The user configures the address of their Moodle server and logs in with their Moodle login. After this the user can access Moodle files from Office. 

 The addon works with Office 2003 and 2007 and Moodle 1.8.x and 1.9.x. The My Courses should be installed for the addon to work. No additional Moodle modules are required for the addon to work.

For the past couple of weeks, I've used some of my time to write code that adds support for Federated Login for Google Account Users to an Elgg instance. This particular project's requirements don't end with just an implementation of Single Sign-On (SSO) but it also needs to have access to some of the user's Google Apps Data.  Because of this, I decided to use Google's OpenID+OAuth Hybrid protocol, which is a good fit for the requirements.

The first thing I did was to register the domain of the application I'm writing with Google.  You can read instructions on how to do this here.  After I've validated the domain, I now need to write the interface to Google's OpenID+OAuth Hybrid protocol.  The goal is to have SSO working with the capability to automatically create users on the Elgg side and map them to the proper Google account and to be able to request access to Google services.

I searched the plugins page for Elgg if anyone already wrote such a module and I got two results that piqued my interest.  These are Kevin Jardine's OpenID client plugin and Justin Richer's OAuth plugin.

The OAuth plugin assumes that the users already have an Elgg account.  It is a good solution if you'll solely need an OAuth interface but not really ideal for what I'm trying to implement.  The OpenID client plugin is promising but it's more focused on interfacing with OpenID servers whose endpoint supports the passing of a username which is not the case with Google. Google's authentication is achieved by having the user go to an authentication page and then returning a Google-supplied identifier on success.  The value of this identifier is also unique for every relaying party (openid.realm) so another application will get a different value even if it's the same Google account.

Even if I can't use the OpenID client plugin there are still parts of it which are very useful.  These are the Elgg integration points like the different APIs that call the different OpenID methods and the Elgg-specific OpenID Store that will keep track of the different OpenID associations and nonces.  Because of this, I'll use some bits and pieces of the plugin as a starting point and just make it specific to work with Google.  For the actual display of the authentication page, I used Google's PopupManager Javascript Library to launch a popup window that goes to Google's OpenID endpoint.  For an example on how this library works, visit this online demo for Google hybrid.  You can checkout the source code of this demo here (look under the hybrid folder).  Using also some code snippets from the Google hybrid source code I am able to leverage Zend Gdata to request and process some of the user's data on Google services.  Since I based most of the authentication sequence using the Google hybrid sample code, it's also fit to mention that it uses JanRain, Inc's OpenID PHP library and Andy Smith's basic PHP library for OAuth.

This code is now in testing and I'm in the process of ironing out any issues we find.  When it has proved to be stable I'll package up the plugin and release it for public consumption.

Read more about Solution Grove's Elgg-related work

The Certificates module for Moodle will allow granting certificates based on completion of a Moodle activity.It allows uploading graphics and setting the style of the generatied certificate. Once a user has met the minimum criteria they can download a PDF and print their certificate.

There are several options for setting criteria for granting a certificate. These include overall course grade, time spent in the course, and ability to require one or more activities be completed, optionally with a minimum grade for the activities. Any of these requirements can be combined to determine when a student receives a certificate.

 Images can be uploaded to style the borders and include a watermark if desired. A signature image can be included, and of course, a logo can be uploaded.

The course administrator can choose to display the grade and, or various learning outcomes onto the certificate.

The certificate module is well documented in the Moodle Wiki.

The University of Girona, Spain recently published a paper "Modelling Role-Playing Game as a Unit of Learning to Encourage Cooperative Learning" This paper details how they will use the Learning Activities Management System (LAMS) and .LRN, an LMS to run role playing games as learning experiences.

There is a great deal of interest in serious games for learning right now and this is an excellent example of the power of LAMS. The image shows what the design looks like in LAMS.

Is facebook a game? Is eBay? YouTube?

Amy Jo Kim makes a case that they are in her Google TechTalk on Putting the Fun in Functional: Applying Game Mechanics to Functional Software.

On the other side Urgent Evoke, one of the new genre of serious games, presents itself as a game.

But really game or not is not the question. The quesiton is, is the experience fun?

Game mechanics can make life more fun. Games reinformce your behavior and keep you in Flow.

 Amy's talk gives some examples.

• Points - remember, variable reinforement is more effective)
• Collecting - for instance friends.
• Completeing a set - badges or in Urgent Evoke's case you get to complete missions
• Leaderboards
• Feedback, both from the system and from other players, graphic presentation of it
• Structured social exchange - leaving comments, giving points for each other
• Customization - create your secret identity!

