Melbourne Moodle Users Group (MMUG) - Moodle Monday Wrap Up and Thank You

I'd like to thank the 17 people who came along to last night's Melbourne Moodle Users Group (MMUG) face-to-face Moodle Monday at CLB Training and Development in South Melbourne. By all accounts, it was a great success with several people coming forward to showcase their various projects.

In particular, I'd like to thank Fiona Blair from NMIT for showing us a real-world example of the use of conditional activities in Moodle and +Katharine Ebbs from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) for showing us some of the wonderful things ACEM are doing with their Moodle.

I'd also like to thank +David Isaacson from CLB for showing us his work in Adobe Captivate and Moodle. I look forward to our next Moodle Monday on Monday 18 March at 6.30pm in the virtual classroom.

Testing a Multi SCORM Learning Object in Moodle 2.0

At last night’s Melbourne Moodle Users Group meeting I demonstrated how to create a multi SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) learning object using JCA Solution's Simple SCORM Packager (SSP). Apart from the fact that we had some minor technical difficulties, it was a good night. In particular, there were several IT-savvy people in the room but no-one could get the data projector to recognise the laptop. We tried a few different keyboard combinations on the laptop but it didn't work. In the end we got everyone to crowd around me as I used my laptop to demonstrate how to use Simple SCORM Packager.

OK. So that was problem number 1. Problem number 2 was that I had a particular multi SCORM learning object which I wanted to show the group. This was a SCO (Shareable Content Object) which I had viewed that morning. Anyhow, for no apparent reason, we couldn't view this learning object half a day later. It just wouldn't open. The only thing that had changed was the Internet Service Provider (ISP). In the morning I was at home using my ISP, namely Internode, whereas in the evening I was using the meeting room's ISP.

Not being able to open a SCO which had opened easily previously is not unusual. I've had learning objects which would open on one occasion but not another. I have found from past experience that this problem can sometimes be solved by simply changing browsers. On this occasion, we started out using Mozilla Firefox. When that didn't work we changed over to Internet Explorer. As soon as we changed to Internet Explorer we were able to open the SCO which we hadn't been able to open earlier.

I have absolutely no idea why a SCO can be opened in Firefox in the morning but not in the evening. Would it be a problem with the browser? Or is it a problem with the Internet Service Provider (ISP)? Maybe it's something to do with Moodle 2.0. What do you think?

My Guided Crossword Puzzle at the Melbourne Moodle Users Group Meeting

At last night’s Melbourne Moodle Users Group meeting I showcased a guided crossword puzzle I had recently created using Puzzlemaker, Adobe Illustrator and Articulate Quizmaker. The audience showed much interest and asked lots of questions. Mind you, (as much as I'd like to), I can’t take all the credit. I created my puzzle based on a video I came across from @articulatebrian which steps you through the process from beginning to end. I pretty much followed Brian’s video to the letter. Having said that however, I did make one minor addition. I added a red arrow which flys in and indicates the question about to be solved as you move from one slide to the next. You can see the finished product here. No login required. Simply click "Login as a guest" and you're on your way.