Category: Moodle (Page 3 of 8)

Mountain Moot

July 21, 2019 / Troy / 0 Comments

I was part of a team that attended the Moodle Mountain Moot. This is a practical Moot that has been running for 10 years.

All members of the team presented. All of us came away with powerful learning. Amy Gwizdz did a great job of presenting on the use of Moodle at the elementary level. She really focused on solving instructional problems, not just using Moodle. Robert Harrison provided a fantastic opportunity for users to experience the Workshop Module. Chris Kenniburg presented on the Fordson Theme.

Sometimes you really don’t recognize or appreciate the wonders of those that you work with. Chris Kenniburg is one of those folks. Though I do think that I recognize how valuable he is, it is still interesting to be able to see how others see him. He is rightly revered for the work that he has done on the Fordson Theme. It was fun to see Chris receive kudos and praise for his work on the theme. His theme is so popular that he was asked to do another session. (The conference has a block of ad-hoc sessions).

Chris was asked to participate in the additional ad-hoc session. It was interesting to me to remember and revisit why we made some of the decisions that go into the Fordson Theme. Lots of people make requests for the Fordson Theme. These are usually additional features that they want. For example, one person requested blocks that collapse and expand. This reminded me of why we wanted blocks limited in the first place. I sat down and discussed this with the requestor.

My tiny role in developing the Fordson Theme would be in the cognitive focus. Two columns allow the user to be focused on the content (which is on the left-hand side). The right-hand columns need to be limited and extra. Many users have pretty much trained their brain not to really look at that right-hand column as that is usually “ad” space.

So, the discussion with the requestor for blocks that collapse focused on why and how are blocks used. If you are using blocks for significant information, should that be some kind of change? That way, your brain knows that it is switching tasks and looking for something. His response was interesting. He hadn’t actually thought about the process, he was just used to having tons of information.

I was discussed how the theme is really focused on the student experience. Students need to know what to do next. The [Fordson Theme] tries to always keep that in consideration. Students shouldn’t have to work hard to know what to do.

The Mountain Moot had a wonderful cast of presenters. Emma Richardson had a couple of wonderful sessions that I attended. She has such great knowledge and a wonderful attitude. Emma co-presented with Amy Tessitore. Amy is another wonderful resource. Michelle Moore always provides great tips. She is a wonderful resource for Moodle, and for training.

I also presented at the conference. My presentation was Glossary Lollapolooza. I had a full house. The feedback was very positive. (Though, one of the biggest “take-a-ways” for folks seemed to be when I gave them the tip that you could double click on an activity to select it and open rather than clicking on it and then scrolling down to the “Add” button). At least one person was impressed with the effect of spotlighting something on a screen.

I asked a few people what they wanted to get out of the session as they were entering. I was able to touch on those in the presentation.

I am now considering how we could get more classroom teachers involved though. The conference was wonderful, lots of rich learning. The one thing that I think is missing though is classroom teachers. Specifically, K-12 classroom teachers. I shall continue to ponder that.

Moodle Permission Overrides

July 14, 2019 / Troy / 0 Comments

Moodle permissions allow users to control what different roles can do. This is usually set by the Moodle Administrator. However, teachers can override the defaults to create powerful learning opportunities.

There are a large number of permissions that can be adjusted here. You should be careful with many of these. However, in the right cases, these can free a teacher to empower students. For example, the permissions can allow a teacher to allow the students to rate the following activities:

Glossary entries
Forums
Database activities

Glossary.

Frequently, I like to allow students to rate Glossary entries. I use Glossary entries in a variety of ways (like having students find the best YouTube video that explains a specific learning objective). This way, the students are doing to vetting for me.

By default, only teachers, non-editing teachers and those with higher permissions can rate Glossary entries. However, each teacher can change this by Course level (if you are sure that you always want students to rate Glossary entries) or by activity level (if you just want students to rate entries on one Glossary.

Course Level Permission Change

Go to the Participants panel
Click on the Gear in the top right corner. Then select “Permissions”.
Search for “Glossary”
After the ratings section, click the + in the “Roles with Permission” column.
Select “Student” (or whatever term you use for “student”)

*There is no need to save the selection.

Activity Level Permission Change

Very similar to the process above. Make sure that you are in the activity that you want to change the permissions on. Then click on the Gear at the end of the name of the Activity.

Follow the same path as above (starting at “select “Permissions”.)

Moodle Links within Text boxes

July 12, 2019 / Troy / 0 Comments

I love Moodle. However, there are a couple of things that drive me crazy. One of those things is the way that links appear in text boxes. These text boxes can be the Feedback box in a rubric, a glossary context box, etc.

