Glossary of common terms
This glossary defines a number of words you will see used often in discussions about Moodle - you'll find them highlighted throughout this course.
If you wish to import this glossary to your Moodle site, you can download this file of exported entries: glossary_of_common_terms_20101214.xml.
Please feel free to add new words here!
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ALL
Currently sorted First name ascending Sort by: Last name | First name
POC | |||
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Proof Of Concept - a prototype created to show that an idea is technically fesible. While the prototype probably isn't suitable for real-world use, it provides a starting point for discussion and design of a real solution. | |||
DRM | ||
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Digital rights management (DRM) is the umbrella term
referring to any of several technical methods used to handle the
description, layering, analysis, valuation, trading and monitoring of
the rights held over a digital work. In the widest possible sense, the
term refers to any such management. | ||
SQL | ||
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short for 'Structured Query Language' (I entered this entry only because a forum search for 'firebird' also brought up ALL the entries that included 'sql' even as a substring as e.g. in 'mysqladmin'.)
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activities | ||
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Activities in Moodle are educational things to do. They include, for example:
discussing a topic in a forum, writing a journal entry, submitting an
assignment, or completing a quiz. | ||
applet | ||
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Applets are small programs written in Java and embedded within web pages. Most recent browsers can run these small programs if you have Java installed on your computer. | ||
Breadcrumb | ||
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Breadcrumbs are what Hansel and Gretel used the famous fairy tale to remember the way back to where they came from. Moodle DOES NOT use breadcrumbs, as this is what your browser is for and why it has a back button/menu. Moodle has a navigation bar in the header (and optionally footer) that shows the location of the current page within the site structure. | ||
constructivism | ||
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This point of view maintains that people actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their environment. Everything you read, see, hear, feel, and touch is tested against your prior knowledge and if it is viable within your mental world, may form new knowledge you carry with you. Knowledge is strengthened if you can use it successfully in your wider environment. You are not just a memory bank passively absorbing information, nor can knowledge be "transmitted" to you just by reading something or listening to someone. This is not to say you can't learn anything from reading a web page or watching a lecture, obviously you can, it's just pointing out that there is more interpretation going on than a transfer of information from one brain to another. | ||
CSS | ||
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Abbreviation for "Cascading Style Sheets". CSS defines styles and colours and how they should be applied to a web page. | ||
CVS | ||
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database | ||
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An electronic collection of information, stored in tables of data. For example, Moodle contains a table of all users in a site. There are many brands of database software, but most people use MySQL. | ||
dataroot | ||
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The place where Moodle can save uploaded files. This directory should be readable and writeable by the web server user but it should not be accessible directly via the web. | ||
dirroot | ||
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The dirroot is the name for the directory in which you have installed Moodle. It's a setting in config.php that must be entered correctly. | ||
domain | ||
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A name given to a computer or a group of computers. eg moodle.org. You can buy new domain names from a domain name registrar, of which there are many. | ||
download | ||
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To move your files from a server "down" to your personal computer. Also see FTP and upload. You can download Moodle via the Moodle download page. | ||
FTP | ||
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File Transfer Protocol - a method of copying files from one computer to another. For example, you might FTP your Moodle files from your home computer to your web server. | ||
hosting provider | ||
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HTML | ||
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HyperText Markup Language - a language used to create web pages. | ||
Interface | |||
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In general an interface is the boundary across which two systems communicate. There are many software interfaces within Moodle, for example, such as the interface a module uses to communicate with the core product, or the interface used to send mail. Usually, though, this term refers to the interface between software and human beings: the user interface. In Moodle, for example, this is what we see and click on in the web browser and in our mail programs, and it provides ways for us to access, understand and change the database at the heart of any Moodle site. The design of such an interface requires collaboration between software developers and users to make it "user-friendly" (and maximise overall usability). A very important requirement for interfaces is standardisation, which reduces the amount of learning that users need to do to explore the features in the software. Moodle has had informal standards in the past, but we are currently writing a more formal specification to help Moodle's many developers produce a more consistent interface, and remove some of the irregular, inefficient or hard-to-learn interfaces that have crept into various corners of Moodle. With Moodle, interface issues should be discussed in the forums most appropriate to them - if you wish to raise discussion about an interface in the Chat module, use the Chat forum. If you have a specific bug or request to report, please use the bug tracker. | |||
Java | ||
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Java: a programming language that can be
used to write all kinds of programs, from Applets which run in the
browser to Midlets that run in Palm handhelds or cell phones to desktop
client programs and especially server-side programs including web server
"servlets". Moodle does not use any Java.
