Moodle plugins directory: Fordson

Moodle 3.5 and Fordson New Features

• New layout and style choosers allow you to mix and match elements of the page to create over 100 unique style/page combinations.  Choose a Page Layout, Section Style, Course Listing Style, Blocks Location, and a Style Preset. 
• 5 Page Layouts
• 8 Section Styles
• 9 Course Listing Layouts (4 tiled and 4 full-width horizontal plus default Boost)
• 2 Options for Blocks
• 3 Style Presets
• Blocks can be shown 2 ways: Boost default sidebar or new Fordson 3 column.  The Fordson 3 column layout is designed as a block panel which can be shown or hidden with the click of a button in the upper right of the course title area.

Beautiful Design, Organization Branding, & Marketing

Fordson extends the core Boost theme to provide (currently) 9 unique style presets, customized color choosers, enhanced user interactions, improved navigation, and branding opportunities within the theme.  Style presets allow you to change the layout and look of your site by simply choosing a new preset. Depending on your needs, Fordson delivers a variety of style presets from bland to grand! Once you choose the right preset you can continue to customize your site with color choosers, logos, social media links, and other organization branding features.  We realize in addition to learning there also needs to be a method to communicate and market, so we also provide areas within the layout that accomplish this in a way that minimizes distractions.

Focused on What Matters

We are focused on the process of getting a student to go from login to learning as efficiently as possible. Once in a course, we utilize a variety of techniques to help students engage with the content and organize the page in a way that helps promote learning.  We accomplish this by listening to our teachers and students for ways to improve that experience. When we extend Moodle functionality, we try to stay as close to core Boost as possible. Fordson delivers impressive features such as an innovative Course Management dashboard for teachers and little features like a course editing button that is always visible and “location aware” to speed up building a course.  The learning content is most important and Fordson utilizes space, color, images, icons, and other elements to help guide students through a course. Spend more time engaged in learning and less time clicking buttons. Fordson enhances the user experience for both students and teachers by combining clean and efficient design with innovative user features not found in other themes. From login to learning we are focused on making Moodle better for students and teachers.

Thoughtful and Purposeful Development

Development of the Fordson theme is often guided by community, teacher, and student feedback.  We listen to suggestions that match our desire to provide the best experience from login to learning.  The Fordson theme shines when you are looking for the the following:

• A theme that organizes Moodle’s navigation and enhances it to improve the user experience.

• A theme that is focused on going from login to learning and getting out of the way of your teachers and students.

• Improved navigation that helps make sense of course management for teachers and students get into courses faster

• Designed and refined with community and teacher input based on their needs

Support Materials

• View Fordson Documentation

• View Fordson Documentation on Pressbooks (Moodle 3.5 and above documentation will be here.)

• View Setup Step-Sheet that the developer uses when setting up a new Moodle install

• Fordson Theme Website and tons of useful articles on blended learning

• Great Moodle.org discussion on the top tech tools for building a learning platform. See Moodle and the Fordson theme in action at the center of a robust and fully featured learning platform.

• YouTube Channel with all kinds of videos documenting theme development and features

A re-imagined course management panel

Everything a teacher needs to manage their online classroom is only a click away from anywhere within their course.

Keep students informed with progress reports and a course dashboard

Unique to Fordson is a student dashboard which displays important course information such as grades, completion progress, and teacher contact details. Let students see individual topic completion status so they know which course topics they still have work to do. 

Feature the most effective activity modules first

Make sure teachers see and use the modules your organization feels are most important. Customize the activity and resource modules with the ability to feature modules, hide modules and even control the ordering of the modules.

 

One place to look for all major navigation and functionality - Top Navigation Bar

Fordson took many of the navigational elements found throughout the default layout and moved everything into the very top navigation bar so that a user has one place to look for buttons and tools within a course. 

New Way to Show Blocks with a 3 column panel

Fordson allows you to choose between the default Boost sidebar or our new innovative block panel which is displayed with the click of a button or out of the way when students are learning.

Easy Enrollment Add-On

Install the Easy Enrollment add-on and Fordson will display a new enrollment form on the homepage.  This new form will allow a student to enter a 6 digit code and instantly be enrolled into the corresponding course or group within the course. This allows a student to go from the homepage to a course in seconds!  It will even generate and read QR Codes for enrolling elementary kids by simple waving a paper in front of the computer.

Special Thanks

Elements and certain functionality of Fordson would not be possible without the following users and plugins:

• Richard Oelmann  -Header Images & Social Icons, student course overview functionality - https://moodle.org/plugins/theme_waxed
  
• Mary Evans  - Morecandy (Sideway Header) Preset SCSS
  
• Jose Miguel Dager Montoya - Tiled Course Display on frontpage and course categories
  
• Alexander Bias - Navdrawer Remove Defaults - https://github.com/moodleuulm/moodle-local_boostnavigation
  
• Carlos Escobedo - Navdrawer Add Menu Items - https://github.com/cescobedo/moodle-local_navigation
• Gareth J Barnard - Theme Essential feature display courses by last access - https://moodle.org/plugins/theme_essential