Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner's Guide

Table of Contents

Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner's Guide

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

Who this book is for

Conventions

Time for action – heading

What just happened?

Time for reflection

Have a go hero – heading

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with Moodle

Why Moodle?

Why open source?

Installing Moodle for experimentation

Time for action – download and run the Moodle installer

What just happened?

Reflection

Creating a course

Time for action – creating your first course

What just happened?

Basic Moodle tools

Time for action – adding a resource

What just happened?

Have a go hero – organizing resources

Creating a forum

Time for action – creating your first forum

What just happened?

Reflection

Have a go hero – doing more with forums

An eLearning framework for implementing Moodle

Align

Develop

Implement

Measure

Evaluate

Case Study—OpenText

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What lessons were learned?

Do you have any advice for future businesses who plan to implement Moodle?

Any other thoughts or comments?

Summary

2. Moodle in Hiring and Interviewing

Creating an assignment for submitting resumes/CVs

Time for action – creating the assignment

What just happened?

Have a go hero – adding an application form to the assignment module

Enabling user account creation

Time for action – how to enable self registration

What just happened?

Assessing submitted resumes/CVs

Time for action – screening the resumes/CVs

What just happened?

Have a go hero – evaluating cover letters

Time for reflection

Creating competency tests with the Moodle quiz module

Using Moodle to create competency tests

Time for action – enabling conditional activities

What just happened?

Time for action – creating a quiz

Time for action – adding questions to the quiz

What just happened?

Time for action – creating a Question Bank

What just happened?

Have a go hero – creating other question types

Time for action – grading competency test responses

What just happened?

Time for reflection

Have a go hero – adding randomized questions to a quiz

Creating a choice module to schedule interviews

Time for action – creating a choice module

What just happened?

Time for reflection

Creating resources and forums for the decision makers

Time for action – creating resources and forums for the decision makers

What just happened?

Time for action – creating question and answer forums

What just happened?

Time for reflection

Case Study—A&L Goodbody

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What lessons were learned?

Summary

3. Rollout Products and Services with Moodle

Some points to keep in mind

Setting up a course for a new product

Time for action – creating a Scheme of Work

What just happened?

Creating the course

Time for action – creating the course

What just happened?

Creating the structure

Time for action – editing topic summaries

What just happened?

Adding lesson objectives

Time for action – adding labels to each topic

What just happened?

Reflection

Have a go hero – adding more topics

Creating a glossary of terminology

Time for action – creating a glossary

What just happened?

Adding terms to the glossary

Time for action – adding entries to the glossary

What just happened?

Creating flashcards

Time for action – adding the random glossary entry block

What just happened?

Breaking up a glossary into categories

Time for action – adding a category

What just happened?

Have a go hero – adding different glossaries

Reflection

Implementing role-playing

Time for action – creating a chat

What just happened?

Recording the role-play

Time for action – a look at chat logging

What just happened?

Have a go hero – different chat options

Reflection

Creating and assessing product knowledge sheets

Time for action – creating the outline of the product knowledge sheet

What just happened?

Building a structure

Time for action – creating the database

What just happened?

Adding fields

Time for action – adding a field to the database

What just happened?

Adding entries

Time for action – adding an entry to the database

What just happened?

Reflection

Have a go hero – different database options

Case Study—AA Ireland

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What lessons were learned?

What advice does AA Ireland have for businesses that plan to implement Moodle?

Reflection

Summary

4. Moodle for Managing Compliance Training

Using the lesson module as a training tool

Creating a lesson module

Time for action – creating a lesson module

What just happened?

Time for action – creating a content page

What just happened?

Time for action – creating a question page

What just happened?

Time for action – creating page jumps

What just happened?

Time for action – testing your lesson

What just happened?

Have a go hero – creating flash cards

Reflection

Creating groups and groupings to manage employees going through training

Creating groups

Time for action – creating groups in your course

What just happened?

Time for action – enabling groupings in your course

What just happened?

Time for action – enabling group mode

What just happened?

Time for action – creating groupings

What just happened?

Time for action – filtering activity access via groupings

What just happened?

Time for action – adding users to groups

What just happened?

Have a go hero – adding an enrolment key

Reflection

Using completion tracking

Time for action – enabling completion tracking

What just happened?

Time for action – configuring completion tracking in your course

What just happened?

Time for action – configuring completion tracking at the activity level

What just happened?

Have a go hero – blank questions

Reflection

Course completion reports

Time for action – adding the completion status block to your course

What just happened?

Reflection

Case Study – Aer Lingus

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

Summary

5. CPD and Competency Tracking with Moodle

Some points to keep in mind

Enabling Outcomes in Moodle

Time for action – enabling Outcomes

What just happened?

