1.33+Learning+Management+System

= Learning Management System =
 * What are the current practices of transitioning classroom to online learning in Moodle?

One of the most important things that I must take into consideration is the instance of Moodle that I will be working on. The University uses Moodle 1.97 built 2009 12 23. Jason gave me a sandbox to play around with some of the features of Moodle. I asked him about authoring on the sandbox then zipping the files to another instance of Moodle. He told me that would only work if the other instance at Moodle was exactly the same.
 * What limitations does the designer need to consider for the development phase?


 * What considerations should be made to keep the interface more intuitive..

Teaching Do's and Don'ts (Moodle.org) @http://moodle.org/mod/page/view.php?id=7743

When I am researching Moodle plug ins on Moodle.org, I will want to take a look at the notes section to be sure that someone listed the plug-in compatibility with the resource that I will be working on.
 * What considerations should be made to interface uniform for future classes.
 * What kind of plug-ins should be considered? How much will they cost?

** Analyze Moodle resources **
= **Research Methods:** =

Overview on Lynda.com
@http://moodle.org/
 * ===Moodle.org===

**Welcome to the Moodle community!**
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.Research =**Moodle Course Conversion: Beginner's Guide [Paperback] ** = Http://Www.Amazon.Com/Gp/Product/1847195245/Ref=Ord_cart_shr?Ie=UTF8&M=ATVPDKIKX0DER [|Ian Wild] (Author) [|Moodle Course Conversion: Beginner's Guide] - Ian Wild; Paperback With clear instructions and plenty of screenshots, this book provides all the support and guidance you will need as you begin to convert your teaching to Moodle. Step-by-step tutorials use real-world examples to show you how to convert to Moodle in the most efficient and effective ways possible. Moodle Course Conversion carefully illustrates how Moodle can be used to teach content and ideas and clearly demonstrates the advantages of doing so. . This book is for teachers, tutors, and lecturers who already have a large body of teaching material and want to use Moodle to enhance their courses, rather than developing brand new ones. You won't need experience with Moodle, but will need teacher access to a ready installed Moodle site. . Teachers with some experience of Moodle, who want to focus on incorporating existing course materials will also find this book very useful.
 * **Moodle Literature**
 * What you will learn from this book?**
 * Incorporating your existing handouts, worksheets, and other resources into Moodle courses
 * Quick methods to make your Moodle courses engaging, attractive, and fun fast ways to add multimedia to your course,
 * Using Moodle as a repository for departmental guidelines and documentation
 * Incorporate existing sounds and videos, moving marking online!
 * Students can submit their assignments right into Moodle, for you to mark or assess on the computer
 * Using forums and messaging to keep in contact with students when it's convenient
 * Moving 'discussion activities' into Moodle so that classes can work together
 * Making your course into a completely online experience
 * Approach**
 * Who this book is written for?**

=**Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development: A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle [Paperback] ** = [|William Rice] **William Rice** (Author)
 * ›** [|Visit Amazon's William Rice Page]

[|Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development: A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle] - William Rice; Paperback Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See [|search results] for this author Are you an author? [|Learn about Author Central] (Author) @http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1847193536/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Once you read this book, you will: William Rice is an experienced trainer and expert on learning and teaching practices. This experience and expertise forms the foundation of his approach: What do we want to teach? How would this best translate into a course? How best can Moodle support these course objectives? Of course, the book contains everything you'd expect from an introduction to Moodle: clear step-by-step instructions, plenty of screenshots, explanations and guides through the many features and options that you have to choose from. Throughout the book, William develops an example course. He uses this example to explore the sort of decisions, design considerations, and thought that goes into developing a successful course. This book is for anyone who wants to get the best from Moodle. Beginners will get a thorough guide to how the software works, with great ideas for getting off to a good start with their first course. More experienced Moodlers will find powerful insights into developing more successful and educational courses.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Understand what Moodle can do,
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">How Moodle compares to other e-learning packages,
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">How Moodle can support teaching strategies
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Install the Moodle software on your own computer or a server, and understand your way around it
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Know how to create different kinds of courses.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Moodle can support courses where the group works through the classes with a shared schedule
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Moodle can support courses where individual students work through at their own pace
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Students are free to explore the different topics in their own time.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Understand all of Moodle's learning features.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Moodle provides features for managing course content and interactive resources
 * Learn how to use social activities such as forums and wikis more effectively
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Manage students - so that you can ensure that the right students are going to the right classes
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Allow students to enroll themselves, or invite students to join a course.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Can set up commercial courses where students pay to sign
 * Approach**
 * Who this book is written for?**

