Comments for Patrick Malley http://patrickmalley.com education, technology, nonsense. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:28:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on Dividing Moodle Courses into Classes in One Step by Jay Bohnsack http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/11/course-to-class/#comment-662 Jay Bohnsack Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:28:34 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1313#comment-662 This is great! I only have to update 1 moodle course for multiple classes. I tried it this semester and it worked very smoothly! Thanks for the tip. Jay This is great! I only have to update 1 moodle course for multiple classes. I tried it this semester and it worked very smoothly! Thanks for the tip.
Jay

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Phil http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-659 Phil Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:22:00 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-659 I am doing some testing with yui menus with a SCORM course displayed WITHIN a window. With a dropdown menu displayed (more than 2 menu items), the rest of the menu is hidden behind the SCORM window. Have any idea how to solve this issue? This only seems to happen within the course. The menus are properly exposed in other instances. phil I am doing some testing with yui menus with a SCORM course displayed WITHIN a window. With a dropdown menu displayed (more than 2 menu items), the rest of the menu is hidden behind the SCORM window. Have any idea how to solve this issue? This only seems to happen within the course. The menus are properly exposed in other instances.

phil

]]> Comment on Making Moodle Boring by Tomaz Lasic http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/27/making-moodle-boring/#comment-657 Tomaz Lasic Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:05:33 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1354#comment-657 Oops, meant 'good' provocateurs of course... Before I stir religious fervour this time. Cheers Oops, meant ‘good’ provocateurs of course…
Before I stir religious fervour this time.
Cheers

]]> Comment on Making Moodle Boring by Tomaz Lasic http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/27/making-moodle-boring/#comment-656 Tomaz Lasic Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:04:16 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1354#comment-656 Hey Patrick Looks like the provocation worked hey :D (good teachers must be god provocateurs). A few dedicated moodlers even got a little upset with me! Indeed, I meant commonplace and it's a point I have been trying to convey for some years now. But your beautiful themes (if nothing else) are going to make Moodle shiny, beautiful & exciting, right? Nothing wrong with that my friend, nothing wrong ... Regards & thanks for the link & best wishes. Tomaz Hey Patrick

Looks like the provocation worked hey :D (good teachers must be god provocateurs). A few dedicated moodlers even got a little upset with me!

Indeed, I meant commonplace and it’s a point I have been trying to convey for some years now.

But your beautiful themes (if nothing else) are going to make Moodle shiny, beautiful & exciting, right? Nothing wrong with that my friend, nothing wrong …

Regards & thanks for the link & best wishes.

Tomaz

]]> Comment on “RT” vs “via” by Twitter: "RT" vs. "via" | Mr. Mojo Risin' http://patrickmalley.com/2009/01/30/rt-vs-via/#comment-655 Twitter: "RT" vs. "via" | Mr. Mojo Risin' Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:01:07 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=420#comment-655 [...] căutare pe goagăl mi-a aruncat în faţă următoarele 2 articole/explicaţii: vezi aici şi aici. Destul de pertinente aş [...] [...] căutare pe goagăl mi-a aruncat în faţă următoarele 2 articole/explicaţii: vezi aici şi aici. Destul de pertinente aş [...]

]]> Comment on No More Table-Breaking Divs by Patrick Malley http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/14/no-more-table-breaking-divs/#comment-630 Patrick Malley Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:28:17 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1325#comment-630 Erick, I'm not hacking the source code at all. My solution requires no additional scripting - just the use of a table where a div once existed. It's simple and it works. Erick,

I’m not hacking the source code at all. My solution requires no additional scripting – just the use of a table where a div once existed. It’s simple and it works.

]]> Comment on No More Table-Breaking Divs by Erick Emde http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/14/no-more-table-breaking-divs/#comment-629 Erick Emde Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:21:55 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1325#comment-629 You could also do it with DOM scripting. For example, use Mootools to grab the contents of the table, insert it into an appropriate div, delete the table and insert the div in its place. This way you would not be hacking the source, but could make your template do what you wanted. You could also do it with DOM scripting. For example, use Mootools to grab the contents of the table, insert it into an appropriate div, delete the table and insert the div in its place.
This way you would not be hacking the source, but could make your template do what you wanted.

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Patrick Malley http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-628 Patrick Malley Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:29:46 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-628 Thank you, Friend. Fixed. Thank you, Friend. Fixed.

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Friend http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-627 Friend Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:05:29 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-627 TYPO in the POST: (2 thans) There are currently more than than are called Just thought you'd like to know. TYPO in the POST: (2 thans)

There are currently more than than are called

Just thought you’d like to know.

