Lesson Activity in Moodle

 Leson activity in Moodle

The lesson activity is one of the most powerful in Moodle but it´s also one of the less used. Maybe due to the number of settings and complexity that lesson imply.

After watching this video the Lesson activity will have no secrets for you.

MoodleCloud versus Self hosted Moodle

I have recently been working on a MoodleCloud project and I would like to give some general insights about how Moodlecloud feels in comparison with self-hosting your own Moodle...

MoodleCloud Downsides

1)Plugins: You can´t install plugins in MoodleCloud. This is the main downside when you opt for MoodleCloud instead of hosting your own site. There are 1927 plugins available on the Moodle plugins directory and MoodleCloud integrates just 5 or 6 of those plugins.

Mentioning that MoodleCloud is using the H5P Moodle core integration and not the H5P plugin. There is a discussion about the possible not compatibility of the core integration with the H5P Hub that is compatible with the OER Hub. See more about this in the next discussion in the Moodle Community: Should you use the H5P plugin, or H5P core functionality in Moodle

2) Moodle Tools. I found out a tool that is not available in MoodleCloud, Language Customization...

 3) Domain customization is not posible: when signing up for MoodleCloud you select your site name. E.g: yourcompany.moodlecloud.com

 

It´s not possible in Moodlecloud to customize the url and .moodlecloud.com will always show in your url.

 

To some people the above is not a problem but there are some other that do not like like it. There is no way around it if using MoodleCloud. If you want a customized URL (e.g. sitename.com) you will need to self host your  own site.

 

 

4) MoodleCloud policy showing on first login: every user will have to accept the policy one time (on their first login).There are 3 different pages that the new users need to read.  You can add more pages or new policies in the top of those already there but there is no way to remove the policies.The reason is that MoodleCloud doesn´t want to risk any gdpr infrictions on their sites. 

 

           All your users would need to click the next button three times before they reach the last page where they can agree with all the policies...

    After marking the two boxes in this last screen and clicking next the user will land inside the Moodle dashboard.

MoodleCloud Advantages

1) Pricing. Moodlecloud pricing is as follows...

MoodleCloud is a service that allows anyone to get started with Moodle within minutes and automatically builds a Moodle site to a certain level (1000 users and 5Gb of file storage).

As you see the minimum price is just €100 and it's very easy to start using it with a few clicks when going to the "Create New Account" page (free for 45 days).

 2)  Server side tools already set and available . MoodleCloud team hosts your Moodcloud in a server that is optimised for Moodle and that means that a lot of tools are already working out of the box. 

If you host Moodle in your own server you or the server company will need to make sure some specific tools are correctly set in the server side. See some examples...

            - BigBlueButton: videoconferencing tool that is totally integrated in MoodleCloud. This is a     huge advantage. To get this working for a self-hosted site will cost you a lot of time and money and in MoodleCloud you get it out of the box.

            - Annotate PDF: tool that allow teachers to Annotate student submitted files and for students to see the feedback provided by the teachers.

            - ...

 3) Upgrades are included. The MoodleCloud team keeps your site upgraded that will give you peace of mind and allow you to focus in your studens.

 Let's say you are a very small company and want to train less than 50 users, if you go for the self hosted solution you will end up paying the €100 to your hosting provider but you will also need to pay a developer to keep continuously upgrading your site, while in MoodleCloud you don't have to worry about upgrades (MoodleCloud team keeps your site upgraded) and server problems that normally are a lot. 

 

The conclusion is that MoodleCloud is a great option if you don't have plans to have a big number of users. If you have plans to get beyond that 1000 users you will need to get a self hosted site.

For additional information:  Check the next post in the Moodle community:  Moodle Cloud to replace Moodle Hosting

 

 

Download course contents in Moodle

If you need to download all course files (pdf, Microsoft office documents...) there is no simple way to accomplish it.

A solution could be to back-up the course and automatically extract the files using a Jar file that an user of the Moodle community programmed: have a look to Veronica's post in this thread

Messaging preferences in Moodle

The Moodle administrator can configure the “Default messages output” for the whole site under “Site administration”—Plugins—Message outputs-- Manage message outputs, as bellow:

Moodle users will, as well, be able to configure the “notification methods for incoming messages” by clicking in “Messaging” under their profile:

Uploaded to Youtube by Linn-Benton Community College

As well, users will be able to configure the “Email digest type” when editing their profile settings as below:

Uploaded to Youtube by UOWLAB

Moodle community related page here


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Payment Gateways in Moodle (Video)

Interesting video by Catalyst New Zealand-owned and operated company, it draws the main picture about Payment Gateways in Moodle...

Please write your comments below...

Configuring the calendar block in Moodle (video)

Calendar events

To add a calendar event:

1.    Click the month on the Calendar to get an expanded month view

2.    In Calendar view click the “New Event” button

 

On a 'New Event page' select the type of event

1.    A User Event will only be visible by the user currently logged in (i.e. the one creating the event)

2.    A Course Event will be visible to participants on the course in question. Only users with the capability to manage calendar entries at the course level can add course events.

3.    A Site Event is a "global" event - visible in every course and on the calendar on the home page. Only users with the capability to manage calendar entries at the

You need to take into consideration the next:

1.    Just the Moodle administrator at a system level can add site events.

2.    The different types of events can be visually filtered by teachers and students

3.    Adding closing dates to course activities — assignments, quizzes etc. will cause them to show up in the calendar block as course events.

Number of Upcoming Events in the ‘Upcoming Events block’

To set the number of upcoming events you will be able to find a setting when clicking in ‘Preferences’.

The number of events and days in advance is determined by the calendar_lookahead

The number of events and look-ahead has a setting in ‘Preferences’ on the student page

At an administrator level, the default number of events and other preferences can be set in the ‘Maximum upcoming events’ setting in Site Administration > Appearance > Calendar.

 If the Upcoming Events block becomes too long you can reduce the number of days and events to lookahead.

Calendar export


Integrating the Moodle Calendar with google calendar

1. In Google Calendar's "Other calendars" menu, choose "Add by URL" and supply the URL generated in the process described above. 
2. The Google calendar will update when making changes in the Moodle calendar but it will take several hours.

Uploaded to Youtube by Chicago State University

Integrating the Moodle Calendar with iCal

Uploaded to Youtube by Chicago lynda.com

Integrating the Moodle Calendar with Outlook

Uploaded to Youtube by Chicago lynda.com

Import Calendars 

Click the button "Manage Subscriptions", fill up the required fields and click "Add"

Hide the Navigation's link 'Site pages' in Moodle

To hide this link under the Navigation block you can alter the Moodle code as described here or you can just select 'Categories and courses' in the setting 'Generate navigation for the following' when editing the configuration for the Navigation block (See bellow screenshot)


 

I found the solution to this in Spanish here