Frequently, text links in those boxes show no visual cue unless/until there is a mouse rollover. Let’s look at an example. I’ve highlighted “Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle”, then picked the link button and pasted the appropriate link. However, looking at it, nothing really looks different.

However, this can be easily fixed. Simply add the CSS code for color and underline in the href.

Huh? you might say. (Or, you might say “but of course, that’s how I always do that). With Moodle, you can edit the code. Simply click on the More button:

More button is the first button, downward arrow…

This will disclose the full toolbar. You are looking for the Code button, the last one on the second row of the toolbar:

Now you’ll be presented with the code behind the text:

<p></p>
<h3>Glossary</h3>
<p>This one is probably my favorite way for students to introduce themselves. Set up a Glossary, and then let the students add in information. Each student would enter their own name as the “term” and then whatever information that you want as the definition.</p>
<h4>Important Notes:</h4>
<ul>
    <li>Easy to set up</li>
    <li>Easy for students to enter their information</li>
    <li>Can be used with the&nbsp;<em>Random Glossary Block</em>&nbsp;to display a student name for other students in the “side bar”</li>
    <li>No automatic grading (but can be graded)</li>
    <li>All students can include pictures</li>
    <li>Entries can be approved by the teacher before the other students can see them</li>
</ul><a " href="https://mastermoodle.com/2018/10/20/comic-say-hi/" target="_blank">Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle.</a>&nbsp;
<br><br>

Find the link that you have already created. This should be fairly easy since it will have an “href=” in the text. After the <a , but before the href=, paste the following code:

style="color:#0000FF;text-decoration:underline;

Thus:

<a " href="https://mastermoodle.com/2018/10/20/comic-say-hi/" target="_blank">Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle.</a>

becomes:

<a style="color:#0000FF;text-decoration:underline; "href="https://mastermoodle.com/2018/10/20/comic-say-hi/" target="_blank">Step by Step instructions from Master Moodle.</a>

Here the color is blue and the text is underlined. Now it will look like this:

Now it looks like a link that users can click on.

Audio & Video in Moodle

March 18, 2019 / Troy / 0 Comments

I absolutely love the addition of students creating audio and video within Moodle. Providing the ability for students to show what they know using text, audio or video is powerful.

Here is where Moodle can and can’t provide audio and video resources for the class and/or teacher.

For each type, I’ll indicate who can use the function to provide Audio/Video right within Moodle:

T = Teacher
S = Student

Audio/Video works here:

Assignment (T,S) – Teachers and students can both use A/V. Teachers can provide important directions or exemplars.
Quiz The addition of Audio/Video for teachers helps make more accessible quizzes. Teachers can quickly and easily provide audio of each prompt and distractor (you may need to save after each individual recording). Teachers can read a quiz once and have it available for all students that need it.
- Essay (T,S)- Now students can also record their answers. For the essay question type, the teacher MUST use the following Response Options:
  - HTML editor with file picker
  - Text input is optional

Note that all other Quiz options are limited to the teacher recording the material.

Workshop (T,S)- There is a good write up of this on The Tech Coaches Blog
Forums (T,S)
Database (T,S)
Glossary (T,S)
Wiki (T,S)

Teachers Only:

Lesson (T)
Questionnaire (T)
Book (T)
Page (T)
Label (T)

Audio/Video is a NO GO:

Read Aloud (Additional Plugin)
URL (doesn’t even make sense)
Feedback from the Teacher on an assignment
Lesson (S)- Students can’t respond to an essay question page with Audio/Video.
– Questionnaire (S)- Students will not see the buttons to attach and Audio or Video.

MoodleNet

February 27, 2019 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’m in! I’ve been accepted to be a MoodleNet tester. I’m excited as the opening video notes that

“Moodlenet is a new open social media platform for educators, focused on professional development and open content.”

This is one of those things that I definitely feel should exist. Currently, many teachers are using Facebook or Twitter for their professional development. I don’t feel like either of these are the right tools for professional development. Both are truly closed systems. Both seem to be geared for other experiences. Facebook uses algorithms that tightly control what you see. Twitter is a firehose of information where it is far too easy to miss important information.

Both Facebook and Twitter do have the advantage of the “network effect” (i.e. many people are already there). This has been one drag on Mastodon, it is hard to find a fully developed community.

So, Moodlenet addressing both issues (professional development AND open content has exciting possibilities.

Although it is still early, I’ll be sharing my experiences.