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Javascript | ||
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A scripting language that can be used to write small programs in web pages, such as popup menus. Moodle uses a little Javascript. | ||
Moodle | ||
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Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, but now it's just a name. It's also a verb: "I try and moodle every day!" | ||
Moodle Partners | |||
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The Moodle Partners are a group of companies affiliated with moodle.com who:
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MySQL | ||
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MySQL is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability. | ||
nightly | ||
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A Moodle Nightly is built automatically every day from the most recent code, and is available from the Moodle.org download page. It can be useful if you don't have CVS, but you want to try the latest features. It can also contain bugs, since they may not have been well-tested yet. | ||
sections | ||
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The areas within a course that hold activities are known as sections. This is a generic term that covers weeks and topics. | ||
server | ||
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This is where your web site or database, or both, resides. You may choose to run your own server or have a hosting provider look after this for you. | ||
SMTP | ||
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Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client (or a program like Moodle) to a mail server. | ||
social constructionism | |||
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Social constructionism is a term that defines a particular view of education. It acknowledges constructivism as a description of what each learner experiences, while focussing on the power of constructing artifacts (like text) within a social environment. From this point of view, education is best served by creating experiences that would be best for learning from the learner's point of view, rather than just publishing and assessing the information you think they need to know. Each participant in a course can be a teacher as well as a learner. A 'teacher' in this environment is an influencer and role model of class culture, connecting with others in a personal way that addresses their own learning needs, and moderating discussions and activities in a way that collectively leads students towards the learning goals of the class. Moodle tries to promote this view, but is not constrained by it. | |||
upload | ||
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To move your files from a personal computer "up" to a server. Also see FTP and download. | ||
URL | ||
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A Uniform Resource Locator is the address that is used to reach a website. For example, http://moodle.org/ | ||
Usability | ||
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The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can achieve tasks in a particular environment of a product. High usability means a system is: easy to learn and remember; efficient, visually pleasing and fun to use; and quick to recover from errors. With software, the usability is very dependent on the interface. | ||
wwwroot | ||
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This is the setting inside config.php that tells Moodle where it is installed. It has to be a full URL to the web site's "natural" address. Some web sites may work under more than one address (for example www.example.com and example.com) but you should pick the main one.
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XHTML | ||
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XHTML will eventually replace HTML as the language used to program web pages for display in your web browser. It's actually very similar to HTML, but has stricter rules about the formatting. As the world moves to XHTML web browsers will display pages more consistently, and the web will also be more accessible to people with disabilities. | ||
Moodle Exchange | |||
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This area is for exchanging complete Moodle courses in Moodle Backup format, as well as other content like glossaries or quiz banks. All content in here is free to download and use, and you can add and update your own content whenever you like. The Moodle Exchange is at: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=15 (This entry can be replaced with a Resource pointing to Moodle Exchange so that the link is more direct ) | |||
NZVLE Project | |||
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NZ Open Source VLE Project is a New Zealand-based project, hosted at Eduforge.org It is helping Moodle adoption as part of a greater project of developing OSS e-learning application software for deployment throughout New Zealands education sector. System integration of portal website framework, lcms, content creation tools and modular toolkit. | |||
Grouping | ||
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Outcomes | ||
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An Outcome is like any other grade except that it can be applied to multiple activities. When the activity is marked, a mark should be given for the submission itself and for the outcome. Outcomes are newly introduced in Moodle 1.9 basically implements a way to connect outcome statements with Scales. Scales themselves are connected to courses and their activities. Example ExampleOutcome: ‘Identityin social psychology’ Scales:{Refuser, Drifter, Searcher, Guardian, Resolver} | ||
constructionism | |||
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Constructionist learning is inspired by the constructivist theory that individual learners construct mental models to understand the world around them. However, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are also active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, constructionism is connected with experiential learning, and builds on Jean Piaget's epistemological theory of constructivism. Seymour Papert defined constructionism in a proposal to the National Science Foundation entitled Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education as follows: "The word constructionism is a mnemonic for two aspects of the theory of science education underlying this project. From constructivist theories of psychology we take a view of learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge. Then we extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product." Source: Wikipedia.org | |||
ZPD | |||
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The zone of proximal development, often abbreviated ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. It is a concept introduced yet not fully developed by Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) during the last two years of his life. Also, many theorists are still applying to their work today. Vygotsky stated that a child follows an adult's example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without help. Vygotsky's often-quoted definition of zone of proximal development presents it as... "...the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers. For example, two 8 yr. old children may be able to complete a task that an average 8 yr. old can do. Next, more difficult tasks are presented with very little assistance from an adult. In the end, both children were able to complete the task. However, the styles methods they chose depended on how far they were willing to stretch their thinking process." Vygotsky and some educators believe education's role is to give children experiences that were within their zones of proximal development, thereby encouraging and advancing their individual learning. "The zone of proximal development defines functions that have not matured yet, but are in a process of maturing, that will mature tomorrow, that are currently in an embryonic state; these functions could be called the buds of development, the flowers of development, rather than the fruits of development, that is, what is only just maturing." Source: Wikipedia.org | |||
IIS | ||
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Internet Information Services - Microsoft's answer to Apache. This is software, that, when installed on a machine, provides a web service. Just like Apache, IIS listens to port 80 and answers any http requests from client machines. | ||
Dashboard | ||
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Dashboard is a customisable page in Moodle that provides users with links to their courses and activities within them, such as unread forum posts and upcoming assignments. See the documentation Dashboard for more details. | ||
eWiki | ||
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Abbreviation of EfurtWiki. Moodle's wiki is based on ErfurtWiki, which is an implementation of the WikiWikiWeb hypertext system. It allows simple collaborative editing and creation of web pages. For more about eWiki, see http://erfurtwiki.sourceforge.net/. | ||
LAMP | ||
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LAMP, a free open source software solution stack, Linux (as OS), Appache(as a web server), MySQL (as a DBMS server), either PHP, Perl or Python (as a Scripting Language). | ||