Moodle

Draft

Definition

Moodle is a popular LMS that is based on socio-constructivist concepts.

The reasons for its popularity relies in DSchneider's opinion on the facts that:

• The underlying teaching model comes very close to the way "it is done" in a typical anglo-saxon graduate presential course, i.e. students are active participants, have to do a variety of sometimes open ended assignments, group work, have to use teacher-preparred resources, do quizzes, etc.
• The system is quite stable and not too difficult to use.
• It has a nice user community that increasingly contributes to extensions.

See also: LAMS (Lams can be integrated with Moodle)

Discussion

• DSchneider doubts that a typical course found on a randomly chosen Moodle installation is truly socio-constructivist. They are most definitly not very constructionist, e.g. on-line student activity is often reduced to forum activities and uploads.

• The system is a bit slow, though version 1.9 is faster than 1.7. Version 2.2 didn't bring great performance gains. On a a many user system one should install a PHP caching system - Daniel K. Schneider April 2008 / Dec 2011.

Links

Moodle

• http://moodle.org/

Help with Moodle

• Moodleblog.org

Other

• Sloodle, a Second Life skin :)

Useful extensions

• LAMS (to implement CSCL scripts and other guided learning designs)

Installation tips

Moodle should install without any problem on all kinds of LAMP installations. Make sure that your PhP meets all the requirements.

Updating and installing

At TECFA, we frequently upgrade. To keep up with minor upgrades, it is best to work with their Revision control system. See Upgrading Moodle.

Using CVS (older Moodle installations)

(outdated, see GIT below)

To update a same version, type:

cvs update -dP

or to get a new specific version

cvs -Q update -dP -r The_Moodle_Version_you_need

E.g.

cvs -Q update -DP -r MOODLE_22_STABLE

Using GIT

Newer installations are encouraged to use Git

• Read http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Git_for_Administrators

In short for a first time upgrade with GIT, save the old files

$ mv moodle moodle_old

Then clone into a directory called moodle

$ git clone git://git.moodle.org/moodle.git          
$ cd moodle
$ mv ../moodle_old/config.php .
$ git branch -a                                                 
$ git branch --track MOODLE_23_STABLE origin/MOODLE_23_STABLE  
$ git checkout MOODLE_23_STABLE

To update within a stable branch (minor revisions):

$ cd /path/to/your/moodle/
$ git pull

To update to a new stable branch without backing up:

// check branches
git branch -a
// example for tracking new version and then updating
git branch --track MOODLE_26_STABLE origin/MOODLE_26_STABLE
git checkout MOODLE_26_STABLE
git pull

PHP parameters

Memory and execution time

Make sure to allocate enough memory and execution time in php.ini, i.e. at least 128MB.

Type in a console:

php --info | grep php.ini

Then edit the configuration file shown. E.g. high values would be:

max_execution_time = 600     ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 600	; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 256M      ; Maximum memory

The make sure that there is no other php.ini override (e.g. in httpd.conf), type

php --info | grep mem

File upload

Also in php.ini

upload_max_filesize = 30M ; or whatever you find reasonable.

cron_php5

You also may have to hand edit file moodle/search/cron_php5.php and manually change the "ini_get" lines (for what strange reason I don't know)

If your Moodle is hosted with a provider

If you don't have console access, then deposit a file called test.php with contents:

phpinfo();

and look at the page. It does the same as php --info. DELETE after usage or protect it.

Themes

Default themes, are incredibly bad. E.g. "Formal white" can't display the width of a serious grading rubric, links are difficult to see. One option is to redesign and that can take time that is better spent on something else (IMHO).

To make small fixes, create a user style sheet (Menu: Site Administration -> Appearance -> Themes -> [Selected Theme])

• Scroll down and add something, e.g.

div.title {background-color:#E3DFD4;}
a:link {color:#00008B ;}
a:visited {color:#191970;}
.gradingform_rubric{max-width:1200px};

Make sure to turn the CSS caching off while you test:

Menu: Site Administration -> Appearance -> Themes -> Theme Settings

Plugins

Google drive

• Read Integrating Google Docs / Google Drive with Moodle

URLS at Google

• Login to Google first (you need a Google account)
• https://console.developers.google.com/project
• Create a project, e.g. call it Google drive for Moodle
• Google: In API's: Drive API must be enabled (all the others can be off)

URLs in your Moodle

• admin/repository.php

... scroll down/search for Google Drive in the page

• admin/plugins.php

References

• Dougiamas, M. & Taylor, P.C., Interpretive analysis of an internet-based course constructed using a new courseware tool called Moodle, Curtin University of Technology, [1]

• Philosophy (retrieved 16:40, 20 April 2006 (MEST))

• Brendan Moloney,Timothy Gutierrez. (2006) An Enquiry into Moodle Usage and Knowledge in a Japanese ESP program. PacCALL Journal Volume 2 No. 1 Summer 2006, Pp. 48-60. pdf