]]> Comment on Five Game-Changing Activities Using Moodle by MatC http://patrickmalley.com/2009/01/16/five-game-changing-activities-using-moodle/#comment-622 MatC Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:11:41 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=183#comment-622 Referring to Point 2. We had success with a lecturer on a course with multiple topics creating 10-20 questions per topic. At the end of the course a random quiz was set up that pulled 5 questions from each covered topic. The students were encouraged to attempt the quiz repeatedly. The students that attempted this revision quiz the most scored the highest when it came to the real exam. Referring to Point 2.
We had success with a lecturer on a course with multiple topics creating 10-20 questions per topic.
At the end of the course a random quiz was set up that pulled 5 questions from each covered topic.
The students were encouraged to attempt the quiz repeatedly.
The students that attempted this revision quiz the most scored the highest when it came to the real exam.

]]> Comment on Stripdown: A New Theme for Moodle by Patrick Malley: The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown | Learning Management Services http://patrickmalley.com/2009/07/13/stripdown-a-new-theme-for-moodle/#comment-611 Patrick Malley: The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown | Learning Management Services Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:13:21 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1105#comment-611 [...] on my Stripdown theme concept, I added a single stylesheet to config.php called styles.css. If you look in that [...] [...] on my Stripdown theme concept, I added a single stylesheet to config.php called styles.css. If you look in that [...]

]]> Comment on Dividing Moodle Courses into Classes in One Step by Auto Enroll using Group Enrollment Keys @moodlefairy @ptrkmkl | Moodle Monthly http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/11/course-to-class/#comment-609 Auto Enroll using Group Enrollment Keys @moodlefairy @ptrkmkl | Moodle Monthly Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:46:07 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1313#comment-609 [...] I would mention that this is one of the least mentioned Moodle tricks, but definitely the most helpful if you’re managing a large class with multiple sections. It’s possible (and quite easy) to set an enrollment key for a group that is different from the enrollment key of the course. Students who use the group key will be entered into both your course and their group at the same time. Thus, you get enrollment and grouping all in the same single step. (http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/11/course-to-class/) [...] [...] I would mention that this is one of the least mentioned Moodle tricks, but definitely the most helpful if you’re managing a large class with multiple sections. It’s possible (and quite easy) to set an enrollment key for a group that is different from the enrollment key of the course. Students who use the group key will be entered into both your course and their group at the same time. Thus, you get enrollment and grouping all in the same single step. (http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/11/course-to-class/) [...]

]]> Comment on Dividing Moodle Courses into Classes in One Step by Mary http://patrickmalley.com/2010/02/11/course-to-class/#comment-604 Mary Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:13:07 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1313#comment-604 If you're the last then I must be the second last because I only worked it out last year myself! - I did a little video to explain to our teachers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1apj-OPuVA If you’re the last then I must be the second last because I only worked it out last year myself! – I did a little video to explain to our teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1apj-OPuVA

]]> Comment on Online Lesson Plans by Lael http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/26/online-lesson-plans/#comment-588 Lael Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:06:26 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1227#comment-588 This is pretty cool. I did a similar thing with the database module in Moodle. Would love to have Moodle in-built one where you could drag and drop activities / resources from topics etc. This is pretty cool. I did a similar thing with the database module in Moodle. Would love to have Moodle in-built one where you could drag and drop activities / resources from topics etc.

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Richard http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-582 Richard Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:01:11 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-582 Hi Patrick, I've been working on using your yui menu within the aardvark theme and incorporating conditional statements so that different menus would be available to different users. Thought I had it working (tested in Firefox, IE7 and Chrome) until it was pointed out to me that it doesn't work properly on IE8 - initially :hover and menu layout was messed up. I have (with Mary Evans' help) managed to work around that using the whatever:hover script. But seem to have an issue (only in IE8) with unpredictable behaviour of the menu in that sometimes the drop downs work correctly and other times they appear while the mouse is over the top level item, but disappear as the mouse is moved down to try to select an item from the dropdown. This does not appear to happen on your demo site - can you make any suggestions as to what I might need to look at to correct this issue on my sandbox site? The 'theming my page' page gives some information of what I have done so far. http://roelmann.net/course/view.php?id=2 I have created temporary test users to allow visitors to try it out username: teacher password: 1qaz"WSX username: student password: 1qaz"WSX Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks, Richard (Comment duplicated from moodle.org forum) Hi Patrick,
I’ve been working on using your yui menu within the aardvark theme and incorporating conditional statements so that different menus would be available to different users.
Thought I had it working (tested in Firefox, IE7 and Chrome) until it was pointed out to me that it doesn’t work properly on IE8 – initially :hover and menu layout was messed up. I have (with Mary Evans’ help) managed to work around that using the whatever:hover script. But seem to have an issue (only in IE8) with unpredictable behaviour of the menu in that sometimes the drop downs work correctly and other times they appear while the mouse is over the top level item, but disappear as the mouse is moved down to try to select an item from the dropdown.
This does not appear to happen on your demo site – can you make any suggestions as to what I might need to look at to correct this issue on my sandbox site? The ‘theming my page’ page gives some information of what I have done so far.
http://roelmann.net/course/view.php?id=2
I have created temporary test users to allow visitors to try it out
username: teacher password: 1qaz”WSX
username: student password: 1qaz”WSX

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks,
Richard

(Comment duplicated from moodle.org forum)

]]> Comment on Blackboard 9.0 by Dick House http://patrickmalley.com/2009/01/27/blackboard-90/#comment-574 Dick House Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:17:53 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=345#comment-574 Has there been much conversation about the fact that the "top down" providers on campus may use Bb 9, especially its entry page, in such a way that it appears just as cluttered and seemingly "un-functional" as previous versions? Some campus IT organizations choose to turn off or on functions which hamper the user experience. Has there been much conversation about the fact that the “top down” providers on campus may use Bb 9, especially its entry page, in such a way that it appears just as cluttered and seemingly “un-functional” as previous versions?

