MoodleDocs - Contribucions de l'usuari [ca]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T18:24:47Z

Gtielemans: /* Xerte OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== Xerte OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===

The Xerte Project provides a full suite of open source tools for elearning developers and content authors producing interactive learning materials.

Standalone tool: Xerte http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/

Online tool: Toolkits http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/toolkits.htm

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T17:22:44Z

Gtielemans: /* Xerte OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== Xerte OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===

Standalone tool: Xerte http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/

Online tool: Toolkits http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/toolkits.htm

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T17:21:56Z

Gtielemans: /* eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== Xerte OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===

Standalone tool: Xerte

Online tool: toolkits

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T16:54:45Z

Gtielemans: /* Reload */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T16:54:30Z

Gtielemans: /* Courselab */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T16:53:22Z

Gtielemans: /* MOS Solo */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T16:53:02Z

Gtielemans: /* Reload */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Tools for creating SCORM content

2009-10-11T16:52:35Z

Gtielemans: /* Open source */

{{Scorm}}
Here is a list of tools to create SCORM packages, both open source and commercial. Moodle is a modular authoring tool for courses but at this time does not create SCORM packages.

==Free==
=== eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package ===
The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

=== MyUdutu ===
Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

=== MOS Solo ===
SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

==Commercial==
===Articulate===
Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

===Coral Presenter===
With Coral Presenter, a plugin for PowerPoint, users can easily add audio and video files, as well as quizzes to create more engaging and interactive e-learning presentations. A ribbon menu, slide-level call-outs, attachments and links, custom tabs and one-click publishing are just some of the unique features of Coral Presenter. Coral will convert your content to Flash format and bundle all neccessary files and data for publishing to Moodle or any other SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. Completion tracking can be set either by number of slides viewed or by quiz scores.

Coral Presenter was developed to work with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint XP and PowerPoint 2003. Download a free trial at http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php.

===Camtasia===
This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

=== Captivate ===
Adobe's Captivate software allows you to create fully functioning interactive lessons with quizzes, scoring, and integration (via SCORM) with Moodle. You can create anything from a simple slide show, to a complete branching software simulation or evaluation, all delivered via Flash without learning any code. It is the most straight-forward package and makes it a lot of fun to work with - even adding closed-captioning is really easy! Adobe have a page on Captivate here: [http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/] - the latest version is Captivate 4.

=== ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality ===
Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

* Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
* Select SCORM option within software
* Generates single .zip file
* Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
* Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
* Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

=== Courselab ===
CourseLab is a free program but is not open source. Feb 2009 current version is 2.4. Received an eLearnings Best of 2007 award.

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

[http://www.courselab.com/ CourseLab home page]

=== iSpring PRESENTER ===

iSpring PRESENTER works as a PowerPoint addin and transforms your regular PowerPoint presentation into SCORM compliant Flash course ready for publishing to LMSs. It also provides you with a QuizBuilder to enhance your presentation or course with engaging interactive quizzes. So you can create a winning course, and also vivify it with video narrations. Generated Flash movies provide ActionScript API, so you have total programmatic control of presentation navigation and playback.

http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/presenter_master.html

=== Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office ===
Works with licensed Microsoft Office and is a free add on, last upgraded 2007.

"With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

"The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

"Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office."

:Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en Microsoft's Learning Essentials homepage]

=== Microsoft Learning Development System ===
Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create SCORM resources using drag and drop.

"The LCDS is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia."

This is an internal Microsoft tool. Has a few bugs and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

[http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx Microsoft's page for LCDS updated to 2.2 on Jan 2009]

=== QuizCreator ===
QuizCreator is a powerful Flash quiz maker that enables trainers and educators to easily create SCORM compliant Flash quizzes with images, sounds, narrations and Flash animations to engage learners through the learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting toolkit.

It supports 9 question types:True/ False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response,Fill in the Blank, Drag and Drop-Matching,Drag and Drop-Sequences,Word Bank,Click Map and Essay. You could publish you quiz for Flash, Word, Excel or LMS.

[http://www.quiz-creator.com/ QuizCreator]

=== Reload ===
Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

=== ToolBook ===
[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook. see http://www.toolbook.com

=== TutorAuthor NG ===
TutorPro's TutorAuthor NG is a professional software application for quickly creating interactive lessons, training, demonstrations, and simulations. Anyone who needs to develop online product demonstrations, software simulations for e-learning, or online tutorials for user support will find TutorAuthor NG an ideal solution. TutorAuthor NG includes everything you need to capture actions in any application and instantly create a 3D life like simulation. The application is equally at home creating 'soft-skill' tutorials such as new employee introductions, company policy, in fact anything that can be taught electronically.

If you use TutorAuthor NG to create e-learning content, you can add realistic, fully interactive question slides, buttons, click boxes, and text entry boxes, and much more. TutorAuthor NG is SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, allowing effortless integration with any compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

More information can be found at http://www.tutorpro.com/Products/TutorAuthor_Next_Generation_

=== Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie) ===

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

=== Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional ===
Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle.
Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free '''trial''' version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.
* Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
* There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
* Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
* Click "Convert" button
* Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
* Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
* Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

===QuizForce===
QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

===WordForce===
WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

===PowerPointForce===
PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes.
SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site:
http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

===PointeCast===
PointeCast Publisher is a PowerPoint plug-in that automatically converts your PowerPoint XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 presentations into a highly compressed Flash presentation. The Pro version allows you to import and edit audio, import video, and create quizzes and surveys. It's SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. It seems close to Articulate Presenter in terms of functionality but at considerably less cost. Free 15 day trial available from site:
http://www.pointecast.com/products/publisher-overview.html

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?] forum discussion

[[de:Autorenwerkzeuge]]

Broken/Setting up Eclipse

2009-08-13T08:00:35Z

Gtielemans: /* Eclipse and whitespace */

Really nice work, Tim, thanks! I've been through and I'm trying it out. [[User:Martin Dougiamas|Martin Dougiamas]] 09:05, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

----

The stuff about changing editors under General -> Editors -> File Associations doesn't work any more if an Eclipse plugin has 'locked' a file type or content type. Not sure how to fix this
--[[User:Andy Baker|Andy Baker]] 06:40, 28 November 2006 (CST)

Hopefully it will be the PHP plugin, and it will have locked *.php to the setting you want anyway. If not, can you tell us exactly what you are seeing.[[User:Tim Hunt|Tim Hunt]] 04:24, 29 November 2006 (CST)

== Problems with Ubuntu 6.10... ==

I'd really like to switch completely to Linux and Eclipse on my Moodle developments. However, I can't get the PHPEclipse plug-in to work with Eclipse 3.2 that came with Ubuntu 6.10. After the Eclipse restart required by the "add . to the include path" tweak, the "PHPEclipse stuff" is gone from the menus (forgot what it said), and when I try to open a PHP file in Eclipse I get:
"Failed to execute runnable (java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: net.sourceforge.phpeclipse.phpeditor.PHPUnitEditor)" and "Unhandled event loop exception"... Going to Google around a bit, but there seems to be a lot of other issues with the JVM also: Eclipse crashed when I tried to search the help, for example. --[[User:Samuli Karevaara|Samuli Karevaara]] 04:07, 20 December 2006 (CST)
:Just reporting that now the error message has changed to "Problems occurred when invoking code from plug-in: "org.eclipse.jface"." or I was reading the wrong part of the error log before... --[[User:Samuli Karevaara|Samuli Karevaara]] 04:11, 20 December 2006 (CST)
:One headache later I was able to get Eclipse to open the PHP files. Apparently it was about the Java Runtime Environment version after all. I had "sun-java5-bin : Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0" package installed but it didn't help. After completely removing everything "Java 1.4" ("j2re1.4" and friends) and upgrading "libgjc" packages I got it to work. I reeeeally not a friend of Java versioning and library packaging! --[[User:Samuli Karevaara|Samuli Karevaara]] 06:05, 20 December 2006 (CST)

== Ubuntu Eclipse Improvements ==

Just found this:
http://wiki.liferay.com/index.php/Liferay_Development_Environment:_Ubuntu_Linux#Eclipse_IDE

It may help a bit.

There is a problem wiht the different java VM. If you set that the vm is the one of sun it must be like this everywere
I did that:

$ sudo aptitude install eclipse-sdk

Remove any reference to gcj in
/etc/eclipse/java_home.

edit the file /usr/bin/eclipse and comment

-Dgnu.gcj.precompiled.db.path=/var/lib/gcj-4.1/classmap.db et
-Dgnu.gcj.runtime.VMClassLoader.library_control=never.

For me now eclipse runs with no problem

== Prefs file missing? ==

Working through this bit:

Open the file net.sourceforge.phpeclipse.ui.prefs that is in the directory (your
workspace)/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings in a text editor.

the file is not there. net.sourceforge.phpeclipse.prefs is present, but does not have the line described.

Also,

Under Team -> CVS -> SSH2 Connection Method,

this path does not exist (working on Xandros with linux eclipse)

[[User:Matt Gibson|Matt Gibson]] 16:48, 17 January 2008 (CST)

== net.sourcegorge.phpeclipse.ui.prefs ==

Note that in the documentation is:
- Look for a line in the file that starts _php_include_paths= '''If it is not there, add it at the end'''.

In my case, it was nothing there, so I add the line
_php_include_paths=.
and work.

== Under Team -> CVS -> SSH2 Connection Method ==

I found this to be '''General -> Network Connections -> SSH2 -> Key Management''' (the documentation is updated).

After generating a DSA key, and following the rest of the instructions, I finally finish setting up Eclipse.

== Eclipse and whitespace ==

(Moving this out of main page, so as not to confuse people with discussion...) I suggested ... Under '''General -> Compare/Patch''', turn on '''Ignore white space''' if you plan to exchange patches with other developers or send patches on the tracker. This will make patches smaller and easier to compare. [[User:Mathieu Petit-Clair|Mathieu Petit-Clair]] 20:28, 25 June 2008 (CDT)

Tim replied: but that is a very bad idea. Whitespace is important, you should not change it unnecessarily, and so whitespace changes should be included in patches.''

You've got good point there, whitespace is significant. But Eclipse seems to remove trailing space (eg. at the end of lines) by itself, and this makes patches I receive from Eclipse users impossible to apply after a few days of hacking in cvs head. :( Is there a way to tell Eclipse not to remove whitespace by itself? I really like to work with patches, but when they're twice as big as they should be and don't apply, it makes it a nightmare... [[User:Mathieu Petit-Clair|Mathieu Petit-Clair]] 20:28, 25 June 2008 (CDT)

Tim: There is a setting for remove trailing whitespace, but I don't know where it is. My Eclipse does not remove whitespace. Eclipse 3.3 has the option to display whitespace, which makes it easy to see what is going on, and is nice. What would be really nice is a "Remove whitespace from lines I have edited only" option.

Ger: whitespaces: window>>preferences>>php>>save actions>> check "Remove trailing whitespace (choose: radiobutton "ignore empty lines" ?)

== Eclipse 3.4 ==

Just trying this out on a Mac and the interface details seem quite a bit different. I don't know if this is because it's the Mac version or a newer version of Eclipse. Anyway, I've added comments as appropriate in the text --[[User:Howard Miller|Howard Miller]] 03:45, 2 July 2008 (CDT)

== Setting up Eclipse PDT for Ubuntu 8.04 64bit (Hardy Heron) ==

Eclipse PDT is only available in a 32bit build but if you have a 64bit installation of Ubuntu you are likely to be using a 64bit version of java.
This means that eclipse PDT will try to open via 64bit java and it wont work.

Here is the solution (based on http://dmartin.org/weblog/eclipse-on-ubuntu-linux-for-amd64):

1) Install a 32 bit version of java. Open a new console and enter 'sudo apt-get install ia32-sun-java5-bin'
2) Download eclipse PDT 32 bit version from http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/downloads/ (select linux)
3) Extract the downloaded eclipse archive to $HOME/applications (obviously you can put it somewhere else if you like). You will now have $HOME/applications/eclipse as a directory
4) In the newly extracted eclipse directory, create a file called eclipse.sh
5) Edit eclipse.sh and add the following:

#!/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/ia32-java-1.5.0-sun/bin:$PATH
$HOME/applications/eclipse

6) Now open a console and enter 'cd $HOME/applications/eclipse' then enter 'chmod +x eclipse.sh'
7) You can now run eclipse 32 bit from this folder by entering './eclipse.sh' in to the console. You can also create a desktop shortcut to this $HOME/applications/eclipse/eclipse.sh if you wish.

Hope this helps someone.

DragMath equation editor

2008-10-20T22:02:03Z

Gtielemans: /* Installing DragMath From the Moodle CVS - Recommended! */

===Introduction===
To quote the W3C [http://www.w3.org/Math/Software/mathml_software_cat_editors.html]:
This is an open-source drag and drop equation editor written in Java.
Once an expression is created the user can convert it into a variety
of different linear syntax for mathematics, including MathML, LaTeX,
Maple, Maxima or any user defined style.
Created by Christoper Sangwin and Alexander Billingsley at the University of Birmingham as part of the [http://www.stack.bham.ac.uk STACK project], DragMath allows students to build mathematical expressions using a graphical drag-and-drop interface similar in appearance to that available in a number of office productivity suites.

Initially integrated with Moodle to be used with Moodle's Tex filter, the export feature available with DragMath has now allowed an integration that supports the creation of LaTex text expressions with and without the doubledollar signs used to signal parsing by the filter as well as AsciiMathML text expressions.

To use DragMath, users must have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.5 or higher installed on their desktop computers. Most systems come with the JRE as standard equipment, so you may not have to do anything. If you need to install the JRE manually, you can download it from [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp here]. Note that the JRE is variously known as Java software for your computer, Java Runtime Environment, the Java Runtime, Runtime Environment, Runtime, Java Virtual Machine, Virtual Machine, Java VM, JVM, VM, or Java download.

You can see a demo of the DragMath editor [http://www.dragmath.bham.ac.uk/ here]. The DragMath interface is highly intuitive and anyone can be using it productively after a few minutes of trial-and-error. If you have questions about the editor, there is a short manual [http://www.dragmath.bham.ac.uk/doc/index.html here].

===How the DragMath editor has been integrated with Moodle===

[[Category:Mathematics]]
DragMath is integrated with Moodle through a new button on the editor toolbar. This way, the DragMath editor is available everywhere that you or your students are called upon to enter text. '''Please note:''' The DragMath editor does not come supplied with Moodle. You (or your administrator) will have to install it. The following comments are targeted at the single file install, which has retained the beloved smileys.

====Getting Started====
Suppose that you're entering text in the HTML editor and you reach a point where you want to insert a mathematical expression. You want to be able to show the tedxt expression you would use to create an equations as well as the equations itself. Pushing the DragMath button launches the DragMath editor in a small popup window (Note: the first time you do this, there will be a delay of a few seconds due to applet initialization).

====Create the math expression in DragMath====
Drag the various graphic constituents of your equation into the construction area until the equation is to your satisfaction.

====Save the expression====
From the Menu Bar click File->Save As or click on the floppy icon. Provide a local location where you want to save the equation and the applet stores the equation there in a .dgrm file.

====Select Export Format====
From the Menu Bar click Options->Set Export Format. If you want to insert the text expression for a tex formula, select LaTex. If you wish to insert the text expression with the doubledollar toeksn so that the expression will be converted by the moodle tex filter, select MoodleTex (this will likely be the default choice in your applet). If you have replaced your tex filter with the ASCIIMathML filter, select ASCIIMathML.

====Insert the expression====
Click the "Insert button" and you're done. The editor will disappear and the output you selected will be inserted. If you chose MoodleTex, the LaTeX expression (with $$ delimiters added at both ends) will be inserted into your text at the current cursor position. Note the screen shot below. This demonstrates the results when you have selected MoodleTex to insert the equation in your work. '''Note ASCIIMathML users:''' the ASCIIMathML.xml file currently has backtics set as tokens. You can edit that file to use the auto nomenclature if you choose

====Altering Applet Parameters====
In the case of HTMLarea, the applet parameters are set in dlg_ins_dragmath.php which can be found in moodleroot/lib/editor/htmlarea/popups . Should you wish to change the default export format or implement additional parameters after reviewing the DragMath documentation, please remember to back up a copy of your original file. The various XML export formats, which you can customize (with care) can be found at moodleroot/lib/editor/htmlarea/plugins/applet/classes/formats and the xml configuration file, Config.xml, in classes.

[[Image:Dragmath_instructions.png|DragMath instructions]]

===Installing DragMath===

You can [https://docs.moodle.org/en/DragMath_equation_editor#Installing_DragMath_From_the_Moodle_CVS install dragmath] using the CVS zip. DragMath has become so popular, that it is now offered in a simgle zip that includes not only the integration files (at least for htmlarea for the present and with smileys) but the current DragMath files as well. For the user this means that one can simply download one zip file, place it in the moodle root and unzip.

This method is different than previously used. Beware of relying on forum postings on dragmath posted prior to March 2007 as they may be addressing files and methods no longer in use. You may also find a variety of development code in the forums regarding use of dragmath with a number of editors. Some of this may work and some may not. Use at your own risk!

DragMath may eventually become core technology in Moodle, meaning that as of a certain version no installation may be required, but installation instructions will continue to remain so as to support older versions as long as feasible.

====Installing DragMath From the Moodle CVS - Recommended!====

This could not be easier. If you are running verion 1.9.+ [http://download.moodle.org/patches19/dragmath.zip click here] or if you are running Moodle version 1.8.4 or greater but not 1.9.x [http://download.moodle.org/patches18/dragmath.zip click here]
and you will start the download of the zip file (at present there are no differences between the two versions.

At this point you can unzip on your workstation and then you can upload the included files to their appropriate locations ('''but read the warning below first'''). This version retains the smileys and includes all integration files and all DragMath files (demos, docs, and all export formats) The Moodle automagically creates the zip with a parent directory of "dragmath". Should you wish you can unzip the files and then rezip with the top level directory being /lib, and this will allow you to simply upload the zip you just created to your moodle root and unzip there, and the files will be placed in their appropriate locations. However, please DO NOT include the adminlib.php file and make sure all files are backed up, and in as much as there are only a few files you may want to manually install even if a zip with /lib as top directory were provided here just to ensure each file is backed up before installation. Upload the zip file to your Moodle root and unzip.

'''Warning:''' At present the zip file includes a version of adminlib.php. This file is included because there is a line added to it that allows you to hide the dragmath icon. Don;t ask why you might want to hide the dragmath icon from all users after you have gone through all the effort to install dragmath. In any event, the included adminlib.php should '''NOT''' be used with Moodle 1.8.2 and it is recommended that you not use it with 1.9.x either.

If you are using 1.8 '''DO NOT''' over write your adminlib.php. Install the rest of the files (other than adminlib.php) and DragMath will work without a problem. The same applies if you are using 1.9.x.

If you insist that have to be able to hide your dragmath icon, save your existing copy of adminlib.php (you will find it in the /lib directory) and insert this line:
'insertdragmath' => 'em.icon.dragmath.gif',

below this line:
'insertsmile' => 'em.icon.smile.gif',

and save. The line can really be placed anywhere in that array, but by providing a specific location it will help when addressing requests for assistance in hiding buttons. And, having taken the time to explore this beautiful little array, you can now alter your button images to your hearts content!

'''Warning 2:''' When you install DragMmath in 1.9.x, you must also visit the admin page of the HTML-editor and swith the editorhidebuttons off for the insertdragmath button. (default hide is on after install)

You may ask, what about altering the adminlib.php file in the CVS or providing a patch? [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-16280 This was raised and you can vote on it.] Let's get real here folks, we are talking about one line which could be added to adminlib.php at 1.8.4 or later without any other impact. Is it really necessary to provide a separate adminlib.php for dragmath everytime someone changes adminlib.php in the core? If you have an opinion on this please edit the page comments on this and provide your input as to whether adminlib.php should just be dropped from the dragmath distribution.

===Locally saving and restoring a DragMath expression===
When you press the Insert button, DragMath inserts the export string into your text and the DragMath window closes. ''The exported string can no longer be manipulated using DragMath.'' If you decide to change the string, you have two options:
*delete the string (including the dollar signs or other token) and completely recreate it using DragMath
*edit the expression by hand
You can not tell DragMath to re-read the expression and show it again in two dimensions. This is a theoretical limitation, not a limitation of DragMath.

But suppose the expression is very complicated. It would be impractical to start over just to make a simple change. Before you Insert the expression, you can save a copy of the expression (a .drgm file) to your local disk using the Save button (see screenshot). Later, if you need to make a change, you open the saved .drgm file.

[[Image:Dragmath_save_and_restore.png|DragMath instructions]]

A .drgm file contains three-dimensional representation of your mathematical expression. It is a binary file that can only be opened by DragMath.

===Development===
====Square brackets====
Use of text expressions in the Moodle Wiki can create problems when the text expression includes square brackets, which is how TeX expresses the nth root. Pending a simple wiki based solution users may want to use the ASCIIMathML filter and the ASCIIMathML export format as this combination avoids the use of square brackets.

====Consistent integration with all html editors====
The Moodle discussion regarding html editors suggests that it will be important for DragMath to have consistent integration with a variety of html editors as htmlarea passes into obsolescence. Plugins for tinyMCE, Xinha and FCKEditor with a similar structure and common codebase are ready and compatible with all browsers that support javascript and Java.

====Additional formats====
There are quite a few options now available for creating text expressions to for displaying equations and moodle functionality can only be increased if tools were able to create and parse expressions created by the tools a user is most comfortable with. ASCIIMathML is one tool now available as a filter for Moodle that allows the parsing of both TeX and its own ASCIIMathML text expression syntax. Microsoft has now launched its OMML initiative in Office 2007 (see footnotes on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML and OpenOffice employs its own text expression syntax (the OOo syntax is described at http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/0216WG-MathObjects.pdf).
The ability to have DragMath create text expressions that can be used in native documents as well as parsed by filters such as ASCIIMathML will help make use of equations on-line more transparent for everyone.

[[ca:DragMath_editor_d%27equacions]]

Metadata

2006-11-24T21:14:29Z

Gtielemans: /* Examples of LOM application profile */

== Introduction ==

The aim of this page is to define the LOM application profile for Moodle courses (MoodleCore).

It's based on [http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/files/LOM_1484_12_1_v1_Final_Draft.pdf IEEE 1484.12.1-2002 LOM FINAL DRAFT STANDARD].

