What's missing on moodle

[WhyNot]

HI there to this fantastic community,

 

My point with this topic, is to start a discussion about what do you think that is missing to moodle so it can be an even better and widely used platform.

 

This appears in the context of a class I'm having and theacher released this discussion, I'm not very familiarized with this althogh I have some courses implemented on moodle.

 

Don't know if this fits into the subjects of this forum, but I posted in "General" on purpose.

 

What I liked to ear is your opinions as a moodle user, not much scripts codes and technical implementations.

 

For example, is videoconference possible in moodle ?

 

 

Thanks for all possible replys.

 

 

WhyNot

Edited October 21, 2008 by WhyNot
typos

[CyberNerd]

Things I'd like to see:

 

1) ffmpeg type conversion so that uploaded video is instantly displayed as FLV ala youtube (I understand that the red5 plugin goes some way towards this)

2) Better way for students to create their own social networking groups.

3)improved filesystem to share resources between courses. again I understand a JSR repository is in the pipeline

[penfold_99]

Things I'd like to see:

 

1) ffmpeg type conversion so that uploaded video is instantly displayed as FLV ala youtube (I understand that the red5 plugin goes some way towards this)

 

Moodle can handle this already.

[strawberry]

great things to add to moodle:

1. theme changing block

2. quick mail block

3. webdav for file access

 

as for conferancing have a look at dimdim, i'm installing it as we speak.

[WhyNot]

great things to add to moodle:

1. theme changing block

2. quick mail block

3. webdav for file access

 

as for conferancing have a look at dimdim, i'm installing it as we speak.

 

can I ask you what do you mean by "theme changing block" and "webdv for file access"?? can you think in anything else that can help teachers in moodle ?

 

 

Thanks for all replys you've been very helpfull

[CyberNerd]

I think the webdav for file access would be is useful but only if moodle worked as a fileserver, or had an eportfolio module - the moodle smb client block already can deal with access to students homeshares on a different server. If moodle was able to completely replaced homeshares then that would be something special. I think the only way forward with this is when the repository API is complete then it would be possible to bolt apache jackrabbit or alfresco on the moodle to handle webdav or UNC path access.

[Ric_]

@CyberNerd: Moodle already has webdav to resources so that you can up/down -load files more easily. You generally only turn this on for 'teachers' mind.

 

As you have mentioned there is also the block that allows homeshares to be published through webdav jiggery pokery too.

[CyberNerd]

@CyberNerd: Moodle already has webdav to resources so that you can up/down -load files more easily. You generally only turn this on for 'teachers' mind.

 

but what it doesn't do is provide userspace that can be accessed by webdav/smb that is stored on the moodle server. ie moodle server homedrives that can be mapped as a driveletter.

[CyberNerd]

and while I'm thinking abut it, why doesn't moodle do version control for documents. Would it be that difficult to implement some type of built in SVN for odt files?. It would be really useful for groups of students working collaboratively, to see who made what revision to a document.

[Oops_my_bad]

*true* integration with SIMS

 

The ability to edit excel spreadsheets/word documents etc without having to download them, open/edit/save in excel and re-upload them (the LEA's far inferior "fronter" handles this - why not moodle??)

[strawberry]

but what it doesn't do is provide userspace that can be accessed by webdav/smb that is stored on the moodle server. ie moodle server homedrives that can be mapped as a driveletter.

 

easily done with webdav, you just use a small piece of html code and it can open up any number of webdav sites.

 

to elaboate, the theme changing block allows the users to change the theme they use, is of little use for teaching but great for getting students attention and getting a little purchase on it, espically when you use a theme they really like (latest band, pretty picture etc etc)

 

webdav is a way of accessing homedrives or indeed any other folder with on the local network or over the internet.

[CyberNerd]

easily done with webdav, you just use a small piece of html code and it can open up any number of webdav sites.

 

No, I didn't explain clearly. I want Moodle to host users home directories.

I know that I can mount remote servers on my moodle, I already do it.

What I want to do is replace the fileserver with a moodle server. I want all the users data referenced into a database, rather than a filesystem. I want this data it to be populated into courses so that it can be easily transferred between courses and shared. - I will then 'share' the (theoretical) moodle drives as a \\ share so that users can mount them as H:\

When a file changes on the H:\ share, so does the file in the courses.

makes sense?

[tim.dalton]

For us, the major things we have felt are missing are-

 

1) ePortfolio. Mahara has gone most of the way to sorting this out though, and integrates nicely.

 

2) Video collaboration/etc. We're currently looking at DimDim here, again works with Moodle well.

 

3) School management things. This is an interesting one. Integration with SIMs, doing reports, marks, etc. We thought for a long time about whether these would be Moodle modules we could create, but felt that they weren't really things a VLE should do. Our current thinking is that these sort of functions live inside our Joomla web site, the Moodle links off from there for all the classroom type things.

 

Other than that we're pretty happy. I would second the mention earlier in the thread about online editing of documents. Combining that with web access to home directories would be very cool.

 

Tim

[tim.dalton]

What I want to do is replace the fileserver with a moodle server. I want all the users data referenced into a database, rather than a filesystem. I want this data it to be populated into courses so that it can be easily transferred between courses and shared. - I will then 'share' the (theoretical) moodle drives as a \\ share so that users can mount them as H:\

When a file changes on the H:\ share, so does the file in the courses.

makes sense?

 

Makes sense, and is a very smart idea... I think the tricky bit would be adding files to the H:/ share & then getting them to display on the main moodle course page. Certainly getting them to appear in the Files... should be easy, actually changing course appearance this way would require something a bit clever.

 

Tim