We sort of changed our mind with the upgrade and decided to install a fresh version of 2.x which will be used for new staff development courses and a few super Moodlers. Part of that reason is that prof development/training. We plan on getting feedback from Moodlers about what is most different and make our trainings include those things. We may open the 2.x up to more after 6 months and within a year have everyone moved over. We want to make a good Moodle training course and face to face training so it eases the "pain" of learning a new Moodle. The one thing that I would try getting across to staff is reasons why they WANT to change to 2.x - all of the awesome new features. Try and make them see how much better it is..I mean if you tell them they can have a quiz hidden until they get 85% on the practice quiz...they'll be first in line to learn 2.x! http://www.moodlebites.com/enrol/index.php?id=116 is a course for 1.9 to 2.0. I have not seen how good it is.
Good question. From what I can remember I do not believe the book covered much of this. I know throughout the version updates they specify the security risks that have been fixed, most notably implementing salting the password (not a security/server expert). I don't want to give out bad information, the moodle.org forums would be a great place to start if you're seriously looking into this.
I agree with waiting to upgrade until 2.1 (comes out today). If you are starting fresh and have not been using Moodle 1.9 then I would install Moodle 2. I'm not quite sure what appointment scheduler you're talking about but I would just use the new Google Appointment feature! Use whatever tool works best! Moodle's good at some stuff and other things are better at other stuff!
I'm not sure what you mean by "course creation" - what you can do IN a course or the actual creation? If you're talking about mass creation you can already do that by importing files. We have all of our staff automatically assigned the Course Creator role so they can do it by themselves.
Something that may be of interest is "cohorts" or site-wide groups and the ability to enroll an entire cohort into a class. Ex: make a staff cohort and enroll them in staff dev courses.
Most notable improvements in course creation tools is conditional activities and course completion tracking. Filters set by individual course is a small, yet powerful improvement. It allows you to turn on media filters for better/easier embedding of media. The ability to clone an activity or resource will also be a big favorite for course creators.
In no way did I get "paid off" to read or review this book. Unless getting a free copy of the book means getting paid off..I'm an active Moodler on moodle.org, twitter, have a Moodle blog and participate in a lot of networking with Moodlers. I enjoy reading Packt's books and this book was no different. I hope it will help others and like I said if I can help in any other way I'd be happy to.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that you should research into the files that are "lost" if they are not attached to a resource when you import a 1.9 course into 2.1.
Hi guys, I just wanted to make a comment on the latest with Moodle 2.x. I submitted this review on March 25th and in those few months there has been a lot of activity and progress made regarding performance issues, patches and bugs.
Moodle 2.1 comes out today and the biggest (most important) improvement is the ability to import 1.9 courses into 2.1. Other updates include the ability to clone activities and resources and a question engine rewrite.
I highly recommend admins to use http://tracker.moodle.org/ . See 2.1 release notes here: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_2.1_release_notes
I hope this will help ease the transition/upgrade and if you have any questions I'd be happy to discuss and help out.
I didn't say your review was fake. Just that it looked like advertising. My god man, how many have you read?
(WOman;) ) Oh, I didn't mean to respond to your post with that comment syousef.. Um, about 6ish Moodle books total (we had extra grant money to buy some for our prof dev library:) ). This one was the first one I've read with more of the coding aspect to it. The only documentation I've read on Moodle coding/plugins so far has been online.
lol i promise nothing! trust me ha. I work in a school district, I work with/love moodle, have a moodle blog and I'm trying to learn more of the php/programming side of things - that's why I loved the book. Don't blame the author or them for me not putting in the necessary information lol.
I don't believe I mentioned the term, CMS, in the original review and I don't normally call it that as I know it is not the first thing people think of. The above description comes from Moodle.org and it spells it out in the description. As stated in the intro it says "This book, intended for users with a solid knowledge of the Moodle software and Moodle technologies, does a...". I guess I didn't think anyone would read a book on a specific, detailed topic on a topic if they don't know what the topic is. But thanks for the feedback, it makes sense to include terms and 1-2 sentences on the main topic - I'll keep it in mind!
I assure you that this review was NOT an advertisement. I can definitely see the need for a basic overview of what Moodle is and the criticism surrounding that but I don't want this book review to be looked at as "fake". It's sitting by my work desk now with bookmarks and references. It was the best Moodle book I've read so far!
Thank you to those replying with "what Moodle is" information. This being my first review, it was my understanding (which was not right:) ) that knowledge of Moodle would be a given and people who read a review on a detailed subject would know what the main topic is (just like not having to explain what an LMS is if I referenced that or what PHP is). I will know for next time and if anyone has questions I will be sure to help out with what I can.
More from Moodle.org - "Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. To work, it needs to be installed on a web server somewhere, either on one of your own computers or one at a web hosting company." It is similar to WebCT and BlackBoard.
As far as not "improving your learning" - it is not the job of the LMS to teach for the educator. This piece of software facilitates and enhances teaching with an emphasis on communication and collaboration, which are key 21st century skills. Moodle preaches the Pedagogy which is the real key in a student "learning".
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We sort of changed our mind with the upgrade and decided to install a fresh version of 2.x which will be used for new staff development courses and a few super Moodlers. Part of that reason is that prof development/training. We plan on getting feedback from Moodlers about what is most different and make our trainings include those things. We may open the 2.x up to more after 6 months and within a year have everyone moved over. We want to make a good Moodle training course and face to face training so it eases the "pain" of learning a new Moodle. The one thing that I would try getting across to staff is reasons why they WANT to change to 2.x - all of the awesome new features. Try and make them see how much better it is..I mean if you tell them they can have a quiz hidden until they get 85% on the practice quiz...they'll be first in line to learn 2.x! http://www.moodlebites.com/enrol/index.php?id=116 is a course for 1.9 to 2.0. I have not seen how good it is.
Yes, I forgot to mention that. Very helpful and active Moodler!
Good question. From what I can remember I do not believe the book covered much of this. I know throughout the version updates they specify the security risks that have been fixed, most notably implementing salting the password (not a security/server expert). I don't want to give out bad information, the moodle.org forums would be a great place to start if you're seriously looking into this.
I agree with waiting to upgrade until 2.1 (comes out today). If you are starting fresh and have not been using Moodle 1.9 then I would install Moodle 2. I'm not quite sure what appointment scheduler you're talking about but I would just use the new Google Appointment feature! Use whatever tool works best! Moodle's good at some stuff and other things are better at other stuff!
I'm not sure what you mean by "course creation" - what you can do IN a course or the actual creation? If you're talking about mass creation you can already do that by importing files. We have all of our staff automatically assigned the Course Creator role so they can do it by themselves. Something that may be of interest is "cohorts" or site-wide groups and the ability to enroll an entire cohort into a class. Ex: make a staff cohort and enroll them in staff dev courses. Most notable improvements in course creation tools is conditional activities and course completion tracking. Filters set by individual course is a small, yet powerful improvement. It allows you to turn on media filters for better/easier embedding of media. The ability to clone an activity or resource will also be a big favorite for course creators.
In no way did I get "paid off" to read or review this book. Unless getting a free copy of the book means getting paid off..I'm an active Moodler on moodle.org, twitter, have a Moodle blog and participate in a lot of networking with Moodlers. I enjoy reading Packt's books and this book was no different. I hope it will help others and like I said if I can help in any other way I'd be happy to.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that you should research into the files that are "lost" if they are not attached to a resource when you import a 1.9 course into 2.1.
Hi guys, I just wanted to make a comment on the latest with Moodle 2.x. I submitted this review on March 25th and in those few months there has been a lot of activity and progress made regarding performance issues, patches and bugs. Moodle 2.1 comes out today and the biggest (most important) improvement is the ability to import 1.9 courses into 2.1. Other updates include the ability to clone activities and resources and a question engine rewrite. I highly recommend admins to use http://tracker.moodle.org/ . See 2.1 release notes here: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_2.1_release_notes I hope this will help ease the transition/upgrade and if you have any questions I'd be happy to discuss and help out.
I didn't say your review was fake. Just that it looked like advertising. My god man, how many have you read?
(WOman ;) ) Oh, I didn't mean to respond to your post with that comment syousef.. Um, about 6ish Moodle books total (we had extra grant money to buy some for our prof dev library :) ). This one was the first one I've read with more of the coding aspect to it. The only documentation I've read on Moodle coding/plugins so far has been online.
lol i promise nothing! trust me ha. I work in a school district, I work with/love moodle, have a moodle blog and I'm trying to learn more of the php/programming side of things - that's why I loved the book. Don't blame the author or them for me not putting in the necessary information lol.
I don't believe I mentioned the term, CMS, in the original review and I don't normally call it that as I know it is not the first thing people think of. The above description comes from Moodle.org and it spells it out in the description. As stated in the intro it says "This book, intended for users with a solid knowledge of the Moodle software and Moodle technologies, does a...". I guess I didn't think anyone would read a book on a specific, detailed topic on a topic if they don't know what the topic is. But thanks for the feedback, it makes sense to include terms and 1-2 sentences on the main topic - I'll keep it in mind!
Moodle requires the following to be set in php.ini "magic_quotes_runtime = Off". Starting in 2.0 it is strongly recommended to disable magic quotes completely - http://docs.moodle.org/en/Errors_FAQ#Any_text_I_add_with_an_apostrophe_.28.27.29_or_a_quote_.28.22.29_causes_errors_or_comes_up_with_a_slash_added
I assure you that this review was NOT an advertisement. I can definitely see the need for a basic overview of what Moodle is and the criticism surrounding that but I don't want this book review to be looked at as "fake". It's sitting by my work desk now with bookmarks and references. It was the best Moodle book I've read so far!
Thank you to those replying with "what Moodle is" information. This being my first review, it was my understanding (which was not right:) ) that knowledge of Moodle would be a given and people who read a review on a detailed subject would know what the main topic is (just like not having to explain what an LMS is if I referenced that or what PHP is). I will know for next time and if anyone has questions I will be sure to help out with what I can. More from Moodle.org - "Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. To work, it needs to be installed on a web server somewhere, either on one of your own computers or one at a web hosting company." It is similar to WebCT and BlackBoard. As far as not "improving your learning" - it is not the job of the LMS to teach for the educator. This piece of software facilitates and enhances teaching with an emphasis on communication and collaboration, which are key 21st century skills. Moodle preaches the Pedagogy which is the real key in a student "learning".