"An application profile is an assemblage of metadata elements selected from one or more metadata schemas and combined in a compound schema. Application profiles provide the means to express principles of modularity and extensibility. The purpose of an application profile is to adapt or combine existing schemas into a package that is tailored to the functional requirements of a particular application, while retaining
interoperability with the original base schemas". [http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april02/weibel/04weibel.html Metadata Principles and Practicalities]

== Examples of LOM application profile ==
[http://www.ariadne-eu.org/common/docs/MappingBetweenAriadneAndLomV1.pdf ARIADNE] (Moodle has a plugin for Ariadne)

[http://www.cancore.ca/ CanCore]

[http://www.cetis.ac.uk/profiles/uklomcore UKCore]

[http://goedel.uiah.fi/projects/calibrate/attachment/wiki/MetadataStandards/CELEB_app_profile.pdf Celebrate]

== MoodleCore ==
{| border="3" padding="4"
|+ MoodleCore Base Schema
! Nr
! Name
! Size
! Use in MoodleCore
! Example
! Default Value
|-----
| '''1'''
| '''General'''
| 1
| Mandatory
| -
|-----
| 1.1
| Identifier
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for 1 item
| -
|-----
| 1.1.1
| Catalog
| 1
| Mandatory
| "URI"
|URI
|-----
| 1.1.2
| Entry
| 1
| Mandatory
| <nowiki>"http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5"</nowiki>
| The URI of the resource
|-----
| 1.2
| Title
| 1
| Mandatory
| ("en","Using Moodle")
| The title of the resource
|-----
| 1.3
| Language
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for 1 item
| "en","es_ES","fr_CA"
| The language of the user that edits this metadata or the course to which the metadata belongs
|-----
| 1.4
| Description
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Optional
| ("en,"The best course for using Moodle")
| In most resources and activities, the user fill it. This value fits this metadata, but it's HTML coded :S
|-----
| 1.5
| Keyword
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for at least 1 item
| ("en","Learning Management System")
|
|-----
| 1.6
| Coverage
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Not present
|
|
|-----
| 1.7
| Structure
| 1
| Mandatory

"collection" for topics and weekly format
"hierarchical" for social format
| "collection"
| it matches with course format chosen by the teacher
|-----
| 1.8
| Aggregation Level
| 1
| Mandatory

"3" for a course
| "3"
| "3"
|-----
| '''2'''
| '''LifeCycle'''
| 1
| Mandatory
| -
|
|-----
| 2.1
| Version
| 1
| Optional
| ("en","1.0")
|
|-----
| 2.2
| Status
| 1
| Optional
| ("en","final")
|
|-----
| 2.3
| Contribute
| Smallest permitted maximum 30 items
| Mandatory for at least 1 author
| -
|
|-----
| 2.3.1
| Role
| 1
| Mandatory
| "author"
"publisher"
"unknown"
| author
|-----
| 2.3.2
| Entity
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Mandatory
| "BEGIN:VCARD\nFN:Martin Dougiamas\nNICKNAME:moodler\nTITLE:Lead developer of Moodle\nEMAIL\;TYPE=INTERNET:martin@moodle.com\nEND:VCARD\n"
| Teacher's profile stored in database.
|-----
| 2.3.3
| Date
| 1
| Optional
| "2006-06-14"
| the current date
|-----
| '''3'''
| '''Meta-Metadata'''
| 1
| Mandatory
| -
|
|-----
| 3.1
| Identifier
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for 1 item
| -
|
|-----
| 3.1.1
| Catalog
| 1
| Mandatory
| "URI"
| URI
|-----
| 3.1.2
| Entry
| 1
| Mandatory
| <nowiki>"http://moodle.org/course/metadata.php?id=5"</nowiki>
| The URI of the metadata
|-----
| 3.2
| Contribute
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for at least 1 creator
| -
|
|-----
| 3.2.1
| Role
| 1
| Mandatory
| "creator"
| Creator
|-----
| 3.2.2
| Entity
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory
| "BEGIN:VCARD\nFN:Martin Dougiamas\nNICKNAME:moodler\nTITLE:Lead developer of Moodle\nEMAIL\;TYPE=INTERNET:martin@moodle.com\nEND:VCARD\n"
| Teacher's profile stored in database.
|-----
| 3.2.3
| Date
| 1
| Optional
| "2006-06-14"
| Current date
|-----
| 3.3
| Metadata Schema
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for MoodleCore
| "MoodleCorev1.0"
| "MoodleCorev1.0"
|-----
| 3.4
| Language
| 1
| Mandatory
| "en"
| current user language
|-----
| '''4'''
| '''Technical'''
| 1
| Mandatory
| -
|
|-----
| 4.1
| Format
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Not present
| -
|
|-----
| 4.2
| Size
| 1
| Mandatory

The calculated size of the backup file
| "235689"
|
|-----
| 4.3
| Location
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory
| <nowiki>"http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5"</nowiki>
| URI of the resource.
|-----
| 4.4
| Requirement
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.4.1
| OrComposite
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.4.1.1
| Type
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.4.1.2
| Name
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.4.1.3
| Minimum Version
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.4.1.4
| Maximum Version
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.5
| Installation Remarks
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.6
| Other Platform Requirements
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| 4.7
| Duration
| 1
| Not present
| -
|-----
| '''5'''
| '''Educational'''
| Smallest permitted maximum 100 items
| Mandatory
| -
|-----
| 5.1
| Interactivity Type
| 1
| Mandatory

mixed for a Moodle course
| "mixed"
| "mixed"
|-----
| 5.2
| Learning Resource Type
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Not Present
| -
|-----
| 5.3
| Interactivity Level
| 1
| Mandatory

"very high" for a Moodle course
| "very high"
| "very high"
|-----
| 5.4
| Semantic Density
| 1
| Optional
| "medium"

"very high"
|-----
| 5.5
| Intended End User Role
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory

"learner" for a Moodle course
| "learner"
|-----
| 5.6
| Context
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Optional
| ("LOMv1.0","school")

("LOMv1.0","higher education")

("LOMv1.0","training")
|-----
| 5.7
| Typical Age Range
| Smallest permitted maximum 5 items
| Optional
| "7-9"

("en","adults only")
|-----
| 5.8
| Difficulty
| 1
| Optional
| "very easy"

"very difficult"
|-----
| 5.9
| Typical Learning Time
| 1
| Optional
| "PT1H30M"
|-----
| 5.10
| Description
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Optional
| ("en","Use social activities if you have some troubles")
|-----
| 5.11
| Language
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Optional
| "en"
| user default language
|-----
| '''6'''
| '''Rights'''
| 1
| Mandatory
| -
|-----
| 6.1
| Cost
| 1
| Mandatory
| "yes"

"no"
| "no"
|-----
| 6.2
| Copyright and Other Restrictions
| 1
| Mandatory
| "yes"

"no"
| "no"
|-----
| 6.3
| Description
| 1
| Optional
| ("en","Use of this learning object is only permitted after a donation has been made to moodle.com")
|-----
| '''7'''
| '''Relation'''
| Smallest permitted maximum 100 items
| Optional
| -
|-----
| 7.1
| Kind
| 1
| Mandatory
| "isrequiredby"
|-----
| 7.2
| Resource
| 1
| Mandatory
| -
|-----
| 7.2.1
| Identifier
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Mandatory for at least 1 item
| -
|-----
| 7.2.1.1
| Catalog
| 1
| Mandatory
| "URI"
|-----
| 7.2.1.2
| Entry
| 1
| Mandatory
| <nowiki>"http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=20"</nowiki>
|-----
| 7.2.2
| Description
| Smallest permitted maximum 10 items
| Optional
| ("en","Using Moodle in french")
|-----
| '''8'''
| '''Annotation'''
| Smallest permitted maximum 30 items
| Optional
| -
|-----
| 8.1
| Entity
| 1
| Mandatory
| "BEGIN:VCARD\nFN:Martin Dougiamas\nNICKNAME:moodler\nTITLE:Lead developer of Moodle\nEMAIL\;TYPE=INTERNET:martin@moodle.com\nEND:VCARD\n"
| User's profile stored in the database
|-----
| 8.2
| Date
| 1
| Mandatory
| "2006-06-14"
| current date
|-----
| 8.3
| Description
| 1
| Mandatory
| ("en","I really enjoy using this course")
|-----
| '''9'''
| '''Classification'''
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Optional but recommended
| -
|-----
| 9.1
| Purpose
| 1
| Not present
|
|-----
| 9.2
| Taxon Path
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Mandatory for at least 1 item
| -
|-----
| 9.2.1
| Source
| 1
| Mandatory
| ("en","ARIADNE")
|-----
| 9.2.2
| Taxon
| Smallest permitted maximum 15 items
| Mandatory for at least 1 item
| -
|-----
| 9.2.2.1
| Id
| 1
| Mandatory
| "12"
|-----
| 9.2.2.2
| Entry
| 1
| Mandatory
| ("en","Exact, Natural and Engineering Sciences")
|-----
| 9.3
| Description
| 1
| Not present
|
|-----
| 9.4
| Keyword
| Smallest permitted maximum 40 items
| Not present
|
|-----
|}

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=46942 Metadata Moodle] forum discussion
[[Category:Developer]]
[[Category:Metadata]]

Latest release notes

2006-10-18T13:15:33Z

Gtielemans: /* Known Problems */

{{About Moodle}}

==Moodle 1.8==
Under development, this version is not recommended for production sites yet, and is only for testing.

==Moodle 1.7==

Under final test phase, the stable release expected soon. Moodle 1.7 Development is now available from CVS or the [http://download.moodle.org Moodle download page]. This version is not recommended for production sites yet.

[http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10120&styleName=Html&projectId=10011&Create=Create This page shows details about issues resolved in this version]

===Headline features===

* [[Roles]]
:: Permissions based on fine-grained capabilities allow all kinds of roles to be created and assigned in all contexts around Moodle. This creates a great deal more flexibility in the permissions that you can grant to people.
* [[XML database schema]]
:: added support for MS-SQL and Oracle with more databases to come. Developers now have just one XML file to edit when changing the database structure, and there is even a very funky editor for this file built-in to Moodle
* New Admin interface
:: Completely new admin interface, with accessible design and cool features to make access to settings fast and easy.
* AJAX Course editing
:: The Topics and Weekly course formats now feature AJAX editing which means you can drag drop blocks, activities and sections (weeks/topics) and it all happens instantly. No more page reloading!
* [[Unit tests|Unit testing framework]]
:: Making it easier for developers to write test code, which should ultimately lead to a more reliable Moodle.

*[[Authorize.net Payment Gateway]] enrolment plugin
::Accepts 'Electronic Checks (ACH)'. After a user approving echeck, the admin who has upload csv capacity must import a CSV file to get the user enrol in Payment Management page.

===Other improvements===

* Improvements to the [[Database module]]
**Template/Field settings can now be saved as Presets and shared across a site.
**Presets are just zip files, and can also be shared between sites.
**Moodle 1.7 comes with one sample preset (an Image Gallery) with more to come.
**New latitude/longitude data type

* Improvements to the [[Lesson module]]
**Now has a more unified view of lesson screens.
**Teacher editing:
***Collapsed view has a nicer format, displays more information regarding each page and allows the creation of new pages.
***Editing is now speedier by replacing 3 second redirect delays with a notification system.
**New feature: display default feedback.
***Default is '''On''' so previous lessons behave as before.
***Description: if no ''response'' is entered for a question answer and this setting is turned '''Off''', then the user skips the feedback page.
**Graceful degrade of JavaScript.
**Several bug fixes.

* Improvements to the [[Quiz module]]
:* The teacher can configure comments that are displayed to the student at the end of their attempt, with the comment displayed depending on the student's score.

* Improvements to some core question types
:* All question types can now have some general feedback. This is displayed to all students after they have finished the question (depending on the quiz settings) and does not depend on what response the student gave. Use this to tell the student what the question was about, or link them to more information about the topic it covers.
:* [[Matching question type|Matching]] questions can have extra wrong answers, and work when two questions have the same answer.
:* [[Multiple Choice question type|Multiple Choice]] questions can have feedback for the whole question, as well as specific answers. This is particularly useful for multiple-response questions.
:* [[Numerical question type|Numerical]] questions can have different answers with different precisions and scores. (Previously this was only supported via GIFT import. Now you can edit questions like this.)

==Moodle 1.6.3==
10th October, 2006

[http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10140&styleName=Text&projectId=10011 Full details of these issues can be found in the tracker]

===Security Bugfix===
* A vulnerability was discovered that could allow SQL injections if a parameter was improperly used. Full details of this particular issue are on the [http://security.moodle.org/ Moodle Security site]. All registered Moodle admins were notified by direct email on Saturday September 30th.

===General Bugs Fixed===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3048 MDL-3048] ] - Release note should note not to use some PHP versions
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3805 MDL-3805] ] - mod.html in NEWMODULE.zip is not XHTML1.0 Transitional compliant
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5378 MDL-5378] ] - shorten_text doesn't work for oriental languages
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5601 MDL-5601] ] - cloze question restore error problem
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5884 MDL-5884] ] - Turn Student View On
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5893 MDL-5893] ] - Blackboard export/backup course does not restore to Moodle correctly
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6084 MDL-6084] ] - Restore to new course failure notice if logged in as course creator
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6128 MDL-6128] ] - 1.6, special chars and messaging system.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6193 MDL-6193] ] - problem with login/index.php file
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6205 MDL-6205] ] - slashes not stripped when re-editing profile
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6224 MDL-6224] ] - Syntax error creating tables on install
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6247 MDL-6247] ] - Error checking for missing themes
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6271 MDL-6271] ] - breadcrumb problem
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6272 MDL-6272] ] - DB Enrolment not recording enrolment end date
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6334 MDL-6334] ] - Unnecessary group menu in Feedback popup window
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6336 MDL-6336] ] - After utf8-migration unserializing of old essay fails
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6341 MDL-6341] ] - "Student view" locks out designers/administrators from courses not available to students
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6342 MDL-6342] ] - cannot move forum post to other forum when the subject includes an apostrophe
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6363 MDL-6363] ] - typo in mod/forum/restorelib.php prevents grouped discussions from being accessible to group after a restore.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6375 MDL-6375] ] - Uploaded assignments are not available from the student submission page once graded
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6480 MDL-6480] ] - Import of multichoice questions in Moodle XML format doesn't use shuffle option. Fix included
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6517 MDL-6517] ] - Adding or editing post produces "ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: "Object id #XXX"
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6518 MDL-6518] ] - How to make new themes link no longer required
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6521 MDL-6521] ] - Single discussion forums can be splitted and it hasn't too much sense....
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6537 MDL-6537] ] - past students receive email from forum
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6538 MDL-6538] ] - Bug in hotpot upgrade script 1.6.1 -> 1.6.2 with MetaColumns() method
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6615 MDL-6615] ] - Highlighting search terms in forum search text posts fails
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6632 MDL-6632] ] - scorm_grade_user function in locallib.php file has errors
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6649 MDL-6649] ] - HTML Editor in Quiz Essay Question unreliable
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6686 MDL-6686] ] - Streamed Chat Locks Send Message Field
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6750 MDL-6750] ] - change_password.php produces JS error.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6754 MDL-6754] ] - moodle.php in de_utf8 langpack has wrong locale
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6757 MDL-6757] ] - Insert a Chinese charachter string to label resource result error.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6770 MDL-6770] ] - Student cannot see handed-in assignment
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6791 MDL-6791] ] - Streamed Chat JS bug Prevents Use
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6824 MDL-6824] ] - redundant style declaration in theme
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6837 MDL-6837] ] - Make a language file entry for the wording of popup blocker checker
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6841 MDL-6841] ] - Student View button fails when course is hidden to students
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6842 MDL-6842] ] - Resource frameset error in IE6
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6866 MDL-6866] ] - A required parameter (backup_unique_code) was missing" error
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6876 MDL-6876] ] - Grades computed incorrectly if assignment name appears more than twice in a course

===Improvement===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6280 MDL-6280] ] - Backup files should not be included in new backups
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6572 MDL-6572] ] - Allow students to access their uploaded documents after grading.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6662 MDL-6662] ] - why footer with margin-top: 100px
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6878 MDL-6878] ] - Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files in Moodle are not correctly displayed in many Browsers

===New Feature===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5653 MDL-5653] ] - add blacklisted level into environment XML

==Moodle 1.6.2==
12th September, 2006

===Security===
* Fixed handling of uploaded files in Database module
* Module instance id is now properly validated when creating course module object; developers should use get_coursemodule_from_id() to get valid $cm
* Default error reporting level was lowered to 5, E_WARNINGs are no longer displayed on production sites with debug off.
* Multiple problems leading to information leakage fixed in help.php file
* Fixed information leakage from scheduled backups
* Added basic detection of dataroot accessible from Internet, web installer now better suggests dataroot location outside of web file area
* Swf is now disabled by default in Mediaplugin
* forgot_password.php does not allow remote email or username enumeration by default, the old behavior can be enabled by setting protectusernames to No in site configuration
* Undisclosed SQL injections fixed by automatic data conversions in adodb layer
* Theoretical XSS problems fixed in doc/index.php and files/index.php scripts
* Access to tex and algebra files is blocked when filters are disabled
* Request for redirection in jumpto.php protected with sesskey

===Bug Fixes===

* Fixed error when upgrading forum read tracking
* Locales from language packs should finally work - please check your configuration variables and empty the locale field
* Added missing link for course request
* Fixed several glossary problems with non-ascii characters
* Fixed bug where you could not regrade a quiz question where the teacher had added a comment with a ' character.
* Quiz import of BlackBoard V6 files now much more reliable
* Fixed scheduled backups - they were broken in 1.6 and 1.6.1
* Fixed missing guest icons from course listing
* Database sessions respect sessiontimeout setting
* Fixed redirect problems during upgrade resulting in "Table xxx already exists"
* Lesson module: the "(Continue)" no longer displays for 3 seconds after branch tables.
* Lesson module: now properly checks import formats for support.
* Lesson module: feedback is set properly during the import process.
* and many other smaller fixes

===New Features===

* Authorize.net Payment Gateway: Autoconfigures credit card types if the merchant does not accept some types of credit cards

===Known Problems===
* Broken images in published question categories

==Moodle 1.6.1==
20th July, 2006

===Bug Fixes===

* Fixed regression in Turkish locale handling
* Authorize and Paypal enrolment plugin cleanup
* Fixed serious problem with failing Database restore
* Fixed restore of HotPot module containing attempts
* Minor Database module fixes
* National characters in graphs now work for most languages out of the box
* Reviewed and fixed all *nix locale codes in language packs
* Fixed problems when using Resources with Blocks on the frontpage
* Fixed missing events on the first day of month in calendar
* Fixed several problems in Lesson - scores, branch tables, HTML editor issues
* Fixed broken intermodule relinking of absolute paths - please do not use course backups from original 1.6
* PDF byteserving problems caused by incorrect partial content length solved
* Fixed several regressions in handling of multiple groups
* Fixed alphabet problems in Glossary
* Chameleon theme fixes and enhancements
* Fixed all hard coded admin paths
* Fixed moving of course sections
* Fixed grading of Essays in Quiz
* Several Quiz regrading problems solved
* Questions are now exported into backupdata directory
* Added workaround for problems when editting two quizes in one browser
* Lots of other Quiz related bugs fixed - thanks Tim!

* Fixed IE unsecure items warning on sites with https login
* Improved cookie test on the login page
* Potential security issue with unzipping maliciously-crafted zip files fixed
* Satinized input parameters in help.php
* Calendar view.php now respects forcelogin setting

* And lots of other minor fixes worth upgrading

===New Features===

* Enhanced frontpage settings - frontpage can now be different for logged in users, changed category list display
* Improved administration page layout
* Possibility to change graph font for all locales - moodledata/lang/default.ttf takes precedence over lib/default.ttf
* Local language packs may also contain default.ttf
* Backported improved lang.php from HEAD
* New config.php option $CFG->allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories

===Known Problems===

* Broken images in published question categories
* Small number of sites reports problems with Quiz upgrade - please always do a full database backup before any upgrade!
* Workshop backup/restore and Workshop import from other course not supported
* Additional feature 'Sidebar Block' uses section 1000, but 1000 is not included in the backup

===Related===

* Third party modules should be already updated for 1.6.x - you must install new versions before UTF-8 migration!
* New integration of phpMyAdmin available - fixes upstream security problems and compatiblility with PHP 5

==Moodle 1.6==
19th June, 2006

NOTE: Moodle 1.6 requires PHP 4.3.0 (or PHP 5.1.0) and MySQL 4.1.16 (4.1.12 if you use latin languages only). Here is more info on [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]].

===New features===

* [[UTF-8 migration|Unicode]]
::Moodle is now 100% Unicode, which means any language can be mixed together and an end to a number of problems that different character sets caused us.
* [[MoodleDocs development|Documentation]]
::A new one-stop wiki site for ALL Moodle documentation, including links from Moodle itself
* [[Database module]]
::A new activity module that allows collaborative collection of structured data, useful for many things!
* [[LAMS]]
::Integrated via a course format and an activity module
* [[Blogs]]
::Allows reflection on an ongoing basis. Entries are marked and can be viewed by user, course, group, site etc. Contains first new support for [[Tags]].
* [[Reports]]
::All reports are now centralised under Course reports and Admin reports. New reports can be written as plugins and dropped in very easily. One big new report is the new course-based statistics system from Catalyst.
* [[Questions]]
::A centralized bank of questions with the potential to be (re-)used in a variety of modules.
* [[My Moodle]]
::A dashboard interface that allows an overview for each user of all their courses etc.
* [[Hive integration]]
::This initial integration with Hive allows teachers to upload, browse, search and select [[Resources|resources]] within the external repository.
* [[Multiple groups]]
::Users can be part of multiple groups within a course
* [[IMS content package]] resource type
::Supports the loading of any content package as a resource, with an optional repository for sharing packages between courses.
* [[Course backup|Granularised backup]]
* [[Chameleon|Chameleon theme]]
:: An interactive Moodle theme
* [[Enrolment plugins|Multi enrolment]]
::Moodle's enrolment plugins can be used simultaneously on the same site. Also new [[IMS Enterprise]] enrolment plugin.
*[[Authorize.net Payment Gateway]] enrolment plugin
::New feature called 'Order Review'. Admins and teachers may accept or deny payments before processing the credit card and they can also refund payments after processing the credit card in 'Payment Management' page. Students may view their order details. Address Verification System (AVS) and Scheduled-Capture support added. For 'Manual-Capture' admins are notified 5 days prior to pending orders expiring.
===See also===
*[[:Category:Moodle 1.6|Moodle 1.6 features]]

==Moodle 1.5.4==
21st May, 2006

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===Various fixes===

'''Security'''
* Improved kses cleaning of html SC#204
* Prevent unwanted password change here SC#225
* Fix for Secunia Advisory SA18267, plus some logging of suspicious activity.
* AdoDB tests cleanup after Secunia Advisory SA18267
* Fixed $cfg->forceloginforprofiles logic SC#207. Backported from HEAD

'''General'''
* Various updates/improvements in the the Environmental Check allowing to check if your server suits future Moodle requirements.
* Bug 4619. Fixed one DB query not following coding rules.
* Bug 4607. Avoid duplication of course shortname on restore.
* Fixed one problem with auto-link filters and frames.
* Important fixes to muti-byte text handling routines.
* Small changes to the installer.
* Bug 3853. Some important improvements in the restore of log actions.
* Bug 4328. Prevent some warnings in the blocks system.
* Bug 4341. Extending multi-lang support to the "jumpto" menu (showed in collapsed mode).
* Added rss_get_url() to 1.5 to help support data module
* Added support for having a linked tab even if it is currently selected.
* RSS Client block: Removed secondary cache. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4625 Bug 4625]
* Email confirmation now includes lastname. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4869 Bug 4869]
* Database connection errors can now be reported to an admin. See $CFG->emailconnectionerrors in config-dist.php.
* Metacourses: Fixed a problem with self enrolment in child courses.
* Several MySQL v5 compatibility fixes
* Avoid listing more than 200 courses in my courses block, and course listing pages.
* SCORM: Fixed lesson status skin support
* Skype: Added webstatus icon
* File uploads: Only create a directory if needed, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4659 bug 4659]
* Admin Block. Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4627 bug 4627]: Hide "change password" link in admin block if the user is restricted. Credits for report & patch go to Joseph Rezeau.
* HTMLArea: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4562 bug 4562]. Fix posted by sgarcia.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4626 bug 4626] - weblib.php: $course object conversion error in "print_footer " function
* Messaging: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4621 bug 4621] errors in MySQL v3.23 with message backup.
* Introducing Admin->Environment to help users assess installed software prior to the 1.6 upgrade
* Course Restore: Now we avoid duplicates. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4607 Bug 4607]
* Assignment: Guests can no longer submit an online assignment. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4604 Bug 4604]
* File Downloads: Fixed problems for slow (dial up) clients, and avoid hogging memory when PHP's output compression is on.
* Wiki: Supports initial load of contents from course file area. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=3830 Bug 3830]
* Lesson: Now when a teacher edits a page with the "Edit page contents" button and then saves or cancels, s/he gets redirected back to the lesson navigation. This will help to streamline the editing.
* Activity Modules Block - [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4586 bug 4586]
* Metacourse: Fixes unenrolling [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4541 bug 4541]
* File uploads: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4533 bug 4533] - Max upload size at course level ignored.
* Enrol/Authorize.net: Added Address Verification System (AVS) support.
* Online Users Block: Limit the number of students displayed.
* Unicode Support: Typo3 Library updated to newest version.
* Course Categories: Fixed courses and subcategories in an invisible category being visible. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4074 Bug 4074]
* Wiki: Fixed a fatal error updating wiki pages.
* Added autocomplete=off in form tag to avoid browser autocomplete [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4423 bug:4423]
* Password change: Primary administrator password can only be changed by the administraror him/herself.
* Enrol/Authorize.net: Some changes:- allow_internal is not need anymore. Shows two option if enrolment key of course is set.- login_https is required for payment pages. My credit card is important. If you haven't a certificate forgot this module. (security)- Expiry date of credit card is more friendly :).
* User profile: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4400 bug 4400]
* Removed old THEME variable.
* Added some more CSS hooks for the correctness feedback
* Fix [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4366 bug 4366]
* Makes autologinguest possible at site level
* Micro-increment version number to 2.0.10
* Corrected adjustment of relative URLs in <EMBED> tag
* Merging from HEAD:Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4371 bug 4371] (also SC#199):Now manually created users with admin privileges and force change passwordcannot change their username with impunity.
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4067 bug 4067] - allow user to update assignment when not yet marked
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4314 bug 4314]
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4206 bug 4206]
* Delayed merge from HEAD - If tablelib is going to do fullname voodoo, allow default sort field to be firstname/lastname
* Log actions must be strored to DB without &print_log() takes care of it! [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=3853 Bug 3853]
* Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4354 bug 4354]
* shorten_text() AFTER format properly. See [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4355 bug 4355]
* Prevent a warning when params is empty. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4328 Bug 4328]
* Now the section "jumpto" menu (showed in collapse mode), supportsthe multilang filter. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4341 Bug 4341]
* Print performance info if exists and $CFG->perfdebug is enabled.
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4351 bug 4351]. New parasmeter for get_record_sql to disableauto-added LIMIT (in case we are using our own)
* Solved bug found when trying to backup all users! http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27105
* Fixing [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4345 bug 4345]: merging problem when fixing [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4303 bug 4303]
* Mimic changes from "Ought to mention the improved assignment grading!"Merged from HEAD
* Ought to mention the improved assignment grading!
* Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4086 bug 4086] spelling mistake
* Commenting out gz_handler since it seem to cause problemsmore on http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=34376

'''Assignment'''
* Fixed bug in "Prevent late submissions", thanks to Samuli, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4780 bug 4780]

'''Enrolment'''
* Enrolment: Better explanation of flat file enrolment format. Re-formatted the imporved flat file enorlment description
* Auth/LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory
* Enrol/Authorize.net: PostgreSQL support and some indexes for speed.
* Authorize.net: Address Verification System (AVS) support added.
* Authorize.net: $CGF->login_https must be ON for payment pages.
* Authorize.net: Shows two forms if the enrolment key of the course is set (internal and authorize forms).
* Authorize.net: IIS https fix. It doesn't recognize empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) but accepts HTTPS=off.

'''Forum Module'''

* Bug 4355. Solved one visualisation problem in the page showing the list of forums.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4360 bug 4360]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4431 bug 4431], affecting site course, added function forum_user_can_view_post in lib.php

'''Glossary Module'''
* Bug 4543, 4713. Fixed some problems with entries and categories containing more than one word in their title.
* Bug 4858. Fixed one problem with formats, not being detected properly.
* Bug 4915. Entrylist format now displays the "Send Ratings" button.

'''Hotpot Module'''
* Add support for HP5 quizzes (including JBC and old JQuiz)
* Removed weighting from questiontext in JCloze import
* Fixed import of JCloze into quiz module as a MULTIANSWER question
* Fixed bug in restoring attempts from backup

'''Lesson Module
* Lesson: $navigation and $grade_value were undefined when lesson was added to site main page
* Lesson: Lesson Essay Question Can't be Graded when attempt not finished. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4174 Bug 4174]
* Lesson: Added cancel button. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4216 Bug 4216] - cancel button
* Lesson: Fixed [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37537 problem with storing the answerid for numerical questions].
* Lesson: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=1187 bug 1187]

'''Quiz Module'''

* Fixed bug 4250: Added missing percentages to the grade selector
* Fixed bug 4495: Don't apply lateness check when teacher previews
* Fixed bug 4544: Incorrect path to exported files in some language packs
* Fixed bug 4780: Bug in "Prevent late submissions" setting fixed
* Fixed bug 5070: Students can't see quizzes when they are closed
* Turned off regrading of quizzes that have the attemptonlast option set
* A number of other minor interface fixes
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4319 bug 4319]. Thanks to Jaroslav
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4217 bug 4217]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4829 bug 4829]
* Now we avoid checking for lateness when teacher previews. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4495 Bug 4495]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4688 bug 4688]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39548 Rounding errors could lead to "Partially correct" for correct answers]
* Added missing percentages to the grade selector, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4250 bug 4250]
* Avoid error messages in case $quiz->sumgrades is zero, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4454 bug 4454]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27730#181773 get_actual_response() method for cloze question type] contributed by Jean-Michel
* Better PostgreSQL support
* Now With Nicer Presentation of Questions
* Summary text shouldn't be cleaned as only entered by teacher.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4345 bug 4345]. Report performance improvements caused regression with MySQLv3
* Now we turn off browser-based autocomplete. Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4423 bug 4423] - Short Answer Quiz Q's Saving Form Entries

'''Resource Module'''

* Solved one problem on restore that was causing some links to become corrupted.
* Slightly changes to the delete_instance() function in resources to allow future improvements.
* Resource restore: Solved bug when [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38801 decoding encoded links for resource]

'''Wiki Module'''

* Solved one problem sending double-slashed info to DB.
* Bug 3830. Load of initial content from course file area is now allowed.

