Wont this depend on the specific LMS? Assessment features supported as base in LMSs will vary, so what is add-on for someone may be already available for another! So what is the purpose of this question?

Thank you, Sasikumar - you are right; I did not consider how large the differences between LMSs might be. I have now adapted the question to explicitly ask about "non-standard features for Moodle". That is also the core of what I am interested in.

For me, the best "add-on" could be some related to webseminars (webcast). There exist a free module called BigBlueButton which can be installed in Moodle. It allows to include real-time Rich Video Lectures.

Hello.

Before using any technological resource, we must focus on the need to have for it. In my view, this is how assertive is undertaken using a learning platform planning. The reasons come to establish new roles and organizational activities that might require a new personal or specialized training of new staff. Some choose to use an independent payment for the case. What I notice is that learning platforms require planning and staffing, time and money to establish the likelihood of use. Sometimes we jump with a technological product that meets the needs of the organization and the customer. Think of the organization, its ability to acquire and implement a new way of thinking about education and the end user, balancing benefits costs.

I have tried in the previous paragraph very briefly the organizational issue, if the organization has thought strategically implement new technologies to impart knowledge, then must restructure their policies to undertake a new Department of Education Virtual or digital space.

Consider now the second component, virtual learning management requires content to be managed according to the current level of instructional design. It takes a team to plan activities in time, content, course structure, powers ... in order for the virtual curriculum. So here's another organizational commitment, comprising the pedagogical, methodological and didactic. This part must be accompanied with a good design team and proofreaders.

There are two components, lack the technological component.

Then the answer to the question is: Using Moodle, to reorganize and implement the organization (mission, vision), structuring the educational component and boost the technological structure.

What i like more in the version 2 of Moodle is the Course completion and prerequisites. Teachers can specify a "course completion condition standard" for all students. Conditions include activity completion, but could also be by grade, date or a number of other criteria. Teachers can use the above standard as a prerequisite to other courses that allows ordered progression and scaffolding. Teachers and students can see reports that show the progress within a course, or through a series of courses.

Thank you! We do not use virtual lectures so far, so BigBlueButton has not been on my scope.

I agree with Javier's assessment of what's required (in the ideal case) to set this up.

Also, Petros is fully right - course completion and prerequisites are really helpful, as is the integrated drag-and-drop support.

Thank you for your answers!

This sounds like the sort of question the central IT services would want to ask. The teaching and learning needs should dictate the technology as much as is feasible and a one-size-fits all approach is not going to please many people nor make best use of the opportunities available. The answer is probably going to be quite different depending upon the discipline focus of who you ask. e.g. a department of language teaching would want features that are probably quite different to a department of engineering. This is something I have been thinking about recently as well. It would be good to establish multiple 'Moodles' such that each department has a set of plugins that best suits their teaching and learning needs so that a particular department's moodle is not burdened by those plugins that they don't need (it would keep the interface simpler for students and teachers and lessen server load for that given moodle), but also configure it to keep user authentication and student records/ final grades etc in a central location to allow for student mobility across disciplines and institution wide data analysis and administration. I dont know if Moodle is capable of this kind of architecture but as it is open source it would be interesting to see if it could work :-)

Check out https://moodle.org/plugins/index.php for new modules and blocks.

I have been using the Sharing Chart block for 1.9, enables to copy and paste my lessons and any other resources.

Thanks, Mathew and Jelena!

I have been using the Moodle plugins page a lot and have been trying out several plugins (not the one Jelena mentions - we are running 2.3+). Due to the overwhelming selection, I was hoping to see some recommendations :-)

Dear Guido,

if you are asking for tool to install for making the educational experience more engaging and fruitful for the learners, I think it depends a lot on which kind of didactical model and, consequently, of activities you are thinking...

Going to the not freely available or well affirmed (that means to be developed) - and switching more into a researcher modality - I think one of the areas that most part of the LMS actually don't support enough is the Learning Analytics, that can really improve the educational experience.

