The EdTech Bach » moodle

Moodle Wishlist (4)

Joyce — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:11:24 +0000

Some of the lecturers I work with have started using wikis in their courses this semester. Students and staff have reacted largely positively. They appreciate the collaborative work they can now do but don’t enjoy the usability. After doing some wiki introduction sessions, seeing the Moodle wiki in action over the semester and also supporting staff in their use of other wikis (Wetpaint, PBWiki), I have a few additions to my Moodle Wishlist, to do with the Moodle Wikis. Here’s what I wish for:

On Edit automatically open the enlarged version of the editor. Very rarely is a wiki page short enough to be comfortably edited in the small editor version. And it is the nature of wiki pages to grow so why not open straight into the larger editor?
Threads or comments function associated with a page. The current workaround is to set up a discussion forum to go alongside the wiki. But this leads to posts like: “if you go to the second page in the Tools category you can see the work I’ve done…”
Improve the internal linking. Add a drop down menu or button (Insert Wiki Link) with list of pages to choose from. The current process has too many steps:

Find the exact page name,
Then copy its name
Then find page you want to put the link on
Go to Edit mode
And paste the name between square brackets.

Improve the picture upload. The Binary File option is clunky and using it is unlike any other action students take in Moodle.
Allow creation of Userpage. Having your own wiki space can be motivating and a way of creating buy-in. (Could this perhaps also show overview of user’s actions in the wiki?)
Allow creation of template pages. Being able to set up templates would allow staff to guide students better in what is expected of them.
Add an Add page button. Creating a page by giving it a name in square brackets is a simple action but an unfamiliar concept that is difficult to explain.

Moodle Wishlist (3)

Joyce — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:57:16 +0000

Working both in WebCT and Moodle this semester, I’m discovering quite how different these environments are. More about that later. In the meantime, 2 features present in WebCT that I would like to see in Moodle.

Group tool, where students can self-select into groups with a maximum number of slots and based on this grouping, are enrolled in the appropriate forums/chats etc.

Replies to My Posts – in forum-based courses you are unlikely to read everything. But there are certain things you always want to read, the replies to your own posts. Having these grouped as you log in to the course is very handy. Perhaps this could sit in the My Posts tab?

Moodle Wishlist (2)

Joyce — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:41:41 +0000

I want course version control, just like you get in wikis. This would be useful when developing a site with a team, particularly when some team members are new to online learning developments. The history can show you what other team members have been working on and you could roll back in case of mishaps (”I went to move something and accidentally deleted all the files, I don’t know how it happened”).

It may give new online teachers confidence to try new things, if they knew that the previous version is always there to fall back on.

Moodle Wishlist

Joyce — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:38:39 +0000

As a Moodle administrator, am quite enjoying the experience of being a Moodle student. And am finding some things I would like…

1. Intuitive forum handling. My fellow students struggle with the e-mail copies and the read/unread messages. The first PD session I did on Moodle had the same results – all my participants bewildered and overwhelmed at the message deluge. And you control that in your profile where the controls have some outlandish names. Read/unread messages is called Forum tracking…

2. Ability to tag a post for future reference, or as “I must come back to this.” The USQ course is very text heavy, with a combination of the wiki, the blogs and the forum posts in Moodle to track. Sometimes I read a post but am not ready to answer yet. Wouldn’t it be good if I could tag it/flag it to return at later stage?

3. Why not a drafts place for your posts, so you can start a message but let it sit in the system until you are ready to post. Most blogs offer this functionality. Does anyone know of an LMS that does? Is there a reason why LMSs wouldn’t?