Tailoring Moodle to Your Own Needs

1
Tailoring Moodle to Your Own Needs

• JALTCALL International Conference,
• Waseda University, Tokyo, 2 June 2007
• Don Hinkelman, Sapporo Gakuin University
• Thomas Robb, Kyoto Sangyo University
• Paul Daniels, Kochi University
• Andy Johnson, Sapporo Gakuin University
• Gordon Bateson, Kanezawa University
• Peter Ruthven-Stuart, Hakodate Future University

2
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks Overview

• Seven tweaks easy -gt difficult
• Can be implemented by
• Moodle administrators
• Moodle teachers
• Arose from collaboration between
• programmer-teacher GB
• CALL-teacher teacher with previous experience
  using yahoo.com for CALL

3
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (1)Standardize
romaji

• What it does
• standardizes the romanization of users first
  name, last name and city
• converts any double-byte roman letters, spaces
  and punctuation to single-byte equivalents
• Demonstration
• http//call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007
  /login/signup_form.php
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/1
  .standardize-romanization.txt

4
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (2)Cell phone
email addresses

• What it does
• Allow Moodle signup using (cell phone) email
  addresses, which can contain invalid character
  combinations
• repeated full-stops, ..
• a full-stop just before the at-sign, ._at_
• e.g. hong-kong-man..._at_r.vodafone.ne.jp
• Demonstration
• http//call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007
  /login/signup_form.php
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/2
  .validate-email.txt

5
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (3)Language menu
on all pages

• What it does
• Adds a language menu to every page which has a
  Moodle header
• Demonstration
• http//call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
  
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/3
  .language-menu.txt

6
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (4)Improve
multilang filter

• What it does
• allow nested ltlanggt and ltspangt tags in multilang
  blocks
• accommodates htmleditor which in some browsers
  uses ltspangt for bold and italic, causing the
  standard multilang filter to terminate multilang
  blocks prematurely
• Demonstration
• http//call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
  
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/4
  .multilang-filter.txt

7
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (5)Show/Hide
section details

• What it does
• adds a toggle switch to hide and display
  specified activities on the course page.
• makes display of sections containing many
  activities more manageable
• Demonstration
• http//call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
  
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/5
  .show-hide-activities.txt

8
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (6)Useful links
block

• What it does
• combines the useful links from several other
  blocks into one single block
• different links for teacher or student
• text shown in users preferred language
• Demonstration
• http//call.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/english/2007/
  
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/6
  .useful-links.txt

9
Gordon Bateson Moodle Tweaks (7)Rotating
banners and links

• What it does
• displays a rotating selection of images in an
  html block
• the advanced version can optionally allow a link
  for each image
• Demonstration
• http//bateson.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/16/ms/
• Where to get it
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/7
  a.banners.txt
• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson/7
  b.banners-and-links.txt

10
Gordon Bateson Moodle TweaksAdvice

• You can do quite a lot with Javascript
• wont interfere with CVS and upgrading
• Small changes to your Moodle scripts are usually
  OK
• if you use CVS, changes are automatically merged
• otherwise you need to keep patching, manually or
  semi-automatically (e.g. WinMerge)
• Offer code improvements on the forums or tracker
• small improvements that have been tested
• even then, the developers may be too busy to
  implement the changes.

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Gordon Bateson Moodle TweaksLinks

• http//englishforum.sgu.ac.jp/downloads/bateson
• /Tailoring-Moodle.BATESON.html
• /Tailoring-Moodle.BATESON.full.doc
• /Tailoring-Moodle.BATESON.ppt