Free vs Free vs Paid

December 27, 2018 / Troy / 1 Comment

Everyone wants something for free. But what really is free? In terms of web sites, information and more on the internet, free seems to be the standard. Like the old adage, there is no free lunch, things are really aren’t free on the internet. There are costs to host and produce web sites.

Let’s take a look at how this impacts us as educators. Here is a look at Free vs Free vs Paid.

Free (We’ll make money somehow)

The first free is sites or applications which look like they are completely free. These are usually supported by ads, a Freemium model or a “future revenue model”. Let’s take a look at each of these:

Ad Supported

Here, ads are sold to pay the bills. This is generally pretty straight forward. This somewhat follows the old TV model. For decades, TV was free because the producers and deliverers of TV sold advertising space. Your half hour show was actually about 22 minutes of content and 8 minutes of advertising. Advertising was an effective way to create desire and thus sales.

However, please note that advertising has changed. With the internet, tracking and coordination of information is possible. Thus, advertisers may get more information than we understand and expect. Facebook is the poster child for how this information can be used. There is a lot of discussion around information security. This can be a complex subject. Certainly though, we know that information is being used to ever more effectively to manipulate us (similar to how advertisers have always done).

Freemium

Here, free sites are supported by those willing to pay for extra features. These extra features can come in a wide range of products. One general example of freemium products tend to be casual games. These can generally be played for free, but there are real advantages to paying to “level up” or purchase in game clothing.

How about an educational example? Edmodo followed a freemium model for a while (more about that in a minute). Edmodo was (and is) free to use. They decided to “skip the bureaucracy” and market directly to teachers (this is a pretty common marketing tactic). Their hope was that the teachers would then pressure the districts to pay to adopt the platform. That didn’t work out so well, so they also implemented a marketplace. The Marketplace offered additional features and professional development at a cost. One of those products was “Snapshot”. This promised district level administrators a “real time” look into how Edmodo was being used. They also offered individual teachers a variety of tools that could be purchased for roughly $10 per year per class.

However, neither of those methods seemed to have worked out. Thus, Edmodo took the next popular option: selling themselves. Currently, Edmodo is owned by the Chinese gaming company NetDragon. (Hm, why would a Chinese gaming company want a Learning Management System focused on the K – 12 marketplace? Could it be that they have an interest in the demographics and data about those users?).

Future Revenue

Finally, many companies want to develop a really large user base. Once they have that large user base, they will “figure out” how to monetize those users. This is largely the model that Twitter followed. Some of these will end up turning to Ad base revenue, some will sell out (literally).

Class Dojo is an interesting example here. Class Dojo is owned by a private company (Class Twist). Thus, their financials are not publicly available. However, there are estimates available. Estimates are revenue of $880,000 per year. Their last funding round was for $21 million dollars. At some point, those investors will expect to get more money than they invested. Class Dojo has recently announced that they will sell the service to parents to be used at home. (*Personally, I’m doubtful that this will produce enough revenue to support the company). Parent payment certainly hasn’t worked out for another K-12 darling: Remind. Remind has struggled to hit upon a revenue model that will pay the bills and return the investment from investors. Remind tried “Activities” which provided permission slip services and payments with a cut of every transaction going to Remind. They are now on their second method of monetization: premium services. Remind is leveraging their popularity with teachers to entice districts to pay for premium services. This is a familiar script. Provide a free version to teachers. Get lots teachers using the service. Then start charging districts for the service. (After all, there will be popular support for the districts to pay for the service.)

Free (Open Source or OER)

Open Source

Another “free” option is open source. In one sense, open source truly is free. But, it’s free as in “free like a puppy”. There will be costs associated with open source. Generally, one needs to host the software. Hosting can be done through paying for hosting space or equipment. There is also a cost in knowledge and knowing how to update the software.

Open source has many advantages. The software won’t “go away”. Once it is open source, it is available for others to develop or adapt. There is no on going costs for the actual software. There is the ability to change, modify or extend the software to meet your specific needs. Frequently, there is a community that develops and shares plug-ins, themes, features, etc. That community can be very helpful and passionate. You have the ability to own your data. Don’t underestimate the power of a passionate community. Open source also means that data portability is an option. If you want to move to another system, you can.

There is the possibility that it will stop being developed AND that no one else will continue developing the product.

Moodle is a great example of open source software. Any educator (or institution) can download and use Moodle. Moodle also has a revenue model. They recognize that not every district wants to run their own Moodle server. So Moodle partners with primary providers and receives a percentage of their revenue. That is some companies provide the servers and support to run Moodle and charge districts for that service. Moodle also has a particularly passionate community that extends Moodle even further. Moodle has been around for almost two decades now. The future of Moodle looks very bright as well.