Some experiments are being carried on (you can also see some of my pubblication from the list, such as "Riccardo Mazza, Marco Bettoni, Marco Faré, Luca Mazzola. MOCLog – Monitoring Online Courses with log data. In: In Retalis, S., and Dougiamas, M. (2012). 1st Moodle Research Conference Proceedings, Heraklion, Greece, Sept. 14-15, 2012. ISBN: 978-960-98516-2-6") but there is a lot of space more for improvements.

Other two "nice to have" feature are an internal plagiarism tool (even though you can find different external service that you can link to your Moodle here https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=category&id=35) and some really usable ePortfolio, both for learners and instructors.

Hi Luca,

thank you for your recommendations! We actually use plagiarism checks and they have proven to be helpful - less in "detecting plagiarism and punishing students" per se, as in raising student awareness on two aspects. One, "the teachers and graders can detect if I copy materials, which may lead to problems"; and two, "copying is not accepted, so I should better read about what is OK and what is not". By the way, we always offer students a chance to explain what may have gone wrong, instead of punishing them directly and/or stating that the materials "must have been plagiarized".

I also noticed that there is some support for learning analytics - at least, the following plugin claims to do that to an extent: https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=gradingform_erubric

I have not tried it yet, however...

If you are interested, here http://moclog.ch/ there is an approach we developed for a first analytics that tryes to connect learner events with didactical meaning, for different aspect (like collaboration, access, partecipation, ecc..). The code is dowloadable in the "download section" in two flavours:

1) GISMO --> for teacher and learner is directed toward the analysis and comparisons of activities in the class for:

- self-reflection and awareness of the students

- better perception of the state of the class and help for providing scaffolding support to students "at risk"

2)MOCLOG --> administrator, more interested on the aggregated averages for the class or category of classes

Grazie, Luca!

Dear Guido

There are so many external add-ons available today which were developed for various purposes. Each and every add-on is special and unique. All the add-ons are remarkable if there are no errors and user friendly. Selecting external add-on is totally depend on organizational or administrative requirements.

I think "plagiarism" and "course completions" are inbuilt with Moodle 2.3. (?)

I am interested of installing extra add-ons of different question types. Every-time I search for new question types. It gives opportunity for the teachers to create very sophisticated quizzes. Other extra add-ons we use are "questionnaire" which helps to create surveys and "configurable reports" (https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=block_configurable_reports) to create our own reports .

Have you used any external add-on to change the course format? I installed one-topic format. It displays the course topic by topic as tabs.

I think, we should not install external add-ons just to fill the site. Those add-ons can be added at any time to the system when the requirement arrives.

Anyway, thanks Guido, this discussion gives us the chance of knowing different add-ons and their practical usage.

I´m reading this questiona a little late from the posting, however, i would like to say that we miss a lot the existance of a good e-portfolio add on for Moodle... If anyone knows about one, i would love to try it!

Hi Luz,

there is a connection between Moodle and Mahara called "Mahoodle" (see http://manual.mahara.org/en/1.5/mahoodle/mahoodle.html) and Moodle-Mahara activities (https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=assignsubmission_mahara).

Also, there are some links e.g. to Exabis Portfolio (https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=block_exaport), but I must admit that I am not proficient with either of these...

Thanks for your advice, Guido!

I recommend these.

Article E-Learning course development in Moodle

I have one doubt , is there any recommending  feature in  MOODLE

Nice Contribution Guido Rößling

Prof. Guido Rößling: H5P for tests and quizzes; save & restore options; and 2 advanced options: adaptive learning & workshops for peer assessment.

In addition, 4 free MOOCs for teachers and administrators taught by the creators with the Moodle teaching philosophy.

I am at the University of Kufa, I use the Moodle system, and the three most important features that are not present in it are the following:

1- The system does not allow for there to be a drop in the exam questions.

2 - The system does not allow there to be a live broadcast of the lesson, such as educational platforms.

3 - In the questions to fill in the blanks, the system requires a specific answer as a key to the solution