Here’s how to use images, sound or video files in the options boxes of the Moodle Choice activity. It was prompted by a discussion on the forums of moodle.org and by the really creative Paula Clough. If I can get html tags to display then I will add the text instructions below the screencast. I have added the steps to the Moodle docs too.
To display an image:
- upload your image to the course files
- get its URl (usually by right-clicking on it
- paste it into a basic text editor (such as notepad)
- around the image add: <img src=”YOUR_IMAGE_URL.jpg”>
- copy this coding and paste it into the options box of your choice.
To display sound or video files:
- upload your mp3 or video file (FLV is best) to the course files
- ensure you have in site admin>modules>filters>multimedia plugins enabled
- copy the URLs as above and paste into a text editor (such as notepad)
- around the file add: <a href=”YOUR_FILE.mp3″></a>
- Copy this coding and paste into the options box of your choice
CAVEAT: I made this up – I don’t know coding, so I apologise if it is wrong/bad practice/outdated – but it DOES work 
EDIT: And here is a handy suggestion fromRalf Hilgenstock (quoted) Vielen Dank! I think user that don’t want to write html code can link the pics, sound files or video in the text editor area, switch to html code with the ”-button and copy and paste the code.
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK! (And you can quote me on that!) I would have been proud to write this book. No; I don’t work for Packt and nobody’s paying me to say so and I don’t personally know the authors – so why do I think it’s so good? Because, like the words of the King in Alice in Wonderland, they “begin at the beginning, go on until [they] come to the end – and then stop” The book – which is available from Packt here - takes you through all you need to know about Mahara from accessing it as a student, to using it as a teacher/tutor to installing and managing it as primary administrator. And all in a friendly, easy to use style with helpful screenshots. An achievement all the more admirable as it is written by several people rather than one author.
The book begins by explaining what Mahara is and does and why we might want to use it – we are encouraged to register at a Mahara site such as mahara.org to see how it works. A nice touch of the book is that they have set up a Mahara especially for readers to practise/play on so you don’t even need to have your own install when you begin.
We are shown how to set up our profile page, upload files,write blogs, create Views and are taken gently to the teacher/course leader role where we learn about groups and assessing students’ work. I especially liked the way the book follows three Mahara users – Punam, a primary teacher with a county Mahara install; Janet a learning technologist at a corporate university and Neil who works for a UK 14-19 vocational training provider. This means that each time we find out something about Mahara we get to see how it might be applied in specific circumstances – we enter the thoughts of Punam,Janet or Neil. (I’ve made a mental note to copy this idea in future writing!)
The final couple of chapters deal with the site settings and main administration which are easy to digest now we have gathered a detailed understanding of how Mahara works at its different levels. At the end are two appendices which are as important as the rest of the book even though they are in the final few pages: planning hints on how to implement your Mahara and instructions for installation. The first appendix is really useful and, although I have less experience in Mahara than Moodle, I do appreciate (from having advised on how to fix really badly implemented Moodles) how important it is to think it through in advance. The second appendix is also essential -someone has to install your Mahara! But as it might only concern a limited number of readers it is rightly kept to the end.
You can read a sample chapter here on the Packt site -but why read a sample chapter? If you are interested in getting Mahara then just go and buy the whole book!
When teachers first start learning how to use Moodle they aren’t aware that you don’t have to upload each precious Word document or Powerpoint one at a time – it is perfectly fine to put them in a folder, compress/zip the folder and upload that to Moodle. After that you can either show the folder (display a directory) or link to each of its contents individually.
However, developer Guy Thomas has come up with another way, a simpler way, to upload multiple files all at once. It is a contributed module -ie, you have to download and install to your Moodle -and is called the Enhanced File Resource Module. It is very new, so expect some changes and bugs to be fixed but it can be downloaded from Moodle here. Its big advantage over zipping is in ease of use – teachers just click “browse”; select several files from their computer and the module will automatically upload them as separate resources on the Moodle page.
Do I like it? Yes – enough to make a short screen cast below. Does it worry me? A little – while it’s great for encouraging teachers to upload their resources in a quick and non-techie way- it does list them on the course page in a long line which might just bring about the dreaded “scroll of death”. The message is the same as with wine and chocolate – use in moderation and do not over-indulge!
Ok -this is just a bit of fun as I have spent the last two days getting my head around the Workshop in Moodle 2.0 (see blog post here). Andrew Field of Content Generator has just released a beta version of his latest Flash game – On Target. As a teacher of (increasingly)young children I always enjoy his games because they are easy to create and many of them work in Moodle as SCORM objects which means when students play them, their scores are recorded in the gradebook – so you can justify your fun! This latest game is no exception and I thought I would highlight it by posing a few questions to test your knowledge of what’s new in Moodle 2.0. How many can you get right – and – more important – how good is your aim?
CLICK HERE TO PLAY !