OER

A quick word about OER (Open Educational Resources). These are generally resources (right there in the name) as opposed to services. OER frequently comes from teachers and artists creating resources for their own use. OER can also come from the Public Domain. OER can also come from individuals being paid to produce the work for another purpose and shared.

Paid

This one is the most straight forward. You pay a price and receive a product. Paid products mean that as long as you pay, you have access. This is a very traditional model and easy to understand. One thing to be aware of though is “introductory pricing”. With “introductory pricing”, a “low” fee is charged in order to get the customer to buy in. Once that pricing period ends, the fees generally sky rocket. This can mean the loss of data, resources and skills. Thus, sometimes, paid products can be even more costly than one realizes.

Paid products generally have really good sales team support. A good sales team will be able to highlight the advantages (and ignore the disadvantages) of their product.

There are lots of examples of paid products. Take a look at Pearson’s many, many offerings. There are lots of curriculum offerings that make sense.

Canvas as an example of “introductory pricing”. Canvas traditionally offers a three year contract at “low cost”. Once that three year period is up, the cost goes up. (The idea here is that is expensive to change once you have committed to them). Canvas has never broken even much less made a profit. Canvas makes the claim that “large losses now mean large profits later”. At one point, for every $1 in revenue, they spent .63¢ in sales and marketing.

Right Choice

Which is the right choice for educators? Any of the above. Different situations call for different solutions. In some cases, the paid version is absolutely the correct choice. Pay the price, get the service. In some cases, free (open source) is absolutely the correct choice. (I’m a believer in open source software. I truly believe that if educators would work together a bit more, this could be an even more powerful option). I’ve also written previously about being thoughtful about investing (Invest In…) Sometimes, the free (we’ll make money somehow) is the correct choice (though I worry most about this one). I worry because educators frequently fall into this one. After all, who doesn’t want free?

All of these need to be consciously decided upon. Educators need to understand the bigger picture and the WHY of choosing one over the other. We need to be sophisticated consumers.

Manipulation of Facebook information the tip of the iceberg (http://www.arabnews.com/node/1283526)
Things You Need to Know About Facebook and Mass Manipulation (https://hackernoon.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-facebook-and-mass-manipulation-bed5c92806f1)
Online Manipulation: All The Ways You’re Currently Being Deceived (https://conversionxl.com/blog/online-manipulation-all-the-ways-youre-currently-being-deceived/)
Edmodo: Using freemium to disintermediate the education procurement process (https://www.hbs.edu/openforum/openforum.hbs.org/goto/challenge/understand-digital-transformation-of-business/edmodo-using-freemium-to-disintermediate-the-education-procurement-process.html)
Chinese Gaming Giant NetDragon Acquires Edmodo for $137 Million (https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/chinese-gaming-giant-netdragon-acquires-edmodo-137-million/#annotations:LgOCDj5IEei1OcN5w34yzQ)
Class Twist Financials (http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Classdojo-650-646-8235)
Remind revenue (https://digit.hbs.org/submission/remind-creating-and-monetizing-an-edtech-platform/)
Moodle (https://moodle.org/)
Canvas financials (https://ir.instructure.com/investors/news/news-details/2018/Instructure-Reports-Third-Quarter-2018-Financial-Results/)

Word Walls in Moodle

November 16, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’ve created a guide to creating Word Walls in Moodle. This is a continuation in the Illustrative Guides that I’m creating for educators. I really like the graphic layout of these, but I’m interested in feedback.

Word Walls are used in many classrooms. One limitation of Word Walls tends to be that they stay in the classroom. Some teachers have students create a Word Wall in their planner (or notebook). These have the advantage of being portable, but they tend to not be very convenient or discoverable.

Word Walls in Moodle allow the students to share their work with their classmates. Students can benefit from each other adding and improving the Word Wall. Plus, students have access to the Word Wall anywhere they have online access.

Teachers can also add a Random Glossary Entry block to their course. Doing so will allow for Word Wall entries to magically appear in a block on the course page. I usually set it up so that the students get a different word each time they refresh the page. However, the teacher could change this to a new word a day, alphabetically or more.

Please check out the Word Wall instructions and let me know what you think. Oh, and share.

Moodle Moot US Presentation

November 1, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’m back from the Moodle Moot US 2018. This was a wonderful and overwhelming experience.