==Moodle 1.5.3==

11th November, 2005

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===A few new things===

* We now have SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004) support!
* Much improved Assignment grading interface, including "quick grading" options
* A new Single-Sign-On API is available

===Various fixes===

'''General'''

* Contains warnings when Moodle is used on an PHP configuration known to be insecure
* Contains fixes for some recently reported security problems (see [http://security.moodle.org/ security.moodle.org])
* Backups now runs a lot faster medium/large installs. Many issues fixed in this area
* Listing of directory sizes can be made much faster on Linux/Unix servers, thanks to a performance fix you can enable from Admin->Variables: "path_to_du"
* We now log more meaningful IP addresses when the server or the clients are working behind a proxy
* Fixed some issues with PHP accelerators
* Upgrade scripts have been refined and work much better for PostgreSQL installations
* General PostgreSQL port code cleanup
* Upgrading to 1.5.3 will fix any legacy Journal to Online Assignment upgrade issues
* RSS libraries now support RSS 2.0 categories, see bug 3654
* Better accesibilty in file uploads, see bug 3662
* Better support for site-wide HTTPS, see bug 3848
* We now send away bots (like Googlebot) from that try mangled URLs, see bug 3958
* Better DST support for non-logged-in users
* Better DST support for repeat events in Calendar
* Small fixes to the lesson, choice and grade modules
* Minor CSS improvements to formal_white and orangewhite themes
* Better pagination in course listing and loglive pages
* Fixed an IE-only bug related to HTMLArea content where user-edited tables could float and hide part of the UI.

'''Authentication'''

* Fixes to change password/forgotten password with external auth
* Data fetched from external DB or LDAP is now truncated correctly
* Fixed bug 4305 -- better login block behaviour when using secureforms
* Better support for utf-8 user data from external auth
* LDAP: General fixes covering sync_users script and logging of errors
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3141 - Can't update external data with LDAP authentication
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3992 - LDAP password including a quote does not work - credits go to Kita
* LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory.
* LDAP: Fixed bug #3594
* LDAP: Better handling of multi-source field mapping
* LDAP: Fix for using DN as idnumber - thanks fo Jeff Graham - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28840

'''Enrolment and metacourses'''

* Metacourses: Prevent normal users to gain access to meta courses via manual enrolment
* Metacourses: better support for MySQL v3.23.x
* DB: Enrolment lookups now work reliably with Moodle on MySQL and Postgres
* DB: Non-MySQL databases work again as external enrolment databases
* LDAP: Fixed a wrong call to add_teacher in LDAP plugin.
* LDAP: Servers being down or unavailable no longer prevent logins
* LDAP: Course auto-creation works again
* LDAP: Fixed several bugs reported by Jeff Graham and Barron Koralesky -- including bugs 3912 and 3974
* LDAP: We can now bind non-anonymously to LDAP
* Authorize.net: several fixes

'''Resources'''

* Bugfix: Avoid linking to empty or unlinkable activity names

'''Forums'''

* Big and small optimizations to tracking of read/unread messages, specially for PostgreSQL
* Fixed some PostgreSQL bugs
* Some more actions are now supported by backup/restore when processing log records, see bug 3582
* Now message forum RSS feeds are including category data -- useful under some RSS agregators able to group messages, see bug 3654
* Fixed paging on forum search

'''Blocks'''

* Several performance improvements
* Fixes to the upgrade process, including PostgreSQL syntax and lower memory usage
* Brought in several bugfixes from 1.6dev
* Fixed bug 3478: Cannot add RSS feed as course creator
* Fixed bug 3793: Prevent warning message when configuring a glossary_random block in a course which has no glossaries

'''Quiz'''

* Some CSS style fixes
* Better compatibility with themes that contain forms in the headers
* Highlighting of correct answers can now be turned off
* Fixed bug 3986: Too many random questions. (mindforge)
* Fixed missing action icons
* Fixed bug 3899 and removed some 'missing course object' messages
* Fixed bug 3950: Ee-attempt button inconsistency for multi-attempt quizzes
* Fixed bug 3953: Quiz/report.php pagesize can be set to 0, credits to Jean-Michel
* Fixed potential data data corruption bug 3915
* Fixed bug 3884: Quiz correct highlights missing for 2 of 3 options.
* Fix for the Student review highlight doesn't seem to work bug
* Fixed bug 3804: Differences in question types between 1.5 and 1.6
* Fixed bug 3822: don't count previews as attempts
* Fixed bug 3807: Question numbering issue
* Fixes for the item analysis plug-in, assembled by Jean-Michel
* Now we reset the timeout counter to avoid timeouts
* Several improvements contributed by Jean-Michel Vedrine. You can now change the number of attempts per page displayed on screen, and download results to Excel/text file, including detailed grades
* Fixed export bug with non-English languages

'''SCORM'''

* We now support SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004)!
* Fixed a bug with next and prev SCO search
* Fixed bugs related to masteryscore
* Fixed a problem in AICC course tracking

'''Wiki'''

* Now paging of older versions is showed and working properly, see bug 3750

'''Filters'''

* Mediaplugin filter now finds multi-line links in HTML code
* Censor filter: Added original word as title to the blacked-out version. The filter can obscure actual important words by mistake (eg Dickens) and there needs to be some way to recover the meaning

==Moodle 1.5.2==

16th July, 2005

=== Various fixes ===

* Journal -> Assignment upgrade now works properly :-/
* Assignment submodules now upgrade as expected
* Various other bugs with new Assignments fixed
* Journal module is now disabled by default on new installations
* Login page is now 100% HTTPS if required
* Various small standard theme tweaks
* Fix for recent matching questions display bug in Quiz
* Language editor no longer creates empty files when not necessary (caused country list bug)
* Fixed some manifest parsing problems in SCORM module
* Multilang filter now deals with pack names that contain numbers
* Files are now force-downloaded (fixes IE problems and some security issues)
* Relinking debugging output is escaped
* Large MP3 player now displays ID3 tags properly again
* Some chat daemon improvements

=== Some new things ===

* Orangewhite theme optimised for use on PDA
* Forum user posts page can be called without userid
* Altavista BabelFish now allowed in as guest when Google is

==Moodle 1.5.1==

8th July, 2005

===Various fixes===

* Several potential security problems solved
* Allowobjectembed setting now works correctly
* Speed problem on IE, caused by tab hover fixed.
* Cut and paste in editor on Firefox has a more helpful warning message
* Fixed a session problem when logged on as admin during upgrade from very old Moodle version
* Fixed editing problem in Main menu of site
* Minor CSS display problems in a few areas were fixed
* Fixed the adding of a single discussion forum
* Fixed Lesson problems with calculating grades, and dates
* Fixed Lesson problems with entering a cluster after a page
* Censor filter was fixed to make it work better with old themes

===Some new things===

* New theme: Wood
* Metal theme updated for 1.5
* Many language updates for most languages, including a new language: Khmer
* Block classes can now run custom code when an instance is created/deleted (this is useful for blocks that need to set up non-trivial data structures)
* Wizard for Calculated Questions in Quiz was rewritten
* Backup/Restore module selection is now improved and much easier
* Backup/Restore module has much improved relinking support, it's now faster and easier to implement in new modules

==Moodle 1.5==

5th June, 2005

Here you can find the release notes of the current stable version of Moodle. '''If you experience any bugs in this release, please report them at [http://moodle.org/bugs moodle.org/bugs] so we can fix them in the next release.'''

=== Headline features ===

* Web pages are compliant with XHTML Transitional 1.0
* Improved '''Accessibility''', aiming for compliance with WAI (W3C), SENDA (UK) and Section 508 (US) criteria.
* Very strong '''new Themes system''', allowing cascading themes, user themes, course themes, with very fine control of every page in Moodle via CSS.
* Integrated '''Messaging''' feature for direct communication between all users in the site, featuring realtime popup windows, notification, email copies, blocking, history, WYSIWYG editor, etc
* Forum read/unread tracking with highlights allows you to see new postings at a glance and to control how these are displayed (per forum, per user or per site).
* New '''Blocks''' system, allowing multiple copies of blocks and better block configuration
* Full support for '''Daylight Savings Time''' in every locality around the globe, so everyone always see the correct local time for all events.
* New '''extended gradebook''' allowing custom weighting of different activities, setting extra grades (or taking out others) and improved display and sorting options
* Users can be required to agree to a '''Site Policy
'''

=== Other major system-wide improvements ===

'''Admin'''

* New "maintenance mode" allows the admin to temporarily disable a site (during upgrades, for example).
* Moodle can automatically download a new list of timezones from moodle.org or elsewhere and install it to the database (Olson files are supported too)
* New version of Moodle MySQL Admin module (available separately)
* New calendar options page provides user interface to configure the behavior of the calendar

'''Authentication'''

* New Shibboleth Support
* New CAS Support
* New PAM Support
* Improved LDAP integration, so that LDAP can now control course creation, group assignments. Increased performance and scalability performing user synchronisation.
* Certain user fields can be locked by the admin when using external authentication
* Improved session handling now detects "crossover" sessions that we have found in some buggy PHP installations and prevents them
* Sessions can now be stored in the database (good for clustered installations!)
* Users can be forced to change their password

'''Files'''

* Standardised file browsing in all areas
* Improved uploading, with support for automated Virus scanning of new documents using ClamAV.
* Slasharguments now work also on IIS (upgrade to PHP 4.3.11 needed for ISAPI)

'''Filters'''

* Standardised filter library makes it trivial to write new filters that require searching and highlighting of text.
* Huge efficiency improvements for complex filters like the Glossary filter
* New Tidy filter uses the W3C Tidy program to (optionally) clean all user-entered texts throughout the site and convert it to valid XHTML code
* Improved censorship filter, now "blacks out" words using styles and uses a word list from the language packs.
* Improved Flash MP3 player, now shows progress bar while downloading and playing
* Improved Multi-language filter is faster, more forgiving of syntax errors, and uses new editor-friendly syntax: 
* Auto-linking filters (glossary, activities) can work to link all the occurrences (old behaviour), once for each text block or only once for the whole page ($CFG->filtermatchonepertext, $CFG->filtermatchoneperpage).
* More text can now be filtered in Moodle, including activity names, headings and other such small texts. This makes it possible to design completely multi-lingual sites in Moodle that fully appears in the user's chosen language.

'''Themes'''

* Modules can provide standard styles
* Themes can override required styles of other themes
* Users and courses can choose their own themes if the admin allows it
* Implementation of tabs interface on many pages
* Modules, Blocks and Languages can define their own standard styles

'''HTML Editor'''

* The toolbuttons offered in the editor toolbar are now configurable by the admin
* Search and Replace text within the editor text area (with optional use of regular expressions)

'''Course management'''

* Transparent Blackboard 5.5 course importing (partial 6.0 support)
* The new meta-courses allow to get users automatically enroled in a general course (the metacourse) when enroled in any of the metacourse-linked courses
* New tool to copy content from a course to other.

'''New blocks'''

* HTML block: allowing to place arbitrary content (text, images links) in any course mainpage
* Remote RSS feed: allows to display external news channels inside a Moodle course
* Glossary Selection: to choose and display content from a Moodle glossary in course mainpage

'''Calendar'''

* Major speed improvements for sites with a large number of courses using groups
* Repeating events can now be modified or deleted all at the same time or separately as before
* New "remember filter settings" preference that allows calendar filters to remember their status between logins

=== Activity module improvements ===

'''Assignment'''

* Completely refactored into a new class-based design, allowing new plugin-assignment types
* New Online Text assignment type that doesn't require files and allows inline comments when grading - this new type effectively replaces the old Journal module
* Vastly improved grading interface for handling large classes
* New configuration options to disable late submission and to e-mail alerts to teachers when students submit new work

'''Chat'''

* Streamlined interface looks smoother, works faster, even without using the optional server daemon
* Blocks can now be added to chat pages (e.g. for additional information)

'''Choice'''

* Rewritten to allow any number of choices
* The number of users per choice can be limited, which allows it to be used as tool for "signing up" to an array of options.
* You can now download the results of the choice to XLS or a TXT file

'''Forum'''

* Powerful new Google-like forum searching tools
* Forum read/unread tracking - unread messages are highlighted on the course page, forum page, discussion listing and the discussion view
* The tracking system may be disabled by teachers/users
* User profiles show all posts by a user, as well as all discussions
* When admins edit user messages, a notice is attached
* Discussion listing shows the last user who posted to each discussion and when it was, with a direct link to that post
* In group-enabled forums the discussion listing shows the group the thread applies to, with a link to the group description page.

'''Glossary'''

* New setting to enable/disable the print view of each glossary.
* New search system looks for words everywhere (instead of doing exact phrase match).
* More information is sent to logs to be able to track activity better.

'''Journal'''

* The Journal module has not changed since 1.4, and is now deprecated. The upgrade procedure will convert all your Journal activities into Online Assignments, and hide all the old Journal activities. If you don't want this to happen, then define this in your config.php: $CFG->noconvertjournals = true;

'''Lesson'''

* Now supports timed Lessons
* Can create practice Lessons (grades are not stored)
* Option for students to view points earned while taking the Lesson
* Allow students to review their answers before submitting the Lesson
* New Slide Show Mode (only branch tables are displayed as slides)
* New Left Menu (for enabled branch tables only)
* Lessons can now be Password Protected
* A Tree View can be used for the Lesson creation screen
* Students can post their high scores
* New option to save a Lesson's settings as defaults for new lessons in the same course
* Can delete a student's attempts
* New page Jumps:
** Previous Page
** Unseen question within a branch
** Random question within a branch
** Unseen question within a cluster
* Added functionality to view Lesson statistics
* New question type: Essay. Teachers can view each essay and write comments, assign a grade, and then email it all to the student
* New question creation interface

'''Quiz'''

* Can handle adaptive questions, i.e., questions that allow the student to interact with them repeatedly within the same quiz attempt and that can change in response to student answers.
* Student can be allowed to try a question again immediately within the same quiz attempt until they get the answer right.
* There is a penalty mechanism that deducts a specified fraction of the mark for each wrong attempt at a question.
* Allows questions rendered and scored externally (e.g., by mathematical assessment engines) to be integrated seamlessly into Moodle quizzes via the RQP web services protocol.
* Is prepared for the handling of IMS QTI questions once web services for these become available.
* New tabbed teacher interface for previewing, editing, and reviewing quizzes.
* New "improved security" mode shows quiz in a separate full-screen window, with many browser features disabled
* Quizzes can be presented to students in several pages. The number of questions per page is selectable by the teacher.
* Blocks can now be added to quiz pages (to show results table, or additional information etc)
* Better and cleaner interface for question selection and management in the database. Selected questions can be added to quiz, moved to other categories or deleted en mass.
* Random questions are now added to the quiz question list with a dedicated button, leaving a cleaner interface at questions database without phantom placeholders
* Final grade can be a fractional number, with teacher-defined decimal figures
* Improved results page with user-selectable display of columns, cleaner sorting and new mark display options
* Questions can be edited with one click from the improved quiz preview and question preview screens.
* Questions can be copied with one click, to allow question variations to be created with ease.
* Revamped question categories structures and editing interface.
* Categories now can contain nested subcategories and can be re-ordered.
* It is possible to select whether questions from categories, and or their subcategories are displayed on the question edit page.
* It is now possible to select whether to add random questions from a parent category alone, or from a parent category and its sub-categories.
* Quiz creators are prevented from changing the question set of quizes that have had student responses.
* Recognition, and rejection, of overlapping/redundant questions has been improved.
* The display of questions in longer quiz categories on the quiz editing page is now paginated.
* New export types - IMS QTI (2.0) and xhtml. Improvements & fixes to others.
* New import type - Hot Potato. Improvements & fixes to others.

'''Scorm'''

* The module is now fully conformant with the SCORM 1.2 standard.
* User result data storage and reporting was improved.
* AICC packages can now be imported.

'''Survey'''

* Graph formatting has been improved (labels are more readable)

'''Wiki'''

* Changes to wiki pages are now monitored and displayed in Recent Activity block
* Several under the hood improvements to backup/restore and other routines that enhance the reliability of wikis

== See also ==

*[[Old releases|1.4.5 release notes]]

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]

[[pt:Versões do Moodle]]
[[es:Notas de versiones]]
[[fr:Notes de mise à jour]]

Latest release notes

2006-10-18T13:14:56Z

Gtielemans: /* Known Problems */

{{About Moodle}}

==Moodle 1.8==
Under development, this version is not recommended for production sites yet, and is only for testing.

==Moodle 1.7==

Under final test phase, the stable release expected soon. Moodle 1.7 Development is now available from CVS or the [http://download.moodle.org Moodle download page]. This version is not recommended for production sites yet.

[http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10120&styleName=Html&projectId=10011&Create=Create This page shows details about issues resolved in this version]

===Headline features===

* [[Roles]]
:: Permissions based on fine-grained capabilities allow all kinds of roles to be created and assigned in all contexts around Moodle. This creates a great deal more flexibility in the permissions that you can grant to people.
* [[XML database schema]]
:: added support for MS-SQL and Oracle with more databases to come. Developers now have just one XML file to edit when changing the database structure, and there is even a very funky editor for this file built-in to Moodle
* New Admin interface
:: Completely new admin interface, with accessible design and cool features to make access to settings fast and easy.
* AJAX Course editing
:: The Topics and Weekly course formats now feature AJAX editing which means you can drag drop blocks, activities and sections (weeks/topics) and it all happens instantly. No more page reloading!
* [[Unit tests|Unit testing framework]]
:: Making it easier for developers to write test code, which should ultimately lead to a more reliable Moodle.

*[[Authorize.net Payment Gateway]] enrolment plugin
::Accepts 'Electronic Checks (ACH)'. After a user approving echeck, the admin who has upload csv capacity must import a CSV file to get the user enrol in Payment Management page.

===Other improvements===

* Improvements to the [[Database module]]
**Template/Field settings can now be saved as Presets and shared across a site.
**Presets are just zip files, and can also be shared between sites.
**Moodle 1.7 comes with one sample preset (an Image Gallery) with more to come.
**New latitude/longitude data type

* Improvements to the [[Lesson module]]
**Now has a more unified view of lesson screens.
**Teacher editing:
***Collapsed view has a nicer format, displays more information regarding each page and allows the creation of new pages.
***Editing is now speedier by replacing 3 second redirect delays with a notification system.
**New feature: display default feedback.
***Default is '''On''' so previous lessons behave as before.
***Description: if no ''response'' is entered for a question answer and this setting is turned '''Off''', then the user skips the feedback page.
**Graceful degrade of JavaScript.
**Several bug fixes.

* Improvements to the [[Quiz module]]
:* The teacher can configure comments that are displayed to the student at the end of their attempt, with the comment displayed depending on the student's score.

* Improvements to some core question types
:* All question types can now have some general feedback. This is displayed to all students after they have finished the question (depending on the quiz settings) and does not depend on what response the student gave. Use this to tell the student what the question was about, or link them to more information about the topic it covers.
:* [[Matching question type|Matching]] questions can have extra wrong answers, and work when two questions have the same answer.
:* [[Multiple Choice question type|Multiple Choice]] questions can have feedback for the whole question, as well as specific answers. This is particularly useful for multiple-response questions.
:* [[Numerical question type|Numerical]] questions can have different answers with different precisions and scores. (Previously this was only supported via GIFT import. Now you can edit questions like this.)

==Moodle 1.6.3==
10th October, 2006

[http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10140&styleName=Text&projectId=10011 Full details of these issues can be found in the tracker]

===Security Bugfix===
* A vulnerability was discovered that could allow SQL injections if a parameter was improperly used. Full details of this particular issue are on the [http://security.moodle.org/ Moodle Security site]. All registered Moodle admins were notified by direct email on Saturday September 30th.

===General Bugs Fixed===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3048 MDL-3048] ] - Release note should note not to use some PHP versions
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3805 MDL-3805] ] - mod.html in NEWMODULE.zip is not XHTML1.0 Transitional compliant
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5378 MDL-5378] ] - shorten_text doesn't work for oriental languages
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5601 MDL-5601] ] - cloze question restore error problem
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5884 MDL-5884] ] - Turn Student View On
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5893 MDL-5893] ] - Blackboard export/backup course does not restore to Moodle correctly
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6084 MDL-6084] ] - Restore to new course failure notice if logged in as course creator
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6128 MDL-6128] ] - 1.6, special chars and messaging system.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6193 MDL-6193] ] - problem with login/index.php file
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6205 MDL-6205] ] - slashes not stripped when re-editing profile
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6224 MDL-6224] ] - Syntax error creating tables on install
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6247 MDL-6247] ] - Error checking for missing themes
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6271 MDL-6271] ] - breadcrumb problem
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6272 MDL-6272] ] - DB Enrolment not recording enrolment end date
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6334 MDL-6334] ] - Unnecessary group menu in Feedback popup window
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6336 MDL-6336] ] - After utf8-migration unserializing of old essay fails
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6341 MDL-6341] ] - "Student view" locks out designers/administrators from courses not available to students
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6342 MDL-6342] ] - cannot move forum post to other forum when the subject includes an apostrophe
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6363 MDL-6363] ] - typo in mod/forum/restorelib.php prevents grouped discussions from being accessible to group after a restore.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6375 MDL-6375] ] - Uploaded assignments are not available from the student submission page once graded
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6480 MDL-6480] ] - Import of multichoice questions in Moodle XML format doesn't use shuffle option. Fix included
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6517 MDL-6517] ] - Adding or editing post produces "ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: "Object id #XXX"
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6518 MDL-6518] ] - How to make new themes link no longer required
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6521 MDL-6521] ] - Single discussion forums can be splitted and it hasn't too much sense....
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6537 MDL-6537] ] - past students receive email from forum
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6538 MDL-6538] ] - Bug in hotpot upgrade script 1.6.1 -> 1.6.2 with MetaColumns() method
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6615 MDL-6615] ] - Highlighting search terms in forum search text posts fails
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6632 MDL-6632] ] - scorm_grade_user function in locallib.php file has errors
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6649 MDL-6649] ] - HTML Editor in Quiz Essay Question unreliable
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6686 MDL-6686] ] - Streamed Chat Locks Send Message Field
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6750 MDL-6750] ] - change_password.php produces JS error.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6754 MDL-6754] ] - moodle.php in de_utf8 langpack has wrong locale
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6757 MDL-6757] ] - Insert a Chinese charachter string to label resource result error.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6770 MDL-6770] ] - Student cannot see handed-in assignment
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6791 MDL-6791] ] - Streamed Chat JS bug Prevents Use
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6824 MDL-6824] ] - redundant style declaration in theme
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6837 MDL-6837] ] - Make a language file entry for the wording of popup blocker checker
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6841 MDL-6841] ] - Student View button fails when course is hidden to students
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6842 MDL-6842] ] - Resource frameset error in IE6
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6866 MDL-6866] ] - A required parameter (backup_unique_code) was missing" error
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6876 MDL-6876] ] - Grades computed incorrectly if assignment name appears more than twice in a course

===Improvement===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6280 MDL-6280] ] - Backup files should not be included in new backups
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6572 MDL-6572] ] - Allow students to access their uploaded documents after grading.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6662 MDL-6662] ] - why footer with margin-top: 100px
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6878 MDL-6878] ] - Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files in Moodle are not correctly displayed in many Browsers

===New Feature===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5653 MDL-5653] ] - add blacklisted level into environment XML

==Moodle 1.6.2==
12th September, 2006

===Security===
* Fixed handling of uploaded files in Database module
* Module instance id is now properly validated when creating course module object; developers should use get_coursemodule_from_id() to get valid $cm
* Default error reporting level was lowered to 5, E_WARNINGs are no longer displayed on production sites with debug off.
* Multiple problems leading to information leakage fixed in help.php file
* Fixed information leakage from scheduled backups
* Added basic detection of dataroot accessible from Internet, web installer now better suggests dataroot location outside of web file area
* Swf is now disabled by default in Mediaplugin
* forgot_password.php does not allow remote email or username enumeration by default, the old behavior can be enabled by setting protectusernames to No in site configuration
* Undisclosed SQL injections fixed by automatic data conversions in adodb layer
* Theoretical XSS problems fixed in doc/index.php and files/index.php scripts
* Access to tex and algebra files is blocked when filters are disabled
* Request for redirection in jumpto.php protected with sesskey

===Bug Fixes===

* Fixed error when upgrading forum read tracking
* Locales from language packs should finally work - please check your configuration variables and empty the locale field
* Added missing link for course request
* Fixed several glossary problems with non-ascii characters
* Fixed bug where you could not regrade a quiz question where the teacher had added a comment with a ' character.
* Quiz import of BlackBoard V6 files now much more reliable
* Fixed scheduled backups - they were broken in 1.6 and 1.6.1
* Fixed missing guest icons from course listing
* Database sessions respect sessiontimeout setting
* Fixed redirect problems during upgrade resulting in "Table xxx already exists"
* Lesson module: the "(Continue)" no longer displays for 3 seconds after branch tables.
* Lesson module: now properly checks import formats for support.
* Lesson module: feedback is set properly during the import process.
* and many other smaller fixes

===New Features===

* Authorize.net Payment Gateway: Autoconfigures credit card types if the merchant does not accept some types of credit cards

===Known Problems===
* Broken images in published question categories

==Moodle 1.6.1==
20th July, 2006

===Bug Fixes===

* Fixed regression in Turkish locale handling
* Authorize and Paypal enrolment plugin cleanup
* Fixed serious problem with failing Database restore
* Fixed restore of HotPot module containing attempts
* Minor Database module fixes
* National characters in graphs now work for most languages out of the box
* Reviewed and fixed all *nix locale codes in language packs
* Fixed problems when using Resources with Blocks on the frontpage
* Fixed missing events on the first day of month in calendar
* Fixed several problems in Lesson - scores, branch tables, HTML editor issues
* Fixed broken intermodule relinking of absolute paths - please do not use course backups from original 1.6
* PDF byteserving problems caused by incorrect partial content length solved
* Fixed several regressions in handling of multiple groups
* Fixed alphabet problems in Glossary
* Chameleon theme fixes and enhancements
* Fixed all hard coded admin paths
* Fixed moving of course sections
* Fixed grading of Essays in Quiz
* Several Quiz regrading problems solved
* Questions are now exported into backupdata directory
* Added workaround for problems when editting two quizes in one browser
* Lots of other Quiz related bugs fixed - thanks Tim!

