Welcome

Agenda1. Introduction

2. What is a course format?

3. Difference from themes

4.Core formats

5. Showcase:

a.Collapsed Topics

b.Colours

c.Flexible Sections

d.Grid

e.Masonry Topics

f.Tab Topics

g.Weekly Reversed

6. Course formats summary

7. Late changes... 'Flex page' & 'eTask'

8. Where to find help

9.The future

10. Feedback

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Introduction● Course formats provide the ability to give a course its structure

and layout. This gives the educator the means of establishing the best course framework for the learner.

● I will showcase the most diverse, explain the purpose of course formats and how they differ from themes (and why it needs to remain that way).

● Gareth J Barnard – Course format and theme developer, a course format forum moderator, small scale core developer, software engineer and educator.

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What is a course format?● A means of structuring a

course.● Provides a learning

framework for the activities / resources you have for the context you need – a 'content organiser'.

● Educator chosen.

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Difference from themesThemes:

● Style and arrange the overall look of the entire site.

● Chosen by the manager.● Should not affect course

formats but assist in their styling.

● Can style activites / resources.

Course formats:● Arrange the content for

the purpose of providing educational context.

● Chosen by the educator.● Should not affect the

theme.● Remain constent

between theme changes.

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Core formats

● Scorm – present a single scorm package on the page.

● Social – present a single forum where users can interact.

● Topics – arrange sections as a series of topics up to a default of fifty two (can be changed).

● Weeks – arrange sections as a series of weeks from the course start date up to a default of fifty two (can be changed).

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Calendar

● Arranges sections as days of the week.

● Can be a bit crampt, but might be a theme issue.

● Authors: Nicolas Bretin and Patrick Thibaudeau.

Collapsed Topics

● Sections made collapsible using a toggle.

● Lots of options.● Designed to solve the

scroll of death.● Created by me for a real

classroom situation.

Colours

● Customise the colours of each section.

● Once one section done, copy to other sections.

● Colour selections remembered for new sections.

● Author: Davo Smith.

Columns

● Arranges sections (topics) in columns (1-4) to help solve the scroll of death.

● Horizontal or vertical layout.

● The same as within Collapsed Topics but without the toggles.

● Author: Me.

Daily

● Converts a week or topic based course without defined section names into 'days'.

● I had to have a 'core' created format course first before switching to. Reported.

● Author: Nathan Robbins.

Flexible Sections

● Topic based format that allows sub sections.

● Sections can be merged. This is permanent.

● Author: Marina Glancy.

Grid

● Access to single sections via uploaded image / default background.

● Originally created by Paul Krix, then taken over by Julian Ridden and now a joint effort with myself.

Masonry Topics

● Automatically arranges topics by size and adjusts to screen area.

● Good adaptive functionality.

● Author: Renaat Debleu.

Menu Topic

● A one section per page format using a customised menu to access.

● Lots of options.● Need to initially save the

'template' on first access.● Author: David Herney

Bernal.

Noticeboard● Displays the latest topic

from the news forum at the top.

● Standard topics course.● Originally created by

Marty Jacobs. Rewritten for M2.3+ by me.

● Gratefully funded by SIDE (Schools of Isolated and Distance Education).

One Topic

● Converts each section into a 'tab' accessible area.

● Left and right navigation.

● Author: David Herney Bernal.

Single Activity

● Present one 'Activity' / 'Resource' in the course chosen in the course settings.

● Best created from scratch rather than change from another course as rearranges activities / resources.

● Author: Marina Glancy.

Tab Topics

● Neat format that converts each section into a tab accessed area.

● Works really well.

● Authors: Nicolas Bretin and Patrick Thibaudeau.

Weekly Reversed

● Weeks shown in reverse order with the current week first.

● Forthcomming weeks are hidden from students but shown to editing teachers in a really neat way.

● Author: Mat Cannings.

Course formats summary

● Calendar - Nicolas Bretin and Patrick Thibaudeau

● Collapsed Topics - Me

● Colours – Davo Smith

● Columns - Me

● Daily -Nathan Robbins

● Flexible Sections – Marina Glancy

● Grid – Julian Ridden and I

● Masonry Topics - Renaat Debleu

● Menu Topic - David Herney Bernal

● Noticeboard - Marty Jacobs and I

● One Topic - David Herney Bernal

● Single Activity – Marina Glancy

● Tab Topics - Nicolas Bretin and Patrick Thibaudeau

● Weekly Reversed - Mat Cannings

Contributed

Core

● Scorm

● Social

● Topics

● Weeks ww

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Late changes... 'Flex page' & 'eTask'● Flex page:

● Only just released in 'Beta' for M2.4.

● Depends on lots of other plugins so did not want to risk installing for this presentation.

● Feel free to try it out on non-production servers.

● eTask:

● For M2.4 and 2.5.

● Shows overview and status of assignments at the top of the course.

Where to find help

Forums:

Course formats: moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=47

Comparisons and advocacy:https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=2784

Teaching with Moodle forum:https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=41

Documentation:http://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Category:Course_format

Developing formats:See '/course/format/Readme.txt' in your installation. ge

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The future

● Must remain theme independant.

● Improved core support – renderers.

● Stay straightforward.● Ideas?... Slider sections, 3D

cube, adaptive conditional layout... Thoughts?

Feedback

● Q & A.

● Other formats not already shown.

● Thank you for attending and participating.

● Feedback appreciated.

● About.me/gjbarnard or through the 'Course formats' forum.

geek-and-poke.com/2013/01/stackoverflow.html

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