Moodle failed my trust

I read today this blogpost about author's experience with "overwhelming" teachers with Moodle rich features on the training, on the presentations, just to confuse or even scare them..

I found I am guilty with that too ;-).

But another idea crossed my mind. Did you ever "hype" some Moodle feature that didn't work as you expected later? Did you say to yourself: "Oh man, I wish I have never installed this, I wish I have never spoken about that, this is so much pain in ...". Did you ever regret you went with Moodle?

This article is not about blaming Moodle, unfortunate events happen all the time everywhere. I am just interested in situations, features that didn't go well or as you planned and how did you solve that? I love happy endings ;-).

I am looking forward to your comments :-).

Alfresco and Remote-Learner.net Partnered

I am more and more looking into Java language and CMS Alfresco, that is very powerful as a repository, content version tracking system etc. and I am glad to hear, that Alfresco is going to collaborate with Moodle more (see Alfresco tie-in in Moodle 2.0 on moodleman.net blog ).

Today I found that Alfresco made a connection with a Remote-Learner.net, who is a provider for Open source e-learning solutions, Moodle partner by the way, and together they will provide new Enterprise Learning Intelligence Suite for Moodle (ELIS) that, I hope, will solve some problems with content sharing, content management and security Moodle is having.

And here is a LINK where I found this news.

How is Moodle developing?

Did you ever wondered, how it is going in Moodle development? What is being done right now, when you will be able to try new features?

I found today on moodleman.net (btw really fine blog) link to Google doc with constantly revised Moodle development planning.

So take a look, it is really interesting and it will put you in the picture, how much work Moodle is ;-).

LINK

Dimdim out of Beta

Dimdim is a startup who promise easy conferencing platform without need to install additional desktop client, looking for hosting, anything. All you need is a browser :-). You can create online conference, share your desktop, voice and video (imho for for sharing your desktop is some plugin needed to install).



It's been a while Dimdim successfully integrates in Moodle, now the company releases new version, it's out of beta and will be releasing its source codes under GPL3 license.

Basic, free version, allows 20 attendees in the room, but if you need create bigger conferences you have to pay.

I saw some captures from Dimdim usage, it is looking very promising. Maybe it is a time to check it too, it is on my to-do list for a long time.

Some goodies here, if you will sign-up through this Techcrunch arcticle you may be awarded with Pro version (worth $99 annually, room for 100 attendees etc) for free :-).

Did you try Dimdim in Moodle? What's your experience?

One Minute Video: Adding Youtube clip to the Moodle course

Online video sharing servers are on the rise. YouTube.com is one of the biggest and most known. Many teachers found this site useful for learning, they are uploading their's videos, homemade screencast etc to this service and are inserting these clips to their Moodle courses.

This screencast is first (I hope that it won't be last ;-)) in series of One Minute Videos where I want to show some basic things you can do with Moodle in just one minute.

It's without sound for now, I am little bit shy about my spoken English(not native as you already learned ;-)) and my voice (do you hate hearing yourself on some recordings too?), but in the future... :-D.

Feel free to ask if something is not obvious, I tried to not move fast to everything stays distinguishable.

How to change Enrollment key

One of my teachers forgot how to change enrollment key for new semester. I made small video to show and I would like to share it with you.

Moodle allow teachers to "lock" their courses with enrollment key (this is for default enrollment, if you are using for example external enrollment plugin, it might be different).

If you have set enrollment key, users have to fill this key before their access locked course for the first time. After they successfully fill that key, they are enrolled.

On the page with enrollment key form, link to the course teacher is displayed to allow users to contact someone to obtain that key.



If your enrollment key became corrupted, you can change that key, get rid of unwanted students in your course with Role assignment and your already enrolled students won't be affected by this change of enrollment key. Please, take better care for your new key, see MI for example, how it should be done :)

Remember Mission Impossible "As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim." :-D

Back to Course Setting. You will scroll down, there you will find field for Enrollment key. This key is stored in database in plain text, so if you only need refresh memory what key you are using, check Unmask checkbox next to the Enrollment key field.(in 1.9 version)

You will find option to allow access for guest just below this field.

Enrollment key will allow you to insert new students to group automatically, but about that maybe next time ;).

And now promised video finally:

Moodle as LEGO

Have you ever wondered how to explain Moodle in easy way? You don't have to anymore, just watch this video ;-)

More wonderful 2 minutes Moodle tutorial videos