Moodle Forum Moderator

[wesleyw]

Question 1: Is there anyway of giving a teacher or pupil the ability to moderate forums without giving them creator or admin access?

 

Question 2: I've installed the portfolio module for Moodle having done that I get a couple of errors (Not during the install) when using portfolio.

 

 

portfolio_view_heaps: No specified heaps.

 

 

Unable to save changes for the specified artifact.

 

and when editing my portfolio (See jpeg)

 

 

Now my user hasn't submitted any coursework or anyuthing else would that cause it?

 

 

 

Wes

[Geoff]

1) Moodle 1.7 will allow you to assign various roles more granularly.

 

2) Not sure, is portfolio a third party module? Did you try posting/searching your problem on the 'Using Moodle' forums at Moodle.org?

[wesleyw]

Cool thanks Geoff I'll have to wait for 1.7 then.

 

I've emailed the writer of the portfolio add on but haven't heard back as yet. I'll check the moodle forums though!

 

Wes

[Geoff]

Quick search of moodle.org yielded the following page:

 

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Portfolio_module

 

Which lead to:

 

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38736

 

Check the very bottom of the thread. There's a post about file locations. It sounds related to your problem.

[wesleyw]

Brilliant thanks again Geoff!

 

 

Wes

[lindylou]

Wes, just a heads-up.

 

I have been trying out profanity filtering on Moodle, and although profane language is covered by a black box in a forum post, if you hover the mouse over the blacked out area, an alt text box shows the offending text! I know Moodle is accessible for those with impairments, and presumably the browser sees the black box as a graphic, hence the alt text kicks in. That particular feature seems to shoot itself in the foot!

 

I also found that words containing letters that spell out a profane word get the offending bits blacked out, so the 3rd, 4th and 5th letters in the word "document" were blacked. I'm working on that, but I have found how to edit the censor file if you need to know.

 

All good fun! :-)

 

Linda D

[wesleyw]

That's quite annoying! You would have thought that the Moodle guys could have sorted that out? But I would like to know about the censor file thanks!

 

Wes

[Geoff]

Did you file a bug report?

[wesleyw]

I haven't with portfolio no? How would I go about that?

 

 

Wes

[Geoff]

I meant the alt text bug with the profanity filter.

 

You can't file bugs against third party modules like portfolio in the offical bug tracker. Because it's got nothing to do with the offical moodle distribution.

[wesleyw]

Ahh! Right sorry got my wires crossed there lol

 

 

 

Wes

[lindylou]

..I would like to know about the censor file thanks!

 

Wes

 

I had a look in the Moodle help for "censor" and got this http://docs.moodle.org/en/Word_censorship

 

I also had to load the censor file so it was active, in your Moodle site go to Administration \ Configuration \ Filters and there is a choice of filters to select. (sorry if you know this bit!)

 

I am not sure how you access your Moodle db files - my host company gives me a control panel effort, but if you can find your way to the lang\en\censor.php file, you should be able to open it in Notepad or something and edit the SQL in there.

 

There's some interesting threads on the Moodle forums about censorship, eg http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=32222#149980 A lot of people don't like the idea of censoring, but in schools, we have a duty of care to the pupils. It's different in HE and Uni's where the users are older.

 

HTH

 

Linda D

[Geoff]

A lot of people don't like the idea of censoring, but in schools, we have a duty of care to the pupils.

 

We're also subject to the Human Rights Act and thus Freedom of Speech.

[lindylou]

 

We're also subject to the Human Rights Act and thus Freedom of Speech.

 

Good point - personally I think teacher moderation should deal with the problem, but in my job, I have to consider the duty of care bit, and try to advise schools on the dilemmas!

 

All I know for my immediate project is that the teachers involved are very concerned about profanity and online bullying and I am still learning the admin tasks in Moodle and the text filtering evidently has some interesting effects!

 

(I'm getting out of synch with this thread - sorry, trying to multi-task with several emails and forum posts going on at once!)

 

Linda D

[Geoff]

Just bear in mind that ultimately, the Human Rights Act will trump any local or national laws, regulations or guidelines requiring you to 'censor' pupils (or indeed staff).

[mighty.grey.eagle]

I think that you are going slightly over the top here, Geoff. It would be an interesting case where a student went to the Court of Human Rights just because the word f**k had been blocked.

 

Secondly, on a slightly lighter note, there have been times when Hotmail has been blocked in school (not by us I may add). Suddenly the office is beseiged by sixth-formers claiming their human rights have been violated!

[Geoff]

I think that you are going slightly over the top here, Geoff.

 

EU directives trump local and national laws. That's how it works.

 

It would be an interesting case where a student went to the Court of Human Rights just because the word f**k had been blocked.

 

I don't think a lawyer would take on such a case. But I think it's only a matter of time before we see something along these lines tested in court.

 

Secondly, on a slightly lighter note, there have been times when Hotmail has been blocked in school (not by us I may add). Suddenly the office is beseiged by sixth-formers claiming their human rights have been violated

 

They are correct, but unless they are willing to take it to the next stage rather than simply moan about it you can safely ignore them.

[wesleyw]

How about if you got them to sign an AUP written in legal jargon as a contract?

 

 

Wes

[Geoff]

No, you can't removes peoples rights via a contract such as an AUP.

[mighty.grey.eagle]

Secondly, on a slightly lighter note, there have been times when Hotmail has been blocked in school (not by us I may add). Suddenly the office is beseiged by sixth-formers claiming their human rights have been violated

 

They are correct, but unless they are willing to take it to the next stage rather than simply moan about it you can safely ignore them.

 

This must be a first. Geoff arguing that blocking a MICROSOFT product might infringe a user's human rights 8O

[ChrisH]

Secondly, on a slightly lighter note, there have been times when Hotmail has been blocked in school (not by us I may add). Suddenly the office is beseiged by sixth-formers claiming their human rights have been violated

 

They are correct, but unless they are willing to take it to the next stage rather than simply moan about it you can safely ignore them.

 

This must be a first. Geoff arguing that blocking a MICROSOFT product might infringe a user's human rights 8O

 

[alonebfg]

one of the things you can do is a terms of use and in this you can state that the School (company ect ect)may block stop emails and websites as they see fit as in the condutions of use and if anyone then complains you are covered weather it be webmail sites or whatever and if you add that application needs to be made to allow websites that they belive to be wrongly blocked and it will be investogated. I have found that useing a webfilter like dansguardine at home it will block a friends webmail because of some of the subject line words like sex ect ect due to its nature.