Instructions for adding videos to Moodle from the Streaming Server

1. Compose a new web page
2. In the Name field enter the name of the video
3. Add a brief summary of the video
4. Go to the Compose a web page editor and click the <> icon so that you are in TEXT MODE
5. Enter the following code, adding your folder name following stream= and the file name following the / after your folder name

<div align="center"><iframe src="http://bb-app.csufresno.edu/webapps/FSU-BulldogTV-bb_bb60/player.jsp?stream=THIS IS THE NAME OF YOUR FOLDER/THIS IS THE NAME OF YOUR FILE" width="680" height="460"></iframe></div>

Example:
<div align="center"><iframe src="http://bb-app.csufresno.edu/webapps/FSU-BulldogTV-bb_bb60/player.jsp?stream=dsharples/GSCC_223_Week_2_3_320x240_oc_hint.mov" width="680" height="460"></iframe></div>



When students click the link to the video, it will play in the center of the screen.

Moodle Pilot: Lesson Learned

Problem Description:

As part of the Moodle pilot process, we were batch loading Fresno State 26,000 user accounts from the converted Peoplesoft-Blackboard data extracts. The user accounts were created properly, however, due to the large amount of user records and the Moodle a-synchronized emailing mechanism generated a huge amount of repeated email notifications.

Findings:

Moodle is using a CRON job to send out email notifications. The following code selects all the records into a record set and loop through it to send out emails. Upon successfully emailing the user, each record then gets deleted from the database. However, with the huge amount of records, it may cause RACE Condition that the next cron job picks up the records already being queued for process.


//
// generate new password emails for users
//
mtrace('checking for create_password');
if (count_records('user_preferences', 'name', 'create_password', 'value', '1')) {
mtrace('creating passwords for new users');
$newusers = get_records_sql("SELECT u.id as id, u.email, u.firstname,
u.lastname, u.username,
p.id as prefid
FROM {$CFG->prefix}user u
JOIN {$CFG->prefix}user_preferences p ON u.id=p.userid
WHERE p.name='create_password' AND p.value=1 AND u.email !='' ");

foreach ($newusers as $newuserid => $newuser) {
$newuser->emailstop = 0; // send email regardless
// email user
if (setnew_password_and_mail($newuser)) {
// remove user pref
delete_records('user_preferences', 'id', $newuser->prefid);
} else {
trigger_error("Could not create and mail new user password!");
}
}
}

Solutions:
- Increasing the CRON job interval; or,
- Dividing the batch load to groups.

p.s. Increasing interval of CRON jobs may also delay the email delivery of new items posted in forums as well.

p.s. about the Moodle cron job:
http://docs.moodle.org/en/RedHat_Linux_installation#Set_up_the_cron_job, or
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Cron

Moodle Pilot Updates

The final Moodle Open Lab was held on January 15th. Faculty spent time fine tuning courses.

At this time we are working on several issues:

Some students experienced login issues - all locked Moodle accounts have been cleared so students will be able to login to the course through Blackboard.

Instructors were reminded to make sure that students are logging in through Blackboard using the single sign-on instructions found in the Moodle Pilot Forum, and to make courses available in both Moodle and Blackboard through the Adminstration block > Settings area.

Instructors were also reminded that the email function in Moodle has been disabled and if they create a new News Item an email will not automatically be sent. At this time, they will need to copy and paste the contents of the News Item into the email function in Blackboard.

At this time, instructors may manually enroll students in Moodle who registered for the course after rosters were loaded.

Manually enrolling students into Moodle

1.In the Administration Panel click on Assign Roles

2.In the Roles column click on Student

3.In the Search area, located in the lower left-hand corner, type in the username of the student

4.Click on the name of the student in the Search Results box

5.Click Add – the student will now appear in the list of users

Moodle User Batch Creation

We have successfully converted SIS user information and loaded to Moodle through batch user creation interface. However, one of the option is to enable New Password generation that triggers an email to the users. Since we have 25000 users in the batch, it created a email storm.

One lesson learned was that Also, Moodle uses an asynchronized process (cron job) to generate new password and emails that querys the database to create a recordset of users for new password generation.

Updated Road Map on LMS Pilot and Extended Projects

This is a updated ROAD MAP of the LMS Pilot and extended projects:

Learning Management System and ePortfolio

Pilots:

1. Moodle and Mahara (pilot Spring 2009)
2. Sakai and OSP (pilot Spring 2009)
3. Bb and ePortfolio (being constantly reviewed)
   

Potential pilots:

1. Elgg (piloted and available to be integrated with Moodle)
2. Keeps Toolkit
   

Projects:

1. Student ePortfolio and Peer Review (LMS pilot)
2. Project ePortfolio and Collaboration (Ida)
3. Department ePortfolio/Repository for Assessments (Ida)
   

Researches:

1. IMS Content Package (preparing potential Content Migration if we decide to move)
   current: IMS Content Packaging v1.2 CM/DN Release v2.0 Specification
2. IMS ePortfolio (preparing potential eP portability)
   current: MS ePortfolio Specification - Version 1 Public Draft Specification - HTML
   

Instruction Content System

Alfresco Lab 3c (pilot Spring 2009):

1. Integration with LDAP (and CAS if necessary)
2. Integration with LMS (Bb/Sakai?)
3. Integration with ePortfolio systems
4. Integration with Institutional Repository (library?)
5. Implementing Share
6. Integration with Social Networking Platforms (Goole/Facebook gadgets)
7. .. continuing streaming media and Podcasting/iTunes U implementation.
   

