Toper Turor

PLEASE WISH UP!
Do you feel that Moodle needs improvement in some areas? Or perhaps dont like some of its features? Then why not make your voice heard in 14o characters, using the #moodlewish hashtag.

Trust me, Moodlers (or developers) around the world will be following this one with hawk eyes as we Moodle users voice our thoughts, ideas, suggestions and frustrations.

If you are a real Moodle die-hard fan, perhaps you should use the Moodle Tracker to give more detailed and constructive suggestions (including screenshots) for improvement. But lets face it, 99% of the suggestions and frustrations will never bother going there, but if you are interested, why not.

So, having a dedicated hashtag in #moodlewish will hopefully provide a more convenient venue for all Moodle users to share ideas and suggestions (or those that use Twitter!), and for developers to make these sparks of ideas become a reality.



WHY?
I have to admit I have a Love-Hate relationship with Moodle. For sure Moodle has given me a lot of great learning memories over the years, but it has also given me nightmares and headaches, too. But sadly, over the last couple of years, I have felt that Moodle in a way has lost a bit of focus on especially its core features such as the file(s) upload, sharing links, chat, forum, quiz, assignment, course page editing, etc.

I suppose it has been difficult to keep up with all the innovations going on in purpose-built tools out there such as Facebook, Scribd, Ning (become commercial! Annoying!), SlideShare, Elgg, Youtube, and Blackboard (Just kidding about the last one :)). For example, wouldnt it be great if Moodle enabled us to share resource links (URLs) and videos as efficiently and smoothly as what the Facebook Wall allows us to (watch screencast below).






Or be able to upload files as dynamically as what Scribd enables us to do. Or create dynamic online learning networks and communities as Elgg and Ning enables us to.

You might argue that we could always integrate all these tools with Moodle using widgets or integration modules. True! But, if even Moodles core features are becoming a frustration and burden, then why bother using Moodle at all. Anyway, I have written a post about Moodle being an Airport, so I will leave it at that.

In short, we are using Moodle at our University and would love to continue to use it for another decade if possible. Hopefully, the #moodlewish tag will provide an additional value added stream to Moodle developers and users around the world.



TRUE STORY
Lets close this post with a short true story:

I met a Moodle certified trainer the other day, and I told him about how easy it was to share links on Facebook, and guess what he replied (summarized)?

"Can Facebook do this and that, and this and that. Facebook is new! Moodle is free and open source... (and became very defensive)."

It is great to be a fan, supporter and promoter, but should we get emotional about that? Instead, we should learn from them, and do better!

Moodle is the Apple of Open Source, and we simply want to be better than any other learning tools out there. No excuses, especially with the core learning features. There are too many amazing people working on Moodle to let that happen. Lets hope Moodle 2.0 delivers, but I am still not too convinced (I suppose I set a bit high standards!).



Why not have a couple of Moodle professionals dedicated to tracking down all valuable feedback and suggestions appearing in blogs, tweets, wikis, YouTube, etc....hashtags... and adding the filtered juice (not censored!) to the tracker proactively. I hope this is already happening...

Thanks for the suggestion, but instead of creating a new post, I will post it here (below)! Here is the comment (full discussion) that Joseph Thibault is referring to:

"Dear Tomaz Lasic,

Thanks for reminding me how Moodle gives a ‘DAMN’ about that.

I do understand that we need to consider any changes in context of the whole project, and that we need to take care of the disabled (accessibility) and security. No disagreement whatsoever there.

I can also sense that some might be thinking, “This guy is so ungrateful and annoying! Moodle is open source and free, who the….”. Yes, I am a devil’s advocate, and perhaps being a bit provocative (in a Tom & Jerry way) too. But, having said that, I am simply being honest and sharing some of things that I think Moodle should improve.

Of course, some of the things that I am emphasizing is hard to swallow, as Moodle is (could be argued) and has (always) been known for being user-friendly and very easy to learn and implement (with a strong foundation in constructive mambo-jumbo). Yes, I also have strong interest (and passion) for Moodle to work really well, as the University I am working in now, is using it a lot for e-learning activities.

But, as I said earlier (using different words), Moodle needs to wake up to the new world order of innovation, usability, and free learning tools (including hosting). Let me share with you all some interesting Moodle observations and experiences.

Earlier this year, I visited 8 Universities in Saudi Arabia, and many of them had explored Moodle, but over time they had lost interest due to terrible experiences piloting it, especially with managing the server(s), database, and back-end (looking for Moodle services opportunity, then that is a potential goldmine). Interestingly (or sadly), more and more Universities in Saudi Arabia are adopting Blackboard.


Yes, Moodle is easy to install, but very difficult to manage when the concurrent usage increases (above say 100). Moodle experts and developers would argue against this (No, it is easy!), but that is not the case when you communicate with the grass roots. Since, I have struggled dealing with all the back-end issues myself (or my staff, since I am not really the technical guy!), too I can testify that managing Moodle back-end is not as easy and straight-forward as some might say. So, having a reliable wizard to guide on managing Moodle back-end and concurrent users would do miracles on that front.

However, what has really troubled me the last few years is the lack usability improvements of the core features that say 90% of all users would use or explore in Moodle (editing course page, uploading files, Linking, forum, chat, quizzes, assignments, etc).

Earlier today, I had a discussion with a faculty representative about how complicated it was developing quizzes in Moodle’s online quiz editor (forever scrolling, clicking and too many boxes!). He insisted that I teach them only how to use notepad (Aiken format) to get the job done. But then again, what about images, symbols, feedback and the other stuff you need to include (medical university!). Yeah, create all the questions in notepad, and then upload, and then add images and symbols were necessary. But…

I tried once an Excel template version, but it was unusable. What if there was a Word quiz template, which could extract images and symbols on-the-fly (XML) during upload. Any such feature or option?

I also get complaints about scrolling and click wars to upload notes, links, create assignments, etc. In a way, the current version we are using (1.9 something), is disabling especially older faculty staff (45+ years) to get on board (easily), because too many steps are needed to getting basic stuff done (e.g. uploading notes).

All this might sound new and strange to some Moodle fans and developers out there. But if it does, perhaps you should spend some more time exploring and reflecting learning tools beyond the LMSs (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Blogger, Google Docs, etc), and pick up some great ideas.

Having said that, we don’t expect all our wishes to happen overnight, but we do expect them at least to be considered, or know that Moodle developers are aware of them and working towards finding a solution. If Ajax does not work (accessibility and security), I am sure there are other ways to simplify the processes of doing things. The golden rule in usability ‘Less is more’ (just made that golden rule up, but it makes sense).

We live in a tough and complicated world today. Even for things that are free, people can blast, be demanding, and expect miracles. It is not easy, and for that fact I admire all of you.

Just remember to pinch your egos when criticism hurts (be receptive and welcome them with open arms in creative ways). It is tough, especially for me, as I am always pinching myself.

Not easy :(

But then again, life without a struggle would be really boring :)

Cheers!"


Lovely!

I remember in 2004, I was in shock-and-awe after exploring Moodle for the first time. Lets together bring back that feeling soon :)