* Fixed IE unsecure items warning on sites with https login
* Improved cookie test on the login page
* Potential security issue with unzipping maliciously-crafted zip files fixed
* Satinized input parameters in help.php
* Calendar view.php now respects forcelogin setting

* And lots of other minor fixes worth upgrading

===New Features===

* Enhanced frontpage settings - frontpage can now be different for logged in users, changed category list display
* Improved administration page layout
* Possibility to change graph font for all locales - moodledata/lang/default.ttf takes precedence over lib/default.ttf
* Local language packs may also contain default.ttf
* Backported improved lang.php from HEAD
* New config.php option $CFG->allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories

===Known Problems===

* Broken images in published question categories
* Small number of sites reports problems with Quiz upgrade - please always do a full database backup before any upgrade!
* Workshop backup/restore and Workshop import from other course not supported
* Sidebar block uses section 1000, but 1000 is not included in the backup

===Related===

* Third party modules should be already updated for 1.6.x - you must install new versions before UTF-8 migration!
* New integration of phpMyAdmin available - fixes upstream security problems and compatiblility with PHP 5

==Moodle 1.6==
19th June, 2006

NOTE: Moodle 1.6 requires PHP 4.3.0 (or PHP 5.1.0) and MySQL 4.1.16 (4.1.12 if you use latin languages only). Here is more info on [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]].

===New features===

* [[UTF-8 migration|Unicode]]
::Moodle is now 100% Unicode, which means any language can be mixed together and an end to a number of problems that different character sets caused us.
* [[MoodleDocs development|Documentation]]
::A new one-stop wiki site for ALL Moodle documentation, including links from Moodle itself
* [[Database module]]
::A new activity module that allows collaborative collection of structured data, useful for many things!
* [[LAMS]]
::Integrated via a course format and an activity module
* [[Blogs]]
::Allows reflection on an ongoing basis. Entries are marked and can be viewed by user, course, group, site etc. Contains first new support for [[Tags]].
* [[Reports]]
::All reports are now centralised under Course reports and Admin reports. New reports can be written as plugins and dropped in very easily. One big new report is the new course-based statistics system from Catalyst.
* [[Questions]]
::A centralized bank of questions with the potential to be (re-)used in a variety of modules.
* [[My Moodle]]
::A dashboard interface that allows an overview for each user of all their courses etc.
* [[Hive integration]]
::This initial integration with Hive allows teachers to upload, browse, search and select [[Resources|resources]] within the external repository.
* [[Multiple groups]]
::Users can be part of multiple groups within a course
* [[IMS content package]] resource type
::Supports the loading of any content package as a resource, with an optional repository for sharing packages between courses.
* [[Course backup|Granularised backup]]
* [[Chameleon|Chameleon theme]]
:: An interactive Moodle theme
* [[Enrolment plugins|Multi enrolment]]
::Moodle's enrolment plugins can be used simultaneously on the same site. Also new [[IMS Enterprise]] enrolment plugin.
*[[Authorize.net Payment Gateway]] enrolment plugin
::New feature called 'Order Review'. Admins and teachers may accept or deny payments before processing the credit card and they can also refund payments after processing the credit card in 'Payment Management' page. Students may view their order details. Address Verification System (AVS) and Scheduled-Capture support added. For 'Manual-Capture' admins are notified 5 days prior to pending orders expiring.
===See also===
*[[:Category:Moodle 1.6|Moodle 1.6 features]]

==Moodle 1.5.4==
21st May, 2006

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===Various fixes===

'''Security'''
* Improved kses cleaning of html SC#204
* Prevent unwanted password change here SC#225
* Fix for Secunia Advisory SA18267, plus some logging of suspicious activity.
* AdoDB tests cleanup after Secunia Advisory SA18267
* Fixed $cfg->forceloginforprofiles logic SC#207. Backported from HEAD

'''General'''
* Various updates/improvements in the the Environmental Check allowing to check if your server suits future Moodle requirements.
* Bug 4619. Fixed one DB query not following coding rules.
* Bug 4607. Avoid duplication of course shortname on restore.
* Fixed one problem with auto-link filters and frames.
* Important fixes to muti-byte text handling routines.
* Small changes to the installer.
* Bug 3853. Some important improvements in the restore of log actions.
* Bug 4328. Prevent some warnings in the blocks system.
* Bug 4341. Extending multi-lang support to the "jumpto" menu (showed in collapsed mode).
* Added rss_get_url() to 1.5 to help support data module
* Added support for having a linked tab even if it is currently selected.
* RSS Client block: Removed secondary cache. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4625 Bug 4625]
* Email confirmation now includes lastname. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4869 Bug 4869]
* Database connection errors can now be reported to an admin. See $CFG->emailconnectionerrors in config-dist.php.
* Metacourses: Fixed a problem with self enrolment in child courses.
* Several MySQL v5 compatibility fixes
* Avoid listing more than 200 courses in my courses block, and course listing pages.
* SCORM: Fixed lesson status skin support
* Skype: Added webstatus icon
* File uploads: Only create a directory if needed, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4659 bug 4659]
* Admin Block. Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4627 bug 4627]: Hide "change password" link in admin block if the user is restricted. Credits for report & patch go to Joseph Rezeau.
* HTMLArea: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4562 bug 4562]. Fix posted by sgarcia.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4626 bug 4626] - weblib.php: $course object conversion error in "print_footer " function
* Messaging: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4621 bug 4621] errors in MySQL v3.23 with message backup.
* Introducing Admin->Environment to help users assess installed software prior to the 1.6 upgrade
* Course Restore: Now we avoid duplicates. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4607 Bug 4607]
* Assignment: Guests can no longer submit an online assignment. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4604 Bug 4604]
* File Downloads: Fixed problems for slow (dial up) clients, and avoid hogging memory when PHP's output compression is on.
* Wiki: Supports initial load of contents from course file area. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=3830 Bug 3830]
* Lesson: Now when a teacher edits a page with the "Edit page contents" button and then saves or cancels, s/he gets redirected back to the lesson navigation. This will help to streamline the editing.
* Activity Modules Block - [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4586 bug 4586]
* Metacourse: Fixes unenrolling [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4541 bug 4541]
* File uploads: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4533 bug 4533] - Max upload size at course level ignored.
* Enrol/Authorize.net: Added Address Verification System (AVS) support.
* Online Users Block: Limit the number of students displayed.
* Unicode Support: Typo3 Library updated to newest version.
* Course Categories: Fixed courses and subcategories in an invisible category being visible. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4074 Bug 4074]
* Wiki: Fixed a fatal error updating wiki pages.
* Added autocomplete=off in form tag to avoid browser autocomplete [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4423 bug:4423]
* Password change: Primary administrator password can only be changed by the administraror him/herself.
* Enrol/Authorize.net: Some changes:- allow_internal is not need anymore. Shows two option if enrolment key of course is set.- login_https is required for payment pages. My credit card is important. If you haven't a certificate forgot this module. (security)- Expiry date of credit card is more friendly :).
* User profile: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4400 bug 4400]
* Removed old THEME variable.
* Added some more CSS hooks for the correctness feedback
* Fix [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4366 bug 4366]
* Makes autologinguest possible at site level
* Micro-increment version number to 2.0.10
* Corrected adjustment of relative URLs in <EMBED> tag
* Merging from HEAD:Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4371 bug 4371] (also SC#199):Now manually created users with admin privileges and force change passwordcannot change their username with impunity.
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4067 bug 4067] - allow user to update assignment when not yet marked
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4314 bug 4314]
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4206 bug 4206]
* Delayed merge from HEAD - If tablelib is going to do fullname voodoo, allow default sort field to be firstname/lastname
* Log actions must be strored to DB without &print_log() takes care of it! [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=3853 Bug 3853]
* Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4354 bug 4354]
* shorten_text() AFTER format properly. See [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4355 bug 4355]
* Prevent a warning when params is empty. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4328 Bug 4328]
* Now the section "jumpto" menu (showed in collapse mode), supportsthe multilang filter. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4341 Bug 4341]
* Print performance info if exists and $CFG->perfdebug is enabled.
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4351 bug 4351]. New parasmeter for get_record_sql to disableauto-added LIMIT (in case we are using our own)
* Solved bug found when trying to backup all users! http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27105
* Fixing [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4345 bug 4345]: merging problem when fixing [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4303 bug 4303]
* Mimic changes from "Ought to mention the improved assignment grading!"Merged from HEAD
* Ought to mention the improved assignment grading!
* Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4086 bug 4086] spelling mistake
* Commenting out gz_handler since it seem to cause problemsmore on http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=34376

'''Assignment'''
* Fixed bug in "Prevent late submissions", thanks to Samuli, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4780 bug 4780]

'''Enrolment'''
* Enrolment: Better explanation of flat file enrolment format. Re-formatted the imporved flat file enorlment description
* Auth/LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory
* Enrol/Authorize.net: PostgreSQL support and some indexes for speed.
* Authorize.net: Address Verification System (AVS) support added.
* Authorize.net: $CGF->login_https must be ON for payment pages.
* Authorize.net: Shows two forms if the enrolment key of the course is set (internal and authorize forms).
* Authorize.net: IIS https fix. It doesn't recognize empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) but accepts HTTPS=off.

'''Forum Module'''

* Bug 4355. Solved one visualisation problem in the page showing the list of forums.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4360 bug 4360]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4431 bug 4431], affecting site course, added function forum_user_can_view_post in lib.php

'''Glossary Module'''
* Bug 4543, 4713. Fixed some problems with entries and categories containing more than one word in their title.
* Bug 4858. Fixed one problem with formats, not being detected properly.
* Bug 4915. Entrylist format now displays the "Send Ratings" button.

'''Hotpot Module'''
* Add support for HP5 quizzes (including JBC and old JQuiz)
* Removed weighting from questiontext in JCloze import
* Fixed import of JCloze into quiz module as a MULTIANSWER question
* Fixed bug in restoring attempts from backup

'''Lesson Module
* Lesson: $navigation and $grade_value were undefined when lesson was added to site main page
* Lesson: Lesson Essay Question Can't be Graded when attempt not finished. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4174 Bug 4174]
* Lesson: Added cancel button. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4216 Bug 4216] - cancel button
* Lesson: Fixed [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37537 problem with storing the answerid for numerical questions].
* Lesson: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=1187 bug 1187]

'''Quiz Module'''

* Fixed bug 4250: Added missing percentages to the grade selector
* Fixed bug 4495: Don't apply lateness check when teacher previews
* Fixed bug 4544: Incorrect path to exported files in some language packs
* Fixed bug 4780: Bug in "Prevent late submissions" setting fixed
* Fixed bug 5070: Students can't see quizzes when they are closed
* Turned off regrading of quizzes that have the attemptonlast option set
* A number of other minor interface fixes
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4319 bug 4319]. Thanks to Jaroslav
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4217 bug 4217]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4829 bug 4829]
* Now we avoid checking for lateness when teacher previews. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4495 Bug 4495]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4688 bug 4688]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39548 Rounding errors could lead to "Partially correct" for correct answers]
* Added missing percentages to the grade selector, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4250 bug 4250]
* Avoid error messages in case $quiz->sumgrades is zero, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4454 bug 4454]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27730#181773 get_actual_response() method for cloze question type] contributed by Jean-Michel
* Better PostgreSQL support
* Now With Nicer Presentation of Questions
* Summary text shouldn't be cleaned as only entered by teacher.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4345 bug 4345]. Report performance improvements caused regression with MySQLv3
* Now we turn off browser-based autocomplete. Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4423 bug 4423] - Short Answer Quiz Q's Saving Form Entries

'''Resource Module'''

* Solved one problem on restore that was causing some links to become corrupted.
* Slightly changes to the delete_instance() function in resources to allow future improvements.
* Resource restore: Solved bug when [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38801 decoding encoded links for resource]

'''Wiki Module'''

* Solved one problem sending double-slashed info to DB.
* Bug 3830. Load of initial content from course file area is now allowed.

==Moodle 1.5.3==

11th November, 2005

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===A few new things===

* We now have SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004) support!
* Much improved Assignment grading interface, including "quick grading" options
* A new Single-Sign-On API is available

===Various fixes===

'''General'''

* Contains warnings when Moodle is used on an PHP configuration known to be insecure
* Contains fixes for some recently reported security problems (see [http://security.moodle.org/ security.moodle.org])
* Backups now runs a lot faster medium/large installs. Many issues fixed in this area
* Listing of directory sizes can be made much faster on Linux/Unix servers, thanks to a performance fix you can enable from Admin->Variables: "path_to_du"
* We now log more meaningful IP addresses when the server or the clients are working behind a proxy
* Fixed some issues with PHP accelerators
* Upgrade scripts have been refined and work much better for PostgreSQL installations
* General PostgreSQL port code cleanup
* Upgrading to 1.5.3 will fix any legacy Journal to Online Assignment upgrade issues
* RSS libraries now support RSS 2.0 categories, see bug 3654
* Better accesibilty in file uploads, see bug 3662
* Better support for site-wide HTTPS, see bug 3848
* We now send away bots (like Googlebot) from that try mangled URLs, see bug 3958
* Better DST support for non-logged-in users
* Better DST support for repeat events in Calendar
* Small fixes to the lesson, choice and grade modules
* Minor CSS improvements to formal_white and orangewhite themes
* Better pagination in course listing and loglive pages
* Fixed an IE-only bug related to HTMLArea content where user-edited tables could float and hide part of the UI.

'''Authentication'''

* Fixes to change password/forgotten password with external auth
* Data fetched from external DB or LDAP is now truncated correctly
* Fixed bug 4305 -- better login block behaviour when using secureforms
* Better support for utf-8 user data from external auth
* LDAP: General fixes covering sync_users script and logging of errors
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3141 - Can't update external data with LDAP authentication
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3992 - LDAP password including a quote does not work - credits go to Kita
* LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory.
* LDAP: Fixed bug #3594
* LDAP: Better handling of multi-source field mapping
* LDAP: Fix for using DN as idnumber - thanks fo Jeff Graham - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28840

'''Enrolment and metacourses'''

* Metacourses: Prevent normal users to gain access to meta courses via manual enrolment
* Metacourses: better support for MySQL v3.23.x
* DB: Enrolment lookups now work reliably with Moodle on MySQL and Postgres
* DB: Non-MySQL databases work again as external enrolment databases
* LDAP: Fixed a wrong call to add_teacher in LDAP plugin.
* LDAP: Servers being down or unavailable no longer prevent logins
* LDAP: Course auto-creation works again
* LDAP: Fixed several bugs reported by Jeff Graham and Barron Koralesky -- including bugs 3912 and 3974
* LDAP: We can now bind non-anonymously to LDAP
* Authorize.net: several fixes

'''Resources'''

* Bugfix: Avoid linking to empty or unlinkable activity names

'''Forums'''

* Big and small optimizations to tracking of read/unread messages, specially for PostgreSQL
* Fixed some PostgreSQL bugs
* Some more actions are now supported by backup/restore when processing log records, see bug 3582
* Now message forum RSS feeds are including category data -- useful under some RSS agregators able to group messages, see bug 3654
* Fixed paging on forum search

'''Blocks'''

* Several performance improvements
* Fixes to the upgrade process, including PostgreSQL syntax and lower memory usage
* Brought in several bugfixes from 1.6dev
* Fixed bug 3478: Cannot add RSS feed as course creator
* Fixed bug 3793: Prevent warning message when configuring a glossary_random block in a course which has no glossaries

'''Quiz'''

* Some CSS style fixes
* Better compatibility with themes that contain forms in the headers
* Highlighting of correct answers can now be turned off
* Fixed bug 3986: Too many random questions. (mindforge)
* Fixed missing action icons
* Fixed bug 3899 and removed some 'missing course object' messages
* Fixed bug 3950: Ee-attempt button inconsistency for multi-attempt quizzes
* Fixed bug 3953: Quiz/report.php pagesize can be set to 0, credits to Jean-Michel
* Fixed potential data data corruption bug 3915
* Fixed bug 3884: Quiz correct highlights missing for 2 of 3 options.
* Fix for the Student review highlight doesn't seem to work bug
* Fixed bug 3804: Differences in question types between 1.5 and 1.6
* Fixed bug 3822: don't count previews as attempts
* Fixed bug 3807: Question numbering issue
* Fixes for the item analysis plug-in, assembled by Jean-Michel
* Now we reset the timeout counter to avoid timeouts
* Several improvements contributed by Jean-Michel Vedrine. You can now change the number of attempts per page displayed on screen, and download results to Excel/text file, including detailed grades
* Fixed export bug with non-English languages

'''SCORM'''

* We now support SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004)!
* Fixed a bug with next and prev SCO search
* Fixed bugs related to masteryscore
* Fixed a problem in AICC course tracking

'''Wiki'''

* Now paging of older versions is showed and working properly, see bug 3750

'''Filters'''

* Mediaplugin filter now finds multi-line links in HTML code
* Censor filter: Added original word as title to the blacked-out version. The filter can obscure actual important words by mistake (eg Dickens) and there needs to be some way to recover the meaning

==Moodle 1.5.2==

16th July, 2005

=== Various fixes ===

* Journal -> Assignment upgrade now works properly :-/
* Assignment submodules now upgrade as expected
* Various other bugs with new Assignments fixed
* Journal module is now disabled by default on new installations
* Login page is now 100% HTTPS if required
* Various small standard theme tweaks
* Fix for recent matching questions display bug in Quiz
* Language editor no longer creates empty files when not necessary (caused country list bug)
* Fixed some manifest parsing problems in SCORM module
* Multilang filter now deals with pack names that contain numbers
* Files are now force-downloaded (fixes IE problems and some security issues)
* Relinking debugging output is escaped
* Large MP3 player now displays ID3 tags properly again
* Some chat daemon improvements

=== Some new things ===

* Orangewhite theme optimised for use on PDA
* Forum user posts page can be called without userid
* Altavista BabelFish now allowed in as guest when Google is

==Moodle 1.5.1==

8th July, 2005

===Various fixes===

* Several potential security problems solved
* Allowobjectembed setting now works correctly
* Speed problem on IE, caused by tab hover fixed.
* Cut and paste in editor on Firefox has a more helpful warning message
* Fixed a session problem when logged on as admin during upgrade from very old Moodle version
* Fixed editing problem in Main menu of site
* Minor CSS display problems in a few areas were fixed
* Fixed the adding of a single discussion forum
* Fixed Lesson problems with calculating grades, and dates
* Fixed Lesson problems with entering a cluster after a page
* Censor filter was fixed to make it work better with old themes

===Some new things===

* New theme: Wood
* Metal theme updated for 1.5
* Many language updates for most languages, including a new language: Khmer
* Block classes can now run custom code when an instance is created/deleted (this is useful for blocks that need to set up non-trivial data structures)
* Wizard for Calculated Questions in Quiz was rewritten
* Backup/Restore module selection is now improved and much easier
* Backup/Restore module has much improved relinking support, it's now faster and easier to implement in new modules

==Moodle 1.5==

5th June, 2005

Here you can find the release notes of the current stable version of Moodle. '''If you experience any bugs in this release, please report them at [http://moodle.org/bugs moodle.org/bugs] so we can fix them in the next release.'''

=== Headline features ===

* Web pages are compliant with XHTML Transitional 1.0
* Improved '''Accessibility''', aiming for compliance with WAI (W3C), SENDA (UK) and Section 508 (US) criteria.
* Very strong '''new Themes system''', allowing cascading themes, user themes, course themes, with very fine control of every page in Moodle via CSS.
* Integrated '''Messaging''' feature for direct communication between all users in the site, featuring realtime popup windows, notification, email copies, blocking, history, WYSIWYG editor, etc
* Forum read/unread tracking with highlights allows you to see new postings at a glance and to control how these are displayed (per forum, per user or per site).
* New '''Blocks''' system, allowing multiple copies of blocks and better block configuration
* Full support for '''Daylight Savings Time''' in every locality around the globe, so everyone always see the correct local time for all events.
* New '''extended gradebook''' allowing custom weighting of different activities, setting extra grades (or taking out others) and improved display and sorting options
* Users can be required to agree to a '''Site Policy
'''

=== Other major system-wide improvements ===

'''Admin'''

* New "maintenance mode" allows the admin to temporarily disable a site (during upgrades, for example).
* Moodle can automatically download a new list of timezones from moodle.org or elsewhere and install it to the database (Olson files are supported too)
* New version of Moodle MySQL Admin module (available separately)
* New calendar options page provides user interface to configure the behavior of the calendar

'''Authentication'''

* New Shibboleth Support
* New CAS Support
* New PAM Support
* Improved LDAP integration, so that LDAP can now control course creation, group assignments. Increased performance and scalability performing user synchronisation.
* Certain user fields can be locked by the admin when using external authentication
* Improved session handling now detects "crossover" sessions that we have found in some buggy PHP installations and prevents them
* Sessions can now be stored in the database (good for clustered installations!)
* Users can be forced to change their password

'''Files'''

* Standardised file browsing in all areas
* Improved uploading, with support for automated Virus scanning of new documents using ClamAV.
* Slasharguments now work also on IIS (upgrade to PHP 4.3.11 needed for ISAPI)

'''Filters'''

* Standardised filter library makes it trivial to write new filters that require searching and highlighting of text.
* Huge efficiency improvements for complex filters like the Glossary filter
* New Tidy filter uses the W3C Tidy program to (optionally) clean all user-entered texts throughout the site and convert it to valid XHTML code
* Improved censorship filter, now "blacks out" words using styles and uses a word list from the language packs.
* Improved Flash MP3 player, now shows progress bar while downloading and playing
* Improved Multi-language filter is faster, more forgiving of syntax errors, and uses new editor-friendly syntax: 
* Auto-linking filters (glossary, activities) can work to link all the occurrences (old behaviour), once for each text block or only once for the whole page ($CFG->filtermatchonepertext, $CFG->filtermatchoneperpage).
* More text can now be filtered in Moodle, including activity names, headings and other such small texts. This makes it possible to design completely multi-lingual sites in Moodle that fully appears in the user's chosen language.

'''Themes'''

* Modules can provide standard styles
* Themes can override required styles of other themes
* Users and courses can choose their own themes if the admin allows it
* Implementation of tabs interface on many pages
* Modules, Blocks and Languages can define their own standard styles

'''HTML Editor'''

* The toolbuttons offered in the editor toolbar are now configurable by the admin
* Search and Replace text within the editor text area (with optional use of regular expressions)

'''Course management'''

* Transparent Blackboard 5.5 course importing (partial 6.0 support)
* The new meta-courses allow to get users automatically enroled in a general course (the metacourse) when enroled in any of the metacourse-linked courses
* New tool to copy content from a course to other.

'''New blocks'''

* HTML block: allowing to place arbitrary content (text, images links) in any course mainpage
* Remote RSS feed: allows to display external news channels inside a Moodle course
* Glossary Selection: to choose and display content from a Moodle glossary in course mainpage

'''Calendar'''

* Major speed improvements for sites with a large number of courses using groups
* Repeating events can now be modified or deleted all at the same time or separately as before
* New "remember filter settings" preference that allows calendar filters to remember their status between logins

=== Activity module improvements ===

'''Assignment'''

* Completely refactored into a new class-based design, allowing new plugin-assignment types
* New Online Text assignment type that doesn't require files and allows inline comments when grading - this new type effectively replaces the old Journal module
* Vastly improved grading interface for handling large classes
* New configuration options to disable late submission and to e-mail alerts to teachers when students submit new work

'''Chat'''

* Streamlined interface looks smoother, works faster, even without using the optional server daemon
* Blocks can now be added to chat pages (e.g. for additional information)

'''Choice'''

* Rewritten to allow any number of choices
* The number of users per choice can be limited, which allows it to be used as tool for "signing up" to an array of options.
* You can now download the results of the choice to XLS or a TXT file

'''Forum'''

* Powerful new Google-like forum searching tools
* Forum read/unread tracking - unread messages are highlighted on the course page, forum page, discussion listing and the discussion view
* The tracking system may be disabled by teachers/users
* User profiles show all posts by a user, as well as all discussions
* When admins edit user messages, a notice is attached
* Discussion listing shows the last user who posted to each discussion and when it was, with a direct link to that post
* In group-enabled forums the discussion listing shows the group the thread applies to, with a link to the group description page.

'''Glossary'''

* New setting to enable/disable the print view of each glossary.
* New search system looks for words everywhere (instead of doing exact phrase match).
* More information is sent to logs to be able to track activity better.

