MAJ Showcase Development and Upgrade Proposal

Don Hinkelman (Sapporo Gakuin University)

Problems and Challenges for 2020

Moodle changes each version which makes uploading and sharing courses difficult for various Moodle sites with various versions. This is an important troubleshooting need and subsequent reporting of bugs and issues will benefit the Moodle community as a whole. Second, many teachers upload multiple versions of courses when they improve or add content. This creates a large storage burden and higher server costs. Also, courses shared by MAJ members tend to be English language education subjects. In order to serve the whole community of educators in Japan, the upload process needs to be as easy as possible, and high-quality courses need to be promoted and popular course with high-download counts need to be promoted. Another challenge is that the Showcase has had two sites, one for uploading courses and one for demonstrating new plugins. One option is to merge these two sites and prepare for MoodleNet integration, which hopefully can begin in 2020.

Proposed Functionality

For 2020, the MAJ Showcase team propose to do three functionalities: 1) Download counting block, 2) Storage reduction via combining versions/reviews, and 3) Moodle 3.9 and 4.0 upgrading and troubleshooting.

1.   Download Counting Block and Subject-specific course promotion

This block will provide a listing of courses based on the amount of downloads—which allows a teacher to see which courses are popular. In addition, this block can installed multiple times on the front page, and configured to show differing information such as:  top ten downloads, top ten science and math courses, top ten highly reviewed courses, and courses just added. This block will require metadata to be restructured and an upload metadata form to be filled in by each uploader.  

2.   Storage reduction via combining course versions and reviews

This re-coding affects the courseinfoblock and the sections in that block called “reviews” and “versions”. The purpose is not to prevent teachers from uploading improvements and new additions, but to combine the new courses with their older versions. This will save more than half of the storage space used by the Showcase on the MAJ server. When combining versions of the same course, it is important not to lose the reviews of the older course, and forward them into the new version.

3.   Moodle 3.9 and 4.0 Upgrade

As Moodle versions change, the core code and themes are changed which affects MAJ Showcase plugins installed on the site, and the courses themselves. For example, major changes in Moodle 3.8 required the timeout functions of the Hubupload block to be changed and tested. This involves systematic testing on various browsers as well.

Upgrade HotPot module to handle Hot Potatoes 7 files

Gordon Bateson (Kochi University of Technology)

"Hot Potatoes" is a suite of programs that allows teachers to create interactive learning exercises that can be delivered via the Web. It consists of five subprograms: JCloze (create cloze activities), JCross (create crosswords), JMatch (match pairs of items), JMix (rearrange jumbled items into order), JQuiz (create multiple choice and short answer questions) In 2003, the HotPot module was created to allow teachers to administer Hot Potatoes activities via Moodle and incorporate the results into the Moodle grade book. For over a decade, both the HotPot module and version 6 of Hot Potatoes (HP6) were very stable and remained largely unchanged. They are currently widely used around the world.

However, HP6 did not work easily with the "touch" and "tap" technologies of modern smartphones and tablet PCs, so in late 2019 Hot Potatoes 7 (HP7) was released. Because HP7 files are not compatible with HP6 files, it is proposed that the HotPot module should be modified to be able to detect and administer HP7 files.

The HotPot module will be modified so that it can detect HP7 data files, format them using HP7 templates, and deliver them via Moodle.

Currently, the HotPot module cannot detect HP7 data files or use the HP7 templates, so it cannot administer exercises created with HP7 and take advantage of the "touch" and "tap" technologies used in the HP7 templates. Once modified, these problems will be ameliorated. That is to say, the HotPot module will be able to detect HP7 data files, and deliver them with HP7 templates, thereby taking advantage of the "touch" and "tap" functionality of the latest mobile devices.

Moodle Database Enhancement Project

David Campbell Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

¥160,000

Functionality:

The database activity is one of the oldest activities in Moodle, and it is one of the most flexible and powerful modules as well. However, it is one of the more difficult ones for users to master because of its unfriendly user interface and its user experience issues. The goal of this project is to identify the problem areas in both the database activities UI and UX and then develop possible solutions in the form of design documents and project proposals. Wherever possible, prototype software will be developed as a proof of concept. Once we have completed these steps, we will work to have the project accepted by the Moodle Users Association and also when possible present it to the Moodle HQ development team. The goal will be to have the major changes be funded by the MUA and implemented by the Moodle HQ development team. The following are some of the areas that we have already identified that need improvement.

Database Form Enhancements
  • Add more (optional) views, not just a list or single. (possibly like Dataforms)
  • Restrict access to different views. 
  • Student view, teacher view/related to access restrictions for the purpose of anonymizing entries in the DB. 

  • Have more common database presets included. (For example a database template for collecting basic information for a geography project or a photo gallery (like the example from Moodle documentation)

  • Allow special fields to be accessible in the header/footer regions of the list view for the purpose of allowing individual data reports for each student.

    • Student ID
    • Student Name
    • Student email, etc
UI/Functionality Enhancements]

  • Add a JavaScript editor (instead of just the plain text window that exists now). Shows line numbers, possible syntax errors, etc.

  • Make the permissions for who can rate entries simpler; don’t require the instructor to go to the permissions page

  • Add a “Didn’t save changes” pop window when making changes to templates

  • Allow for the reorder of fields on the field set up the page

  • Make comments exportable

  • Remove the database comments from the site-wide comments/only with the database that was created.
  • Pop up window when a change to the settings will make information viewable to all students/not to only the creator of the entry

      • Possible lock feature to keep entries private.

  • Have a toolbar similar to Google Forms to make the Add views easy to create.
Database Field Enhancements
  • Add functions to database numerical fields to allow for
    • Summation/Totaling
    • Averaging
    • Operations (+ - * / etc)
    • Formatting of numbered outputs.
  • Add a "participants in the class" field (with access to profile fields)
Database Module Assessment
  • Add grading module (like Moodle Enhanced Forums).
  • Allow comments on unapproved entries

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 2016 で成果を発表して頂きます。

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 2016).