Game Logic in Moodle content open source

overview

programmers / coders have there own little websites dedicated for them. tracker.moodle.org, github.com, even docs.moodle.org/dev but there is no place for content creators, teachers, developers of content and learning games to come together. and do same thing that programmers are doing. and open sourcing the work under a GPL / creative commons like licence. an example might be http://hub.moodlejapan.org. MAJ (Moodle Association of Japan)

• additional info http://moodle.com/moodle-association-of-japan-takes-new-technology-award-in-elearning/
• in this particular post, i was reviewing http://hub.moodlejapan.org to give idea of what is not there for folks https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=282581#p1210838

front page layout

• examlpes http://www.deere.com/globalhome/deerecom/global_home.page or http://www.newholland.com/Pages/index.html
• quote from post https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=282581#p1210931 by Dawn Alderson i do believe quote from martin within her post?
  • -We need a nice front page like that world page two entry buttons...lovely.........one search/see/upload courses/resources-with a generic curric map area...for each age-range/subject-so a taxonomy/grid for each area and when courses link to taxonomy.....symbol for that on the course......contributors cannot take courses at this point.....................it may be that is a diff aspect for consideration......it may be that there is a charge for that part...if downloading...so teachers can see and copy courses...but buy/download???? Not sure about this needs more thought as do other points possibly.....
  • -The second button on the front page would be for contributors to create collaborative courses.............

roles

1. initial idea
   • student role = student role plus ability to backup any course / activity / resource they want any place within teacher.moodle.org the exception are (2) and (3) above.
   • editing teacher role = able to create categories, create courses, at there whim. within (main courses category) (nearly full freedom of adding, editing, deleting stuff) they simply do not really have much access to "site admin menu" beyond courses / categories.
2. rough draft 1
   • a quote from....https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=282581#p1210855 by Don Hinkelman
     • >> it would be so nice to be able to click in and edit stuff.
     • Can't you? I thought anyone entering the MAJ Hub is an editing teacher. Let me check. Oh, anyone on our hub is "non-editing" teacher. The goal is that anyone who is part of the collaboration team should be able to edit. So I have just elevated you to an editing "Teacher" role on course #59. So I think that is a good model. Teachers who want to collaborate, make a request to the original author to become an editor of the course.
   • a quote from...https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=282581#p1210859 by Dawn Alderson
     • yes-we touch upon collaboration skills here, good. Normally taught around about Year 3/4 age-range 7-9, and over time such skills can be developed for life-long learning....really now, tis true...am not joking like.
     • So when you say Ryan:
     • picking on myself. i type some stuff up. and then Dawn Alderson comes along and re-types it up to make it understandable and not just this thread she has done this. (awesome). but point making is. working together in team fashion. and collaborating. through forums, through email, through messages in moodle, through wiki page discussions, etc...
     • And when Don says:
     • The goal is that anyone who is part of the collaboration team should be able to edit.
   • everyone gets "non editing teacher" much like... http://hub.moodlejapan.org
   • but course creator / owner / initial person, gets "higher rank permission directly on the course" so as to enrol others to a higher rank within course to collaborate within the course. and at same time keep un-needed hackers / and like out of course. and at same time. give a point of reference of who is who, (who to contact about issues for a course), team leader per say.
3. rought draft 2
   • everyone going to teachers.moodle.net and registers is an automatic student / registered user.
   • in order to get "non editing teacher" teacher rights, you need to go through some "course" to pass a quick test. (verification, gathering information doing)
     • https://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=48 = MCCC (Moodle Course Creator Certificate) would most likely be "over kill" and do actual harm. i am not knocking it out, i am just saying not a requirement to create a course, and/or become a non editing teacher. if anything MCCC = some sort of "badge" or something a teacher could display within a course, that they are certified.
     • non editing teacher** have "back up course rights" for "open source courses" (do not need to pay for the courses)
     • paid non editing teacher** for courses that you have to pay for. ((paid for courses placed in another category, and perhaps seperated from open source courses. i do not like this idea. but unsure how to achieve mixing of paid and free / open source courses together.

categories and courses

• curriculum mapping.
• is there need for a catch'em all "MISC course category" were someone can upload courses directly. without going through a lot of hassle?
• is there need for a catch'em all "MISC Activites / resources" course. were folks can upload courses directly, without giong through a lot of hassle?
• if above, i would assume these might be treated as "general help forum" within moodle.org. but for uploading random courses and/or activities / resources.

• open courses (any one can edit?)
• team leader management (those with say course creator roles) within the course. so as to reduce amount of folks that have direct access and could possibly add/edit / delete stuff within a given course.
  • optional open teamed courses
  • optional paid teamed courses
• third party plugins (demo area / category)
• learn moodle category (specific to just using moodle and how to use it as a teacher and like)

naming convention categories / courses

• tied directly to category naming and course naming
• age range
• subject / taxonomy / grid
• icons tied to things. http://fontawesome.io/ in thought.
• goal is for generic curriculum mapping scheme. hopefully without "abbreviations" and/or with abbreviations, after notation of generic notation possibly?
• additional resources....
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Stage
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_stage
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_education_articles_by_country
• reminder non teachers will need to be able to understand this, along with folks outside of a given specific country standardization of naming scheme of things.

naming association=

• quote from https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=282581#p1210528 by John Simpson
  • Don and Justin. Are you saying that this Moodle Association of Japan fits in precisely with what has been discussed in this thread strand 2, and the previous thread of English strand 2?
  • I was thinking more in line with something like an International Independant Association of online Moodle Teachers and Course writers' Association. Something that truly belongs to the teachers that are interested in building an international moodle. Of course if they want to eventually specialise into Moodle Teachers' Association of UK, USA, or Australia, then they could by all means do so in the future.

