secretlife

Oh dear Well I'd suggest twitter then but you have probably tried that already too:)

Hi there. How about also posting your requirements on the Moodle.org jobs database here? Moodle.org: Moodle jobs

According to Moodle.org the maintainer is Mark Coyles - see here Moodle Plugins Directory: Facility To Moodle 2

What sort of VLE is it? I'd imagine that would have a bearing on what you can and can't add to its design and layout. Do you mean elements on the page -colour/images etc or do you actually mean the pedagogy of it, in which case I suppose it does matter which VLE it is.

Hi there -no - I haven't been able to do this and gave up in the end but there is (apparently) a way round it involving mapping a network drive.

Does it have to be a metacourse? Don't you just mean if you try to assign a load of pupils into a course in one go it will hang and you have to start again? I have noticed that if do it manually sometimes -if I have to manually assign pupils I do it ten/fifteen at a time to be on the safe side, although I have found it to be hit and miss whether it will let you assign a whole year group in one go or not. Maybe it depends on its mood on the day;) You could try with a csv file instead - if there is only the one course to assign them to then it shouldn't "hang".

I know a couple of local primary schools who do good stuff who would be happy to talk to you if you want. I did a series of posts about ways of using moodle with primaries last year - starting with first one here Basic Moodle: Primary School homeworks | Our Learning In terms of themes there seems to be a trend in primaries to use big colourful icons on the front page that link to course categories or year groups and with Moodle 2 it's easy to customise the many built in themes they have. Sky high is quite bright - and as mentioned before it's worth looking in the Moodle themes directory to see if you spot one you like Moodle Plugins Directory: Category: Themes

I am not sure you need specific Moodle development for IB schools - exams are exams and it is the content that is important; not the design of the VLE . I can say that Moodle functions very well in all types of school - I know and have trained at several international schools who are happy with Moodle. SIMS integration with Moodle is provided both by WebAnywhere and LUNS so you don't necessarily need to switch your MIS. I hope you get some positive feedback from IB schools using Moodle:)

no automatic way comes to mind but you can for instance manually hide the eye of the assignment out of lesson time or again if you use the Quiz then you can specify an IP address so they can't access it at home

Hi there. What do you mean by time constrained? You mean they only have say half an hour in which to do it? You could set an essay type question in a quiz which will show the clock ticking as they do the work - what sort of assignments was it and are you using 1.9 or 2?

Hi there. I'm not in charge of our Moodle so can't give you access (and we don't give guest access anyway) but if it's just course and category structure you want then most Moodles that are available online show their course structure if you type in http://www.SCHOOMOODLE.com/course/index.php You won't necessarily be able to see inside the courses but it will give you an idea of the structure. My advice is always to keep it simple -loads of sub-sub categories clutters up the sytem - as do loads of courses that are just for individual teachers rather than subject teachers sharing a course with their classes. Ours for the most part go -eg - category: English >course: Y7 English; Y8 English etc etc but at KS4 there are some extra ones. We're on 1.9 in our county but moving to 2 next year. My school is holding a taster to Moodle 2 (free) in Feb if you are interested. It's meant for NW schools as they are still on 1.9 but if you want any ideas or help I'm sure you'd be welcome.

Well obviously I'm going to say yes, yes and yes But I do appreciate it's not as simple as that. (1)A lot of primary schools use Moodle quite happily -although the ones that do it the most succesfully don't tend to use it just for storing dead powerpoints - they get pupils involved, even the young ones. I reiterate what was said about Kaleidos - if that wasn't working for you then you need to find out why before moving to another VLE. (2)Pros and cons - it has a huge community that will give free help (here for instance and on the main Moodle site Moodle.org: open-source community-based tools for learning) so you don't need to wait for office hours for your VLE support. New features are constantly being added to the benefit of teachers, as opposed to commercial enterprises. Cons - the main one people say is that it is often driven in a school by an enthusiast who then leaves and nobody is left to take up the reins. For that you'd need to plan ahead when you set it up really. (3) Definitely if you are starting from scratch go for the latest version. How easy it is to set up really depends on how tech savvy you are in your primary school and I am not a techie so I can't answer that. However there are companies that set it up for you and give you admin rights so you don't have to worry about the tech side in your school. There are official Moodle partners and also other reliable webhosts who will do this.

I am not sure you can do this in 1.9 but happy to stand corrected. In 2 you can set this in the user policies.

yes LUNS are official Mahara partners and very good at that sort of thing. We've got our staff starting using Mahara now -they took to it very quickly and positively and are keen to use it as part of their teaching not just for departmental sharing. Groups are best for what you want - if you are in a departmental group (for instance) you can have your own forum and share collaborative group pages - that's a real boon.

Hi there. Yes - if you add your pupils to Moodle then there is a feature called "assignments" which allows them to upload work such as Word docs or powerpoints to their teacher and their teacher can see them on Moodle and send back feedback and offer a grade -there is a gradebook on Moodle which will calculate final grades etc and also offers export options in Excel. The other thing is - there is an assignment called "online text" where pupils can simply type their responses directly into Moodle instead of uploading a Word doc, and the teacher can write their comments on top of the text, like marking with pen. Another assignment type - "advanced uploading of files" allows for the teacher to comment on the Word doc (for instance) and then send it back to the pupil. Moodle has its own directory where it stores the work so you don't need to set something up yourself. Also - if you are using Moodle 2.0 or later (which version are you using?) then there is a feature "private files" whereby any user can store files for themselves to use later. And finally -not essential but - if you are going to use it for homeworks, you can make it so much easier and more fulfilling for pupils if you use assignments rather than uploading static pdfs.

Hi there - there are a few posts relating to alignment problems with IE and the Creatif theme on Moodle.org: open-source community-based tools for learning. Have you looked to check if any of them fit your problem?

I thought I had said the other day that alongside LUNS I was also a happy customer both of CSNewmedia and also Veloxserv but looking now I see it didnt' save. That will have been due to the mobile broadband on a train from Llanelli to Preston - so I'm posting it here now instead:)

yep LUNS are! And that has nothing to do with their sponsoring this forum:) They are also core developers of Moodle so they know it inside out. They ran the Moodles for hundreds of schools in Lancs and Cumbria

And what happens if you turn slash arguments off?

hmm..interesting -thanks for posting back.

Why not test it out on demo.moodle.net?

Joomdle - Joomla Moodle Integration

There is an "inspector role" that does this job - details here Inspector role - MoodleDocs More detailed instructions, for 2.0 below: Go to site admin>users>permissions>define roles click Add a new role tick the "system" context type Give it a name (course viewer) for example in the filter type moodle/course:view and when it appears, set that capability to "allow" save the role Make a new user account with login details that you share with staff (ie, they all use this one account if they want to view courses) Go to site admin>users>permissions>assign system roles and assign your new user to the role you made of "course viewer"

+1 for CS New Media definitely but also worth looking at the sticky at the top here for LUNS. They've maintained hundreds of primary Moodles in Lancs/Cumbria and do a pay per pupil type version which would work out cheap if your primary school is quite small - and no, I don't work for either of them

There is documentation on Moodle 2 in the moodle docs on Moodle.org: open-source community-based tools for learning here Main Page - MoodleDocs if that is any help