Posts Tagged ‘Synergy Learning’

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Moodle 2.0 Testing – Community Hub

Posted by Joel Kerr on 01 Jul
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So Moodle 2.0 Preview 4 is out and now it is over to you to get testing!

There are four main focuses for development and testing this week – the Community Hub, Usability, Themes and Performance and Upgrade.

Full docs are still being written for the Community Hub, but according to Moodle.org you can help out by trying the new features:

  1. Try MOOCH at http://hub.moodle.org/
  2. Use the Admin registration page to register your own site with MOOCH.
  3. Add the “Community” block to your site, and use it to search MOOCH for courses, either to enrol in or to download. Note that you can’t yet restore downloaded courses in Moodle 2.0.
  4. If you are interested in playing with the hub software, get the plugin from [1] and unzip it into the “local” directory of an up-to-date Moodle 2.0 site, then visit admin page to install it.

You can also discuss what you see in the Hub servers forum on moodle.org.  For information on testing other features click here.

If you are interested in upgrading to Moodle 2.0 with Synergy Learning email me at joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.


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Moodle 2.0 Preview 4 – Notable improvements since Preview 3

Posted by Joel Kerr on 30 Jun
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It’s been a month coming, but Moodle 2.0 Preview 4 (of 5) is finally here.  So what has changed since our last preview?  According to Moodle.org:

  1. The Moodle.org Open Community Hub is now branded as MOOCH (love it!) visit MOOCH.
  2. There are improved interfaces for community hub interactions click here for info
  3. New Themes!
  4. The Folder module now has a separate editing page and forces download (you can safely let students edit a shared folder via capabilities) click here for info
  5. There is an all-new enrolments plugin system click here for info
  6. There is also a new interface for messaging click here for info
  7. A new interface for assignment grading click here for info
  8. Many layout issues fixed
  9. Over 100 other bugs fixed

Have fun testing it!  If you are interested in upgrading to Moodle 2.0 email me at joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com


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An animated introduction to Mahara

Posted by Joel Kerr on 29 Jun
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I found this short animation about Mahara and thought it was a nice, simple introduction.  Created by Southampton Solent University for the Mahara Community.


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Moodle Support from Synergy Learning

Posted by Joel Kerr on 22 Jun
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Moodle Support is one of the most in demand services at Synergy Learning.  Andrea Gordon talks us through the role she plays in keeping our clients Moodle sites running smoothly 24/7, 365 days a year.

“With Moodle developers rapidly churning out code for newer versions and 3rd party additions, there will always be the need to keep systems properly maintained and up to date with the appropriate security measures in place.

As a Systems Administrator with Synergy Learning I provide both technical and pedagogical support to ensure the smooth running of Moodle platforms. I also manage the helpdesk, allocating support queries to the appropriate members of our team.

At Synergy Learning our servers are monitored 24/7 and optimised for Moodle. Our expert team of support staff and engineers are always available should any urgent issues arise. The support I deliver on a daily basis can be directly over the phone, via email or onsite if required. Support queries can range from anything basic, i.e. adding a new user to Moodle, to very technical, i.e. configuring firewalls and DNS editing. I aim to provide my first-rate problem solving skills to all queries submitted.

In my daily role I particularly focus on developing excellent relations with our customers to give them that little bit extra with a personal approach many other large scale companies cannot provide.

Along with Moodle Support, I install, manage and maintain all client sites hosted on our servers. This entails installing sites & upgrading to latest versions, migrations over servers, integrations with external systems (Active Directory, MIS etc.) running backups, updating software, system, performance & user testing and involves in-depth knowledge and experience in both Moodle and Linux as a hosting environment. These skills I have gained working closely with an experienced team dedicated to Moodle and directly with clients in time critical conditions. I value this experience as second to none – I can guarantee, if there is a Moodle issue, we will resolve it without a doubt.

Mahara is quickly becoming very popular within Schools and organisations as a nice user-friendly complement to Moodle. New versions for Mahara are released thick and fast so I am always on top of testing before rolling these out to clients. As we are now an official Mahara Partner at Synergy Learning, I provide the same line of support, maintenance & upgrades as our Moodle clients receive.”


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What’s new in Moodle 2.0? Cohorts

Posted by Joel Kerr on 21 Jun
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A Cohort or “site-wide group” is a collection of users that can be enrolled into courses in one action, either manually or automatically.  The addition of Cohorts in Moodle 2.0 will ease the administrative burden involved in creating class lists.

According to Moodle.org the goals for Cohorts are:

  1. Simplify manual enrolments – instead of enrolling students one by one, it would be possible to enrol a cohort with single click.
  2. Cohort enrolment plugin – new enrolment plugin synchronising users in cohort with enrolments in a course (including role assignment and group membership)
  3. Synchronisation with external systems – some external systems do not know the actual courses, they only contain some user groups, at present we do not have a simple way to reuse these groups in Moodle.

Additional benefits of the Cohorts feature include the ability to add users to more than one cohort and teachers being able to add single users to a course as well as cohorts.  Should the occasion arise the name of a cohort can be changed.

Cohorts are one of the most requested missing features in Moodle and will be considered a very welcome addition to Moodle 2.0.

If you are interested in upgrading to Moodle 2.0 or want more information on what is involved email me at joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com


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Moodle 2.0 for course creators

Posted by Joel Kerr on 18 Jun
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The stable release of Moodle 2.0 is drawing near. We have compiled a list to document the new and improved features you can expect to find in Moodle 2.0 that will make life easier for course creators:

  1. Navigation in Moodle 2.0 is now implemented consistently with a navigation block on each page that can be hidden by the user until needed.
  2. Users also have much more control over where they can position blocks.
  3. The new text (HTML) editor offers more opportunities for embedding content from other sites, such as Flickr and youTube. It will also work with web browsers such as Safari, Chrome and Opera.
  4. The Portfolio API offers the opportunity to send uploaded work to other sites eg ePortfolio Mahara, Google Docs etc.
  5. The workshop module has been improved to offer advanced grading methods and peer-assessment.
  6. The quiz module is user-friendlier with improved display and search facility for the quiz question bank.
  7. External blogs can be included within the navigation of Moodle 2.0
  8. Comment blocks can now easily be added to blogs
  9. In fact you can add comment blocks to almost anywhere on Moodle 2.0
  10. Moodle 2.0 includes 20 brand new themes
  11. The new conditional activities feature allows teachers to set certain criteria which must be met before students progress within a course
  12. The new completion tracking feature is a way for Moodle 2.0 to store whether or not an activity has been completed
  13. The new community hub feature will allow students to easily find courses around the world they want to enroll on
  14. The community hub will also make it easy for educators to find and download course templates from other educators

As Moodle 2.0 is currently only at the stage of Preview 3, all of these features are subject to change depending on how site testing goes.

For more information on upgrading to Moodle 2.0 email joel.kerr@synergy-learning.com.


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The latest with Moodle Test Drives

Posted by Joel Kerr on 10 Jun
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The good news is our studio has been very busy for the past few weeks; the bad news is designing the Moodle Test Drive site was put on the back burner!

Our Senior Designer, Laura Sweeney, has been working on the site in whatever free time she can get.  I got a sneak preview of what it looks like this morning and I am thinking it has been worth the wait.

Here’s what it looks like so far…

This is entirely unrecognisable from the results I got using my basic Moodle skills (click here for screen shots) and is what you can achieve if you know your way around Moodle software.

Thankfully for me Laura understands the technology and pedagogical requirements of an elearning site, meaning I could give her minimal material and she could turn it into a site that is engaging and easy to navigate.

There is still work to be done on the lessons and quizzes so it’s not ready for release yet.  Laura is a busy girl!

I’ll keep you updated with the progress…

Joel


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Moodle and ZiLink: Keeping Parents Informed

Posted by Joel Kerr on 04 Jun
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As the sole UK Moodle Partner appointed to sell ZiLink, Synergy Learning is a keen advocate of online reporting and parental engagement in the education process.

Reports commissioned by BECTA conclude parents want schools to keep them better informed of their child’s progress, finding 82% of parents felt ‘left in the dark’ about their child’s education.  BECTA’s research also found that a lack of communication with parents hampered a student’s progress.

Online reporting enables parents to get closer to and support their child’s learning, enabling them to work with schools to improve the learning outcomes of their child.

For schools that use Moodle, ZiLink makes this achievable through the effective interoperability of their management information systems and their Moodle.

ZiLink is an affordable, sustainable and scaleable addition to Moodle.  As a Moodle ‘super-block’ ZiLink enables online reporting and parental access to information on their child’s attainment, targets, progress, attendance, behaviour, SEN status.

By incorporating ZiLink in Moodle, parents also have direct access to their child’s currently assigned work, their targets, timetable and one-click access to comments and feedback from their child’s teachers.

ZiLink has entered the market at a time when many schools are aiming to meet former Minister of State for Schools and Learners, Jim Knight’s targets for all secondary schools to provide parents with online reports by September 2010 and all primary schools to do the same by September 2012.

For more information on how your school can meet those targets, or to find out more about our ZiLink services email info@synergy-learning.com.


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Synergy Learning Ladies | Race for Life

Posted by Joel Kerr on 02 Jun
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Congratulations to the Synergy Learning Ladies Race for Life team who have raised £470 so far for Cancer Research UK.

Here is a photo of Laura, Caroline, Andrea, Marie and Donna sporting their medals after breezing past the finishing line on Sunday 30th May.

If you want to add to the donations so far visit www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/synergylearningladies


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