Here is a short video of a new format (for moodle2 and 1.9) we are currently calling pages.
We hope the pages format is similar to design patterns used in other websites, CMS and web based apps and as such familiar and intuitive for users. A by-product the pages format is that there is no ’scroll of death’ normally associated with moodle.
The format aims to improve the workflow for tutors creating content in moodle and improve navigation, overall usability and contextual information for students.
17 Comments
This looks great, but I have two questions:
1. Is this something that will be compatible with any theme, or is it being built specifically for the theme in your demo video?
2. How will this handle content from courses which have already been built? Would a teacher need to begin building a course using the Moodle pages format or could they easily convert their current course content to this format?
Hi Greg,
1. Like all moodle formats it will be compatible with different themes – under the hood the DOM/HTML is similar to Topics, with different display logic.
2. At the recent moodlemootuk11 we showcased converting some Topics format course sites to the Pages format.
If your using moodle2 it’s a perfect transition.
If your using moodle1.9 it defaults to the moodle ‘jump to’ style page titles, but we would suggest you add section names ( http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/elearningteam/2011/02/01/things-we-love-about-moodle2-pt3-%E2%80%93-section-name/ ) to improve usability.
Cheers
Stuart Lamour
Nice.
Reminds me of Claroline. Especially the part of 1:30 sec.
Part 2:30 is very cool.
Stuart, I have a suggestion. Yes, it does reduce the SOD (Scroll of death) substantially which is good news. However, as the left-hand menu *can* get filled up with many pages and subpage links (the ones that get indented to the right), you might end up with a “page-list-miniature-scroll-of-death”. This is especially so when you create many subpage links for a page.
I’m a great fan of the Collapsible topics format and the Accordion Resource Editor (both can be located at “module and plugins” section of moodle.org. So my suggestion, heh, is to make the subpages open and close like an accordian. E.g., before:
Introduction
Saltdean Lido
Rottingdean cliffs
…then if the user clicks on the “Saltdean Lido” page, the subpages are revealed as such:
Introduction
Saltdean Lido
– Planes semanales
– Objetivos
– Objetivo fechas
– Resumen mensual
– Logros
Rottingdean cliffs
When the user clicks “Saltdean Lido” the page list reverts to:
Introduction
Saltdean Lido
Rottingdean cliffs
That’s my suggestion to add to your already impressive course format. Thanks ever so much for your course format. I hope that it can be released soon so that others in the Moodle community can also enjoy using it on their course pages.
Frankie Kam
Melaka, Malaysia
Hi Frankie,
we are currently testing the pages format with users at Sussex to highlight any issues – exactly like the one you describe with very large courses. The format itself currently runs without any javascript/css3/html5 on the course sites (for accessibility and the sake of our ancient staff computers) but if it is the kind of behaviour our users need it we might well be implementing some interaction to enable this.
Really glad to receive any more feedback and input from the wider moodle community on this and looking forward to releasing the code and seeing what other do with it too
Cheers
Stuart Lamour
In your demo video, it appears that the page content is limited to an HTML box, yet I noticed a link to a forum on the Introduction sample page. How is that done?
Is it possible to include links to external html files, quizzes, or assignment dropboxes?
I agree with Frankie Kam — accordian the subtopics to keep the course menu from getting unwieldy.
Lorin Toews
Kamloops, Canada
Hi Lorin,
if you notice in the video editing is not turned on, so the quick answer is, exactly as you do with any moodle!
When you create a page your taken to the ‘edit summary’ page for the section, which is why you see the title and summary fields.
In terms of using http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/navigation/accordion.html as part of http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/navigation/bar/leftnav.html again it will be down to the needs of the users which interaction pattern we employ.
Hope this helps, thanks for reading and your comments!
Stuart Lamour
Looks very promising.
How are activities and other resources integrated?
Hi Kristian,
if you notice in the video editing is not turned on, so the quick answer is, exactly as you do with any moodle!
Cheers
Stuart Lamour
Frankie’s comment is how we handled multiple sub-pages in the Flexpage format: http://training.remote-learner.net/mod/book/view.php?id=62991&chapterid=12971
with some simplification (no complex javascript:-)) – menus with sub-pages print an icon and when clicked the menu opens the sub-pages (or when users navigate to a sub-page via the Next or Previous links).
Hi Michael – as know there is a great deal of difference between NO javascript and no complex javascript. Generally as a rule we design our systems to primarily run without anything which impacts on accessibility, then build on top of that solid base to add javascript, graphics and other niceties of interactions for users.
Cheers
Stuart Lamour
When designing the pages format, based on feedback from our Tutors, what we really wanted to do was make the workflow for Tutors what they expected (including visual feedback on the tasks they were performing, and clear labeling).
We wanted to meet the needs from Students for meaningful contextual information, and simple usable navigation.
The removal of the ’scroll of death’ was a by-product of the design to satisfy some of this. So….
What we are really interested to know is what you all think of the changes to the workflow for Tutors of creating topics/sections/pages in this first iteration of the pages format?
Specifically
- the language used e.g. Add a page? Page title? Edit page? Rename page?
- the visual feedback users get once they Add a page? e.g. being taken straight to the form to add content and being shown the page after the content is added?
- the method for editing your course site page order?
- how the changes to the workflow might effect course design and contextual information Tutors are forced to provide in the format?
- how you feel about removing the entire workflow around ‘number of sections’ (including hiding sections by moving them to the bottom of the stack and then decreasing the number shown) and the lack of visual feedback when users add a section ?
What is good and bad about this? Would it work for your users?
Cheers
Stuart Lamour
Hi Stuart – we are using Moodle 2 for some strategy courses and very much like the look of your pages format. We are new to Moodle and decided to go straight for Moodle 2 to avoid upgrade issues but some of the plugins that were on 1.9 that made pages more managable are not available for use. Be very interested to give your pages format a go when available more widely.
Thanks, Christina.
Hi Stuart,
Looks great – I’ll ask our Dev team to set it up on one of our servers so I can have a play. Great to hear that resources and activities can be added to a page, curious though if they can be added in the middle of the HTML area that is constituting the main bit of the page. It seems (correct me if I’m wrong) that the HTML area is designed to be the ’star of the show’, with the activities there as ’supporting actors’ – although since I’ve not played with it first hand then I could be way off
Also happy to hear that the principle of it running on anything (which I assume means graceful degradation back to simple HTML editing) is a part of the design to keep the accessibility high.
Again, great work and best wishes for the rest of the project,
Mark (the guy who coined the term ‘Scroll of Death’ in the first place in a fit of frustration – http://www.slideshare.net/mark.drechsler/unmoodling-your-moodle-1966067)
Hi
This is very nice.
Do you have an estimate when it will be available for the community?
Thanks
Hi,
This sounds and looks like a great plugin for Moodle 2. I have used the Flexpage plugin for Moodle 1.9 but this plugin is not available for Moodle 2.
Do you have any idea when the pages plugin will be available? I am currently developing a Moodle 2 website and I really like the look of your plugin.
Thank you
Kind regards
Lene
I’m also very excited about this course format. Are you still working on it?
Thanks for all the nice comments,
Just to let everyone know - according to the moodle roadmap - docs.moodle.org/dev/Roadmap
Version 2.3 on moodle will include a paged format – docs.moodle.org/dev/Paged_course_formats
Cheers
Stuart Lamour
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