Social Networking

1. Implementing OpenSocial containers, mainly Google
2. Implementing OpenID application interface (consumer), mainly Google/LinkedIn
   

Max

The Pilot has Officially Taken Off!

The first "official" Moodle training took place on December 11th. Three faculty attended and spent time exploring the Moodle tools and preparing their spring 2009 Blackboard course for single sign-on to Moodle. Moodle Open Lab is scheduled for January 15th.

Participating faculty on the Moodle Pilot are enrolled in the Moodle Pilot Forum where they will experience the LMS from a student perspective and have easy access to training and documentation materials. More updates as conversations take place!

Moodle Email

Missed .. a cron job needs to be set up!

Moodle pilot course shells created

All requested Moodle pilot course shells have been created. Each instructor is given one developmental course shell and one pilot course shell. Students will be enrolled to the pilot course shell in the 2nd week of Jan 2009.

p.s. All courses are created manually. Batch loading process and Peoplesoft integration is being developed.

Moodle'fied Mahara

Mahara has been installed and integrated with Moodle pilot for SSO. It is very simple to set up by following the document at:

https://eduforge.org/docman/view.php/176/3200/Mahoodle.pdf

This concludes the LMS Pilot - ePortfolio integration for both Sakai and Moodle.

Concluded the initial Moodle Pilot setup -- Moodle Theme Update

Updated Moodle Theme Header Image from img tag to div background to allow flexible width for varied by different screen resolutions. This concludes the initial implementation of Moodle Pilot.

Find any problems? Let Max know ..

Moodle: Casifed

Moodle Pilot has been CASfied with options to ldap or manual password. Modified the frontpage with two login options: Fresno State Users and Guest Users.

p.s. PHP-XML is required for enabling this feature also.

Moodle: Customized System Role

Customized a Course Manager role that adds additional privileges, i.e. managing users and enrollments. This role will be assigned to the Instructional Designers and support assistants.

Course Shell and Training Information

Course shells on the Moodle server will be available the second week of December when the PeopleSoft/Blackboard integration process begins for spring 2009.

Moodle Training

• Introduction to Moodle
  December 11th 1:00pm until 3:00pm in IT 300
  
• Open Lab
  January 15th 9:00am until 2:00pm in IT 300
  
• Individual Moodle Training is available by contacting Mary Bennett, mbennett@csufresno.edu 8-7203

Spring 2009 Moodle Pilots

Ten faculty from the following departments will be participating in the Spring 2009 Moodle Pilot:

• Literacy and Early Education
• Music
• Child, Family, and Consumer Sciences
• Finance and Business Law
• History
• Kinesiology
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Health Science
• Industrial Technology
• Kremen School of Education
  

Moodle: Pilot Setup

11/25 ~ 11/26, 2008

• Create course categories
• Test: system test
  
• Development: developmental course shells
• Pilot-2093: pilot courses for Spring 2009
pending (rb)

• Schema for Batch course, user account, and roster uploads:
  schema for users (mt):
  header: username, password, firstname, lastname, email, idnumber*
example: max,goodhuy,max,tsai,email@csufresno.edu,PSOFT ID

Validate above by the following tests:

• Create Pilot 'Instructor user accounts' in Batch process;
• create 'developmental' courses (course id = "DEVL-SUBCAT#-userid") under Devlopment category;
• create roster batch upload (create 2 test user accounts and use those two accounts to create roster data file)
  

Moodle Update - 11/21/2008

• Book and Questionnaire Modules are installed and working
• Theme is installed (Fresno State localized)
• Tested export-->import using the Moodleconverter tool quizzes, presentations, links, etc. No problem being identified
• Tested batch loading the roster from the Moodle 'development' site successfully.
  

Moodle Update - 11/21/2008

• Book and Questionnaire Modules are installed and working
• Theme is installed (Fresno State localized)
• Tested export-->import using the Moodleconverter tool quizzes, presentations, links, etc. No problem being identified
• Tested batch loading the roster from the Moodle 'development' site successfully.
  

Moodle: Blackboard Course Content Converter

For converting Blackboard course content to Moodle, we have tested and are very happy with the tool created by LSU. You can find it at:

http://moodleconverter.lsu.edu/

I have contacted the development team and they are kindly to share the code; so, we will be able to host the application at Fresno State in possible Moodle future!

Moodle Pilot Server Up

The installation of Moodle pilot server has been completed and starting initial QA. It is set up with 2 servers model: Moodle application server and MySQL database server. Both are running on Redhat AS-5 using the RH versiong of Apache and Mysql. Each server is set up with 2 NIC interfaces: one for public user access and one for database access b/t the servers. More detail configuration information will be posted as soon as the initial QA has been completed.

Sneak Preview: "Pre" Pilot Sites

We have two experimental 'Pre'-pilot Moodle and Sakai Project sites set up at:

• http://moodle.pilot.csufresno.edu/moodle/
• http://sakai.pilot.csufresno.edu/

Fresno State faculty are welcome to request for test course shells for sneak preview access.