students will get from interacting with one another rather than a computer opponent with a set strategy. People generally don't like 'betraying' others that they know, even if it's only a game, which takes away from the rationality needed for the PD to work.

I'm sure you are aware that there are several websites allowing you to play the Prisoner's Dilemma (and the iterated version) against computer opponents.

Anyway, my constructive comment is:

Each game is played by 3 students. Two 'prisoners' and a third 'jailer' who applies the rules of the game and gives out the rewards. The 'prisoners' therefore can use any of the communication tools in Moodle, or even plain email, to contact the 'jailer' once they have made their decision and she in turn can send back the results. The students can then switch places, each taking their turn at being a jailer.