MOODLE MARVELOUS PLUGIN’S
M J Rollins
E-TeachUK
Moodle Plugins.
MOODLE MARVELOUS PLUGIN’S What are plugins? Moodle plugins are used to add functionality or customize Moodle. Moodle = core code + plugins Plugins may be either standard plugins (included in the Moodle download package) or add-ons. The M in Moodle stands for modular, and the easiest, most maintainable way to add new functionality to Moodle There are many types of plugin you can write:
Statistics
Accessing Plugins
2
Moodle Plugins.
Moodle Plugin Categories
Recommended Plugins for Schools and Education Establishments.
Blocks: Lesson
Planning
This is a block for Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.0. It displays current lesson objectives in the side bar (to both teacher and students) and allows a teacher to check them off as they are completed. You can enter a timetable, linked to different groups, so that objectives can be entered as far in advance as you want and will be displayed at the appropriate time. Other features include: Ability to display a large version of the objectives, when teaching from the front of a class room (click on the 'expand' icon) • Students can view all the objectives, a week at a time, to help keep track of what they have been doing (and will be doing) •
3
Moodle Plugins.
Course formats:
Collapsed Topics
Moodle 2.6 An interchangeable topic or week (day for 2.3.1+) based format that solves the issue of the 'Scroll of Death' when a course has many topics / weeks. All sections except zero have a toggle that displays that section.
Activities:
HotPot
HotPot module for Moodle 2.x The Hotpot activity module allows teachers to administer Hot Potatoes and TexToys quizzes via Moodle. These quizzes are created on the teacher's computer and then uploaded to the Moodle course. After students have attempted the quizzes, a number of reports are available which show how individual questions were answered and some statistical trends in the scores.
Activities:
BigBlueButtonBN
BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system for distance education. The goal of the project is to enable universities, colleges, and K12 to delivery a high-quality learning experience to remote students. BigBlueButton supports real-time sharing of slides (including whiteboard), audio, video, chat, and desktops. It also record lectures for later playback, specifically the slides + audio + chat. This module enables you to: • Create multiple activity links to on-line sessions within a course • Restrict students from joining a session until a teacher (moderator) joins the session • Launch BigBlueButton in a separate window • Create a custom welcome message that appears at the top of the chat window when joining the session • Specify join open/close dates for the session that appears in the Moodle's calendar • Record a session (requires BigBlueButton 0.8 or later) • Access and manage recordings 4
Moodle Plugins.
Activities:
Certificate
This module allows for the dynamic generation of certificates based on predefined conditions set by the teacher. Moodle 2.6
Activities:
Attendance
Moodle 2.5 and 2.6 A plugin that allows an attendance log to be kept. - includes an optional Block for easy access to relevant functions. The attendance module and block are designed to allow instructors of a course keep an attendance log of the students in their courses. The instructor will setup the frequency of his classes (# of days per week & length of course) and the attendance is ready for use. To take attendance, the instructor clicks on the "Update Attendance" button and is presented with a list of all the students in that course, along with 4 options: Present, Absent, Late & Excused, with a Remarks textbox. Instructors can download the attendance for their course in Excel format or text format. Only the instructor can update the attendance data. However, a student gets to see his attendance record.
5
Moodle Plugins.
Question types:
Drag and drop
onto image This plugin is part of set Open University. There are working examples in eAssessment with Moodle on our OpenLearn site. The documentation is in How to create questions in Moodle on that site.
Blocks: Configurable
Reports This block is a Moodle custom reports builder. You can create custom reports without SQL knowledge. It's a tool suitable for admins or teachers. What type of reports can I create? - Courses reports, with information regarding courses. - Categories reports, with information regarding categories. A courses report can be embedded in this type of report. - Users reports, with information regarding users and their activity in a course. - Timeline reports, this is a special type of report that displays a timeline. A course or user report can be embedded in this timeline showing data depending on the start and end time of the current row. - Custom SQL Reports, custom SQL queries. This block can use the same SQL queries that Tim Hunt's Custom SQL queries plugin. Note for developers: You can create your own type of reports. Who can view the reports? When you create a report you can select which users can view it. Links to reports are displayed in a block in the course or site frontpage.
6
Moodle Plugins.
Activities:
Realtime Quiz
Moodle 2.x A multiple-choice quiz designed for use in a face-to-face lesson. Each student receives each question at the same time with a time limit to answer it (default 30 seconds). In between each question the correct answer is displayed, along with the number of students giving each answer (and some statistics about the percentage class / individual correct answers). This allows each question to be discussed before moving on. Teachers can review the answers, once the quiz is finished, to identify any areas that need to be covered again. Recent improvements (2010) include: • • • •
Ability to add a picture to each question More attractive question display Easier question editing Reduced network traffic & improved stability (particularly on wireless networks)
7