forums inside course for collaborating

• you all know it, the "news forum" that is automatically created as first activity / resource in a new course.
• simply hide that "news" forum. and instant place to communicate through. for authors of a given course.
• along with go ahead and hide the very initial section as well that holds the news forum. to note hey this is important. and not to get lost with actual content that might be used to dress up a course for students.

technical stuff

current websites / areas within moodle

current websites of moodle

1. http://moodle.net = MoodleHQ version of a hub for everyone to use. (public thing) it is not to easy to use.
   1. the demo sites do not always work, and descriptions are lacking. ((no easy way to view stuff))
   2. the category listings are something to be desired. and are pre-defined. and takes time to see about adding something there. ((long tedious task = not worth it))
2. http://demo.moodle.net = demoing current and latest version of moodle
   1. do what ever, within 1 hour, no harm no foul. and everything will be reset back to a default state (other words mess up as much as you like without fear)
3. http://school.demo.moodle.net = marketing
   1. do what ever, within 1 hour, no harm no foul, and everything will be reset back to a default state
4. http://learn.moodle.net = currently handling actual teaching of how to use moodle.
   1. adding https://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=48 = MCCC (Moodle Course Creator Certificate) to be possibly added to learn.moodle.net

suggestion is between. teachers.moodle.net and/or learn.moodle.net

• differences being teachers = for teachers, and learn = for students.
• for teachers = courses / activities / resources to quickly view, grab and download into there own setup.
• for students = actually going through courses.
• it has been suggested to combine both into a single website. just to promote learn.moodle.net
• secondary thoughts. keeping them separate. if someone wants to create an actual course. they could setup an account / create a course on learn.moodle.net and actually teach the class. while leaving teacher.moodle.net for content developers, course creators, just a simple resource for teachers to grab stuff from. so as extra "education talk" does not confuse the students at say learn.moodle.net
• i could easily see someone going to learn.moodle.net and getting confused with "teacher portion" and having all there identification information shown to the world. and/or getting frustrated of what is and what is not available to them.

additional suggestions

• http://teachers.moodle.net
• http://forteachers.moodle.net
• http://content.modole.net
• http://moodle.net/content = perhaps tie directly into moodle.net as it being already a hub.

hub.teachers.moodle.net

• could possible be added along side of moodle.net for direct access from some school install of moodle. so a teacher could easily upload / download a course / activity / resource without actually having to visit teachers.moodle.net
• having ability to add "hubs" to select from within teachers.moodle.net, i would say thumbs down. goal is to bring folks and resources into teachers.moodle.net vs spread them out over multi things. though idea still possible. it would be one of them, it requires "management approval" like doings. due to information is added within "site admin menu"

LTI provider

would LTI provider be a good or bad thing?

• a good thing for learn.moodle.net but what about teachers.moodle.net?
• i can see teachers latching onto a course through LTI provider, and bring it into through own course at there school. and then suddenly having a bunch of student data being placed into the eyes of many folks, that purposely have "editing teacher or above". to add / create / edit courses / activities / resources.
• if LTI provider keeps stuff randomized and does not give specific student details. not an issue. BUT as soon as a students types in "my name is __fill in blank___" trouble. for some game or activity. i could easily see this in some preschool / kindergarten game or some activity. and some how this info being captured.
• my suggestion, if a teacher wants to link to something on teachers.moodle.net they either need to move it over to learn.moodle.net, or backup/restore it into there own local moodle installation at there school.
• perhaps a Terms and Conditions / Code of Ethics / WARNING THIS ACTIVITY CAPTURES STUDENT INFORMATION via a label or something about an activity.

LTI provider linking to stuff outside of teachers.moodle.net

• copyrighted stuff = a no no. a no brainier.
• but what about to other open source / creative commons stuff?
• is there want to move stuff to teachers.moodle.net or simply to provide courses / activities / resources teachers can use and add/edit and they need?

handling multi languages

this is more specific towards "learning secondary language" and overall folks knowing another language but english.

• http://lang.moodle.org = translation / translators for moodle.
• how to handle this? suggestion "world map" examples: http://www.deere.com or http://www.newholland.com
• i am going to assume the work translators have done. for the various languages would need to be installed on given site.

Third party plugins = moodle 1 versions behind latest release of current moodle

Example...

• current release = https://download.moodle.org/releases/latest/
• example: 1 version behind = https://download.moodle.org/releases/supported/
• 1 version behind = support for more third party plugins at https://moodle.org/plugins
• other words it takes time for third party developers to keep there plugins up to date, being slightly behind on latest and greatest is to make sure more third party plugins are available and installed.
• more third party plugins = more options to create content in different ways. (moodle core plugins, are not enough, and there be reason for third party plugins to fill the gap)

third party plugin (activity -> database) within site

• currently on local test server
• simply going through moodle.org/plugins and copy/pasting into an activity -> database
• looking at http://hub.moodlejapan.org and taking into reference other websites i have came across. a list of third party plugins is going to be needed / maintained.
• i have no reference points about these plugins and there usage. (they have been made, and they show signs folks are downloading / using them. all i can do at this point. is reference the information. so as to be able to perhaps "auto link" this courses requires, A,B,C,D, J through M, and Y plugins. at same time give folks a notation of what is currently installed in the T&L site

discussion thread

Home ► Moodle in English ► General ► Teaching with Moodle ► Strand 2: wanting to look at some actual courses dealing with "english" ryan sanders Wednesday, February 25, 2015,