Adding a scale

Time for action – creating a scale

What just happened?

Adding an Outcome

Time for action – editing topic summaries

What just happened?

Adding Outcomes in bulk

Reflection

Have a go hero – creating more Outcomes

Using Outcomes in a course

Time for action – adding an Outcome to a course

What just happened?

Have a go hero – adding more Outcomes to the course

Adding an Outcome to an activity

Time for action – adding an Outcome to an online assignment

What just happened?

Grading an Outcome in an assignment

Time for action – grading the assignment

What just happened?

Have a go hero – add more Outcomes in the course

Reflection

Reporting on Outcomes in a course

Time for action – viewing reports

What just happened?

Have a go hero – customizing the grader report

Case study – National Health Institute, Italy

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What lessons were learned

What advice does National Health Institute, Italy, have for businesses that plan to implement Moodle?

Some thoughts

Case study – Gulf Agency Company

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What lessons were learned?

Reflection

Summary

6. Communities of Practice in Moodle

Creating a wiki for your community

Time for action - adding a wiki to the community site

What just happened?

Administering your wiki

Time for action: Revert a wiki page

What just happened?

Managing pages

Time for reflection

Creating a collaborative glossary

Time for action - creating a glossary

What just happened?

Time for action - creating the basic database shell

What just happened

Time for action - Creating the database fields

What just happened?

Time for action - edit the display template for a database

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Time for reflection

Creating community moderators

Time for action - creating the moderator role

What just happened?

Time for action - Assigning the role to a user in a forum

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Editing privileges for an existing role

Time for action - editing the privileges in a forum

What just happened?

Time for action - checking the users permissions

What just happened

Time for reflection

Using RSS feeds to improve communication

Creating RSS feeds from a forum

Time for action - Enabling RSS

What just happened

Time for action - Enabling RSS in a forum

What just happened?

Displaying an RSS feed in a course

Time for action - creating an RSS feed block

What just happened?

Case Study – Adapt

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What were the lessons learned?

Do you have any advice for future businesses that plan to implement Moodle?

Summary

7. Web Conferencing with Moodle

Some points to keep in mind

Background on web conferencing

Products

Integration

Features

Technology and web conferencing

Time for reflection

Using Adobe Connect Pro with Moodle

Time for action – find and install the module

What just happened?

Installing the module

Time for action – unzipping and uploading

What just happened?

Creating an Adobe Connect activity in Moodle

Time for action – creating an activity

What just happened?

Joining the Adobe Connect Room

Time for reflection

Have a go hero – creating more rooms

Using BigBlueButton with Moodle

Time for action – find and install the Module

What just happened?

Installing the Module

Time for action – Unzipping and uploading

What just happened?

Creating a BigBlueButton activity in Moodle

Time for action – creating a BigBlueButton activity

What just happened?

Joining the BigBlueButton virtual classroom

Time for reflection

Have a go hero – creating more rooms

Case study—Remote-Learner

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle and Web Conferencing was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle with these web conferencing platforms?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What lessons were learned?

What advice does Remote-Learner have for businesses that plan to implement Web Conferencing with Moodle?

Some thoughts

Reflection

Summary

8. Integrating Moodle with Other Systems

Managing content in repositories

Using Alfresco to manage content

Time for action - installing Alfresco on your test site

What just happened

Time for action - add a repository plugin to Moodle

What just happened

Have a go hero

Time for action - adding content to Alfresco

What just happened

Have a go hero

Time for action - adding content from Alfresco to Moodle

What just happened

Time for action - creating a content conversion space

What just happened?

Time for action - adding a content rule to a space

What just happened?

Time for action – testing your new rule

What just happened

Have a go hero

Using Google Docs as a repository for Moodle

Time for action - configuring the Google Docs plugin

What just happened

Time for action - adding a Google Doc to your Moodle course

What just happened

Have a go hero

Time for reflection

Exporting content to e-portfolios

Time for action - installing Mahara

What just happened?

Time for action - configuring the networking and SSO

What just happened

Have a go hero

Time for action - enabling Mahara portfolio plugin

What just happened

Time for action - enabling Mahara to listen to Moodle

What just happened

Time for action - creating a Mahara portfolio

What just happened

Using Google Docs as a repository

Time for action - setting up the Google Docs portfolio plugin

What just happened

Time for Action - exporting from a forum to Google Docs

What just happened

Have a go hero

Time for reflection

Case study

Why did you choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What benefits did TASB and its audience realize from the adoption of Moodle?

What lessons did you learn if you had to do it again?

Do you have any advice for future businesses who plan to implement Moodle?