'''Journal'''

* The Journal module has not changed since 1.4, and is now deprecated. The upgrade procedure will convert all your Journal activities into Online Assignments, and hide all the old Journal activities. If you don't want this to happen, then define this in your config.php: $CFG->noconvertjournals = true;

'''Lesson'''

* Now supports timed Lessons
* Can create practice Lessons (grades are not stored)
* Option for students to view points earned while taking the Lesson
* Allow students to review their answers before submitting the Lesson
* New Slide Show Mode (only branch tables are displayed as slides)
* New Left Menu (for enabled branch tables only)
* Lessons can now be Password Protected
* A Tree View can be used for the Lesson creation screen
* Students can post their high scores
* New option to save a Lesson's settings as defaults for new lessons in the same course
* Can delete a student's attempts
* New page Jumps:
** Previous Page
** Unseen question within a branch
** Random question within a branch
** Unseen question within a cluster
* Added functionality to view Lesson statistics
* New question type: Essay. Teachers can view each essay and write comments, assign a grade, and then email it all to the student
* New question creation interface

'''Quiz'''

* Can handle adaptive questions, i.e., questions that allow the student to interact with them repeatedly within the same quiz attempt and that can change in response to student answers.
* Student can be allowed to try a question again immediately within the same quiz attempt until they get the answer right.
* There is a penalty mechanism that deducts a specified fraction of the mark for each wrong attempt at a question.
* Allows questions rendered and scored externally (e.g., by mathematical assessment engines) to be integrated seamlessly into Moodle quizzes via the RQP web services protocol.
* Is prepared for the handling of IMS QTI questions once web services for these become available.
* New tabbed teacher interface for previewing, editing, and reviewing quizzes.
* New "improved security" mode shows quiz in a separate full-screen window, with many browser features disabled
* Quizzes can be presented to students in several pages. The number of questions per page is selectable by the teacher.
* Blocks can now be added to quiz pages (to show results table, or additional information etc)
* Better and cleaner interface for question selection and management in the database. Selected questions can be added to quiz, moved to other categories or deleted en mass.
* Random questions are now added to the quiz question list with a dedicated button, leaving a cleaner interface at questions database without phantom placeholders
* Final grade can be a fractional number, with teacher-defined decimal figures
* Improved results page with user-selectable display of columns, cleaner sorting and new mark display options
* Questions can be edited with one click from the improved quiz preview and question preview screens.
* Questions can be copied with one click, to allow question variations to be created with ease.
* Revamped question categories structures and editing interface.
* Categories now can contain nested subcategories and can be re-ordered.
* It is possible to select whether questions from categories, and or their subcategories are displayed on the question edit page.
* It is now possible to select whether to add random questions from a parent category alone, or from a parent category and its sub-categories.
* Quiz creators are prevented from changing the question set of quizes that have had student responses.
* Recognition, and rejection, of overlapping/redundant questions has been improved.
* The display of questions in longer quiz categories on the quiz editing page is now paginated.
* New export types - IMS QTI (2.0) and xhtml. Improvements & fixes to others.
* New import type - Hot Potato. Improvements & fixes to others.

'''Scorm'''

* The module is now fully conformant with the SCORM 1.2 standard.
* User result data storage and reporting was improved.
* AICC packages can now be imported.

'''Survey'''

* Graph formatting has been improved (labels are more readable)

'''Wiki'''

* Changes to wiki pages are now monitored and displayed in Recent Activity block
* Several under the hood improvements to backup/restore and other routines that enhance the reliability of wikis

== See also ==

*[[Old releases|1.4.5 release notes]]

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]

[[pt:Versões do Moodle]]
[[es:Notas de versiones]]
[[fr:Notes de mise à jour]]

Latest release notes

2006-10-18T13:09:37Z

Gtielemans: /* Known Problems */

{{About Moodle}}

==Moodle 1.8==
Under development, this version is not recommended for production sites yet, and is only for testing.

==Moodle 1.7==

Under final test phase, the stable release expected soon. Moodle 1.7 Development is now available from CVS or the [http://download.moodle.org Moodle download page]. This version is not recommended for production sites yet.

[http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10120&styleName=Html&projectId=10011&Create=Create This page shows details about issues resolved in this version]

===Headline features===

* [[Roles]]
:: Permissions based on fine-grained capabilities allow all kinds of roles to be created and assigned in all contexts around Moodle. This creates a great deal more flexibility in the permissions that you can grant to people.
* [[XML database schema]]
:: added support for MS-SQL and Oracle with more databases to come. Developers now have just one XML file to edit when changing the database structure, and there is even a very funky editor for this file built-in to Moodle
* New Admin interface
:: Completely new admin interface, with accessible design and cool features to make access to settings fast and easy.
* AJAX Course editing
:: The Topics and Weekly course formats now feature AJAX editing which means you can drag drop blocks, activities and sections (weeks/topics) and it all happens instantly. No more page reloading!
* [[Unit tests|Unit testing framework]]
:: Making it easier for developers to write test code, which should ultimately lead to a more reliable Moodle.

*[[Authorize.net Payment Gateway]] enrolment plugin
::Accepts 'Electronic Checks (ACH)'. After a user approving echeck, the admin who has upload csv capacity must import a CSV file to get the user enrol in Payment Management page.

===Other improvements===

* Improvements to the [[Database module]]
**Template/Field settings can now be saved as Presets and shared across a site.
**Presets are just zip files, and can also be shared between sites.
**Moodle 1.7 comes with one sample preset (an Image Gallery) with more to come.
**New latitude/longitude data type

* Improvements to the [[Lesson module]]
**Now has a more unified view of lesson screens.
**Teacher editing:
***Collapsed view has a nicer format, displays more information regarding each page and allows the creation of new pages.
***Editing is now speedier by replacing 3 second redirect delays with a notification system.
**New feature: display default feedback.
***Default is '''On''' so previous lessons behave as before.
***Description: if no ''response'' is entered for a question answer and this setting is turned '''Off''', then the user skips the feedback page.
**Graceful degrade of JavaScript.
**Several bug fixes.

* Improvements to the [[Quiz module]]
:* The teacher can configure comments that are displayed to the student at the end of their attempt, with the comment displayed depending on the student's score.

* Improvements to some core question types
:* All question types can now have some general feedback. This is displayed to all students after they have finished the question (depending on the quiz settings) and does not depend on what response the student gave. Use this to tell the student what the question was about, or link them to more information about the topic it covers.
:* [[Matching question type|Matching]] questions can have extra wrong answers, and work when two questions have the same answer.
:* [[Multiple Choice question type|Multiple Choice]] questions can have feedback for the whole question, as well as specific answers. This is particularly useful for multiple-response questions.
:* [[Numerical question type|Numerical]] questions can have different answers with different precisions and scores. (Previously this was only supported via GIFT import. Now you can edit questions like this.)

==Moodle 1.6.3==
10th October, 2006

[http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10140&styleName=Text&projectId=10011 Full details of these issues can be found in the tracker]

===Security Bugfix===
* A vulnerability was discovered that could allow SQL injections if a parameter was improperly used. Full details of this particular issue are on the [http://security.moodle.org/ Moodle Security site]. All registered Moodle admins were notified by direct email on Saturday September 30th.

===General Bugs Fixed===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3048 MDL-3048] ] - Release note should note not to use some PHP versions
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3805 MDL-3805] ] - mod.html in NEWMODULE.zip is not XHTML1.0 Transitional compliant
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5378 MDL-5378] ] - shorten_text doesn't work for oriental languages
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5601 MDL-5601] ] - cloze question restore error problem
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5884 MDL-5884] ] - Turn Student View On
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5893 MDL-5893] ] - Blackboard export/backup course does not restore to Moodle correctly
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6084 MDL-6084] ] - Restore to new course failure notice if logged in as course creator
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6128 MDL-6128] ] - 1.6, special chars and messaging system.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6193 MDL-6193] ] - problem with login/index.php file
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6205 MDL-6205] ] - slashes not stripped when re-editing profile
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6224 MDL-6224] ] - Syntax error creating tables on install
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6247 MDL-6247] ] - Error checking for missing themes
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6271 MDL-6271] ] - breadcrumb problem
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6272 MDL-6272] ] - DB Enrolment not recording enrolment end date
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6334 MDL-6334] ] - Unnecessary group menu in Feedback popup window
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6336 MDL-6336] ] - After utf8-migration unserializing of old essay fails
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6341 MDL-6341] ] - "Student view" locks out designers/administrators from courses not available to students
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6342 MDL-6342] ] - cannot move forum post to other forum when the subject includes an apostrophe
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6363 MDL-6363] ] - typo in mod/forum/restorelib.php prevents grouped discussions from being accessible to group after a restore.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6375 MDL-6375] ] - Uploaded assignments are not available from the student submission page once graded
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6480 MDL-6480] ] - Import of multichoice questions in Moodle XML format doesn't use shuffle option. Fix included
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6517 MDL-6517] ] - Adding or editing post produces "ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: "Object id #XXX"
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6518 MDL-6518] ] - How to make new themes link no longer required
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6521 MDL-6521] ] - Single discussion forums can be splitted and it hasn't too much sense....
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6537 MDL-6537] ] - past students receive email from forum
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6538 MDL-6538] ] - Bug in hotpot upgrade script 1.6.1 -> 1.6.2 with MetaColumns() method
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6615 MDL-6615] ] - Highlighting search terms in forum search text posts fails
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6632 MDL-6632] ] - scorm_grade_user function in locallib.php file has errors
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6649 MDL-6649] ] - HTML Editor in Quiz Essay Question unreliable
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6686 MDL-6686] ] - Streamed Chat Locks Send Message Field
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6750 MDL-6750] ] - change_password.php produces JS error.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6754 MDL-6754] ] - moodle.php in de_utf8 langpack has wrong locale
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6757 MDL-6757] ] - Insert a Chinese charachter string to label resource result error.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6770 MDL-6770] ] - Student cannot see handed-in assignment
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6791 MDL-6791] ] - Streamed Chat JS bug Prevents Use
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6824 MDL-6824] ] - redundant style declaration in theme
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6837 MDL-6837] ] - Make a language file entry for the wording of popup blocker checker
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6841 MDL-6841] ] - Student View button fails when course is hidden to students
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6842 MDL-6842] ] - Resource frameset error in IE6
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6866 MDL-6866] ] - A required parameter (backup_unique_code) was missing" error
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6876 MDL-6876] ] - Grades computed incorrectly if assignment name appears more than twice in a course

===Improvement===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6280 MDL-6280] ] - Backup files should not be included in new backups
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6572 MDL-6572] ] - Allow students to access their uploaded documents after grading.
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6662 MDL-6662] ] - why footer with margin-top: 100px
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6878 MDL-6878] ] - Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files in Moodle are not correctly displayed in many Browsers

===New Feature===
* [ [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-5653 MDL-5653] ] - add blacklisted level into environment XML

==Moodle 1.6.2==
12th September, 2006

===Security===
* Fixed handling of uploaded files in Database module
* Module instance id is now properly validated when creating course module object; developers should use get_coursemodule_from_id() to get valid $cm
* Default error reporting level was lowered to 5, E_WARNINGs are no longer displayed on production sites with debug off.
* Multiple problems leading to information leakage fixed in help.php file
* Fixed information leakage from scheduled backups
* Added basic detection of dataroot accessible from Internet, web installer now better suggests dataroot location outside of web file area
* Swf is now disabled by default in Mediaplugin
* forgot_password.php does not allow remote email or username enumeration by default, the old behavior can be enabled by setting protectusernames to No in site configuration
* Undisclosed SQL injections fixed by automatic data conversions in adodb layer
* Theoretical XSS problems fixed in doc/index.php and files/index.php scripts
* Access to tex and algebra files is blocked when filters are disabled
* Request for redirection in jumpto.php protected with sesskey

===Bug Fixes===

* Fixed error when upgrading forum read tracking
* Locales from language packs should finally work - please check your configuration variables and empty the locale field
* Added missing link for course request
* Fixed several glossary problems with non-ascii characters
* Fixed bug where you could not regrade a quiz question where the teacher had added a comment with a ' character.
* Quiz import of BlackBoard V6 files now much more reliable
* Fixed scheduled backups - they were broken in 1.6 and 1.6.1
* Fixed missing guest icons from course listing
* Database sessions respect sessiontimeout setting
* Fixed redirect problems during upgrade resulting in "Table xxx already exists"
* Lesson module: the "(Continue)" no longer displays for 3 seconds after branch tables.
* Lesson module: now properly checks import formats for support.
* Lesson module: feedback is set properly during the import process.
* and many other smaller fixes

===New Features===

* Authorize.net Payment Gateway: Autoconfigures credit card types if the merchant does not accept some types of credit cards

===Known Problems===
* Broken images in published question categories

==Moodle 1.6.1==
20th July, 2006

===Bug Fixes===

* Fixed regression in Turkish locale handling
* Authorize and Paypal enrolment plugin cleanup
* Fixed serious problem with failing Database restore
* Fixed restore of HotPot module containing attempts
* Minor Database module fixes
* National characters in graphs now work for most languages out of the box
* Reviewed and fixed all *nix locale codes in language packs
* Fixed problems when using Resources with Blocks on the frontpage
* Fixed missing events on the first day of month in calendar
* Fixed several problems in Lesson - scores, branch tables, HTML editor issues
* Fixed broken intermodule relinking of absolute paths - please do not use course backups from original 1.6
* PDF byteserving problems caused by incorrect partial content length solved
* Fixed several regressions in handling of multiple groups
* Fixed alphabet problems in Glossary
* Chameleon theme fixes and enhancements
* Fixed all hard coded admin paths
* Fixed moving of course sections
* Fixed grading of Essays in Quiz
* Several Quiz regrading problems solved
* Questions are now exported into backupdata directory
* Added workaround for problems when editting two quizes in one browser
* Lots of other Quiz related bugs fixed - thanks Tim!

* Fixed IE unsecure items warning on sites with https login
* Improved cookie test on the login page
* Potential security issue with unzipping maliciously-crafted zip files fixed
* Satinized input parameters in help.php
* Calendar view.php now respects forcelogin setting

* And lots of other minor fixes worth upgrading

===New Features===

* Enhanced frontpage settings - frontpage can now be different for logged in users, changed category list display
* Improved administration page layout
* Possibility to change graph font for all locales - moodledata/lang/default.ttf takes precedence over lib/default.ttf
* Local language packs may also contain default.ttf
* Backported improved lang.php from HEAD
* New config.php option $CFG->allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories

===Known Problems===

* Broken images in published question categories
* Small number of sites reports problems with Quiz upgrade - please always do a full database backup before any upgrade!
* Workshop backup/restore and Workshop import from other course not supported

===Related===

* Third party modules should be already updated for 1.6.x - you must install new versions before UTF-8 migration!
* New integration of phpMyAdmin available - fixes upstream security problems and compatiblility with PHP 5

==Moodle 1.6==
19th June, 2006

NOTE: Moodle 1.6 requires PHP 4.3.0 (or PHP 5.1.0) and MySQL 4.1.16 (4.1.12 if you use latin languages only). Here is more info on [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]].

===New features===

* [[UTF-8 migration|Unicode]]
::Moodle is now 100% Unicode, which means any language can be mixed together and an end to a number of problems that different character sets caused us.
* [[MoodleDocs development|Documentation]]
::A new one-stop wiki site for ALL Moodle documentation, including links from Moodle itself
* [[Database module]]
::A new activity module that allows collaborative collection of structured data, useful for many things!
* [[LAMS]]
::Integrated via a course format and an activity module
* [[Blogs]]
::Allows reflection on an ongoing basis. Entries are marked and can be viewed by user, course, group, site etc. Contains first new support for [[Tags]].
* [[Reports]]
::All reports are now centralised under Course reports and Admin reports. New reports can be written as plugins and dropped in very easily. One big new report is the new course-based statistics system from Catalyst.
* [[Questions]]
::A centralized bank of questions with the potential to be (re-)used in a variety of modules.
* [[My Moodle]]
::A dashboard interface that allows an overview for each user of all their courses etc.
* [[Hive integration]]
::This initial integration with Hive allows teachers to upload, browse, search and select [[Resources|resources]] within the external repository.
* [[Multiple groups]]
::Users can be part of multiple groups within a course
* [[IMS content package]] resource type
::Supports the loading of any content package as a resource, with an optional repository for sharing packages between courses.
* [[Course backup|Granularised backup]]
* [[Chameleon|Chameleon theme]]
:: An interactive Moodle theme
* [[Enrolment plugins|Multi enrolment]]
::Moodle's enrolment plugins can be used simultaneously on the same site. Also new [[IMS Enterprise]] enrolment plugin.
*[[Authorize.net Payment Gateway]] enrolment plugin
::New feature called 'Order Review'. Admins and teachers may accept or deny payments before processing the credit card and they can also refund payments after processing the credit card in 'Payment Management' page. Students may view their order details. Address Verification System (AVS) and Scheduled-Capture support added. For 'Manual-Capture' admins are notified 5 days prior to pending orders expiring.
===See also===
*[[:Category:Moodle 1.6|Moodle 1.6 features]]

==Moodle 1.5.4==
21st May, 2006

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===Various fixes===

'''Security'''
* Improved kses cleaning of html SC#204
* Prevent unwanted password change here SC#225
* Fix for Secunia Advisory SA18267, plus some logging of suspicious activity.
* AdoDB tests cleanup after Secunia Advisory SA18267
* Fixed $cfg->forceloginforprofiles logic SC#207. Backported from HEAD

'''General'''
* Various updates/improvements in the the Environmental Check allowing to check if your server suits future Moodle requirements.
* Bug 4619. Fixed one DB query not following coding rules.
* Bug 4607. Avoid duplication of course shortname on restore.
* Fixed one problem with auto-link filters and frames.
* Important fixes to muti-byte text handling routines.
* Small changes to the installer.
* Bug 3853. Some important improvements in the restore of log actions.
* Bug 4328. Prevent some warnings in the blocks system.
* Bug 4341. Extending multi-lang support to the "jumpto" menu (showed in collapsed mode).
* Added rss_get_url() to 1.5 to help support data module
* Added support for having a linked tab even if it is currently selected.
* RSS Client block: Removed secondary cache. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4625 Bug 4625]
* Email confirmation now includes lastname. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4869 Bug 4869]
* Database connection errors can now be reported to an admin. See $CFG->emailconnectionerrors in config-dist.php.
* Metacourses: Fixed a problem with self enrolment in child courses.
* Several MySQL v5 compatibility fixes
* Avoid listing more than 200 courses in my courses block, and course listing pages.
* SCORM: Fixed lesson status skin support
* Skype: Added webstatus icon
* File uploads: Only create a directory if needed, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4659 bug 4659]
* Admin Block. Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4627 bug 4627]: Hide "change password" link in admin block if the user is restricted. Credits for report & patch go to Joseph Rezeau.
* HTMLArea: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4562 bug 4562]. Fix posted by sgarcia.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4626 bug 4626] - weblib.php: $course object conversion error in "print_footer " function
* Messaging: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4621 bug 4621] errors in MySQL v3.23 with message backup.
* Introducing Admin->Environment to help users assess installed software prior to the 1.6 upgrade
* Course Restore: Now we avoid duplicates. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4607 Bug 4607]
* Assignment: Guests can no longer submit an online assignment. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4604 Bug 4604]
* File Downloads: Fixed problems for slow (dial up) clients, and avoid hogging memory when PHP's output compression is on.
* Wiki: Supports initial load of contents from course file area. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=3830 Bug 3830]
* Lesson: Now when a teacher edits a page with the "Edit page contents" button and then saves or cancels, s/he gets redirected back to the lesson navigation. This will help to streamline the editing.
* Activity Modules Block - [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4586 bug 4586]
* Metacourse: Fixes unenrolling [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4541 bug 4541]
* File uploads: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4533 bug 4533] - Max upload size at course level ignored.
* Enrol/Authorize.net: Added Address Verification System (AVS) support.
* Online Users Block: Limit the number of students displayed.
* Unicode Support: Typo3 Library updated to newest version.
* Course Categories: Fixed courses and subcategories in an invisible category being visible. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4074 Bug 4074]
* Wiki: Fixed a fatal error updating wiki pages.
* Added autocomplete=off in form tag to avoid browser autocomplete [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4423 bug:4423]
* Password change: Primary administrator password can only be changed by the administraror him/herself.
* Enrol/Authorize.net: Some changes:- allow_internal is not need anymore. Shows two option if enrolment key of course is set.- login_https is required for payment pages. My credit card is important. If you haven't a certificate forgot this module. (security)- Expiry date of credit card is more friendly :).
* User profile: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4400 bug 4400]
* Removed old THEME variable.
* Added some more CSS hooks for the correctness feedback
* Fix [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4366 bug 4366]
* Makes autologinguest possible at site level
* Micro-increment version number to 2.0.10
* Corrected adjustment of relative URLs in <EMBED> tag
* Merging from HEAD:Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4371 bug 4371] (also SC#199):Now manually created users with admin privileges and force change passwordcannot change their username with impunity.
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4067 bug 4067] - allow user to update assignment when not yet marked
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4314 bug 4314]
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4206 bug 4206]
* Delayed merge from HEAD - If tablelib is going to do fullname voodoo, allow default sort field to be firstname/lastname
* Log actions must be strored to DB without &print_log() takes care of it! [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=3853 Bug 3853]
* Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4354 bug 4354]
* shorten_text() AFTER format properly. See [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4355 bug 4355]
* Prevent a warning when params is empty. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4328 Bug 4328]
* Now the section "jumpto" menu (showed in collapse mode), supportsthe multilang filter. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4341 Bug 4341]
* Print performance info if exists and $CFG->perfdebug is enabled.
* Fix for [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4351 bug 4351]. New parasmeter for get_record_sql to disableauto-added LIMIT (in case we are using our own)
* Solved bug found when trying to backup all users! http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27105
* Fixing [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4345 bug 4345]: merging problem when fixing [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4303 bug 4303]
* Mimic changes from "Ought to mention the improved assignment grading!"Merged from HEAD
* Ought to mention the improved assignment grading!
* Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4086 bug 4086] spelling mistake
* Commenting out gz_handler since it seem to cause problemsmore on http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=34376

'''Assignment'''
* Fixed bug in "Prevent late submissions", thanks to Samuli, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4780 bug 4780]

'''Enrolment'''
* Enrolment: Better explanation of flat file enrolment format. Re-formatted the imporved flat file enorlment description
* Auth/LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory
* Enrol/Authorize.net: PostgreSQL support and some indexes for speed.
* Authorize.net: Address Verification System (AVS) support added.
* Authorize.net: $CGF->login_https must be ON for payment pages.
* Authorize.net: Shows two forms if the enrolment key of the course is set (internal and authorize forms).
* Authorize.net: IIS https fix. It doesn't recognize empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) but accepts HTTPS=off.

'''Forum Module'''

* Bug 4355. Solved one visualisation problem in the page showing the list of forums.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4360 bug 4360]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4431 bug 4431], affecting site course, added function forum_user_can_view_post in lib.php

'''Glossary Module'''
* Bug 4543, 4713. Fixed some problems with entries and categories containing more than one word in their title.
* Bug 4858. Fixed one problem with formats, not being detected properly.
* Bug 4915. Entrylist format now displays the "Send Ratings" button.

'''Hotpot Module'''
* Add support for HP5 quizzes (including JBC and old JQuiz)
* Removed weighting from questiontext in JCloze import
* Fixed import of JCloze into quiz module as a MULTIANSWER question
* Fixed bug in restoring attempts from backup

'''Lesson Module
* Lesson: $navigation and $grade_value were undefined when lesson was added to site main page
* Lesson: Lesson Essay Question Can't be Graded when attempt not finished. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4174 Bug 4174]
* Lesson: Added cancel button. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4216 Bug 4216] - cancel button
* Lesson: Fixed [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37537 problem with storing the answerid for numerical questions].
* Lesson: Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=1187 bug 1187]

'''Quiz Module'''

* Fixed bug 4250: Added missing percentages to the grade selector
* Fixed bug 4495: Don't apply lateness check when teacher previews
* Fixed bug 4544: Incorrect path to exported files in some language packs
* Fixed bug 4780: Bug in "Prevent late submissions" setting fixed
* Fixed bug 5070: Students can't see quizzes when they are closed
* Turned off regrading of quizzes that have the attemptonlast option set
* A number of other minor interface fixes
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4319 bug 4319]. Thanks to Jaroslav
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4217 bug 4217]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4829 bug 4829]
* Now we avoid checking for lateness when teacher previews. [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4495 Bug 4495]
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4688 bug 4688]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39548 Rounding errors could lead to "Partially correct" for correct answers]
* Added missing percentages to the grade selector, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4250 bug 4250]
* Avoid error messages in case $quiz->sumgrades is zero, [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4454 bug 4454]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27730#181773 get_actual_response() method for cloze question type] contributed by Jean-Michel
* Better PostgreSQL support
* Now With Nicer Presentation of Questions
* Summary text shouldn't be cleaned as only entered by teacher.
* Fixed [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4345 bug 4345]. Report performance improvements caused regression with MySQLv3
* Now we turn off browser-based autocomplete. Fixes [http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=4423 bug 4423] - Short Answer Quiz Q's Saving Form Entries

'''Resource Module'''

* Solved one problem on restore that was causing some links to become corrupted.
* Slightly changes to the delete_instance() function in resources to allow future improvements.
* Resource restore: Solved bug when [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38801 decoding encoded links for resource]

'''Wiki Module'''

* Solved one problem sending double-slashed info to DB.
* Bug 3830. Load of initial content from course file area is now allowed.

==Moodle 1.5.3==

11th November, 2005

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===A few new things===

* We now have SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004) support!
* Much improved Assignment grading interface, including "quick grading" options
* A new Single-Sign-On API is available

===Various fixes===

'''General'''

* Contains warnings when Moodle is used on an PHP configuration known to be insecure
* Contains fixes for some recently reported security problems (see [http://security.moodle.org/ security.moodle.org])
* Backups now runs a lot faster medium/large installs. Many issues fixed in this area
* Listing of directory sizes can be made much faster on Linux/Unix servers, thanks to a performance fix you can enable from Admin->Variables: "path_to_du"
* We now log more meaningful IP addresses when the server or the clients are working behind a proxy
* Fixed some issues with PHP accelerators
* Upgrade scripts have been refined and work much better for PostgreSQL installations
* General PostgreSQL port code cleanup
* Upgrading to 1.5.3 will fix any legacy Journal to Online Assignment upgrade issues
* RSS libraries now support RSS 2.0 categories, see bug 3654
* Better accesibilty in file uploads, see bug 3662
* Better support for site-wide HTTPS, see bug 3848
* We now send away bots (like Googlebot) from that try mangled URLs, see bug 3958
* Better DST support for non-logged-in users
* Better DST support for repeat events in Calendar
* Small fixes to the lesson, choice and grade modules
* Minor CSS improvements to formal_white and orangewhite themes
* Better pagination in course listing and loglive pages
* Fixed an IE-only bug related to HTMLArea content where user-edited tables could float and hide part of the UI.

