Multi-tenancy in Moodle

Posted by Joel Kerr on 04 May
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Multi-tenancy has been a hot topic in the Moodle community for some time now and something we are often asked about. Now that it has been dropped from the Moodle 2.3 roadmap a lot of organisations have had to revise their plans on how to achieve multi-tenancy using Moodle.

In this white paper Synergy Learning Technical Director, Alex Büchner, introduces the concept of multi-tenancy, outlines the benefits and offers three approaches to achieving multi-tenancy in Moodle.

To download the white paper click on the image below:

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For more information on Multi-tenancy in Moodle please feel free to call us on +44 (0) 28 9042 2000 or email info@synergy-learning.com

 

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Moodle Developer Training

Posted by Joel Kerr on 17 Apr
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We are very excited about the latest line-up to our Moodle Training offering – Moodle Developer Training.

This is your opportunity to learn how to develop Moodle code and write your own plugins using the latest stable version of Moodle.

If you think that is good news then you will be even happier to hear Davo Smith will be the man delivering the training. Davo recently presented his Drag and Drop Upload to attendees of the UK and Ireland Moodle Moot to a rapturous response (click here for more info).

Davo Smith is a frequent contributor to Moodle core code; as well as the Drag and Drop he has built / maintains a number of plugins including Realtime Quiz, Online Marking Assignment, Checklist and the MRBS block.

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Topic covered during the 2 day course include:

  1. How to start writing a Moodle plugin
  2. The different types of plugins that can be created such as Activities, Blocks and Question types
  3. Overview of the code and database structure of Moodle
  4. Overview of the most important APIs in Moodle including database access, user capabilities, form processing and file storage
  5. Database definition, upgrade and access
  6. Page output, including the use of renderers and standard page header / footer output
  7. Multi-language support
  8. Security: built-in methods for cleaning parameters, defining and checking user capabilities and avoiding SQL injection attacks
  9. Moodle forms
  10. Global / per instance / per user configuration for plugins
  11. Files: saving and accessing
  12. Backup and restore code for plugins

To take part in the course it is recommended you are familiar with:

  1. PHP
  2. HTML + CSS
  3. SQL
  4. JavaScript (not essential)

The course will take place in central Manchester on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th September. The cost is £800 (plus VAT) per participant – lunch and refreshments will be provided.

If you would like to attend please register your interest by emailing info@synergy-learning.com or call the office +44 (0) 28 9042 2000.

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Davo Smith and the Drag n’ Drop

Posted by Joel Kerr on 04 Apr
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Davo Smith demo’d his new Moodle Drag and Drop at this week’s UK and Ireland Moodle Moot in Dublin and I think it is fair to say the presentation created a bit of a buzz.

Although Davo Smith is a new to Synergy Learning he is already well known in the Moodle Community. For those of you who aren’t acquainted with our Lead Developer and his Moodle contributions, read on…

Davo and Moodle

Davo was first introduced to Moodle in 2004 when he started teaching IT at a 6th form college in Sheffield, UK. The college was using Moodle as its VLE and within a year Davo had got stuck into coding his first Moodle plugin, in the form of the Realtime quiz.

After getting frustrated with the piles of paperwork involved in marking student assignments he went on to create an online marking assignment type, followed by the popular checklist plugin to encourage students to finish all their tasks before submitting assignments.

Davo has since made a number of contributions to Moodle and a full list of his released plugins can be found on the Moodle website (click here).

Davo and the Drag n’ Drop

Davo has just had a new feature accepted into the development version of Moodle, which will become the Moodle 2.3 release.

The Form Drag n’ Drop Upload will allow users with a modern HTML-5 compliant browser (including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox) to drag as many files as they like directly from their desktop into any of the file upload elements that appear in Moodle forms.

This should be a welcome addition to Moodle, saving teachers and students a lot of time and effort. This new code is based on Davo’s earlier Drag and Drop upload block which allows users to drag files, blocks of text and web links from their desktop directly onto a course page, where they are uploaded and converted into the appropriate resource type.

For the technically minded, the details of the patch for dragging files onto Moodle forms can be found on the Moodle Tracker. Davo has also asked us to extend a special thanks to Dan Poltawski for his help championing the patch and for his testing and tweaking.

Needless to say we are very happy to have Davo as part of the Synergy Learning team.

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Moodle does an Abseil

Posted by Joel Kerr on 27 Mar
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Myself and Caroline Kennedy have spent the past month raising money for Ulster Cancer Foundation with the promise of abseiling down the tallest building in Ireland – the Obel which stands at 289ft.

Sunday 25th March was the big day and to prove we didn’t chicken out, we took photos of all the action dressed in our bright orange Moodle t-shirts.

Here we are at the top, ready for action

Caroline ready to rock

We made it!

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Thankyou to all those who have given so generously – for those that haven’t it’s not too late! You can still donate up until the end of June 2012 at our Just Giving site (click here).

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Proud Sponsors of Campbell College Belfast

Posted by Joel Kerr on 21 Mar
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With the Six Nations over and the Olympics not yet here, sports fans are in for a sparse few months. It may be time to turn your attention to the Rosslyn Park HSBC National Schools Sevens, the world’s largest schools Rugby tournament.

Among the 7,000 boys and girls competing in London will be the formidable Campbell College Belfast, proudly sponsored by Synergy Learning.