Summary

9. Integrating Moodle into Enterprise

Authentication plugins available in Moodle

Internal authentication methods

External authentication methods

Time for action – enabling the LDAP plugin

What just happened

Time for action – enabling the external database plugin

What just happened?

Time for reflection

Enrollment plugins available in Moodle 2.0

Enrollment plugins

Time for action – automating enrollment with flat file

What just happened

Creating an enrollment flat file

Time for action – creating an enrollment flat file

What just happened

Time for action – editing flat file enrollment plugin settings

What just happened

Time for action – automating enrollment with external database plugin

What just happened?

Time for reflection

Customizing the look of your Moodle site

Applying one of the available existing themes

Time for action – applying standard themes

What just happened

Time for action – customizing themes with theme customization forms

What just happened

Time for action – changing the site header

What just happened

Time for action – editing language strings

What just happened

Have a go hero – adding a custom footer to your Moodle site

Case study – Raiffeisen International Fund Advisory

What was the business problem(s) for which Moodle was chosen as the solution?

What was the solution and how did they arrive at the solution?

Why did they choose Moodle?

Was the project a success?

What were the benefits gained?

What were the lessons learned?

Do you have any advice for future businesses which plan to implement Moodle?

Do you have any other thoughts or comments on Moodle?

Summary

A. Case study credits

Chapter 1: OpenText

Chapter 2: A&L Goodbody

Chapter 3: AA Ireland

Chapter 4: Aer Lingus

Chapter 5: ISS

Chapter 5: GAC

Chapter 6: ADAPT

Chapter 7: Remote-Learner

Chapter 8: Texas Association of School Boards

Chapter 9: RIFA

Index

Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner's Guide

Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner's Guide

Copyright © 2011 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: April 2011

Production Reference: 1190411

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-849514-20-0

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Cover Image by Asher Wishkerman (<a.wishkerman@mpic.de>)

Credits

Authors

Jason Cole

Jeanne R. Cole

Gavin Henrick

Reviewers

Mary Cooch

Sean Keogh

Chad Outten

Jordi Piguillem

Acquisition Editor

Sarah Cullington

Development Editor

Roger D'souza

Technical Editors

Conrad Sardinha

Harshit Shah

Copy Editor

Neha Shetty

Editorial Team Leader

Akshara Aware

Project Team Leader

Priya Mukherji

Project Coordinator

Srimoyee Ghoshal

Proofreader

Steve Maguire

Graphics

Nilesh R. Mohite

Indexer

Tejal Daruwale

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

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About the Authors

Jason Cole, Ph.D is the Chief Operating Officer for Remote-Learner, US, an official Moodle partner providing hosting, support, and instructional design services. Jason oversees Remote-Learner's daily operations, providing technical services to over 1,100 clients, from small non-profit organizations to Fortune 500 companies.

Jason started using Moodle at San Francisco State University in 2003 when he led the transition from Blackboard to Moodle. Later, he led the implementation of Moodle at the Open University in the UK, currently one of the top three largest Moodle deployments in the world. Over the ensuing two years he successfully architected a system that currently supports over 225,000 student users with multiple enrollments.

Jason is the co-author of Using Moodle (c2006 & 2007) published by O'Reilly Community Press, and has been the organizer of several successful Moodle Conferences in the US and UK.

I would like to thank my wife, Jeanne, for taking the leap and writing this book with me. Her dedication was an inspiration and her support made the book possible.

Jeanne Cole is a Senior Project Manager for Remote-Learner US. She is an experienced Moodle course developer and project manager who has migrated hundreds of courses from other learning management systems to Moodle, as well as created courses from client materials. She also has experience managing projects applying multiple open source products to meet a wide variety of client needs.

Prior to her Moodle career, Jeanne worked as a project engineer/manager for contractors in the US and UK.

I would like to thank both of my very experienced and knowledgeable 
co-authors for giving me the opportunity to work with them on this book. A special thanks to my husband, Jason, for his never-ending patience 
and support.

Gavin Henrick has worked with technology in business, learning, and development for over ten years. He has been consulting on using Moodle, Mahara, and other open-source applications for the last four years. He has run several websites and runs his own blog (www.somerandomthoughts.com). He is a regular speaker at a number of Moodlemoots and conferences on the use of Moodle in the corporate space focusing on practical examples of usage.

Gavin recently joined the Moodle Partner Remote-Learner and is based out of Canada working with a range of organizations in Canada and Europe.

Through working on this book he has learned so much on the diverse and innovative ways of using Moodle to support learning, training, and development.

Firstly I would like to thank Enovation Solutions and Remote-Learner for the opportunity to work with and learn from some fantastic people over the last few years.