'''Authentication'''

* Fixes to change password/forgotten password with external auth
* Data fetched from external DB or LDAP is now truncated correctly
* Fixed bug 4305 -- better login block behaviour when using secureforms
* Better support for utf-8 user data from external auth
* LDAP: General fixes covering sync_users script and logging of errors
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3141 - Can't update external data with LDAP authentication
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3992 - LDAP password including a quote does not work - credits go to Kita
* LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory.
* LDAP: Fixed bug #3594
* LDAP: Better handling of multi-source field mapping
* LDAP: Fix for using DN as idnumber - thanks fo Jeff Graham - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28840

'''Enrolment and metacourses'''

* Metacourses: Prevent normal users to gain access to meta courses via manual enrolment
* Metacourses: better support for MySQL v3.23.x
* DB: Enrolment lookups now work reliably with Moodle on MySQL and Postgres
* DB: Non-MySQL databases work again as external enrolment databases
* LDAP: Fixed a wrong call to add_teacher in LDAP plugin.
* LDAP: Servers being down or unavailable no longer prevent logins
* LDAP: Course auto-creation works again
* LDAP: Fixed several bugs reported by Jeff Graham and Barron Koralesky -- including bugs 3912 and 3974
* LDAP: We can now bind non-anonymously to LDAP
* Authorize.net: several fixes

'''Resources'''

* Bugfix: Avoid linking to empty or unlinkable activity names

'''Forums'''

* Big and small optimizations to tracking of read/unread messages, specially for PostgreSQL
* Fixed some PostgreSQL bugs
* Some more actions are now supported by backup/restore when processing log records, see bug 3582
* Now message forum RSS feeds are including category data -- useful under some RSS agregators able to group messages, see bug 3654
* Fixed paging on forum search

'''Blocks'''

* Several performance improvements
* Fixes to the upgrade process, including PostgreSQL syntax and lower memory usage
* Brought in several bugfixes from 1.6dev
* Fixed bug 3478: Cannot add RSS feed as course creator
* Fixed bug 3793: Prevent warning message when configuring a glossary_random block in a course which has no glossaries

'''Quiz'''

* Some CSS style fixes
* Better compatibility with themes that contain forms in the headers
* Highlighting of correct answers can now be turned off
* Fixed bug 3986: Too many random questions. (mindforge)
* Fixed missing action icons
* Fixed bug 3899 and removed some 'missing course object' messages
* Fixed bug 3950: Ee-attempt button inconsistency for multi-attempt quizzes
* Fixed bug 3953: Quiz/report.php pagesize can be set to 0, credits to Jean-Michel
* Fixed potential data data corruption bug 3915
* Fixed bug 3884: Quiz correct highlights missing for 2 of 3 options.
* Fix for the Student review highlight doesn't seem to work bug
* Fixed bug 3804: Differences in question types between 1.5 and 1.6
* Fixed bug 3822: don't count previews as attempts
* Fixed bug 3807: Question numbering issue
* Fixes for the item analysis plug-in, assembled by Jean-Michel
* Now we reset the timeout counter to avoid timeouts
* Several improvements contributed by Jean-Michel Vedrine. You can now change the number of attempts per page displayed on screen, and download results to Excel/text file, including detailed grades
* Fixed export bug with non-English languages

'''SCORM'''

* We now support SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004)!
* Fixed a bug with next and prev SCO search
* Fixed bugs related to masteryscore
* Fixed a problem in AICC course tracking

'''Wiki'''

* Now paging of older versions is showed and working properly, see bug 3750

'''Filters'''

* Mediaplugin filter now finds multi-line links in HTML code
* Censor filter: Added original word as title to the blacked-out version. The filter can obscure actual important words by mistake (eg Dickens) and there needs to be some way to recover the meaning

==Moodle 1.5.2==

16th July, 2005

=== Various fixes ===

* Journal -> Assignment upgrade now works properly :-/
* Assignment submodules now upgrade as expected
* Various other bugs with new Assignments fixed
* Journal module is now disabled by default on new installations
* Login page is now 100% HTTPS if required
* Various small standard theme tweaks
* Fix for recent matching questions display bug in Quiz
* Language editor no longer creates empty files when not necessary (caused country list bug)
* Fixed some manifest parsing problems in SCORM module
* Multilang filter now deals with pack names that contain numbers
* Files are now force-downloaded (fixes IE problems and some security issues)
* Relinking debugging output is escaped
* Large MP3 player now displays ID3 tags properly again
* Some chat daemon improvements

=== Some new things ===

* Orangewhite theme optimised for use on PDA
* Forum user posts page can be called without userid
* Altavista BabelFish now allowed in as guest when Google is

==Moodle 1.5.1==

8th July, 2005

===Various fixes===

* Several potential security problems solved
* Allowobjectembed setting now works correctly
* Speed problem on IE, caused by tab hover fixed.
* Cut and paste in editor on Firefox has a more helpful warning message
* Fixed a session problem when logged on as admin during upgrade from very old Moodle version
* Fixed editing problem in Main menu of site
* Minor CSS display problems in a few areas were fixed
* Fixed the adding of a single discussion forum
* Fixed Lesson problems with calculating grades, and dates
* Fixed Lesson problems with entering a cluster after a page
* Censor filter was fixed to make it work better with old themes

===Some new things===

* New theme: Wood
* Metal theme updated for 1.5
* Many language updates for most languages, including a new language: Khmer
* Block classes can now run custom code when an instance is created/deleted (this is useful for blocks that need to set up non-trivial data structures)
* Wizard for Calculated Questions in Quiz was rewritten
* Backup/Restore module selection is now improved and much easier
* Backup/Restore module has much improved relinking support, it's now faster and easier to implement in new modules

==Moodle 1.5==

5th June, 2005

Here you can find the release notes of the current stable version of Moodle. '''If you experience any bugs in this release, please report them at [http://moodle.org/bugs moodle.org/bugs] so we can fix them in the next release.'''

=== Headline features ===

* Web pages are compliant with XHTML Transitional 1.0
* Improved '''Accessibility''', aiming for compliance with WAI (W3C), SENDA (UK) and Section 508 (US) criteria.
* Very strong '''new Themes system''', allowing cascading themes, user themes, course themes, with very fine control of every page in Moodle via CSS.
* Integrated '''Messaging''' feature for direct communication between all users in the site, featuring realtime popup windows, notification, email copies, blocking, history, WYSIWYG editor, etc
* Forum read/unread tracking with highlights allows you to see new postings at a glance and to control how these are displayed (per forum, per user or per site).
* New '''Blocks''' system, allowing multiple copies of blocks and better block configuration
* Full support for '''Daylight Savings Time''' in every locality around the globe, so everyone always see the correct local time for all events.
* New '''extended gradebook''' allowing custom weighting of different activities, setting extra grades (or taking out others) and improved display and sorting options
* Users can be required to agree to a '''Site Policy
'''

=== Other major system-wide improvements ===

'''Admin'''

* New "maintenance mode" allows the admin to temporarily disable a site (during upgrades, for example).
* Moodle can automatically download a new list of timezones from moodle.org or elsewhere and install it to the database (Olson files are supported too)
* New version of Moodle MySQL Admin module (available separately)
* New calendar options page provides user interface to configure the behavior of the calendar

'''Authentication'''

* New Shibboleth Support
* New CAS Support
* New PAM Support
* Improved LDAP integration, so that LDAP can now control course creation, group assignments. Increased performance and scalability performing user synchronisation.
* Certain user fields can be locked by the admin when using external authentication
* Improved session handling now detects "crossover" sessions that we have found in some buggy PHP installations and prevents them
* Sessions can now be stored in the database (good for clustered installations!)
* Users can be forced to change their password

'''Files'''

* Standardised file browsing in all areas
* Improved uploading, with support for automated Virus scanning of new documents using ClamAV.
* Slasharguments now work also on IIS (upgrade to PHP 4.3.11 needed for ISAPI)

'''Filters'''

* Standardised filter library makes it trivial to write new filters that require searching and highlighting of text.
* Huge efficiency improvements for complex filters like the Glossary filter
* New Tidy filter uses the W3C Tidy program to (optionally) clean all user-entered texts throughout the site and convert it to valid XHTML code
* Improved censorship filter, now "blacks out" words using styles and uses a word list from the language packs.
* Improved Flash MP3 player, now shows progress bar while downloading and playing
* Improved Multi-language filter is faster, more forgiving of syntax errors, and uses new editor-friendly syntax: 
* Auto-linking filters (glossary, activities) can work to link all the occurrences (old behaviour), once for each text block or only once for the whole page ($CFG->filtermatchonepertext, $CFG->filtermatchoneperpage).
* More text can now be filtered in Moodle, including activity names, headings and other such small texts. This makes it possible to design completely multi-lingual sites in Moodle that fully appears in the user's chosen language.

'''Themes'''

* Modules can provide standard styles
* Themes can override required styles of other themes
* Users and courses can choose their own themes if the admin allows it
* Implementation of tabs interface on many pages
* Modules, Blocks and Languages can define their own standard styles

'''HTML Editor'''

* The toolbuttons offered in the editor toolbar are now configurable by the admin
* Search and Replace text within the editor text area (with optional use of regular expressions)

'''Course management'''

* Transparent Blackboard 5.5 course importing (partial 6.0 support)
* The new meta-courses allow to get users automatically enroled in a general course (the metacourse) when enroled in any of the metacourse-linked courses
* New tool to copy content from a course to other.

'''New blocks'''

* HTML block: allowing to place arbitrary content (text, images links) in any course mainpage
* Remote RSS feed: allows to display external news channels inside a Moodle course
* Glossary Selection: to choose and display content from a Moodle glossary in course mainpage

'''Calendar'''

* Major speed improvements for sites with a large number of courses using groups
* Repeating events can now be modified or deleted all at the same time or separately as before
* New "remember filter settings" preference that allows calendar filters to remember their status between logins

=== Activity module improvements ===

'''Assignment'''

* Completely refactored into a new class-based design, allowing new plugin-assignment types
* New Online Text assignment type that doesn't require files and allows inline comments when grading - this new type effectively replaces the old Journal module
* Vastly improved grading interface for handling large classes
* New configuration options to disable late submission and to e-mail alerts to teachers when students submit new work

'''Chat'''

* Streamlined interface looks smoother, works faster, even without using the optional server daemon
* Blocks can now be added to chat pages (e.g. for additional information)

'''Choice'''

* Rewritten to allow any number of choices
* The number of users per choice can be limited, which allows it to be used as tool for "signing up" to an array of options.
* You can now download the results of the choice to XLS or a TXT file

'''Forum'''

* Powerful new Google-like forum searching tools
* Forum read/unread tracking - unread messages are highlighted on the course page, forum page, discussion listing and the discussion view
* The tracking system may be disabled by teachers/users
* User profiles show all posts by a user, as well as all discussions
* When admins edit user messages, a notice is attached
* Discussion listing shows the last user who posted to each discussion and when it was, with a direct link to that post
* In group-enabled forums the discussion listing shows the group the thread applies to, with a link to the group description page.

'''Glossary'''

* New setting to enable/disable the print view of each glossary.
* New search system looks for words everywhere (instead of doing exact phrase match).
* More information is sent to logs to be able to track activity better.

'''Journal'''

* The Journal module has not changed since 1.4, and is now deprecated. The upgrade procedure will convert all your Journal activities into Online Assignments, and hide all the old Journal activities. If you don't want this to happen, then define this in your config.php: $CFG->noconvertjournals = true;

'''Lesson'''

* Now supports timed Lessons
* Can create practice Lessons (grades are not stored)
* Option for students to view points earned while taking the Lesson
* Allow students to review their answers before submitting the Lesson
* New Slide Show Mode (only branch tables are displayed as slides)
* New Left Menu (for enabled branch tables only)
* Lessons can now be Password Protected
* A Tree View can be used for the Lesson creation screen
* Students can post their high scores
* New option to save a Lesson's settings as defaults for new lessons in the same course
* Can delete a student's attempts
* New page Jumps:
** Previous Page
** Unseen question within a branch
** Random question within a branch
** Unseen question within a cluster
* Added functionality to view Lesson statistics
* New question type: Essay. Teachers can view each essay and write comments, assign a grade, and then email it all to the student
* New question creation interface

'''Quiz'''

* Can handle adaptive questions, i.e., questions that allow the student to interact with them repeatedly within the same quiz attempt and that can change in response to student answers.
* Student can be allowed to try a question again immediately within the same quiz attempt until they get the answer right.
* There is a penalty mechanism that deducts a specified fraction of the mark for each wrong attempt at a question.
* Allows questions rendered and scored externally (e.g., by mathematical assessment engines) to be integrated seamlessly into Moodle quizzes via the RQP web services protocol.
* Is prepared for the handling of IMS QTI questions once web services for these become available.
* New tabbed teacher interface for previewing, editing, and reviewing quizzes.
* New "improved security" mode shows quiz in a separate full-screen window, with many browser features disabled
* Quizzes can be presented to students in several pages. The number of questions per page is selectable by the teacher.
* Blocks can now be added to quiz pages (to show results table, or additional information etc)
* Better and cleaner interface for question selection and management in the database. Selected questions can be added to quiz, moved to other categories or deleted en mass.
* Random questions are now added to the quiz question list with a dedicated button, leaving a cleaner interface at questions database without phantom placeholders
* Final grade can be a fractional number, with teacher-defined decimal figures
* Improved results page with user-selectable display of columns, cleaner sorting and new mark display options
* Questions can be edited with one click from the improved quiz preview and question preview screens.
* Questions can be copied with one click, to allow question variations to be created with ease.
* Revamped question categories structures and editing interface.
* Categories now can contain nested subcategories and can be re-ordered.
* It is possible to select whether questions from categories, and or their subcategories are displayed on the question edit page.
* It is now possible to select whether to add random questions from a parent category alone, or from a parent category and its sub-categories.
* Quiz creators are prevented from changing the question set of quizes that have had student responses.
* Recognition, and rejection, of overlapping/redundant questions has been improved.
* The display of questions in longer quiz categories on the quiz editing page is now paginated.
* New export types - IMS QTI (2.0) and xhtml. Improvements & fixes to others.
* New import type - Hot Potato. Improvements & fixes to others.

'''Scorm'''

* The module is now fully conformant with the SCORM 1.2 standard.
* User result data storage and reporting was improved.
* AICC packages can now be imported.

'''Survey'''

* Graph formatting has been improved (labels are more readable)

'''Wiki'''

* Changes to wiki pages are now monitored and displayed in Recent Activity block
* Several under the hood improvements to backup/restore and other routines that enhance the reliability of wikis

== See also ==

*[[Old releases|1.4.5 release notes]]

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]

[[pt:Versões do Moodle]]
[[es:Notas de versiones]]
[[fr:Notes de mise à jour]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-09T08:54:38Z

Gtielemans: /* Improve the way we integrate Rubrics in Moodle, like... */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

'''Note:''' We will need some spare parts & hardware to get the board going. I will bring a power supply, but a VGA monitor, USB mouse + keyboard, USB ext disk, USB hub, and open wifi (no ethernet on the board) will be needed.

''I'm interested:''

# martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and it can be accessed from My Page)
Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

== Improve the way we integrate Rubrics in Moodle, like... ==
http://docs.subjectivemetrics.com/User/cam/rubistar/rs_overview.html

maybe with some flavors of...

http://ipeer.apsc.ubc.ca/ipeer_site/

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-09T08:16:42Z

Gtielemans: /* Improve the way we integrate Rubricsin Moodle, like... */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

'''Note:''' We will need some spare parts & hardware to get the board going. I will bring a power supply, but a VGA monitor, USB mouse + keyboard, USB ext disk, USB hub, and open wifi (no ethernet on the board) will be needed.

''I'm interested:''

# martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and it can be accessed from My Page)
Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

== Improve the way we integrate Rubrics in Moodle, like... ==
http://docs.subjectivemetrics.com/User/cam/rubistar/rs_overview.html

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-09T08:16:17Z

Gtielemans:

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

'''Note:''' We will need some spare parts & hardware to get the board going. I will bring a power supply, but a VGA monitor, USB mouse + keyboard, USB ext disk, USB hub, and open wifi (no ethernet on the board) will be needed.

''I'm interested:''

# martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and it can be accessed from My Page)
Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

== Improve the way we integrate Rubricsin Moodle, like... ==
http://docs.subjectivemetrics.com/User/cam/rubistar/rs_overview.html
==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T21:11:17Z

Gtielemans: /* How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ? */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and it can be accessed from My Page)
Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T21:10:45Z

Gtielemans: /* How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ? */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and it can be accessed from My Page)

----

Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T21:07:12Z

Gtielemans: /* How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ? */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and it can be accessed from My Page)
Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T17:47:55Z

Gtielemans: /* How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ? */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We changed William's bookmark in a student only note-taking tool and (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and c be accessed from My Page)
Bug: Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
Code clean-up: how to remove obsolete code and make the bookmark pages secure?
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T17:45:56Z

Gtielemans: /* How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ? */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and c be accessed from My Page)
Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..} offers teachers and admins empty - only for real student - spots (so an error)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T17:44:20Z

Gtielemans: /* How to insert a HTML-ediotr in old code block and make it secure ? */

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and c be accessed from My Page)
Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-editor in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
(I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. a button for the overview of the privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global privat notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

With the new "View as student button" check like if isstudent() {..show..}

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T17:23:34Z

Gtielemans:

Monday 24th July, 2006

''Welcommen zum Hackfest'' (OK - I've been watching too much WorldCup on TV).

The first MoodleMoot hackfest is nearly upon us... and we don't have an agenda!

This is an open source agenda for the hackfest. We'll have a day before the Moot to geek out on some code, maybe develop a feature or two, fix some bugs and generally make our favorite learning system a happier place. But I leave it up to you to tell me exactly what we should do. We have four or five rooms with internet connections, a few projectors, and I'll try to get pizza.

Let's start by brainstorming some ideas here for a few days. If someone posts something you're interested in, put your name under it as a vote. The top votes become our central organizing ideas. For example

==1 Bug fixing==

Let's spend a few hours and hunt down as many outstanding bugs in 1.6 as possible. Bounties for most bugs killed, trickiest bug killed, and most unusual bug killed.

''I'm Interested:''
# Jason Cole
# skodak
# martin langhoff (auth & enrolment specifically).
# Martin Dougiamas

(iarenaza) I won't be there, but here are a couple of bugs for Martin L., related to auth: #4648 and #5373. Very easy to fix :-)

==2 What next for the quiz module?==

If any other quizzy people are there, we should have a talk about where we see the quiz module going.

I/the OU have the following priorities:

# Make question type plugins really plug-in-able. At the moment there are some limitations:
#* All the lang strings are still in lang/en_utf8/quiz.php.
#* qtype plugins cannot easily feed CSS and Javascript into the page.
#* pluggable qtypes and pluggable inport/export filters don't play nicely together.
# Write some new question types.
# Make some improvements to existing question types.
# Get RQP working again, so our in-house question engine can talk to Moodle.

''I'm Interested:''
# Tim Hunt

==Performance profiling==

Pick a (memory|database) hog and put it on a diet.

''I'm interested''

# martin langhoff

(iarenaza) Once again, I won't be there, but here's an unfixed bug in 1.6.x and HEAD (was fixed in 1.5.x, but not applied to HEAD at the moment): bug #4591

==Hacking on the OLPC Board==

MartinL will be bringing the OLPC board (if it is booting, and customs allows!) for people to have a play with it. If we have any Mozilla/XUL experts in the house, he will want to explore building a limited cached Moodle UI with it for offline work.

''I'm interested:''
martin langhoff

==How to save/retrieve a complete section from stock?==
Now the sections become more and more accepted as the tasksets for a week, our teachers wish to have topic oriented stores (courses for the moment) as section stores and want to copy one/more sections form that task store to a clean course..

''(In the end we wish that students can select sections from the store to compose their own courses, until the teacher freezes their choice set and the learning game can begin.)''

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans (I arrive a little later, so start with the bugs first, please :))

==How to reveale files outside a course without using datadir for course 1?==
Can someone explain the right setup and use of the exception array:
- we want to show a student (after login) only his own file from that store
- we want to show a teacher/tutor only the files from the students in his course(s)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to repair the last bug in the old bookmark option ?==
We (thanks Chardelle!) almost repaired the complete bookmark for 1.6. (and c be accessed from My Page)
Only when the user tries to sort the heder in the overview, the text of the headers disappear.
(Wish for new code: categories are privat, so allow a student to delete a self created category)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==How to insert a HTML-ediotr in old code block and make it secure ?==
To make the set of student note-taking tools complete, I found old code to have a global private notebook.
( I group this with bookmarks in the calender, so the student has: 1. privat time-related-notes in the calendar, 2. overview button for privat page-related-notes under the calendar and 3. a global notebook for other scribbles..)
On this moment this piece of code has a flat text editor, would be nice to have HTML or even the new (Ajax?) miniWiki?)

''I'm interested:''
Ger Tielemans

==Add your suggestion here ...==

Go on, you know you want to.

==See also==
* [http://moodlemoot.org/ http://moodlemoot.org/]

[[Category:Developer]]

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T17:10:00Z

Gtielemans:

UK MoodleMoot 06 hackfest

2006-07-07T17:04:52Z

Gtielemans:

Broken/Roles

2006-06-08T19:49:39Z

Gtielemans:

'''Roles and capabilities''' are planned to be included in Moodle 1.7. For now, we have some basic ideas of how to implement such a structure in Moodle.

''Please note that none of the following is finalised.''

==Definitions==

By roles, we mean an identifier of the user's status, for example, teacher, student and forum moderator are examples of roles.

A capability is a permission to access some particular Moodle feature. Capabilities are associated with roles. For example, ''forum_canreadpost'' is a capability.

==The existing system==

Currently in Moodle, we have a fixed set of roles i.e. primary admin, admins, course creators, editing teachers, non-editing teachers, students, and guests. For each role, the capability or actions that they can performed are fixed. For example, the role student allows the user to submit an assignment, but doesn't allow the user to browse/edit other users' work. By using this setup we limit ourselves to a rather rigid set of capabilities for each role. If we want, say a particular student or group to be able to mark assignments in a particular course, we can't do that without giving these users teacher privileges.

==The new roles and capability system==

The new system will allow authorized users to define an arbitrary number of roles. Each role can have a customizable set of capabilities in every context. A context can be the whole Moodle site, a course, or a module instance, e.g. quiz 5 in 'Introduction to Photography'. An authorized user will be able to assign an arbitrary number of roles to each user. Since the capabilities in each role could be different, there could be conflict in capabilities. This is resolved by giving roles different 'priorities'. For example, to prevent a naughty student from posting, one could assign him a 'naughty student' role that does not allow him to post. This role should have a priority higher than that of a normal 'student' role.

To facilitate exceptional cases in roles and capabilities, we can use exception rules. For example, we can specify a rule saying that all students are able to mark/read other students' assignment in this particular course. Note that such rules need to have a priority as well. The capability of a user, in any context is then resolved by finding the highest priority role/rule.

''A smooth upgrade will be provided with 1.7. The existing roles (admin, teacher, student, etc), and the exisiting capabilities will be retained. This is done by creating default roles at site/course levels, and assigning the current users to these roles accordingly. The default roles will have default capabilities associated with them, which pretty much is what we have in 1.6. The whole process is automatic so there's nothing to worry about =). With no modifications, Moodle will operate exactly the same before and after the upgrade.''

==The plan==

There are a few major things that need to be done. Here's a list (in no particular order):

#Identify permissions required for site/course/each module.
#Define the database structure for storing roles and capabilities.
#Recode the whole of Moodle, including all modules to support the new structure. Instead of using <code>isteacher()</code> or <code>isstudent()</code> we should be using <code>has_capabity($capability, $instanceid)</code> etc. A new API for handling roles and capabilities will be implemented (accesslib.php).
#Add storage of capabilities for each module. Can be done either in a file, e.g. db/capability.xml, or as a sql file that gets installed to a central db whenever this module is installed. Either way, what do we do when we need to upgrade these capabilities? Some capabilities might needs refining/splitting later on. How do we control the 'version' of a capability?
#Consider interface issues, especially how to manage conflicting role/exception rules.
#Upon logging in, we should use a cache to store capability, down to module level. How should that be structured?
#Consider the impact on backup/restore.
#Upgrade path for current users. The user information in table user_coursecreators, user_admins, user_teachers, and user_students will most likely be migrated to the new roles and capabilities tables. The users will most likely be assigned default roles that comes with default capabilities (e.g. teachers, admins, students, etc). The old tables themselves could possibly be dropped at the end of the upgrade.

==Capabilities==

This is a comprehensive list of capabilities, well, in the making. Please edit. Should we distinguish canedit and candelete?

What about a canview capability? Like for choice, where a person is allowed to see the choice question but not participate in it? --[[User:N Hansen|N Hansen]] 19:29, 16 May 2006 (WST)

Certainly need a canview or cansee capability for parents as linked to their childs data/contributions.

Do we need to add canview and cansearch logs at site/course/user/group level?