I’ve been trying to get my head around the new Workshop module for Moodle 2.0, because I really want to encourage lots of teachers to use it. Peer Assessment and Self-Evaluation are Big Things in education currently, and Moodle’s workshop module offers both these facilities. They say the best way to learn is often to explain to somebody else and so, having watched with interest David Mudrak’s presentation at the imoot, here below is my attempt to make and understand Workshop 2.0 If you spot any glaring errors, let me know. The Workshop test site is here if you want a play. I know I have missed lots out -but’s just a first journey and one I hope, others will make as well, as we move into Moodle 2.0.
I have just finished reading Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques by Susan Smith Nash with William Rice and published by Packt as one of their Moodle book series. I confess to having a sentimental attachment to this book as its original version was both the first book on Moodle I ever read (and I never thought I would end up writing one myself!) and the first book I reviewed in my first blog post on this blog. The book has been updated for Moodle 1.9 – you might wish to read my original review first. I had initially planned to deal with it as a brand new book and review it as such – but certain aspects prevented that, as I will outline later on.
Susan Smith Nash is an expert in online course development -indeed, she is the e-learning queen - and what I liked about her update was the way she blended her ideas and suggestions both theoretical and practical with William Rice’s original “solutions”. This is not a book for beginners in Moodle, although it does give some step by step instructions. What it does that makes it different from many software books is that it gives a pedagogical background to what is done in Moodle: you aren’t just making forums or choices because they are there – you get explanations as to why and how they will help your students develop their skills or knowledge and examples of Best Practice.
Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques follows a very methodical structure, starting the reader off with the fairly simple forum and leaving him empowered at the end having gained an understanding of the Lesson module and Workshop module, two of the most (I think) challenging modules to set up. On the way we investigate chat, quizzes, choice, wikis and glossaries , learning ways to use them where are students are “in charge” and we are the facilitators. (One slight point of issue by the way – I am not sure you can use the “single simple discussion” forum type with separate groups in the way suggested here as a method of students and teachers having their own private communication area; I don’t think this works?) Likewise, there seems to be an assumption that the reader has an admin role rather than a regular teacher role – the reader is shown how to override student permissions for example to prevent them starting new forum threads but this is not normally available to a teacher unless admin allows it – a possible source of confusion?
Susan Smith Nash has added an extra chapter to the original, building on William’s solutions for the workshop module where she offers ideas for using it as a portfolio/gallery where students can showcase work, collaborate and comment on each others’ items all within a positive and encouraging environment. Susan has also elaborated more on the detailed instructions for setting up Lessons and workshops, which I think readers will appreciate as they are so complex. Indeed, the workshop in 1.9 is actually not recommended for use – although I use it! – as it has been totally revamped and simplifed ready for Moodle 2.0. Many people will still be using Moodle 1.9 for a long time yet and so this will be helpful to them.
Different versions of Moodle (and indeed books) is something I will come back to now. I mentioned at the start I had planned to deal with this book entirely separately from its original version, published in 2007 but am unable to. Much of this book is the same as my first copy back then -which is fine as the activities and pedagogy still apply – but I was puzzled a few times by the screenshots which didn’t tie in with my own Moodle – until I realised that the gradebook used in this book is actually a Moodle 1.8 gradebook and not the current one. This is disappointing, as using the gradebook is such a vital part of Moodle and it has undergone a number of enhancements during Moodle 1.9 which simply aren’t reflected in the screenshots of this book. Readers not used to the gradebook might be confused by this.
Overall then – and with the above mentioned caveats – this is a” teaching solutions” book, a book to spark off inspiration, rather than a how to Moodle book – and if you are competent with Moodle and lacking in ideas – perhaps this is a book for you!
A frequent call for help on the forums of moodle.org I have done it myself – you paste some code like javascript (or even that nasty MS Word code) into a topic summary, save it and discover you can’t then click on the edit icon anymore to go back and make alterations. I did a post earlier this year explaining how you can get into the edit screen of a label if it’s a label that’s been corrupted – here it is – but the process for a topic summary is slightly different so I made a new screencast below. I stress: I am not a coder and so I don’t know any “correct” way of going about these things, but by trial and error (mainly the latter !) I have worked out how you can access the editing screen of your topic summary even though the pen and the hand icon is completely stuck. Watch the video below – if youtube is banned in your place as it is in mine, I have put step by step instructions underneath.
How to get into a topic summary when the icon is “stuck”:
- turn on the editing in your course
- click on the “hand and pen” icon of a topic summary that DOES work
- Go up to the url at the top of your screen – look at the number at the very end in the address bar
- It will probably be something like http://YOURMOODLESITE.com/course/editsection.php?id=12
- The last number is the topic summary number that you are in at present. Type in different numbers near that one until you get to the topic summary that has been corrupted (don’t worry if you end up in a totally different course – just keep changing the number at the end until you get to your “broken” summary.) If you’re lucky it might only be a digit away. If you are even luckier and you only recently edited (broke!) the summary, its url might still be saved in your address bar.
- When you get to it, delete everything by clicking on the code view icon, rather than doing it in the WYSIWYG editor. Save changes – and you should then have a working topic summary with an edit icon you can click on.
