Customising Moodle – Customising Moodle – Balancing the Value Balancing the Value Equation Equation Alan Arnold, University of Canberra <[email protected]> Mark Drechsler, NetSpot Pty. Ltd. <[email protected]> cc licensed flickr photo by CraigAllen: http://flickr.com/photos/craigallenphotog raphy/4104550682/ moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
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Customising Moodle –Customising Moodle –Balancing the Value EquationBalancing the Value Equation
cc licensed flickr photo by CraigAllen: http://flickr.com/photos/craigallenphotography/4104550682/
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Achieving the right balance between enabling innovation and managing the costs and risks
cc licensed flickr photo by stachelig: http://flickr.com/photos/stachelig/4518693746/
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
University of Canberra
STRATEGY 3 Perform in the top third of universities on standard educational measures
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Moved to Moodle 1st Semester 2009 after brief 2008 pilot
• WebCT 1997-2008• 820 staff with teacher role, 13,000+
students• 1,220 teaching sites (courses) in 2009
650 in 2010 to date and a new Winter Term!
• 127 Community & Group sites • Since Sep 2008: 40k Moodle users, 156k
enrolments, 151k forum posts, 113k resources, 419k quiz questions in 4300 sites
• Externally hosted Moodle 1.9, 2.5 FTE support in-house, frugal development budget moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Expectations are high and rising!
2.0 is coming
2.0 is coming
2.0 is coming
2.0 is coming
2.0 is coming
2.0 is coming
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
The challenge
• to manage a robust production 24x7 Moodle environment that needs to continually evolve to meet the changing needs of the 14,000 users that it supports
• to manage risk while at the same time introducing new capability and delight
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Nwiki or OUWiki or
MediaWiki or ??
Moodle Blog or WordPress or
Mahara or MS Live or
CQU BIM or ??
Choices!
cc licensed flickr photo by orangejack: http://flickr.com/photos/orangejack/210624158/
• Assignments: download all as zip• Essay question type
enhancements• Messaging: privacy enhancements• Group Select Module• Unit Outlines Block• Microsoft Live Services• Mahara Assignment Type• USQ Simple Clock
• … and dozens of other small patches & fixes
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Key strategies
• Work closely with our hosting partner NetSpot • Use a plugin review framework to evaluate non-
processes that are regular (monthly), agile and responsive
• Communicate: Watch and listen for issues and opportunities (Moodle.org tracker & forum RSS, Moodle Matters @UC, Yammer@UC, RT Helpdesk)
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Governance
I really like the look of Plugin X
– gimme!
I really like the look of Plugin X
– gimme!
Decide if the change is worth
investigating
Decide if the change is worth
investigating Have a Plugin review done
Have a Plugin review done
Make decision of benefit against
cost
Make decision of benefit against
cost
Follow formal implementation
process
Follow formal implementation
process
Change done!
Change done!
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
1. GradConnect: Alumni access
• Need: continued Moodle access for a group of Faculty of Education alumni to support an ongoing communityof current and past students. Modest strategic funding to deliver
• Problem: student accounts are made inactive on graduation in UC’s identity management systems BUT alumni do have Microsoft Live@edu UC email accounts “for life”
• MS releases open source code: Live Services plugin for Moodle • NetSpot reviewed the plugin and resolved some issues• UC graduates now have uninterrupted Moodle access through
their MS Live credentials• Now possible to have other alumni communities AND access to
other Live services eg blog, 25GB (!!) SkyDrive
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
2. Callista-Moodle integration
• Simple, 3-step forms created by NetSpot with assistance with UC ICTS
• Create courses for semester-based teaching units or program/degree cohorts, based on a standard template
• Courses will automatically be populated (and depopulated) with the right cohorts from Callista at dates chosen by the teacher
This approach was chosen over automatic creation of courses for all units offered, to create a sense of ownership by teaching staff. Very successful: 97+% of all units now have sites
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
Callista-Moodle integration
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
DIY course-site creation in 3 simple steps
Plugin Reviews
Formal Upgrade Processes
Source Code Management
Issue Management
Supporting Processes
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
The Plugin Review Process
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010Copyright NetSpot Pty.Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Plugin reviews
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010Copyright NetSpot Pty.Ltd. All Rights Reserved
More options for
integrationWeb Services, Repositories, Portfolios
Less code in modulesMore secure, standard, maintainable
• Assignments: download all as zip• Essay question type
enhancements• Messaging: privacy enhancements• Group Select Module• Unit Outlines Block• Microsoft Live Services• Mahara Assignment Type• USQ Simple Clock • Dozens of other small patches
• Assignments: download all as zip• Essay question type
enhancements• Messaging: privacy enhancements• Group Select Module• Unit Outlines Block• Microsoft Live Services• Mahara Assignment Type• USQ Simple Clock • Dozens of other small patches
• Assignments: download all as zip• Essay question type
enhancements• Messaging: privacy enhancements• Group Select Module• Unit Outlines Block• Microsoft Live Services• Mahara Assignment Type• USQ Simple Clock • Dozens of other small patches
& fixes
Now obsolete?
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
For example…
Goodbye YUI Course Menu…
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
For example…
…hello 2.0 Navigation Block
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
The next big challenge
We know we can now connect to…
moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
The next big challenge
We know we can now connect to…
…but should we?moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
The next big challenge
We know we can now connect to…
…but should we?moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010
A good looking road ahead
Image used under CC license via http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohadby