customizing moodle - balancing the value equation

Customising Moodle –Customising Moodle –Balancing the Value EquationBalancing the Value Equation

Alan Arnold, University of Canberra<[email protected]>

Mark Drechsler, NetSpot Pty. Ltd.<[email protected]>

cc licensed flickr photo by CraigAllen: http://flickr.com/photos/craigallenphotography/4104550682/

moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010

Achieving the right balance between enabling innovation and managing the costs and risks

cc licensed flickr photo by stachelig: http://flickr.com/photos/stachelig/4518693746/


University of Canberra

STRATEGY 3 Perform in the top third of universities on standard educational measures


Moved to Moodle 1st Semester 2009 after brief 2008 pilot

• WebCT 1997-2008• 820 staff with teacher role, 13,000+

students• 1,220 teaching sites (courses) in 2009

650 in 2010 to date and a new Winter Term!

• 127 Community & Group sites • Since Sep 2008: 40k Moodle users, 156k

enrolments, 151k forum posts, 113k resources, 419k quiz questions in 4300 sites

• Externally hosted Moodle 1.9, 2.5 FTE support in-house, frugal development budget moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010

Expectations are high and rising!

2.0 is coming

2.0 is coming

2.0 is coming

2.0 is coming

2.0 is coming

2.0 is coming


The challenge

• to manage a robust production 24x7 Moodle environment that needs to continually evolve to meet the changing needs of the 14,000 users that it supports

• to manage risk while at the same time introducing new capability and delight


Nwiki or OUWiki or

MediaWiki or ??

Moodle Blog or WordPress or

Mahara or MS Live or

CQU BIM or ??

Choices!

cc licensed flickr photo by orangejack: http://flickr.com/photos/orangejack/210624158/


UC’s Moodle Customisations

• Dialogue module• OUWiki• Minh-Tam’s myMoodle• YUI Course Menu• Lightbox Gallery• WebDAV• Certificate Module• Usage Monitor Block• CQU BIM Module• Poll Block

• Assignments: download all as zip• Essay question type

enhancements• Messaging: privacy enhancements• Group Select Module• Unit Outlines Block• Microsoft Live Services• Mahara Assignment Type• USQ Simple Clock

• … and dozens of other small patches & fixes


Key strategies

• Work closely with our hosting partner NetSpot • Use a plugin review framework to evaluate non-

core extensions• Implement robust change management

processes that are regular (monthly), agile and responsive

• Communicate: Watch and listen for issues and opportunities (Moodle.org tracker & forum RSS, Moodle Matters @UC, Yammer@UC, RT Helpdesk)


Governance

I really like the look of Plugin X

– gimme!

I really like the look of Plugin X

– gimme!

Decide if the change is worth

investigating

Decide if the change is worth

investigating Have a Plugin review done

Have a Plugin review done

Make decision of benefit against

cost

Make decision of benefit against

cost

Follow formal implementation

process

Follow formal implementation

process

Change done!

Change done!


1. GradConnect: Alumni access

• Need: continued Moodle access for a group of Faculty of Education alumni to support an ongoing communityof current and past students. Modest strategic funding to deliver

• Problem: student accounts are made inactive on graduation in UC’s identity management systems BUT alumni do have Microsoft Live@edu UC email accounts “for life”

• MS releases open source code: Live Services plugin for Moodle • NetSpot reviewed the plugin and resolved some issues• UC graduates now have uninterrupted Moodle access through

their MS Live credentials• Now possible to have other alumni communities AND access to

other Live services eg blog, 25GB (!!) SkyDrive


2. Callista-Moodle integration

• Simple, 3-step forms created by NetSpot with assistance with UC ICTS

• Create courses for semester-based teaching units or program/degree cohorts, based on a standard template

• Courses will automatically be populated (and depopulated) with the right cohorts from Callista at dates chosen by the teacher

This approach was chosen over automatic creation of courses for all units offered, to create a sense of ownership by teaching staff. Very successful: 97+% of all units now have sites


Callista-Moodle integration


DIY course-site creation in 3 simple steps

Plugin Reviews

Formal Upgrade Processes

Source Code Management

Issue Management

Supporting Processes


The Plugin Review Process

moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010Copyright NetSpot Pty.Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Plugin reviews

moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010Copyright NetSpot Pty.Ltd. All Rights Reserved

More options for

integrationWeb Services, Repositories, Portfolios

Less code in modulesMore secure, standard, maintainable

Taking the leap to 2.0


Then it happened…

September 23, 2010:


So, how did we go?





enhancements• Messaging: privacy enhancements• Group Select Module• Unit Outlines Block• Microsoft Live Services• Mahara Assignment Type• USQ Simple Clock • Dozens of other small patches

& fixes

Now core in Moodle 2.0






& fixes

Currently beingupdated






& fixes

Now obsolete?


For example…

Goodbye YUI Course Menu…


For example…

…hello 2.0 Navigation Block


The next big challenge

We know we can now connect to…


The next big challenge

We know we can now connect to…

…but should we?moodleposium Canberra 7-8 Oct., 2010

A good looking road ahead

Image used under CC license via http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohadby


customizing moodle - balancing the value equation

Education

small patches

tams mymoodle

moodleposium

big challenge

plugin

courses

8 oct

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