On Monday morning, I knew that I was presenting, so I arrived early at registration. I always like to view the room that I’m presenting in before I actually present. So I asked where the room was. There seemed to be a bit of confusion (there was a lot going on with it being the first day of the conference and such), but I was given directions to the room. Up to the fourth floor I go. There were some conference helpers putting signs up. They provide some direction – follow the hallway and turn left. I follow a hallway that seems like a back passage (it was), to a very large room. Oh, this is where the keynote is. Large room. Stage. Moodlemoot in two foot tall letters on the stage. OK. Someone misunderstood. Back down I go. I ask again where the room that I’m presenting is. Pretty much the same directions. Back up I go. Upon arrival this time, someone is in the room who confirms, yes, this is where I will be presenting. Butterflies start kicking in.

I head back down for the presenter meeting. I’m informed that my session will be recorded. Butterflies start doing loopty loops. I’m also asked if there are any changes to the presentation. The presentation that was provided earlier in the week is already queued up. Providing a copy of the presentation is pretty much standard practice. Usually, these are posted for those attending the conference as resource material. That is what my past experience had been. I didn’t expect it to be the “live” resource. Fortunately, I had fully prepared. I had added some additional speaker notes, but the presentation itself was done. I was also asked if there were any copyrighted images in my presentation – because they are going to record this. I don’t use copyrighted images in my presentations, so I was all set there. My presentation was to be fifteen minutes. Then, there would be five minutes for questions and/or movement. Finally, they let us know that there was a timer in front of the monitor. The timer would count down so that we could stay on target (this will be important later).

On to the presentation. I present regularly. I have had the honor and privilege to present and speak in a wide variety of places. There were a couple of presentations before mine (including the opening keynote in the very same room). So, I had the opportunity to relax, collect my thoughts. Chris Kenniburg was also presenting in the same room, but before me. He did a great job.

I had my presentation on my iPad. (This was because I had added to my speaker notes). On my iPad, I also had a timer. Just before going up to speak, I switched back to just the presentation (the presentation without the timer was a bit larger and easier to read my speaker notes). Naturally, this tempted the fates. I was introduced and started speaking. I finished the introductory section and looked at the clock. Still stuck on 15:00 minutes. Great. I look at the time that is posted on the slides (there is just a clock, not a timer). I try to calculate how long I’ve been speaking. I’m trying to do this while focusing on my presentation and what I have to say.

I finish up the second section of my presentation. I’m still trying to calculate how much time is left. The timer is still on fifteen minutes. As I start the third and final section of my presentation, the timer suddenly changes. 4:58. So, my guess has just been a little bit off. I try to pick up the pace just a bit without seeming obvious about it. I managed to address all the topics that I wanted. I did go over the fifteen minutes slightly, but not by much. I answered a couple of questions.

All in all, this was a great experience. I look forward to presenting in similar situations again. Next time, I think that I’ll leave my timer running.

Moodle Help Tips

October 20, 2018 / Troy / 2 Comments

I’ve had a another site for a while (Master Moodle), which I’ve struggled with creating. I had originally pictured doing friendly, in depth, comprehensive step-by-step Moodle tips. My plan was to make them focused on real world assignments.

That way, teachers would get helpful instructions that are couched in real world examples. Nothing purely theoretical, rather, specific examples of using Moodle in the classroom.

One problem. The guides that I was producing didn’t feel right. They were very comprehensive. Each step was explained in detail. Every choice had a suggested setting and an explanation as to why. Still, it just didn’t feel right. I shared a couple with other teachers. Their reaction was the same. (Oh, they were very polite, but the response was still “this isn’t right”.)

So, I’m trying something different. I’ve produced a “Saying ‘Hi'” with Moodle as a comic strip. This one feels better. I’m not completely convinced that it’s right, but I’d love to get some feedback. It’s not nearly as comprehensive with setting selections, but hopefully is enough to get teachers started.

So, if you’ve got a moment, please head on over and take a look. I’d love constructive feedback.

U.S. Moodle Moot Presentation

October 15, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’m very pleased that I will be presenting at the U.S. Moodle Moot in Denver, Co. This will be an exciting conference. I’ll get to share some of the great things my team has developed.

Focus on Learning: Moodle in PreK-14

Dearborn Public Schools developed the Fordson Theme to focus students and teachers on learning. Moodle’s greatest strength and weakness is its capability and options. As an educator and former principal, my perspective is on keeping the students focused on the learning. Our students come to us with a variety of cultural, educational and financial backgrounds. We’ll share some of keystones, questions and perspectives in our leading Moodle implementation. We’ll share some specific examples of learning activities that use Moodle to focus on learning.

Presenting the story of the work that my team has done is important for us in many ways. I get to valuable feedback whenever I present. Most importantly, I get to honor and recognize the great work that my team does.

UPDATE: The presentation is now posted. Join me on Day 1 at 11:30 a.m.