The group stages kick of on Monday 26th March and Campbell have been drawn in Group N which sees them playing against:

  1. BOOST, Leicester
  2. MAGDALEN COLLEGE, Oxford
  3. OAKLANDS, Waterlooville

If you are in London on the day schedule breaks down as follows:

  1. 10:40 Pitch M3 Boost v CCB
  2. 11:40 Pitch M3 CCB v Oaklands
  3. 12:40 Pitch M3 CCB v Magdalen

Click here for a full fixture list.

If you can’t make it you can keep up to date with their progress via the RPNS7 website or Facebook page and we will keep you updated via our social channels.

GOOD LUCK CAMPBELL!

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ICT for Education – Belfast

Posted by Joel Kerr on 05 Mar
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Usually, when we are attending the ICT for Education conferences, we have to book flights, accommodation, ship all our materials, spend a day or so travelling back and forward and a fortune on meatball panini’s from Café Nero.

Not this week! ICT for Education is coming to Belfast.

If you work in, or have an interest in, ICT for Education and you are in Northern Ireland you should certainly get yourself down to Park Avenue Hotel on the Holywood Road this Wednesday.

The is a free event that runs from 7.45am to 2.15pm and is a great opportunity to hear from industry experts, network with peers and find out what’s new on the market.

This is our third year attending the event and it always attracts a big crowd and generates plenty of buzz. If you want more information on what’s happening on the day visit the ICT for Education website. If you would like to schedule a meeting with us after the event email joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.

Hope to see you there!

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And the winner is…

Posted by Joel Kerr on 24 Feb
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After two weeks of relentless competition entering we are finally ready to announce the 5 winners of Alex’s Moodle 2 Administrator book (special thanks to Packt Publishing for providing the e-copies).

Without further ado, the winners are (as drawn by our glamourous team):

KiwiKangaroo (drawn out of the hat by Adam)

Guido (drawn by Andrea)

Yet (drawn by Donna)

Bram Van Damme (drawn by...me)

Larry M. Elchuck, Ph.D. (drawn by Kenny)

Thanks to everyone who entered, we’re only sorry we couldn’t give you all one!

For those that did win we will be in contact shortly with details on how to access your eBook! For those that didn’t you can still purchase the book by visiting the Packt Publishing website.

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Win a copy of Moodle 2 Administration

Posted by Joel Kerr on 06 Feb
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**THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED – THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTERED, THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY**

We’re delighted with the response to Alex’s recently published “Moodle 2 Administration” and Packt Publishing has very generously given us 5 e-copies to give away in our second competition of 2012!

With Moodle 2 comes a huge number of additional features and updated functionality, so getting to know the new software is not something that will happen overnight.

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With “Moodle 2 Administration” comes:

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  1. A complete guide for planning, installing, optimizing, customizing, and configuring Moodle
  2. Lessons on how to network and extend Moodle for your needs and integrate with other systems
  3. A complete reference of all Moodle system settings

There is more information available on the Packt Publishing website where you can also download a sample chapter.

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How to Enter?

I asked Alex why would I buy his book and his response was:

The documentation and forums on moodle.org are an invaluable resource for Moodle admins. However, some of its content is a bit disparate and unstructured. The “Moodle 2 Administration” book aims to rectify this and often supplements moodle.org.

Whether you administer a small Moodle site or manage a network of hundreds of Moodle instances, I promise that you will find the book a useful resource.

To be in with a chance to win all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post answering the same question:

Q. Why would you buy the “Moodle 2 Administration” book?

You have 2 weeks!

The winners will be drawn at random – be sure to use a valid email in the comments form so that we can contact you if you win! Good luck!

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Moodle 2.2 Administration Map

Posted by Joel Kerr on 09 Jan
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With all the excitement of BETT 2012 I almost forgot to post the updated Moodle 2.2 Administration Map.  Click on the image below to download an A4 copy of the map.

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The map was first created to accompany our Moodle 2 Admin Training so if you want a ‘guided tour’ of the destinations on the Moodle 2.2 route (sorry – couldn’t help myself) email joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com for more information on our Training options.

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BETT 2012

Posted by Joel Kerr on 03 Jan
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Much as I hate to use clichés I have to say – it’s that time of the year again!  Everyone in the office is busy putting together the final arrangements and making sure everything is in place for THE WORLD’S BIGGEST EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SHOW OF THE YEAR!

There are a few points of interest at this year’s event:

  1. We are not in our usual spot.  That’s right you’ll have to walk an extra 100 yards up the aisle to stand N26 in the Grand Hall Gallery to visit us – click here for a PDF highlighting our new position.
  2. We will have two new faces on the stand this year.  Alison Selby-Bettle and Peter Potter have recently joined the team and both have Moodle brains worth picking.
  3. We will be sporting a brand new uniform and I need to know if it compliments my shape ;)
  4. We’re giving away a Kindle – woohoo!

BETT is always an amazing event packed full of new and cutting edge products, brilliant speakers and presentations – it’s a great way to kick start the year and get excited about the possibilities that come with it.

As always we are anticipating a frenzied interest in Moodle and Mahara and we’re prepared for five hectic, fun-filled days.  We relish the opportunity to talk to the ever-passionate Moodle Community as well as the chance to convert newbies to the software.

If you haven’t added BETT to your calendar I strongly suggest you do so.  If you are planning on attending please call by and say hello!

Don’t forget – Stand N26.

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