=<span style="font-size: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques [Paperback] ** = <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Susan Smith Nash] (Author), <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|William Rice] (Author) <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">@http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1849510067/ref=ord_cart_shr <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[|Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques] - Susan Smith Nash; Paperback

This book contains clear guidance for all who want to put together effective online courses that motivate students and encourage dynamic learning. There are clear, step-by-step instructions with helpful screenshots and diagrams to guide you along the way. If you want to unleash your teaching talents and develop exciting, dynamic courses that really get students moving forward, then this book is for you. Experienced Moodlers who want to upgrade to Moodle 1.9 will find powerful insights into developing more successful and educational courses.
 * What you will learn from this book**
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Build a learning outcome-focused approach that enables your students to perform well
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Different techniques for creating a dynamic learning environment
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Put all the ideas you've wanted to implement, but never could, into action to create unique courses with reusable elements
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Motivate your students to collaborate and demonstrate what they are learning and to create projects together
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Develop materials you can re-use in your future courses
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Incorporate Web 2.0 features to encourage student sharing of resources
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Create online workshops and galleries for your students to make presentations about what they have learned
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Build e-portfolios for students to collect their work and demonstrate mastery of the units
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Engage your students in team work that helps them connect course content with their experiences and prior learning
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Feel confident in finding ways to accommodate your students' learning styles and preferences to guide them to a successful outcome for the course
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Develop high-quality courses that will last and stay useful and relevant to create a personal inventory you can use and re-use
 * Approach**
 * Who this book is written for**

Moodle forums
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">@http://moodle.org/ Moodle.org is our community site where Moodle is made and discussed. Please use the menus to explore and join in!

Interview Jason Brandt, HU Moodle Coordinator
** Authoring Courseware in the Secondary Education setting on Moodle. ** An Interview with Moodle Administrator, Jason Brandt. By Angela Rupert October 21, 2010

Jason Brandt is the Moodle administrator for Harrisburg University. I came to Jason because I am authoring my first course in Moodle LMS and I wanted to be sure that I understood the basics before I took the plunge. My first question was related to understanding how Moodle interacted with the other servers in the university. I understood that we would link out to another server called Citrix when we wanted to use certain software through the University. I wanted to know how all of this integrated.

From the top to the bottom: Harrisburg University uses four blade servers to host all of the data that the University uses. These slim machines look very similar in size to a flat cable box. On top of the blade servers sit 12 smaller thin virtual servers. Virtual servers do not hold large quantities of data, but rather tell the blade servers what to do with the data. The virtual servers act similar to a software application, but are self-contained in their own encased hardware. Virtual servers are very powerful and can serve many computers at once.

Moodle is an open source virtual server that can run on an open source “My Sequel” virtual server; however the University needed something a little more robust. Harrisburg University uses Microsoft sequel virtual server to cluster the virtual servers, a feature that My Sequel does not carry. Clustering with micro sequel helps keep things rolling if there is a system breakdown. The University has two mirror Moodle virtual severs and if one of them breaks down, the other automatically kicks in. This also comes in handy when system upgrades or maintenance comes into play. Having the backup server has reduced incidents of blackouts and enables the students to be able to access their online resources 24 hours a day.

All of this complicated technology is managed by a virtual machine management system. The management system, automatically redirects user requests to the appropriate virtual server. The Citrix virtual server, for example, manages the software licenses by delegating them to the students on a first come, first serve basis. The virtual machine management system also backs up all of the data every night.

Moodle uses a programming language called php that is compatible with sequel. The University uses Moodle 1.97 built 2009 12 23. Jason gave me a sandbox to play around with some of the features of Moodle. I asked him about authoring on the sandbox then zipping the files to another instance of Moodle. He told me that would only work if the other instance at Moodle was exactly the same.

One of the most important things that I must take into consideration is the instance of Moodle that I will be working on. When I am researching Moodle plug ins on Moodle.org, I will want to take a look at the notes section to be sure that someone listed the plug-in compatibility with the resource that I will be working on. While walking me through the Moodle interface, he pointed out some of the customizable features. One that he was not too familiar with but peeked my interest was the “meta” tab. The meta tab enables the instructor to build a course for classes with multiple sections.