18 SCORM tutorials from SimpleMoodle for MS Office, Web2.0 and other topics
SimpleMoodle.com is a site where you can get free SCORM 1.2 zip files that can be imported into your course via a SCORM format classroom or the SCORM activity. There are 18 different modules covering the basics of Microsoft Office Suite products (Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.) to podcasting, social networking and whiteboards.
They are free to download: http://simplemoodle.com/downloadfreemoodletraining
There’s also a handy tutorial video that highlights the simplest way to set them up on your Moodle site or in your Moodle classroom. Below is a sample screen shot of the podcasting package downloaded from SimpleMoodle.
Enjoy!
New Core Theme for 2.0; and meet Melbourne: a fancy theme for 1.9
The new core theme for Moodle 2.0 is “Fusion”, created by Patrick Malley of New School Learning. The theme is still under rapid development and testing, but you can see the design, which evokes WordPress (in my opinion). Check out the discussion or test it out on your own 2.0 install: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=154211.
Melbourne is another great theme available for 1.9 (but Danny Wahl, the developer, is working to align it to the new theme engine in Moodle 2.0). It’s modern and sharp, with a nifty analog clock embedded in the header.
Download it from the Moodle.org theme repository: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=4019 or try it out at the demo site: http://crashpad.iywahl.com/moodle19/.
Winner of the New School Learning Theme 2.0 contest announced
Last Friday the winner of the Moodle 2.0 theme design competition was announced, the winner out of 12 great submissions is Caroline Kennedy who created the theme “Splash”. For more information: http://newschoollearning.com/news/theme_contest_winner/.
Congratulations to Caroline who won a 16GB iPad. And a hearty thank you to New School Learning for creating and moderating the contest which turned out some GREAT themes:
Check out the various inherent headers of the Splash theme in screen shots below or at the demo site: http://www.newschoollearning.com/moodle2/?&theme=splash
New Grader Report – Update
If you’re interested in that New Grader Report that freezes student names and and makes the layout a little easier to manage you’ll be happy to hear that the code is available online at Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=153718.
Thanks to Bob Puffer of Luther College for letting us know.
Moodle 1.9.9 + LAE v1.1 now available for download (CLAMP-IT)
This new release features the following improvements [more information]
- Simple File Upload: Upload individual files without having to deal with the full Moodle upload interface,
- Assignment ZIP: Download all the files associated with an assignment with one click,
- LAE Grader View: A cleaner, easier-to-navigate gradebook view,
- Anonymous Forums: A mod for Moodle forums that allows for anonymous forum posting, and
- TinyMCE text editor: the new text editor included in Moodle 2.0.
For more information and to download the source visit http://www.clamp-it.org/.
THE Journal “Get Started with OS in K-12″ with @Mguhlin
THE Journal interviews three technology directors across the US, including Miguel Guhlin (@mguhlin). The piece is titled “How To Get Started with Open Source in K-12″ [link].
It’s a very interesting read that covers much more than Moodle. One of my favorite points is one that Miguel makes about cost savings:
“We’re saving the district tons of money,” Guhlin said. However, while there is cost savings between Blackboard and Moodle, for example–and elimination of the annual recurring licensing fee is a major savings–that is not the whole picture.
“I couldn’t give you an estimate on total savings of all free open source software solutions because we just wouldn’t have implemented the solutions unless they had been free,” he said. “We simply wouldn’t have done anything.”
Do you agree? Do Moodle and other open source software packages provide alternatives to nothing because of high-cost proprietary licensing? (I never thought of it that way).
Moodle.org seeks QA testers for Moodle 2.0
Helen Foster, community manager at Moodle.org put out this call for QA testers on Moodle 2.0 earlier this week [link]:
I’m pleased to announce that we’re now ready to begin our QA testing – see Moodle 2.0 QA Cycle 1.
If you’d like to help with QA testing you need to be a member of the testers group in the Moodle Tracker. Please contact me if you’d like to be added. New members are always welcome!
If you are already a member of the testers group and can’t wait to start QA testing, please see QA testing for details of what to do.
Thanks again for helping test Moodle 2.0 and make it our best release ever!
If you’re interested in jumping on board, do it now. Your help can ensure that 2.0 is released in due time by the end of July. Get involved today.
See all progress of QA1 here: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDLQA-150
Happy Friday: 11 Free Moodle hosting options
We just put the finishing touches on our 9 part Special Summer Series on Hosting (http://www.moodlenews.com/tag/special-summer-series/). Now you can see them all (and more) at our special resource on hosting:
http://www.moodlenews.com/hosting/
You’ll find information on limits, basic plans, business plans and notes about the various variables we’ve found to differentiate the sites. You’ll also see which are Mobile-enabled already (a few). We’ll keep this up to date and edited as new resources become available and current hosters change their services.
Now there’s really no excuse to not take the Moodle plunge.
Special Summer Special: Hosting – Ewedle
Part nine of our Special Summer Series on free hosting services (this is the last one). As a bonus though there are a few more included in our Hosting matrix, now available at http://www.moodlenews.com/hosting/
Today I’d like to formally introduce Ewedle (“you-del”) which is a side project with my hobby-business partner, Sean Behan (http://www.seanbehan.com). It provides full Moodle sites based on subdomains of Ewedle.com. It’s a straight forward option for getting started with your own site and comes with a quick and easy tutorial that highlights the various tools, icons and introductions to Moodle necessary for novice users.
We currently don’t have a specific plan in mind for “premium” services and we are not aiming to infringe on Moodle’s service mark. We’re simply looking for another outlet to utilize our technical and Moodle expertise. You’re welcome to utilize it in any fashion you see fit for as long as our hosting bill stays under control.
In the near future we hope to equip all subdomains with the plug-in enabling access to the Moodle Course Repository previously mentioned on Moodlenews.com [link]. There may be additional changes in the future as well.
URL: http://ewedle.com
Description: standard Moodle testing grounds
Ads?: no
3rd party plug-ins: no
Mobile-enabled: no
Support: buddy press forums, self-serve and email
Business plan: NA
Limits: large files are frowned upon (server space can be pricey!)
Basic Plan: site with full admin rights
PBS TeacherLine [@PBSTeacherLine] goes with Moodle
PBS TeacherLine deploys open source course management system for its online professional development courses to provide more flexibility to schools licensing content [http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/blog/tag/open-education-resources/]
Big news in the world of online professional development for teachers. PBS’s TeacherLine, a provider of technical and subject-focused PD for teachers across the country has taken a big step to streamline it’s content licensing by adopting Moodle as it’s LMS. This will enable Moodle-using schools nationwide to quickly receive and deploy online learning modules and content to teachers locally.
It’s over 130 courses are now available to remix and re-deploy (albeit with costs in tow) in a push to ease local cost of course development,
PBS TeacherLine’s course licensing program enables schools, districts and education service agencies to expand their staff professional development programs cost-effectively. Now provided on the Moodle course management system, PBS TeacherLine’s licensed courses offer administrators more control over the course design, schedule, workloads, assignments, and facilitation. School leaders can modify the course content based on educators’ preferences, learning styles and needs to create customized professional development opportunities for their staff.
For more information
