Moodle

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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, 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
Help with Moodle
Other

Useful extensions

  • LAMS (to implement CSCL scripts and other guide learning designs
  • The new nwiki module (not tested yet), but the default Wiki is not good enough in various ways.

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

(outdated soon, see GIT below)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

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

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.

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