R&D grants result 2017

化学式フィルタープラグインChemJaxの開発

三浦 謙一, 松木 孝幸

200,000 yen

化学系科目をMoodleのコースで展開するときには、分子式や構造式等の化学式が必要不可欠である。化学式をMoodleで使用できるようにしたツールには、mhchem.jsというJavaScriptがある。しかしこのJavaScriptでは、いわゆるベンゼン環などの構造図は描画することができない。そこで、mhchem.jsの特徴や限界をよく調査・研究して、化学式はもちろんのことベンゼン環などの構造式をMoodle中でも描画できるような仕組み実現すると共に、色やACS Document、Corey等のスタイルを採用して見易さを改善したい。このプラグインの開発が行われれば、多くの化学系教員による利用が期待され、Moodleの理系教員による利用を促進することができる。

MAJ Community Hub Custom Theme Upgrade

Don Hinkelman, Adam Jenkins, Yoshikazu Asada

82,080 yen

The MAJ Hub is an open courseware site that is made for sharing e-learning content for Japan. It is also a place where course authors can collaborate in improving. The “Community Hub Custom Theme Upgrade” project for 2017 includes three parts:
1. Social Theme Upgrade
2. MAJ Hub integration with core hub code
3. Innovations Edition Troubleshooting
This means the Hub team will: 1) continue upgrading of a custom theme to promote more social networking to work with Moodle 3.1 and beyond, 2) integrate MAJ customizing with core hub upgrades, and 3) troubleshoot a second hub called the “Innovations Edition”. The new social theme employs programmable leaderboards on the front page. In the old theme, the leaderboards were largely static and true statistics on download counts and popularity are not readily available. Recent Moodle themes contain image sliders, social network integration and "marketing spots." These could be used to market courses submitted to the hub and run campaigns and events. It will take customizable SQL parameters for its data feed, and allow customization of its appearance and "gamifying" Moodle sites or courses. A second Hub, the Innovations Edition will be for demonstrating cutting edge plugins for the Best Innovations awards.

New plugin for a Maori and Ainu Cultural Exchange Course(s)

Matthew Cotter

90,000 yen

The proposed ‘React & Comment’ plugin will allow users to share their reactions and comment on uploads to a course, not unlike facebook reactions ‘like,’ ‘love,’ ‘support’ etc. In settings, users can input a picture or word, which will have a counter when it is clicked. Initially the plugin will be trialed on a new Maori and Ainu cultural exchange course using Maori and Ainu vocabulary so that opposite groups can quickly and easily react to uploads in each other’s language. It is hoped that the plugin will be used or adapted for any course page.

Forum reporting block and improved forum interface

David Campbell

180,000 yen

The forum reporting block and improved forum interface will allow teachers to see quickly how much activity each student is putting into a forum and all forums in a course. At present, to find this information is extremely time intensive and involves looking at numerous pages. The forum activity block will collate all the information into one area allowing teachers to see quickly how students are performing in forums on the course. The block will give, as a minimum, this basic information: Student name, Country, Number of posts (between __ & __), Number of replies, Total forum views, Total number of words, First post, last post, a send reminder button, and link to a complete report.
The forum interface will also be improved via this grant. The poster to a forum will no longer be as prominent, but the institution they belong to and the date they posted will be available. This means the “started by column” will be deleted. Also the posts will no longer be called “Discussions”. A follow button will be added to make it easier for participants to follow a conversation they have replied to.

研究成果物は、補助金受領後，1年以内にGPLコードとしてmoodle.orgのプラグインデータベースまたは国内の適切なムードルサイトを通じて一般に公開して頂きます。 また、原則として、Moodle Moot Japan 2018 で成果を発表して頂き、A4サイズで１枚程度の研究成果報告書を2018年2月末までに提出して頂きます。

The resultant product must be released as GPL code and posted for distribution on the moodle.org plugins database or any appropriate Moodle Japan sites within one year of acceptance.It is expected that the grant-subsidized project results will be reported/presented in the subsequent Moodlemoot (Moodlemoot Japan 2018) and submit one-page report of research results in A4 size by the end of February 2018.