I would also like to thank all of the participating organizations for their generosity in contributing the case studies. The case studies in the book will provide inspiration to others as they consider rolling out Moodle.

I would like to thank the Packt editorial team and the book reviewers who provided excellent feedback and direction throughout the editing of the book. You have certainly helped make this a better book.

I would like to thank my co-authors who have taught me so much about writing and about new approaches to using Moodle.

A special thanks to Martin Dougiamas for his vision and dedication to learning and Moodle.

About the Reviewers

Chad Outten has worked as an educator and technologist for more than a dozen years in diverse roles and settings in Australia. He is the Company Director at My Learning Space (www.mylearningspace.com.au), an Australian e-learning solutions provider specializing in expert Consultancy, Hosting, Training, and Support services for learning management systems. They work with numerous organizations in the corporate, education, government, and not-for-profit sectors. Their clients include eBay, Shell, Rip Curl, Queensland Health, and Department of Human Services NSW.

Chad is an active member of the Moodle Community. This includes involvement in the Particularly Helpful Moodlers, and Quality Assurance Testers groups. He was involved as a Moodle certified teacher, mentor, and assessor as part of the internationally recognized Moodle Teacher Certification program. He also organized the Australian Moodle Moot in 2008.

Jordi Piguillem is a Computer Software Engineer by Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. During the last five years, he has been collaborating on several Moodle projects as a programmer and as a software designer. During Summer '08, he had been working in Google Summer of Code initiative, where he had been developing an IMS LTI compliant client for Moodle. Nowadays, he is working on his PhD about integration of information systems. Due to this research job, he has co-authored several papers about software and service engineering, ubiquitous learning, among other things and collaborated in some books about Moodle and Google App Engine.

I would like to thank the project coordinator for having trusted me to review this book and to my PhD advisors for their assistance.

Mary Cooch (known online as @moodlefairy) is a teacher and VLE trainer based in the UK. She is the author of Moodle 1.9 for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds and Moodle 2.0 First Look also published by Packt. She blogs at www.moodleblog.org and can be contacted for consultation on . Mary will go anywhere to help you Moodle!

I would like to thank my family for their support and Our Lady's Preston Assistant Headteacher Mark Greenwood, and my Moodle manager, for his tolerance!

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Preface

Moodle 2.0 for Business will show you how to set up Moodle in your corporation. Think of all the time you could save by putting your existing training material online. Think of the printing costs that you could reduce by putting HR documents on your staff site, and think of the team spirit that could be created by setting up staff forums.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started With Moodle introduces you to the background of Moodle. It covers the benefits of using open-source software in business, and how to take your first steps in experimenting with Moodle.

Chapter 2, Moodle in Hiring and Interviewing discusses how to use Moodle to facilitate the hiring and interviewing process. This chapter demonstrates how to use Moodle to accept resumes and job applications, and how to create interviewer resources to support the hiring process.

Chapter 3, Rollout Products and Services with Moodle shows you how to set up a course to cater for product knowledge training. Learn how to set up a glossary and to organize a real-time roleplay using Moodle Chat.

Chapter 4, Moodle for Managing Compliance Training discusses how to deliver compliance training with Moodle. This chapter looks at the Moodle Lesson and how to configure completion tracking for full course completion reporting.

Chapter 5, CPD and Competency Tracking with Moodle explains competencies and how they are used in Moodle. The chapter will shed light on how to use competencies in assessments and how to view them in the gradebook.

Chapter 6, Communities of Practice in Moodle takes a look at building communities with Moodle. You will learn how to set up a wiki, glossary, and database for collaborative projects. You will also learn about how to use roles for specific tasks.

Chapter 7, Web Conferencing with Moodle examines some of the main web conferencing software in use with Moodle and what features and options are available. The chapter covers how to set up and configure two systems with Moodle, BigBlueButton, and Adobe Connect Pro.

Chapter 8, Integrating Moodle with Other Systems introduces a range of systems which can integrate with Moodle including Alfresco, a document management system, Mahara—an e-portfolio platform, and GoogleDocs.

Chapter 9, Integrating Moodle into the Enterprise identifies the authentication options in Moodle. It introduces how enrollment works and how to do basic customizations to the look and feel of your Moodle site.

Who this book is for

If you are responsible for training, recruitment, or maintaining any guidelines within your company, then this book is for you. No previous experience with Moodle is necessary as the examples are easy to follow, although it is assumed that Moodle will be set up and ready to go within your company.

Conventions

In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.

To give clear instructions of how to complete a procedure or task, we use:

Time for action – heading

Open up your web browser and go to the web page http://www.moodle.org.

In the top Menu you have an option called Downloads.