Java rediscovered

I was casting around recently for some resources, particularly simulation type materials, with no particular purpose in mind, when I came across Java Applets, (Java programs that run in a web page), in fact I had known about these for ages, but for some reason had not made the connection with using them as learning object assets, so I kind discovered them for the second time. Often freely available, Java Applets seem in the main to have been developed for science and mathematical type applications, have a look at this collection, though there are many others out there such as this representation of various sort algorithms, it's always good to find something that you hadn’t realised you’d lost.

Staff training - student induction

Well we are almost at the start of the academic year 2005/6 and the coming week will be the last opportunity for all those staff who missed out on the Moodle training before the end of summer term to get along to a session, this will be a real test for both the training and the quality of the click-n-go notes. Up until now Moodle induction for students has been carried out by either IT lecturers or e-Learning Contacts, but this year’s new intake by necessity will be inducted by staff across the board, which has required the production of more extensive notes. I cannot help but feel the outcome of both staff training this week and student induction next, each represent a potential single point of failure for the wide-scale uptake of the system in the coming academic year, watch this blog-space.

Using Hot Potatoe quiz in Moodle

I was getting some training notes together for a course in Moodle Quizzes this summer, when I came across Hot Potatoes, which is free to education. Hot Potatoes is a suite of quiz type authoring tools designed around a GUI interface, which you can save as web pages, or import into Moodle, sounded good. After having played with the various tools for a while I decided to try a Moodle import, we are using 1.5.2 on our test system and I did have some problems at first not least because though the module is shipped with Moodle, the option is hidden (don’t ask me why). Login and go to configuration/modules and there you will see Hot Potatoes in the list, simply click-on the closed eyelid, then go to a course, Turn Editing on, then from the Add an activity drop down you will see the Hot Potatoes Quiz option. I found it easier to zip my quiz files and upload to Moodle then unzip, that way you get them all there in one go; and you point to the .jpz file. For navigation between the quiz and Moodle I tend to use the IFRAME option. The big plus is that its an easy application and makes use of the Moodle quiz reporting structure for results. If anyone has a go at this let me know how it went, I may even be able to help if you get in trouble.

Free Windows podcast aggregator

If you are a podcast subscriber, then think about downloading a free copy of Ziepod, its a Windows desktop aggregator, search and download application. the user interface is first class (click on the image to show a full size version) and the big bonus is that because Ziepod streams, podcasts can be heard in real time. You can download Ziepod from here and if you do give it a try, remember to get back to this posting on Moodle Journal and let everyone know what you think.

Is this the first Moodle book?

Just looking around the net today I find what I believe is the first book on Moodle, from O'Reilly Publishing. The example chapter certainly looks encouraging. If you want to take a look at the webpage Click here

e-Learning, e-Books and reading

I can still remember the days when a software package came with a manual, convenient, easy to read and reference, needless to say I just cannot feel the same about the online help hyperlinked substitutes that we are made to use now. And I have a suspicion that e-Learning materials may fall into the same trap, its with that in mind that I have been trying to find an e-Book format that is closer to the hardcopy version, so bring on pageFlip. pageFlip is an open source Flash project that I have been having some success with, given that some of my example material was borrowed from previous notes and clearly some new criteria will has to be applied for pageFlip. Anyway take a look by clicking here and then have a look at the book embedded into courseGenie with a couple of questions. I feel this has a lot potential as an interface, what do you think? Please feel free to post your comments.

Moodle user accounts

Following our awareness and training sessions, I finally ploughed through all the applications and to date we now have 41 staff, 38 courses and 187 modules on the system ready for September start, encouraging stuff.

Moodle training for LEA

The training course for the LEA (Local Education Authority) went extremely well, a small group of only five probably helped. We worked through all the introductory how-to exercises in Moodle and had time, about 20 minutes, at the end to discuss wider issues such as Learning Objects and Content Repositories.