Some campus IT organizations choose to turn off or on functions which hamper the user experience.

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Patrick Malley http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-570 Patrick Malley Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:24:02 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-570 @Daniele: CSS-only menus are nice, but I really like using javascript for multi-level dropdowns. I'll cite two reasons specific to this menu: 1.) The menu does not load immediately after mouseover. There is a brief delay that I can tweak. This is nice for menu bars that appear directly above the breadcrumb so that users don't accidentally activate a dropdown when overshooting a breadcrumb link. 2.) The menu does not immediately go away when you navigate away from it. On CSS dropdown menus, if your cursor leaves the menu for a millisecond, the menu goes away and you have to start over again. That is not the case here. Using javascript, I'm able to set the amount of time a user can have their mouse cursor away from the menu before it collapses. Regarding usability, this menu does a good job of hiding the dropdown indicator arrows and the top-leve menu bar links still work when a user has javascript disabled. As long as your top-level links point to a page containing your other links that in the dropdown, nothing is missed. @Eduardo: I agree. This is the default meta.php format from the core and I always just change the theme name in all my themes. What a pain. I will take your recommendation for sure! @Daniele: CSS-only menus are nice, but I really like using javascript for multi-level dropdowns. I’ll cite two reasons specific to this menu: 1.) The menu does not load immediately after mouseover. There is a brief delay that I can tweak. This is nice for menu bars that appear directly above the breadcrumb so that users don’t accidentally activate a dropdown when overshooting a breadcrumb link. 2.) The menu does not immediately go away when you navigate away from it. On CSS dropdown menus, if your cursor leaves the menu for a millisecond, the menu goes away and you have to start over again. That is not the case here. Using javascript, I’m able to set the amount of time a user can have their mouse cursor away from the menu before it collapses.

Regarding usability, this menu does a good job of hiding the dropdown indicator arrows and the top-leve menu bar links still work when a user has javascript disabled. As long as your top-level links point to a page containing your other links that in the dropdown, nothing is missed.

@Eduardo: I agree. This is the default meta.php format from the core and I always just change the theme name in all my themes. What a pain. I will take your recommendation for sure!

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Eduardo Rodrigues http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-568 Eduardo Rodrigues Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:48:52 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-568 Hi Patrick, Very nice your approach! I didn't tested it yet but it seams promising! Here follows a very small improvemente suggestion: On meta.php, in order to the php script be more adaptable for changes on the name of the theme, instaed of using *httpsthemewww ?>/base_menu_yui/styles ...* my advice is to use *httpsthemewww .'/'. current_theme() ?>/styles* So using current_theme() make this script more addaptable proof. Hoping that helps, and thank you very much for this good sharing! eduardo Hi Patrick,

Very nice your approach!

I didn’t tested it yet but it seams promising!

Here follows a very small improvemente suggestion:

On meta.php, in order to the php script be more adaptable for changes on the name of the theme, instaed of using *httpsthemewww ?>/base_menu_yui/styles …* my advice is to use *httpsthemewww .’/’. current_theme() ?>/styles*

So using current_theme() make this script more addaptable proof.

Hoping that helps, and thank you very much for this good sharing!
eduardo

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Patrick Malley http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-562 Patrick Malley Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:02:55 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-562 For the record, two to three comments were lost as a result of a change in servers last night by my hosting provider. If anyone received an email follow-up of my comments, please feel free to email them to me so I can put them back up. Sorry about that. For the record, two to three comments were lost as a result of a change in servers last night by my hosting provider. If anyone received an email follow-up of my comments, please feel free to email them to me so I can put them back up. Sorry about that.

]]> Comment on The Ultimate Moodle Dropdown by Dietmar Wagner http://patrickmalley.com/2010/01/31/the-ultimate-moodle-dropdown/#comment-559 Dietmar Wagner Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:58:01 +0000 http://patrickmalley.com/?p=1244#comment-559 Hi Patrick, wonderful idea, very nice. Could you please have a look here http://newschoollearning.com/sandbox/mod/data/view.php?id=21 ?? In IE8 and FF3.6 with windows xp the menu is not displayed horizontal!? Thanks! Dietmar Hi Patrick,
wonderful idea, very nice.
Could you please have a look here

http://newschoollearning.com/sandbox/mod/data/view.php?id=21 ??

In IE8 and FF3.6 with windows xp the menu is not displayed horizontal!?

Thanks!
Dietmar

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