===Site-level Capabilities===

#canconfigsitevariables - applcialbe in admin/config.php
#canreadblogs
#canpostblogs
#candeleteallblogs
#canbrowseuser
#canviewhiddenactivity
#cancreatecourse
#caneditownprofile
#caneditallprofiles

===Course-level Capabilities===

#viewcoursecontent
#caneditcourse
#cancreatebackups
#canrestorebackups
#cancreateblocks
#caneditblocks
#candeleteblocks

===Module-level Capabilities===

#Assignment
##assignment_canadd
##assignment_canedit
##assignment_candelete
##assignment_cansubmit
##assignment_mark - marking, viewing of list of submitted assignments
##assignment_canviewsubmissions
#Chat
##chat_canadd
##chat_canedit
##chat_candelete
##chat_canparticipate
##chat_canviewpastsessions
#Choice
##choice_canadd
##choice_canedit
##choice_candelete
##choice_canparticipate
##choice_canviewresponses
#Database
##database_canadd
##database_canedit
##databaes_candelete
##database_canaddentry
##database_canaddtemplates
##database_canedittemplates
##database_candeleteownentry
##database_candeleteallentry
##database_cancomment
##database_candeletecomment
##database_canrate
#Exercise
##exercise_canadd
##exercise_canedit
##exercise_candelete
##exercise_canassess
#Forum
##forum_canadd
##forum_canedit
##forum_candelete
##forum_canreadpost
##forum_canstartnewdiscussion
##forum_canreply
##forum_caneditallpost
##forum_candeleteallpost
##forum_canrate
#Glossary
##glossary_canadd
##glossary_canedit
##glossary_candelete
##glossary_canaddcat
##glossary_caneditcat
##glossary_candeletecat
##glossary_canadditem
##glossary_candeleteitem
##glossary_canedititem
##glossary_cancomment
##glossary_canimportentries
##glossary_canexportentries
##glossary_canapprove
#Hotpot
##hotpot_candd
##hotpot_canedit
##hotpot_candelete
##hotpot_canparticipate
#Label
##label_canadd
##label_canedit
##label_candelete
#Lams
##lams_canadd
##lams_canedit
##lams_candelete
#Lesson
##lesson_canadd
##lesson_canedit
##lesson_candelete
##lesson_canparticipate
#Quiz
##quiz_canadd
##quiz_canedit
##quiz_candelete
##quiz_canaddquestion
##quiz_caneditquestion
##quiz_candeletequestion
##quiz_canparticipate
##quiz_cangrade
#Resource
##resource_canadd
##resource_canedit
##resource_candelete
#Scorm
##scorm_canadd
##scorm_canedit
##socrm_candelete
#Survey
##survey_canadd
##survey_canedit
##survey_candelete
##survey_canviewresponses
#Wiki
##wiki_canadd
##wiki_canedit
##wiki_candelete
##wiki_canstartnewwiki
##wiki_canparticipate
#Workshop
##workshop_canadd
##workshop_canedit
##workshop_candelete
##workshop_cangrade
##workshop_canparticipate

==Scenarios==

This section is for brainstorming some example roles that we would like to support:

===Student===
Has this one been missed?

===Site Designers===
Is there a role for peole involved in how the site looks but not full administrators? Thinking here of online control of themes rather than FTP theme uploading. But in either case they caneditlogos, caneditcss, candeditlevelatwhichthemeapplies.

===Educational Authority Adviser===
Someone who would want to browse the site and may be asked to comment or contribute to particular discussions or developments in school. Access for this role would be controlled by the school in the case of school level moodles but may be different if there were to be a Local Authority wide Moodle.

===Educational Inspector===
Someone who will visit the site to verify the school's self review that comments on home school relationships, extending the classroom etc. They may want to see summaries of usage and reports from surveys garnering parent and pupil views.

===Second Marker / Moderator===
A teacher within ths site that has access to assignments and quizzes from another teacher's course for second marking purposes. This may need additional functionality adding to the assignment module so that two sets of grades/feedback can be given to one set of assignments.

===External Examiner===
Has all the rights of inpectors, but would also need to be able to review assignments and feedback, view forums, glossaries etc. However, would not want to post, feedback onto the site at all.

===Parent===
A parent will have one or more children in one or more institutions which could be using one or more moodle instances or a mixture of Learning Platforms. A parent's role will vary depending on the age of their children and whether they are contributing as a parent or a school supporter.

In Early Years (EY) and Key Stage 1 (KS1) they may play/learn on an activity or write for the child. Parents often interpret homework tasks and read to their children perhaps filling in a joint reading diary.

In Key stages 3 and 4 this changes to more of a monitoring/awareness role where a parent would expect to have a summary report of attendance, attainment and general achievement on a weekly/monthly/termly or annual basis. Parents will often be asked to sign and write back comments about this review report.

In all Key Stages there is a great need for parents to receive communication from the school which they can confirm they have received by signing a form. In some cases this may also involve making choices from a list. It may also involve payment for a trip or disco being returned so there could be the possibility of electronic payments.

Parent's evening often involve complex booking systems that attempt to get parent's and teachers together. Easy for EY/KS1/KS2 very difficult for KS3/KS4. Wow would this help if it was built into the Learning Platform.

In some cases there needs to be confidential communication between the parent and the teacher without the child being party to this. It may involve teaching and learning but could also involve a behaviour or medical issue. Often this may be done via a sealed letter or face to face.

The latest incarnation of OfSTED with the Self Review Framework (SEF) there is a greater emphasis on schools gathering parent voice via surveys and discussion. There is a clear match here with parents have access to parental votes, questionnaires and discussions and for schools to be able to publish news, results and reports back to parents.

In the UK the LP framework and agenda as being pushed by the DfES via Becta emphasises that within the mandatory groups and roles functionality the parent role is likely to be required to meet the LP Framework procurement standard.

===Manager===
''Please add text here...''

===Weekly Seminar Leader===
''In a university seminar, typically 8-15 students in their 3rd/4th year, each student is responsible for leading one topic in a study series. I ask each student to research 5-10 resources, then give a powerpoint presentation to the other students. This is followed by an in-class discussion and then online homework. The homework involves some fun quiz questions and then some reflective journal questions. I ask each seminar leader to prepare the quiz questions and journal questions as well as their presentation. To do that, I would like to assign activity-making/authoring roles to the student--either for a short period, or for duration of the whole course. Thus "Allow Quiz Authoring Role" or "Allow Assignment Authoring Role" at the course level or, if possible, even the Topic level (in a topic or week format course) would be important.''

===Mentor/Mentee===
''Please add text here...''

===Community-Designed Rating Criteria===
''The gradebook tends to be the domain of the teacher. What if community/peer ratings/marks could also be entered there? What if peer assessment criteria could be designed by the students, not just the teacher?''

===Visitor===

This would be a role whereby one could allow a visitor to visit one's classroom. This might be a colleague interested in seeing your course, or a journalist who might be writing an article about one's site. They should not be able to see the names of any students anywhere (eg recent activity, forum posts) for privacy reasons. They should be able to try out things like quizzes, and lessons but no grades would be recorded (like in teacher preview mode). They would not be able to participate in choices and forums but could view them. It would be read only in a way like former-student role below but without access to a particular student's records that former student role would grant.

===Former Student===
This role would be of particular use for courses with rolling enrollments. This role would be one where a student had completed all of the requirements of a course (ie assignments, quizzes etc.) but wished to have continued access to the course material for review or consultation. The key factor is that one would give access to the completed student to the notes he read, his work and the teacher's comments on it, but he would not be allowed to do anything that would take up the teacher's time. In other words, a sort-of read-only access to the course. How forums, which might contain pertinent information and would continue to grow, would be handled is a question. Perhaps the student would be shown only what was in the forums at the time he completed the course. He would not be allowed to see any new posts or add any himself. Same thing for database and glossary entries. In other words, a snapshot of the course at the time his regular enrollment ended. He shouldn't be able to see the names or profiles of any newly enrolled students for privacy reasons-hence the restrictions on forum access. One issue that would have to be dealt with would be changes to existing modules-such as resources. Does the student get access to the module as it was or as it is? We have no versioning of resources in Moodle so this would be a problem. What about a teacher changing a quiz question so that the answer is different? What would a former student see?

===Librarian===

Reference Librarians have an active role in most of the courses taught at Earlham College (with Bibliographic Instruction). The Librarian role within Moodle could encompass default read access to all courses (unless prohibited by course teacher) and read access to all components of the course unless access is barred (again by teacher). The Librarians would also perhaps have a block called perhaps Reference Services or Reference Desk with write access where they could deposit resources. Also this block might have a chat applet whereby enrolled students could chat to the Reference Librarian on duty about their bibliographic research needs.

===Teacher===

Teachers should have read access to other Teacher's courses unless explictly prohibited. They should be able to set parts of their own course to be totally private (perhaps even to admin?). Just as each activity can currently be set to have group access, each activity could have a permissions field. Teachers could set default permissions for all activities on their course (eg they might disallow Librarian access for example) and then change the access permission for an individual activity.

I think that what is needed is a simple heirarchy of permissions and levels of granularity.

===Community Education Tutors/Trainers===
Teachers may be community adult education trainers making use of a school moodle so must only have access to their courses unless given access elsewhere. They would not necessarily get the default teacher privileges.

===Secretary/Student Worker===

We often have faculty who want their departmental secretary or student worker to scan and upload files and perhaps create resources. Currently they have to be given teacher access to the course. This is dangerous from a FERPA standpoint since they could easily get access to grades.

===Teaching Assistant===

Our Faculty frequently have undergraduate students acting as Teaching Assistants. These students need to be able to add resources, create assignments, and possibly grade assignments. However, due to FERPA they cannot have access to other students' overall grade information. I think the requirements here are slightly different than those of Secretary/Student Worker

===Admin - Catgory based===

Basically a person in between full Admin and Creator that has the permissions of an Admin but only with respect to courses and students. Currently a Creator has permissions site-wide which does not always meet the requirements of a given organisation (e.g. Department A may not be happy that a person from Department B can create/modify courses within Department A's area). The ability to designate a Creator within a specific category would allow areas to be set up for a faculty/department/organisation and allow the Admin for that area to create/delete courses, upload users, add site-wide entries to the calendar etc.

===PROCESS ROLES===

organising the learning process for a group you wish to have the choice to place students in differnt roles: examples of this are:
<li>1. Give a student the role of forum-moderator with edit and chunk-rights
<li>2. Give students different roles & rights in a Webquest design (and change these roles next week
<li>3. Give students different resources, depending of their roles in a rolegame/simulation
<li>4. Give a student the rights to create the section content of next week (and only that week..)
<li>5. ..

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38788 Roles and Permissions architecture] forum discussion

[[Category:Developer]]
[[Category:Future]]

Broken/Roles

2006-06-08T19:48:13Z

Gtielemans:

'''Roles and capabilities''' are planned to be included in Moodle 1.7. For now, we have some basic ideas of how to implement such a structure in Moodle.

''Please note that none of the following is finalised.''

==Definitions==

By roles, we mean an identifier of the user's status, for example, teacher, student and forum moderator are examples of roles.

A capability is a permission to access some particular Moodle feature. Capabilities are associated with roles. For example, ''forum_canreadpost'' is a capability.

==The existing system==

Currently in Moodle, we have a fixed set of roles i.e. primary admin, admins, course creators, editing teachers, non-editing teachers, students, and guests. For each role, the capability or actions that they can performed are fixed. For example, the role student allows the user to submit an assignment, but doesn't allow the user to browse/edit other users' work. By using this setup we limit ourselves to a rather rigid set of capabilities for each role. If we want, say a particular student or group to be able to mark assignments in a particular course, we can't do that without giving these users teacher privileges.

==The new roles and capability system==

The new system will allow authorized users to define an arbitrary number of roles. Each role can have a customizable set of capabilities in every context. A context can be the whole Moodle site, a course, or a module instance, e.g. quiz 5 in 'Introduction to Photography'. An authorized user will be able to assign an arbitrary number of roles to each user. Since the capabilities in each role could be different, there could be conflict in capabilities. This is resolved by giving roles different 'priorities'. For example, to prevent a naughty student from posting, one could assign him a 'naughty student' role that does not allow him to post. This role should have a priority higher than that of a normal 'student' role.

To facilitate exceptional cases in roles and capabilities, we can use exception rules. For example, we can specify a rule saying that all students are able to mark/read other students' assignment in this particular course. Note that such rules need to have a priority as well. The capability of a user, in any context is then resolved by finding the highest priority role/rule.

''A smooth upgrade will be provided with 1.7. The existing roles (admin, teacher, student, etc), and the exisiting capabilities will be retained. This is done by creating default roles at site/course levels, and assigning the current users to these roles accordingly. The default roles will have default capabilities associated with them, which pretty much is what we have in 1.6. The whole process is automatic so there's nothing to worry about =). With no modifications, Moodle will operate exactly the same before and after the upgrade.''

==The plan==

There are a few major things that need to be done. Here's a list (in no particular order):

#Identify permissions required for site/course/each module.
#Define the database structure for storing roles and capabilities.
#Recode the whole of Moodle, including all modules to support the new structure. Instead of using <code>isteacher()</code> or <code>isstudent()</code> we should be using <code>has_capabity($capability, $instanceid)</code> etc. A new API for handling roles and capabilities will be implemented (accesslib.php).
#Add storage of capabilities for each module. Can be done either in a file, e.g. db/capability.xml, or as a sql file that gets installed to a central db whenever this module is installed. Either way, what do we do when we need to upgrade these capabilities? Some capabilities might needs refining/splitting later on. How do we control the 'version' of a capability?
#Consider interface issues, especially how to manage conflicting role/exception rules.
#Upon logging in, we should use a cache to store capability, down to module level. How should that be structured?
#Consider the impact on backup/restore.
#Upgrade path for current users. The user information in table user_coursecreators, user_admins, user_teachers, and user_students will most likely be migrated to the new roles and capabilities tables. The users will most likely be assigned default roles that comes with default capabilities (e.g. teachers, admins, students, etc). The old tables themselves could possibly be dropped at the end of the upgrade.

==Capabilities==

This is a comprehensive list of capabilities, well, in the making. Please edit. Should we distinguish canedit and candelete?

What about a canview capability? Like for choice, where a person is allowed to see the choice question but not participate in it? --[[User:N Hansen|N Hansen]] 19:29, 16 May 2006 (WST)

Certainly need a canview or cansee capability for parents as linked to their childs data/contributions.

Do we need to add canview and cansearch logs at site/course/user/group level?

===Site-level Capabilities===

#canconfigsitevariables - applcialbe in admin/config.php
#canreadblogs
#canpostblogs
#candeleteallblogs
#canbrowseuser
#canviewhiddenactivity
#cancreatecourse
#caneditownprofile
#caneditallprofiles

===Course-level Capabilities===

#viewcoursecontent
#caneditcourse
#cancreatebackups
#canrestorebackups
#cancreateblocks
#caneditblocks
#candeleteblocks

===Module-level Capabilities===

#Assignment
##assignment_canadd
##assignment_canedit
##assignment_candelete
##assignment_cansubmit
##assignment_mark - marking, viewing of list of submitted assignments
##assignment_canviewsubmissions
#Chat
##chat_canadd
##chat_canedit
##chat_candelete
##chat_canparticipate
##chat_canviewpastsessions
#Choice
##choice_canadd
##choice_canedit
##choice_candelete
##choice_canparticipate
##choice_canviewresponses
#Database
##database_canadd
##database_canedit
##databaes_candelete
##database_canaddentry
##database_canaddtemplates
##database_canedittemplates
##database_candeleteownentry
##database_candeleteallentry
##database_cancomment
##database_candeletecomment
##database_canrate
#Exercise
##exercise_canadd
##exercise_canedit
##exercise_candelete
##exercise_canassess
#Forum
##forum_canadd
##forum_canedit
##forum_candelete
##forum_canreadpost
##forum_canstartnewdiscussion
##forum_canreply
##forum_caneditallpost
##forum_candeleteallpost
##forum_canrate
#Glossary
##glossary_canadd
##glossary_canedit
##glossary_candelete
##glossary_canaddcat
##glossary_caneditcat
##glossary_candeletecat
##glossary_canadditem
##glossary_candeleteitem
##glossary_canedititem
##glossary_cancomment
##glossary_canimportentries
##glossary_canexportentries
##glossary_canapprove
#Hotpot
##hotpot_candd
##hotpot_canedit
##hotpot_candelete
##hotpot_canparticipate
#Label
##label_canadd
##label_canedit
##label_candelete
#Lams
##lams_canadd
##lams_canedit
##lams_candelete
#Lesson
##lesson_canadd
##lesson_canedit
##lesson_candelete
##lesson_canparticipate
#Quiz
##quiz_canadd
##quiz_canedit
##quiz_candelete
##quiz_canaddquestion
##quiz_caneditquestion
##quiz_candeletequestion
##quiz_canparticipate
##quiz_cangrade
#Resource
##resource_canadd
##resource_canedit
##resource_candelete
#Scorm
##scorm_canadd
##scorm_canedit
##socrm_candelete
#Survey
##survey_canadd
##survey_canedit
##survey_candelete
##survey_canviewresponses
#Wiki
##wiki_canadd
##wiki_canedit
##wiki_candelete
##wiki_canstartnewwiki
##wiki_canparticipate
#Workshop
##workshop_canadd
##workshop_canedit
##workshop_candelete
##workshop_cangrade
##workshop_canparticipate

==Scenarios==

This section is for brainstorming some example roles that we would like to support:

===Student===
Has this one been missed?

===Site Designers===
Is there a role for peole involved in how the site looks but not full administrators? Thinking here of online control of themes rather than FTP theme uploading. But in either case they caneditlogos, caneditcss, candeditlevelatwhichthemeapplies.

===Educational Authority Adviser===
Someone who would want to browse the site and may be asked to comment or contribute to particular discussions or developments in school. Access for this role would be controlled by the school in the case of school level moodles but may be different if there were to be a Local Authority wide Moodle.

===Educational Inspector===
Someone who will visit the site to verify the school's self review that comments on home school relationships, extending the classroom etc. They may want to see summaries of usage and reports from surveys garnering parent and pupil views.

===Second Marker / Moderator===
A teacher within ths site that has access to assignments and quizzes from another teacher's course for second marking purposes. This may need additional functionality adding to the assignment module so that two sets of grades/feedback can be given to one set of assignments.

===External Examiner===
Has all the rights of inpectors, but would also need to be able to review assignments and feedback, view forums, glossaries etc. However, would not want to post, feedback onto the site at all.

===Parent===
A parent will have one or more children in one or more institutions which could be using one or more moodle instances or a mixture of Learning Platforms. A parent's role will vary depending on the age of their children and whether they are contributing as a parent or a school supporter.

In Early Years (EY) and Key Stage 1 (KS1) they may play/learn on an activity or write for the child. Parents often interpret homework tasks and read to their children perhaps filling in a joint reading diary.

In Key stages 3 and 4 this changes to more of a monitoring/awareness role where a parent would expect to have a summary report of attendance, attainment and general achievement on a weekly/monthly/termly or annual basis. Parents will often be asked to sign and write back comments about this review report.

In all Key Stages there is a great need for parents to receive communication from the school which they can confirm they have received by signing a form. In some cases this may also involve making choices from a list. It may also involve payment for a trip or disco being returned so there could be the possibility of electronic payments.

Parent's evening often involve complex booking systems that attempt to get parent's and teachers together. Easy for EY/KS1/KS2 very difficult for KS3/KS4. Wow would this help if it was built into the Learning Platform.

In some cases there needs to be confidential communication between the parent and the teacher without the child being party to this. It may involve teaching and learning but could also involve a behaviour or medical issue. Often this may be done via a sealed letter or face to face.

The latest incarnation of OfSTED with the Self Review Framework (SEF) there is a greater emphasis on schools gathering parent voice via surveys and discussion. There is a clear match here with parents have access to parental votes, questionnaires and discussions and for schools to be able to publish news, results and reports back to parents.

In the UK the LP framework and agenda as being pushed by the DfES via Becta emphasises that within the mandatory groups and roles functionality the parent role is likely to be required to meet the LP Framework procurement standard.

===Manager===
''Please add text here...''

===Weekly Seminar Leader===
''In a university seminar, typically 8-15 students in their 3rd/4th year, each student is responsible for leading one topic in a study series. I ask each student to research 5-10 resources, then give a powerpoint presentation to the other students. This is followed by an in-class discussion and then online homework. The homework involves some fun quiz questions and then some reflective journal questions. I ask each seminar leader to prepare the quiz questions and journal questions as well as their presentation. To do that, I would like to assign activity-making/authoring roles to the student--either for a short period, or for duration of the whole course. Thus "Allow Quiz Authoring Role" or "Allow Assignment Authoring Role" at the course level or, if possible, even the Topic level (in a topic or week format course) would be important.''

===Mentor/Mentee===
''Please add text here...''

===Community-Designed Rating Criteria===
''The gradebook tends to be the domain of the teacher. What if community/peer ratings/marks could also be entered there? What if peer assessment criteria could be designed by the students, not just the teacher?''

===Visitor===

This would be a role whereby one could allow a visitor to visit one's classroom. This might be a colleague interested in seeing your course, or a journalist who might be writing an article about one's site. They should not be able to see the names of any students anywhere (eg recent activity, forum posts) for privacy reasons. They should be able to try out things like quizzes, and lessons but no grades would be recorded (like in teacher preview mode). They would not be able to participate in choices and forums but could view them. It would be read only in a way like former-student role below but without access to a particular student's records that former student role would grant.

===Former Student===
This role would be of particular use for courses with rolling enrollments. This role would be one where a student had completed all of the requirements of a course (ie assignments, quizzes etc.) but wished to have continued access to the course material for review or consultation. The key factor is that one would give access to the completed student to the notes he read, his work and the teacher's comments on it, but he would not be allowed to do anything that would take up the teacher's time. In other words, a sort-of read-only access to the course. How forums, which might contain pertinent information and would continue to grow, would be handled is a question. Perhaps the student would be shown only what was in the forums at the time he completed the course. He would not be allowed to see any new posts or add any himself. Same thing for database and glossary entries. In other words, a snapshot of the course at the time his regular enrollment ended. He shouldn't be able to see the names or profiles of any newly enrolled students for privacy reasons-hence the restrictions on forum access. One issue that would have to be dealt with would be changes to existing modules-such as resources. Does the student get access to the module as it was or as it is? We have no versioning of resources in Moodle so this would be a problem. What about a teacher changing a quiz question so that the answer is different? What would a former student see?

===Librarian===

Reference Librarians have an active role in most of the courses taught at Earlham College (with Bibliographic Instruction). The Librarian role within Moodle could encompass default read access to all courses (unless prohibited by course teacher) and read access to all components of the course unless access is barred (again by teacher). The Librarians would also perhaps have a block called perhaps Reference Services or Reference Desk with write access where they could deposit resources. Also this block might have a chat applet whereby enrolled students could chat to the Reference Librarian on duty about their bibliographic research needs.

===Teacher===

Teachers should have read access to other Teacher's courses unless explictly prohibited. They should be able to set parts of their own course to be totally private (perhaps even to admin?). Just as each activity can currently be set to have group access, each activity could have a permissions field. Teachers could set default permissions for all activities on their course (eg they might disallow Librarian access for example) and then change the access permission for an individual activity.

I think that what is needed is a simple heirarchy of permissions and levels of granularity.

===Community Education Tutors/Trainers===
Teachers may be community adult education trainers making use of a school moodle so must only have access to their courses unless given access elsewhere. They would not necessarily get the default teacher privileges.

===Secretary/Student Worker===

We often have faculty who want their departmental secretary or student worker to scan and upload files and perhaps create resources. Currently they have to be given teacher access to the course. This is dangerous from a FERPA standpoint since they could easily get access to grades.

===Teaching Assistant===

Our Faculty frequently have undergraduate students acting as Teaching Assistants. These students need to be able to add resources, create assignments, and possibly grade assignments. However, due to FERPA they cannot have access to other students' overall grade information. I think the requirements here are slightly different than those of Secretary/Student Worker

===Admin - Catgory based===

Basically a person in between full Admin and Creator that has the permissions of an Admin but only with respect to courses and students. Currently a Creator has permissions site-wide which does not always meet the requirements of a given organisation (e.g. Department A may not be happy that a person from Department B can create/modify courses within Department A's area). The ability to designate a Creator within a specific category would allow areas to be set up for a faculty/department/organisation and allow the Admin for that area to create/delete courses, upload users, add site-wide entries to the calendar etc.

===PROCESS ROLES===

organising the learning process for a group you wish to have the choice to place students in differnt roles: examples of this are:
<li>1. Give a student the role of forum-moderator with edit and chunk-rights
<li>2. Give students different roles & rights in a Webquest design (and change these roles next week
<li>3. Give students different resources, depending of their roles in a rolegame/simulation
<li>4. ..

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38788 Roles and Permissions architecture] forum discussion

[[Category:Developer]]
[[Category:Future]]

Broken/Roles

2006-06-08T19:47:04Z

Gtielemans:

'''Roles and capabilities''' are planned to be included in Moodle 1.7. For now, we have some basic ideas of how to implement such a structure in Moodle.

''Please note that none of the following is finalised.''

==Definitions==

By roles, we mean an identifier of the user's status, for example, teacher, student and forum moderator are examples of roles.

A capability is a permission to access some particular Moodle feature. Capabilities are associated with roles. For example, ''forum_canreadpost'' is a capability.

==The existing system==

Currently in Moodle, we have a fixed set of roles i.e. primary admin, admins, course creators, editing teachers, non-editing teachers, students, and guests. For each role, the capability or actions that they can performed are fixed. For example, the role student allows the user to submit an assignment, but doesn't allow the user to browse/edit other users' work. By using this setup we limit ourselves to a rather rigid set of capabilities for each role. If we want, say a particular student or group to be able to mark assignments in a particular course, we can't do that without giving these users teacher privileges.

==The new roles and capability system==

The new system will allow authorized users to define an arbitrary number of roles. Each role can have a customizable set of capabilities in every context. A context can be the whole Moodle site, a course, or a module instance, e.g. quiz 5 in 'Introduction to Photography'. An authorized user will be able to assign an arbitrary number of roles to each user. Since the capabilities in each role could be different, there could be conflict in capabilities. This is resolved by giving roles different 'priorities'. For example, to prevent a naughty student from posting, one could assign him a 'naughty student' role that does not allow him to post. This role should have a priority higher than that of a normal 'student' role.

To facilitate exceptional cases in roles and capabilities, we can use exception rules. For example, we can specify a rule saying that all students are able to mark/read other students' assignment in this particular course. Note that such rules need to have a priority as well. The capability of a user, in any context is then resolved by finding the highest priority role/rule.

''A smooth upgrade will be provided with 1.7. The existing roles (admin, teacher, student, etc), and the exisiting capabilities will be retained. This is done by creating default roles at site/course levels, and assigning the current users to these roles accordingly. The default roles will have default capabilities associated with them, which pretty much is what we have in 1.6. The whole process is automatic so there's nothing to worry about =). With no modifications, Moodle will operate exactly the same before and after the upgrade.''

