Moodle plugins directory: Socialwall Format | Moodle.org
Socialwall Format
A big thanks to a new Moodle 3.3 version which was patched and fixed by David Herney Bernal
If you have a fix or improvement we would love to include it. Please contact Chris Kenniburg.
Initial funding and support provided by the Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) Association of Michigan.
The Moodle Socialwall will transform your Moodle course into a social learning platform. This includes a familiar post interface, timeline of posts, filtering of the timeline, and integration with Moodle's activities and resources. A social learning format allows teachers to pick up the tool and begin using it right away.
Google Presentation for Moodle Socialwall Course Format
A super big thank you to REMC Michigan http://remc.org for supporting and funding this project.
Special thanks to Moodle Partner Synergy Learning http://www.synergy-learning.com for doing the hard work of developing this course format.
Special Notes:
- Do not change an existing course to the Socialwall format. It is possible and will work just fine, but will have undesired results/consequences due to how social wall puts all activities and files into topic one (behind the scenes).
- All activities and resources added to a Socialwall course will appear in Topic One if switched to the standard Topic Format of Moodle. It is possible to switch from Socialwall to Topic Format if a teacher wants to move into a more traditional online learning model. The teacher would then just need to arrange their activities and resources into the topic areas.
- Using CSS you can alter the appearance of the Socialwall. An example can be found in how the evolve-D theme displays the Socialwall and timeline. evolve-D Theme
- Be sure to activate the URL Resource filter to get automatic embedding of Youtube videos and links.
- The Alert Block is designed to display class alerts and other useful events in the course. It is recommended to add this to your sidebar.
Installation and Use
Watch a Google hangout we did explaining how to install and use the Socialwall Format.
Additional Information
The eCommunity Platform uses a new Moodle Course Format (called Socialwall) which alters the way a typical course looks and behaves. Most people use "Topic” or "Weekly” course formats in Moodle.
This is new course format offers a timeline, where teachers and students may post and/or comment on. It is fully integrated in Moodle, so teacher may:
- make different kind of posts (Alerts, sticky post)
- attach activities to timeline-posts (via Drag and Drop too)
- attach files and URLs to posts
- comment on posts or reply to comments
Students (depending on capabilites) may:
- make standard posts
- attach resources (files or links) to posts
- comment on posts or reply to comments
- view results and feedback of assignments in their timeline
The Socialwall-Package includes:
- a new Course Format (called socialwall, format_socialwall)
Optional:
- a new Filter (filter_urlresource) to alter the way a posted url-Resource will be displayed
- a local plugin (local_filterurlresbak) to backup and restore the filter data (unfortunately moodle doesn't support backup and restore for filter data).
- a new Block to display upcoming events and alerts related to the course (block_alerts).
Useful links
Screenshots
Hope you guys consider,
Socialwall is tested against the default "More" theme. Anything else and we suggest you ask the theme developer to assist in making sure their styling doesn't interfere with the course format.
Is there any way that roles other than admins can embed photos in posts? You previously mentioned about clicking the "Add Resource/Activity" link and then draggin and dropping the photo into there, but that option isn't available to roles such as student.
Thanks,
Andy
Firstly - great work on such an effective course format.
Have been having a play and showing various members of the team. One query has been about notifications.
Can you confirm if it's possible to receive an email notification about the initial post but NOT about any comments? One of the fears is that Inboxes may get clogged up, causing some annoyance.
Hope you can help.
Dan
It's both. Email text below:
Dan Jeffries posted to timeline: This is really important! Please read the following document.
Dan Jeffries commented a post: This is really good!, Go to course
Dan Jeffries liked a post: This is really important! Please read the following document. , Go to course
So as you can see, it's a notification for initial post, liking a post and commenting on a post.
The other alternative is to get really good with email filters and putting these into a folder in email marked as read!
And the idea of email filtering is nice, but that's a whole new kettle of fish ;)
I've been testing students adding links and files with a demo account. Links work fine, but files don't appear. Any other reports of this?
Dan
Glad you like the warning window idea. Think it will help