Life should be fun. I think even the most serious of sites should look at these elements.  Engagement is important in everything.

P.S. Friend me on Evoke and lets save the world together! http://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/CarolineMeeks

In the iMoot 2010 Conference held on February 4th, Ernie Ghiglione did a presentation showing Moodle users the benefits they can get from LAMS using their own Moodle concepts.

Moodle is an open-source-learning software, a Course Manangement System, also known as Learning Management System (LMS), which helps teachers create online learning courses with a focus on interaction.  On the other hand, LAMS is a tool for designing, managing, and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides educators with a visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities.  While both are great tools for promoting online learning, one is effective in creating and managing courses and the latter enhances the first by making the activities within the course sequential.

LAMS is all about sequencing, from the creation of activities to running them with the students all the way to monitoring their progress.  LAMS provides specific order by which students can do their activities, the way in which teacher intended.  It allows the students to learn together and make progress through the sequence of activities. Everyone is on the same page. 

Branching, a tool inside LAMS, allows authors to create several routes through a sequence.  Branching can be based on the following:

• output from the text that the students submit (thus, if a student answers X and not Y, he will follow a different path from the one that answered the opposite)
• output from any assessment or test (the route or branch that each student will follow depends on te result of the test of assessment)
• groups (each student will follow a branch or path depending on the group to which he belongs)
• The teachers or students decide where they want to go.

Once the students begin and move forward through the sequence of activities, teachers are able to monitor and follow up on the progress of the students.  Furthermore, teachers also get to share their activities and teaching practices with other educators by exporting the sequences.  Other educators may use existing sequences and then tailor or customize them according to their requirements.

View the full presentation of LAMS for Moodlers here.

Social networking has grown and spread through all ages and fields since its birth in the market about 24 months ago.  Everyone, if not the majority, has adopted the social networking fashion. 

An interesting article talks about the social networking strategies that middle market companies are implementing these days.  Corporate leaders are beginning to see the value in social networking and how it can make business better by increasing business and employee efficiency, decreasing training and development costs. "Employees are actually interested in using social networking; thereby increasing the likelihood of adoption and decreasing the time, budget, and resources required for training and education."

3 things that companies or enterprises can benefit from social networking are as follows:

• Employees welcome the use of social networking.
  Most employees have already become familiar with the concept of social networking, thus, dramatically reducing the learning curve.

• Enterprises can start with smaller and contained initiatives.
  Some projects can be implemented within weeks or even days, allowing the enterprise to learn and adjust without committing significant budgets up front.

• Communities will develop and be grown organically by the employees themselves. 
  As employees participate and get involved with forming and evolving communities, they take ownership and become more committed, thus, ensuring more success.  The social networking phenomenon is largely based on the masses creating the value, rather than on a top-down approach.

For these reasons, middle market companies find it advantageous to invest in social networking strategies from within their firewall or what we may call intranet.  ELGG is just one of the many softwares that cater to the social networking needs of most middle markets. It may be a good move to look into how ELGG can answer your own company's social need.

To read more about the article, click here.

There has been a case in the new lately of a student suing a school district for spying on them at home with a school laptop.  It reminded me of this video of a 1:1 school in NYC.

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play

At about 4:38 in the video you can watch the administrator using this capability. I think it is completely legal inside the school.  The whole video is worth watching and its interesting that they included this disturbing clip in an overall very positive piece.

Details on the current case: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/02/20/official-fbi-probing-school-webcam-spying-case/

  The full article is here: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/publications/hks-magazine/archives/winter-2010/learning-from-pakistan/

A new tool called Geogebra has been helping students in graphing their Mathematical equations.  This great tool has been suggested by Edoardo Montefusco and has drawn most people's attention. 

GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for learning and teaching. It is a software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked.

 

The concept of GeoGebra is to connect geometric, algebraic, and numeric representations in an interactive way. You can create constructions with points, vectors, lines, conic sections as well as functions, and change them dynamically afterwards. Furthermore, using GeoGebra you can directly enter and manipulate equations and coordinates. Thus, it is easy to plot functions, work with sliders to investigate parameters, find symbolic derivatives, and use powerful commands like Root or Sequence. 

Recently, Ernie Ghiglione has added a sequece in LAMS that illustrates how to use Geogebra.  In this sequence, the teachers ask the students to draw their equations using Geogebra and then submit their graph for marking.  This new Geogebra sequence in LAMS greatly aids students in graphing their equations and gives them additional knowledge especially in the field of Algebra, Geometry, and even Calculus.

Check out the sequence here.