==The plan==

There are a few major things that need to be done. Here's a list (in no particular order):

#Identify permissions required for site/course/each module.
#Define the database structure for storing roles and capabilities.
#Recode the whole of Moodle, including all modules to support the new structure. Instead of using <code>isteacher()</code> or <code>isstudent()</code> we should be using <code>has_capabity($capability, $instanceid)</code> etc. A new API for handling roles and capabilities will be implemented (accesslib.php).
#Add storage of capabilities for each module. Can be done either in a file, e.g. db/capability.xml, or as a sql file that gets installed to a central db whenever this module is installed. Either way, what do we do when we need to upgrade these capabilities? Some capabilities might needs refining/splitting later on. How do we control the 'version' of a capability?
#Consider interface issues, especially how to manage conflicting role/exception rules.
#Upon logging in, we should use a cache to store capability, down to module level. How should that be structured?
#Consider the impact on backup/restore.
#Upgrade path for current users. The user information in table user_coursecreators, user_admins, user_teachers, and user_students will most likely be migrated to the new roles and capabilities tables. The users will most likely be assigned default roles that comes with default capabilities (e.g. teachers, admins, students, etc). The old tables themselves could possibly be dropped at the end of the upgrade.

==Capabilities==

This is a comprehensive list of capabilities, well, in the making. Please edit. Should we distinguish canedit and candelete?

What about a canview capability? Like for choice, where a person is allowed to see the choice question but not participate in it? --[[User:N Hansen|N Hansen]] 19:29, 16 May 2006 (WST)

Certainly need a canview or cansee capability for parents as linked to their childs data/contributions.

Do we need to add canview and cansearch logs at site/course/user/group level?

===Site-level Capabilities===

#canconfigsitevariables - applcialbe in admin/config.php
#canreadblogs
#canpostblogs
#candeleteallblogs
#canbrowseuser
#canviewhiddenactivity
#cancreatecourse
#caneditownprofile
#caneditallprofiles

===Course-level Capabilities===

#viewcoursecontent
#caneditcourse
#cancreatebackups
#canrestorebackups
#cancreateblocks
#caneditblocks
#candeleteblocks

===Module-level Capabilities===

#Assignment
##assignment_canadd
##assignment_canedit
##assignment_candelete
##assignment_cansubmit
##assignment_mark - marking, viewing of list of submitted assignments
##assignment_canviewsubmissions
#Chat
##chat_canadd
##chat_canedit
##chat_candelete
##chat_canparticipate
##chat_canviewpastsessions
#Choice
##choice_canadd
##choice_canedit
##choice_candelete
##choice_canparticipate
##choice_canviewresponses
#Database
##database_canadd
##database_canedit
##databaes_candelete
##database_canaddentry
##database_canaddtemplates
##database_canedittemplates
##database_candeleteownentry
##database_candeleteallentry
##database_cancomment
##database_candeletecomment
##database_canrate
#Exercise
##exercise_canadd
##exercise_canedit
##exercise_candelete
##exercise_canassess
#Forum
##forum_canadd
##forum_canedit
##forum_candelete
##forum_canreadpost
##forum_canstartnewdiscussion
##forum_canreply
##forum_caneditallpost
##forum_candeleteallpost
##forum_canrate
#Glossary
##glossary_canadd
##glossary_canedit
##glossary_candelete
##glossary_canaddcat
##glossary_caneditcat
##glossary_candeletecat
##glossary_canadditem
##glossary_candeleteitem
##glossary_canedititem
##glossary_cancomment
##glossary_canimportentries
##glossary_canexportentries
##glossary_canapprove
#Hotpot
##hotpot_candd
##hotpot_canedit
##hotpot_candelete
##hotpot_canparticipate
#Label
##label_canadd
##label_canedit
##label_candelete
#Lams
##lams_canadd
##lams_canedit
##lams_candelete
#Lesson
##lesson_canadd
##lesson_canedit
##lesson_candelete
##lesson_canparticipate
#Quiz
##quiz_canadd
##quiz_canedit
##quiz_candelete
##quiz_canaddquestion
##quiz_caneditquestion
##quiz_candeletequestion
##quiz_canparticipate
##quiz_cangrade
#Resource
##resource_canadd
##resource_canedit
##resource_candelete
#Scorm
##scorm_canadd
##scorm_canedit
##socrm_candelete
#Survey
##survey_canadd
##survey_canedit
##survey_candelete
##survey_canviewresponses
#Wiki
##wiki_canadd
##wiki_canedit
##wiki_candelete
##wiki_canstartnewwiki
##wiki_canparticipate
#Workshop
##workshop_canadd
##workshop_canedit
##workshop_candelete
##workshop_cangrade
##workshop_canparticipate

==Scenarios==

This section is for brainstorming some example roles that we would like to support:

===Student===
Has this one been missed?

===Site Designers===
Is there a role for peole involved in how the site looks but not full administrators? Thinking here of online control of themes rather than FTP theme uploading. But in either case they caneditlogos, caneditcss, candeditlevelatwhichthemeapplies.

===Educational Authority Adviser===
Someone who would want to browse the site and may be asked to comment or contribute to particular discussions or developments in school. Access for this role would be controlled by the school in the case of school level moodles but may be different if there were to be a Local Authority wide Moodle.

===Educational Inspector===
Someone who will visit the site to verify the school's self review that comments on home school relationships, extending the classroom etc. They may want to see summaries of usage and reports from surveys garnering parent and pupil views.

===Second Marker / Moderator===
A teacher within ths site that has access to assignments and quizzes from another teacher's course for second marking purposes. This may need additional functionality adding to the assignment module so that two sets of grades/feedback can be given to one set of assignments.

===External Examiner===
Has all the rights of inpectors, but would also need to be able to review assignments and feedback, view forums, glossaries etc. However, would not want to post, feedback onto the site at all.

===Parent===
A parent will have one or more children in one or more institutions which could be using one or more moodle instances or a mixture of Learning Platforms. A parent's role will vary depending on the age of their children and whether they are contributing as a parent or a school supporter.

In Early Years (EY) and Key Stage 1 (KS1) they may play/learn on an activity or write for the child. Parents often interpret homework tasks and read to their children perhaps filling in a joint reading diary.

In Key stages 3 and 4 this changes to more of a monitoring/awareness role where a parent would expect to have a summary report of attendance, attainment and general achievement on a weekly/monthly/termly or annual basis. Parents will often be asked to sign and write back comments about this review report.

In all Key Stages there is a great need for parents to receive communication from the school which they can confirm they have received by signing a form. In some cases this may also involve making choices from a list. It may also involve payment for a trip or disco being returned so there could be the possibility of electronic payments.

Parent's evening often involve complex booking systems that attempt to get parent's and teachers together. Easy for EY/KS1/KS2 very difficult for KS3/KS4. Wow would this help if it was built into the Learning Platform.

In some cases there needs to be confidential communication between the parent and the teacher without the child being party to this. It may involve teaching and learning but could also involve a behaviour or medical issue. Often this may be done via a sealed letter or face to face.

The latest incarnation of OfSTED with the Self Review Framework (SEF) there is a greater emphasis on schools gathering parent voice via surveys and discussion. There is a clear match here with parents have access to parental votes, questionnaires and discussions and for schools to be able to publish news, results and reports back to parents.

In the UK the LP framework and agenda as being pushed by the DfES via Becta emphasises that within the mandatory groups and roles functionality the parent role is likely to be required to meet the LP Framework procurement standard.

===Manager===
''Please add text here...''

===Weekly Seminar Leader===
''In a university seminar, typically 8-15 students in their 3rd/4th year, each student is responsible for leading one topic in a study series. I ask each student to research 5-10 resources, then give a powerpoint presentation to the other students. This is followed by an in-class discussion and then online homework. The homework involves some fun quiz questions and then some reflective journal questions. I ask each seminar leader to prepare the quiz questions and journal questions as well as their presentation. To do that, I would like to assign activity-making/authoring roles to the student--either for a short period, or for duration of the whole course. Thus "Allow Quiz Authoring Role" or "Allow Assignment Authoring Role" at the course level or, if possible, even the Topic level (in a topic or week format course) would be important.''

===Mentor/Mentee===
''Please add text here...''

===Community-Designed Rating Criteria===
''The gradebook tends to be the domain of the teacher. What if community/peer ratings/marks could also be entered there? What if peer assessment criteria could be designed by the students, not just the teacher?''

===Visitor===

This would be a role whereby one could allow a visitor to visit one's classroom. This might be a colleague interested in seeing your course, or a journalist who might be writing an article about one's site. They should not be able to see the names of any students anywhere (eg recent activity, forum posts) for privacy reasons. They should be able to try out things like quizzes, and lessons but no grades would be recorded (like in teacher preview mode). They would not be able to participate in choices and forums but could view them. It would be read only in a way like former-student role below but without access to a particular student's records that former student role would grant.

===Former Student===
This role would be of particular use for courses with rolling enrollments. This role would be one where a student had completed all of the requirements of a course (ie assignments, quizzes etc.) but wished to have continued access to the course material for review or consultation. The key factor is that one would give access to the completed student to the notes he read, his work and the teacher's comments on it, but he would not be allowed to do anything that would take up the teacher's time. In other words, a sort-of read-only access to the course. How forums, which might contain pertinent information and would continue to grow, would be handled is a question. Perhaps the student would be shown only what was in the forums at the time he completed the course. He would not be allowed to see any new posts or add any himself. Same thing for database and glossary entries. In other words, a snapshot of the course at the time his regular enrollment ended. He shouldn't be able to see the names or profiles of any newly enrolled students for privacy reasons-hence the restrictions on forum access. One issue that would have to be dealt with would be changes to existing modules-such as resources. Does the student get access to the module as it was or as it is? We have no versioning of resources in Moodle so this would be a problem. What about a teacher changing a quiz question so that the answer is different? What would a former student see?

===Librarian===

Reference Librarians have an active role in most of the courses taught at Earlham College (with Bibliographic Instruction). The Librarian role within Moodle could encompass default read access to all courses (unless prohibited by course teacher) and read access to all components of the course unless access is barred (again by teacher). The Librarians would also perhaps have a block called perhaps Reference Services or Reference Desk with write access where they could deposit resources. Also this block might have a chat applet whereby enrolled students could chat to the Reference Librarian on duty about their bibliographic research needs.

===Teacher===

Teachers should have read access to other Teacher's courses unless explictly prohibited. They should be able to set parts of their own course to be totally private (perhaps even to admin?). Just as each activity can currently be set to have group access, each activity could have a permissions field. Teachers could set default permissions for all activities on their course (eg they might disallow Librarian access for example) and then change the access permission for an individual activity.

I think that what is needed is a simple heirarchy of permissions and levels of granularity.

===Community Education Tutors/Trainers===
Teachers may be community adult education trainers making use of a school moodle so must only have access to their courses unless given access elsewhere. They would not necessarily get the default teacher privileges.

===Secretary/Student Worker===

We often have faculty who want their departmental secretary or student worker to scan and upload files and perhaps create resources. Currently they have to be given teacher access to the course. This is dangerous from a FERPA standpoint since they could easily get access to grades.

===Teaching Assistant===

Our Faculty frequently have undergraduate students acting as Teaching Assistants. These students need to be able to add resources, create assignments, and possibly grade assignments. However, due to FERPA they cannot have access to other students' overall grade information. I think the requirements here are slightly different than those of Secretary/Student Worker

===Admin - Catgory based===

Basically a person in between full Admin and Creator that has the permissions of an Admin but only with respect to courses and students. Currently a Creator has permissions site-wide which does not always meet the requirements of a given organisation (e.g. Department A may not be happy that a person from Department B can create/modify courses within Department A's area). The ability to designate a Creator within a specific category would allow areas to be set up for a faculty/department/organisation and allow the Admin for that area to create/delete courses, upload users, add site-wide entries to the calendar etc.

===PROCESS ROLES===

organising the learning process for a group you wish to have the choice to place students in differnt roles: examples of this are:
<li>1. Give a student the role of forum-moderator with edit and chunk-rights
<li>2. Give students different roles in a Webquest design (and change theese roles next week
<li>3. Give students different resources, depending of their roles in a rolegame/simulation
<li>4...

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38788 Roles and Permissions architecture] forum discussion

[[Category:Developer]]
[[Category:Future]]

Broken/Roles

2006-06-08T19:45:57Z

Gtielemans:

'''Roles and capabilities''' are planned to be included in Moodle 1.7. For now, we have some basic ideas of how to implement such a structure in Moodle.

''Please note that none of the following is finalised.''

==Definitions==

By roles, we mean an identifier of the user's status, for example, teacher, student and forum moderator are examples of roles.

A capability is a permission to access some particular Moodle feature. Capabilities are associated with roles. For example, ''forum_canreadpost'' is a capability.

==The existing system==

Currently in Moodle, we have a fixed set of roles i.e. primary admin, admins, course creators, editing teachers, non-editing teachers, students, and guests. For each role, the capability or actions that they can performed are fixed. For example, the role student allows the user to submit an assignment, but doesn't allow the user to browse/edit other users' work. By using this setup we limit ourselves to a rather rigid set of capabilities for each role. If we want, say a particular student or group to be able to mark assignments in a particular course, we can't do that without giving these users teacher privileges.

==The new roles and capability system==

The new system will allow authorized users to define an arbitrary number of roles. Each role can have a customizable set of capabilities in every context. A context can be the whole Moodle site, a course, or a module instance, e.g. quiz 5 in 'Introduction to Photography'. An authorized user will be able to assign an arbitrary number of roles to each user. Since the capabilities in each role could be different, there could be conflict in capabilities. This is resolved by giving roles different 'priorities'. For example, to prevent a naughty student from posting, one could assign him a 'naughty student' role that does not allow him to post. This role should have a priority higher than that of a normal 'student' role.

To facilitate exceptional cases in roles and capabilities, we can use exception rules. For example, we can specify a rule saying that all students are able to mark/read other students' assignment in this particular course. Note that such rules need to have a priority as well. The capability of a user, in any context is then resolved by finding the highest priority role/rule.

''A smooth upgrade will be provided with 1.7. The existing roles (admin, teacher, student, etc), and the exisiting capabilities will be retained. This is done by creating default roles at site/course levels, and assigning the current users to these roles accordingly. The default roles will have default capabilities associated with them, which pretty much is what we have in 1.6. The whole process is automatic so there's nothing to worry about =). With no modifications, Moodle will operate exactly the same before and after the upgrade.''

==The plan==

There are a few major things that need to be done. Here's a list (in no particular order):

#Identify permissions required for site/course/each module.
#Define the database structure for storing roles and capabilities.
#Recode the whole of Moodle, including all modules to support the new structure. Instead of using <code>isteacher()</code> or <code>isstudent()</code> we should be using <code>has_capabity($capability, $instanceid)</code> etc. A new API for handling roles and capabilities will be implemented (accesslib.php).
#Add storage of capabilities for each module. Can be done either in a file, e.g. db/capability.xml, or as a sql file that gets installed to a central db whenever this module is installed. Either way, what do we do when we need to upgrade these capabilities? Some capabilities might needs refining/splitting later on. How do we control the 'version' of a capability?
#Consider interface issues, especially how to manage conflicting role/exception rules.
#Upon logging in, we should use a cache to store capability, down to module level. How should that be structured?
#Consider the impact on backup/restore.
#Upgrade path for current users. The user information in table user_coursecreators, user_admins, user_teachers, and user_students will most likely be migrated to the new roles and capabilities tables. The users will most likely be assigned default roles that comes with default capabilities (e.g. teachers, admins, students, etc). The old tables themselves could possibly be dropped at the end of the upgrade.

==Capabilities==

This is a comprehensive list of capabilities, well, in the making. Please edit. Should we distinguish canedit and candelete?

What about a canview capability? Like for choice, where a person is allowed to see the choice question but not participate in it? --[[User:N Hansen|N Hansen]] 19:29, 16 May 2006 (WST)

Certainly need a canview or cansee capability for parents as linked to their childs data/contributions.

Do we need to add canview and cansearch logs at site/course/user/group level?

===Site-level Capabilities===

#canconfigsitevariables - applcialbe in admin/config.php
#canreadblogs
#canpostblogs
#candeleteallblogs
#canbrowseuser
#canviewhiddenactivity
#cancreatecourse
#caneditownprofile
#caneditallprofiles

===Course-level Capabilities===

#viewcoursecontent
#caneditcourse
#cancreatebackups
#canrestorebackups
#cancreateblocks
#caneditblocks
#candeleteblocks

===Module-level Capabilities===

#Assignment
##assignment_canadd
##assignment_canedit
##assignment_candelete
##assignment_cansubmit
##assignment_mark - marking, viewing of list of submitted assignments
##assignment_canviewsubmissions
#Chat
##chat_canadd
##chat_canedit
##chat_candelete
##chat_canparticipate
##chat_canviewpastsessions
#Choice
##choice_canadd
##choice_canedit
##choice_candelete
##choice_canparticipate
##choice_canviewresponses
#Database
##database_canadd
##database_canedit
##databaes_candelete
##database_canaddentry
##database_canaddtemplates
##database_canedittemplates
##database_candeleteownentry
##database_candeleteallentry
##database_cancomment
##database_candeletecomment
##database_canrate
#Exercise
##exercise_canadd
##exercise_canedit
##exercise_candelete
##exercise_canassess
#Forum
##forum_canadd
##forum_canedit
##forum_candelete
##forum_canreadpost
##forum_canstartnewdiscussion
##forum_canreply
##forum_caneditallpost
##forum_candeleteallpost
##forum_canrate
#Glossary
##glossary_canadd
##glossary_canedit
##glossary_candelete
##glossary_canaddcat
##glossary_caneditcat
##glossary_candeletecat
##glossary_canadditem
##glossary_candeleteitem
##glossary_canedititem
##glossary_cancomment
##glossary_canimportentries
##glossary_canexportentries
##glossary_canapprove
#Hotpot
##hotpot_candd
##hotpot_canedit
##hotpot_candelete
##hotpot_canparticipate
#Label
##label_canadd
##label_canedit
##label_candelete
#Lams
##lams_canadd
##lams_canedit
##lams_candelete
#Lesson
##lesson_canadd
##lesson_canedit
##lesson_candelete
##lesson_canparticipate
#Quiz
##quiz_canadd
##quiz_canedit
##quiz_candelete
##quiz_canaddquestion
##quiz_caneditquestion
##quiz_candeletequestion
##quiz_canparticipate
##quiz_cangrade
#Resource
##resource_canadd
##resource_canedit
##resource_candelete
#Scorm
##scorm_canadd
##scorm_canedit
##socrm_candelete
#Survey
##survey_canadd
##survey_canedit
##survey_candelete
##survey_canviewresponses
#Wiki
##wiki_canadd
##wiki_canedit
##wiki_candelete
##wiki_canstartnewwiki
##wiki_canparticipate
#Workshop
##workshop_canadd
##workshop_canedit
##workshop_candelete
##workshop_cangrade
##workshop_canparticipate

==Scenarios==

This section is for brainstorming some example roles that we would like to support:

===Student===
Has this one been missed?

===Site Designers===
Is there a role for peole involved in how the site looks but not full administrators? Thinking here of online control of themes rather than FTP theme uploading. But in either case they caneditlogos, caneditcss, candeditlevelatwhichthemeapplies.

===Educational Authority Adviser===
Someone who would want to browse the site and may be asked to comment or contribute to particular discussions or developments in school. Access for this role would be controlled by the school in the case of school level moodles but may be different if there were to be a Local Authority wide Moodle.

===Educational Inspector===
Someone who will visit the site to verify the school's self review that comments on home school relationships, extending the classroom etc. They may want to see summaries of usage and reports from surveys garnering parent and pupil views.

===Second Marker / Moderator===
A teacher within ths site that has access to assignments and quizzes from another teacher's course for second marking purposes. This may need additional functionality adding to the assignment module so that two sets of grades/feedback can be given to one set of assignments.

===External Examiner===
Has all the rights of inpectors, but would also need to be able to review assignments and feedback, view forums, glossaries etc. However, would not want to post, feedback onto the site at all.

===Parent===
A parent will have one or more children in one or more institutions which could be using one or more moodle instances or a mixture of Learning Platforms. A parent's role will vary depending on the age of their children and whether they are contributing as a parent or a school supporter.

In Early Years (EY) and Key Stage 1 (KS1) they may play/learn on an activity or write for the child. Parents often interpret homework tasks and read to their children perhaps filling in a joint reading diary.

In Key stages 3 and 4 this changes to more of a monitoring/awareness role where a parent would expect to have a summary report of attendance, attainment and general achievement on a weekly/monthly/termly or annual basis. Parents will often be asked to sign and write back comments about this review report.

In all Key Stages there is a great need for parents to receive communication from the school which they can confirm they have received by signing a form. In some cases this may also involve making choices from a list. It may also involve payment for a trip or disco being returned so there could be the possibility of electronic payments.

Parent's evening often involve complex booking systems that attempt to get parent's and teachers together. Easy for EY/KS1/KS2 very difficult for KS3/KS4. Wow would this help if it was built into the Learning Platform.

In some cases there needs to be confidential communication between the parent and the teacher without the child being party to this. It may involve teaching and learning but could also involve a behaviour or medical issue. Often this may be done via a sealed letter or face to face.

The latest incarnation of OfSTED with the Self Review Framework (SEF) there is a greater emphasis on schools gathering parent voice via surveys and discussion. There is a clear match here with parents have access to parental votes, questionnaires and discussions and for schools to be able to publish news, results and reports back to parents.

In the UK the LP framework and agenda as being pushed by the DfES via Becta emphasises that within the mandatory groups and roles functionality the parent role is likely to be required to meet the LP Framework procurement standard.

===Manager===
''Please add text here...''

===Weekly Seminar Leader===
''In a university seminar, typically 8-15 students in their 3rd/4th year, each student is responsible for leading one topic in a study series. I ask each student to research 5-10 resources, then give a powerpoint presentation to the other students. This is followed by an in-class discussion and then online homework. The homework involves some fun quiz questions and then some reflective journal questions. I ask each seminar leader to prepare the quiz questions and journal questions as well as their presentation. To do that, I would like to assign activity-making/authoring roles to the student--either for a short period, or for duration of the whole course. Thus "Allow Quiz Authoring Role" or "Allow Assignment Authoring Role" at the course level or, if possible, even the Topic level (in a topic or week format course) would be important.''

===Mentor/Mentee===
''Please add text here...''

===Community-Designed Rating Criteria===
''The gradebook tends to be the domain of the teacher. What if community/peer ratings/marks could also be entered there? What if peer assessment criteria could be designed by the students, not just the teacher?''

===Visitor===

This would be a role whereby one could allow a visitor to visit one's classroom. This might be a colleague interested in seeing your course, or a journalist who might be writing an article about one's site. They should not be able to see the names of any students anywhere (eg recent activity, forum posts) for privacy reasons. They should be able to try out things like quizzes, and lessons but no grades would be recorded (like in teacher preview mode). They would not be able to participate in choices and forums but could view them. It would be read only in a way like former-student role below but without access to a particular student's records that former student role would grant.

===Former Student===
This role would be of particular use for courses with rolling enrollments. This role would be one where a student had completed all of the requirements of a course (ie assignments, quizzes etc.) but wished to have continued access to the course material for review or consultation. The key factor is that one would give access to the completed student to the notes he read, his work and the teacher's comments on it, but he would not be allowed to do anything that would take up the teacher's time. In other words, a sort-of read-only access to the course. How forums, which might contain pertinent information and would continue to grow, would be handled is a question. Perhaps the student would be shown only what was in the forums at the time he completed the course. He would not be allowed to see any new posts or add any himself. Same thing for database and glossary entries. In other words, a snapshot of the course at the time his regular enrollment ended. He shouldn't be able to see the names or profiles of any newly enrolled students for privacy reasons-hence the restrictions on forum access. One issue that would have to be dealt with would be changes to existing modules-such as resources. Does the student get access to the module as it was or as it is? We have no versioning of resources in Moodle so this would be a problem. What about a teacher changing a quiz question so that the answer is different? What would a former student see?

===Librarian===

Reference Librarians have an active role in most of the courses taught at Earlham College (with Bibliographic Instruction). The Librarian role within Moodle could encompass default read access to all courses (unless prohibited by course teacher) and read access to all components of the course unless access is barred (again by teacher). The Librarians would also perhaps have a block called perhaps Reference Services or Reference Desk with write access where they could deposit resources. Also this block might have a chat applet whereby enrolled students could chat to the Reference Librarian on duty about their bibliographic research needs.

===Teacher===

Teachers should have read access to other Teacher's courses unless explictly prohibited. They should be able to set parts of their own course to be totally private (perhaps even to admin?). Just as each activity can currently be set to have group access, each activity could have a permissions field. Teachers could set default permissions for all activities on their course (eg they might disallow Librarian access for example) and then change the access permission for an individual activity.

I think that what is needed is a simple heirarchy of permissions and levels of granularity.

===Community Education Tutors/Trainers===
Teachers may be community adult education trainers making use of a school moodle so must only have access to their courses unless given access elsewhere. They would not necessarily get the default teacher privileges.

===Secretary/Student Worker===

We often have faculty who want their departmental secretary or student worker to scan and upload files and perhaps create resources. Currently they have to be given teacher access to the course. This is dangerous from a FERPA standpoint since they could easily get access to grades.

===Teaching Assistant===

Our Faculty frequently have undergraduate students acting as Teaching Assistants. These students need to be able to add resources, create assignments, and possibly grade assignments. However, due to FERPA they cannot have access to other students' overall grade information. I think the requirements here are slightly different than those of Secretary/Student Worker

===Admin - Catgory based===

Basically a person in between full Admin and Creator that has the permissions of an Admin but only with respect to courses and students. Currently a Creator has permissions site-wide which does not always meet the requirements of a given organisation (e.g. Department A may not be happy that a person from Department B can create/modify courses within Department A's area). The ability to designate a Creator within a specific category would allow areas to be set up for a faculty/department/organisation and allow the Admin for that area to create/delete courses, upload users, add site-wide entries to the calendar etc.

===PROCESS ROLES===

organising the learning process for a group you wish to have the choice to place students in differnt roles: examples of this are:
1. Give a student the role of forum-moderator with edit and chunk-rights
2. Give students different roles in a Webquest design (and change theese roles next week
3. Give students different resources, depending of their roles in a rolegame/simulation
4...

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38788 Roles and Permissions architecture] forum discussion

[[Category:Developer]]
[[Category:Future]]