Developer conference February 2006

General stuff (Martin)

• Introduction to the team at Moodle HQ
• Download server re-vamped
• Complete install packages now available for download from http://download.moodle.org/ including 1.6 dev for testing
• Problem with too many downloads; Eloy's solution: mirrors (bittorrent suggestion from OU developers)
• Please browse/add to the Roadmap page

Moodle 1.6

• Unicode - Yu, Koen, Eloy; designed a nice upgrade path
• Documentation - Helen Foster; documentation all over the place before; Urs designing a new theme; admin setting to choose docs server; links in Moodle pages to documentation
• Database module - new favourite module for collecting information; will be used as a code repository on moodle.org; sorting by type, name, description; developer can add entry, fill in form, choose type incl. major patch and small hack; description, screenshot, download location displayed; (suggested extra plugins - resource, asignment); zip files automatically built from contrib and mod; can host on a different server; check boxes for different versions of moodle; available now in cvs; database replaces glossary module; hopefully people will hack on it for 2.0; e.g. for biology field trip; can comment on entries; turn on/off dates; require approval etc.; need to think about style sheets
• LAMS - LAMS Foundation have signed up as a Moodle Partner, they are maintaining integration; LAMS course format or activity; available now in cvs
• Blogs - Daryl working for 1.5 years; everyone wants blogs; new spec - keep it simple; no comments on entries to avoid confusion with forums; similar to journal; uses tags - first step in tags all over Moodle; entry for yourself, your teacher, group, course, everyone; tab on user screen and block; Daryl working with Martin Dougiamas to finish this month; simple to start with; community to drive to next level; similarity with blogs and forums
• My Moodle - Martin L; useful for tutors tracking lots of courses; overview, extension of recent activity; depends on what modules know to report; new function print_overview; no documentation yet
• Hive integration - resource plugin; see http://test.moodle.com/ username, password "hive"; browse content in hive; send link to Moodle; name and link filled in automatically; looks like normal resource
• Multiple groups - Arab Open University
• IMS resource - Eloy and Alton College; for IMS packages; Object module developed into a resource plugin; browsing of repository
• Learning Design Export - defines sequence of activities; xml example file promised; may be late for 1.6; simple format, export to xml, into Moodle or other systems
• Granularised Backup - Penny and Eloy; beginning of ims metadata
• Dfwiki - Ludo; beta done this month; needs to upgrade cleanly
• Chameleon - Andy and Urs; seen nothing like it, need to promote
• Multi Authentication - Iñaki?
• Multi Enrolment - Catalyst

Moodle 2.0 (Martin)

• IMS Learning Design - not a big step
• Conditional activities - different attempts at conditional activities in the Using Moodle Conditional Activities forum; generating a course page for each user requires lots of processing
• Roles - create more than the present 7; want to allow parents in - a common request

OU developers: selection of generic roles, check capability, roles specified per course e.g. forum moderator role; the option to overide capabilities in a particular activity; see Using Moodle Roles and Permissions architecture and Moodle Development: User Roles

• Metadata - list of key words for site, course, blog entry etc.
• Web Services API - see Using Moodle Web services in Moodle
• Repository API - scale into generic abstraction; function to rename file etc; connected to roles; backend API talking to external repository; admin choose repository available; needs to be done right across moodle, including students; default dms, plugin big repositories advantage integrating external systems
• Community Hub - linking moodle sites; login to other sites; other systems creating courses; world or more local community hub chosen by admin; transparent login; the community hub is a normal Moodle site; share content, forums etc. similar to moodle.org; focus on subject, transfer between teacher and hub; stored in repository with people interacting via the hub; charge for high quality content (to provide an incentive)

Open mike

• HotPot - in early March Gordon will go to Canada and meet Martin Holmes and Stewart Arneil, the creators of Hot Potatoes. The main topics of discussion will be a clarification of the use of Hot Potatoes quizzes and templates on Moodle sites, a demonstration of mobile and Flash players for HotPots, and maybe a preview of the Hot Potatoes 7.

• What about Robert Brenstein's work on assigning courses to multiple categories and subcategories? Will this be integrated in 1.6? 2.0?