Ian Wild, author of Moodle Course Conversion, has written a book for Mathematics teachers called Moodle 1.9 Math(s) Well, actually he missed the “s” off for the American market but, try as I might, as a native English English speaker, I just can’t bring myself to do the same! I received my review copy yesterday and am happy to pass on my thoughts today. A slight confession – this isn’t the first time I’ve seen it, as I was asked to be a tech reviewer for the book back in the New Year. You can see an outline of the chapter content on the publisher’s website and also a sample chapter here on Quizzes. What impresses me most is the step by step approach and measured progression throughout the book. While Ian assumes the reader has some experience of Moodle, he nonetheless starts at the very beginning with two simple but highly useful tasks: uploading a past exam paper and setting up a discussion forum. By the end of the book, the reader has learned how to include in a Moodle course complex mathematical notation,graphs, charts, interactive geometry and algebra, self-marking quizzes, multimedia screencasts.. and more! He also devotes some time to science teachers whose needs are often similar to those of math(s!) teachers, explaining additonally how the scientists can represent chemical structures in their courses using Jmol. Some of the activities dealt with in the book require Administrator rights; Ian always makes sure to include information for Moodle admins wherever required, and in a way that does not detract from the easy flow of the book and focus on teaching tools. Also included are useful links to teaching resources. For myself, I particularly liked the more creative elements of Chapters 3 and 4, where we read how to enhance our teaching with multimedia presentations, screencasts, Flash games and even DIY Scorm. Would I recommend this book? Yes of course, with Ian’s own caveat that if you are a total newbie you might first want to read his own Moodle Course Conversion or my ownMoodle 1.9 For Teaching 7-14 Year Olds. After that -this book will add Magic to your Moodle Mathematics!
One of the problems with teachers uploading PowerPoints to Moodle -or indeed any VLE/LMS – is that not all their students have MS Office at home. Even if they do, they might have an earlier version and therefore not be able to open their teachers’s 2007 masterpiece. While there are many workarounds – offer Powerpoint Viewer or (better) use OpenOffice, another solution is to convert to Flash. This can be done easily in OpenOffice but if your presentation is – perish the thought!- full of whizzy animations and transitions then they won’t transfer. Enter iSpring free - a free Powerpoint to Flash converter that converts your slideshows with animations -with sound -with video - and even with your exploding text if you really have to… It’s been used and recommended amongst the Moodle community for over a year now. It’s been mentioned in several Moodle books from Packt and by other Moodle bloggers such as Ian Usher. But the other day a county ICT advisor alerted me to the fact that he’d been refused permission to use iSpring free on his Moodle. The terms and conditions state that iSpring free is for personal use only, such as in blogs and websites. I – and I daresay many other happy Moodlers -had assumed personal use meant an individual teacher could put on a iSpring version of their lesson’s Powerpoint for their own individual class within Moodle (or Frog, or Fronter..) But no. When I double-checked the response I got was – quote:
iSpring Free is for personal non-commercial use only. It cannot be used for creating public presentations of any kind, even for educational purposes. I am sorry about that. …We are glad to provide educational establishments representatives with a 25% discount in case of purchasing a single license of iSpring Pro, a great tool for elearning courses authoring. The original price of the product is $249. Considering your academic status, the price will be $186.75.
Sadly, my school is unwilling to pay the reduced $186.75 and so I am on the lookout for alternatives. For my part, I shall suggest to the company that their make the terms of usage for the free version much clearer, particularly with the prevalence of VLEs and the need to find a suitable way to make presentations viewable by all users. For your part, Dear Readers – if you have iSpring free on your class pages – take them off! Or else, of course, buy the pro version and get a licence. And if you have that sort of money perhaps you might like to buy one for me too…
“Peer Assessment” – buzz phrase in education – is an activity to which Moodle lends itself beautifully. I have used the Moodle workshop module in the past for peer assessment (see here) It can be set up in many different ways and at levels from basic to advanced. However, its complexity dissuades some from trying it. The “new, improved” Workshop for Moodle 2 which can be tested here is much more user-friendly and I await its arrival eagerly.
In the meantime, and if you only want a quick, very simple peer assessment task, it is possible to tweak a Moodle forum to do the job. The following screencast shows one way to do this. If you scroll down below the screencast, there are instructions how to set up your forum to achieve this.
The key to making a forum a place for students to peer assess is to enable ratings and then give them the permission to rate each others’ submissions. (What they submit might be text or an attachment such as an image, slideshow, movie/sound file)
- In the settings for your forum, in “grade”, choose how you want the ratings to work. I chose “average”. All students must grade(rate) each others’ submissions and then each classmate will have an average mark.
- I kept to the numbers scale for simplicity but you can use customised scales if you wish
- In course admin>assign roles, click on the “override permissions” tab. (If you are a teacher and you don’t see this tab then ask your Moodle admin to give you the rights to “override permissions”)
- Click on “student” and scroll down to the forum section
- To allow them to rate/grade each others’ submissions click the “allow ” button for “rate posts”
- If you don’t want them to be able to see who has given which grade to whom , then click the “prevent” buttons for “view any rating” and “view rating”.