In this chapter, we will cover:
- Accessing Moodle plugins
- Adding and installing modules
- Changing site-wide settings
- Getting modules to speak your language
- Reporting bugs and suggesting improvements
- Removing modules
Moodle is an open source Learning Management System (LMS). If you're reading this book, it's likely that you are already using Moodle, or you have heard about it.
Image source: http://moodle.org/.
The word Moodle is actually an acronym. The 'M' in Moodle stands for Modular and the modularity of Moodle has been one of the key aspects of its success. Being modular means you can:
- Add modules to your Moodle instance
- Selectively use the modules you need
Note
M.O.O.D.L.E.
The acronym Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It is modular because you can add and remove modules. The programming paradigm used to create Moodle code is Object-Oriented. It is dynamic because it can be used for information delivery and interactivity, in a changeable and flexible way. It is a learning environment designed for teaching at many levels.
Because Moodle is modular and open source, many people have created modules for Moodle, and many of those modules are available freely for you to use. At time of writing, there are over 600 modules that you can download from the Moodle Modules and plugins database. Some of these are popular, well designed, and well maintained modules. Others are ideas that didn't seem to get off the ground. Some are contributed and maintained by large institutions, but most are contributed by individuals, often teachers themselves, who want to share what they have created.
If you have an idea for something you would like to do with Moodle, it's possible that someone has had that idea before and has created and shared a module you can use. This chapter will show you how to download and test contributed Moodle modules, to see if they suit your needs. Later chapters will help you find modules that will be useful to you and your students, and to show examples of how these modules can be set up and used in teaching.
Note
Origins of Moodle
Moodle began in 1999 as postgraduate work of Martin Dougiamas, "out of frustration with the existing commercial software at the time". Considering the widespread use of Moodle around the world (over 40,000 registered sites in over 200 countries), Martin is a very humble man. If you ever make it to a MoodleMoot and Martin is in attendance, be sure to introduce yourself.
If you only want to test modules, consider setting up your own basic web server, such as XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) and installing Moodle from the Moodle Downloads page (http://download.moodle.org/). If you are a Windows or Mac user, you can even download and install Moodle packages where these two ingredients are already combined and ready to go.
Once installed, add a course or two. Create some dummy students to see how modules work within a course. Have a play around with the modules available—Moodle is quite hard to break—don't be afraid to experiment.