Ten Moodle Wow Factors! All together now, let's say "Fuiyoh!"

I'm compiling a list of Ten Moodle Wow Factors. In Malaysia, we say "Fuiyoh!" instead of "Wow". So this post is called the Fuiyoh Factor. My goal in this post, and over the next one month, to identify at least ten things about a Moodle coursepage that are awe-inspiring, foot-tapping, finger-snapping, jaw-dropping, all-singing-all-dancing and simply bodacious to Moodle newbies. Specifically, English language teachers. 

If you had a choice of presenting three of your favourite things about Moodle to excite a crowd who have never used Moodle before, which three things would you choose? Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettle and warm woolen mittens?

"Things that you can with Moodle" to me include what's inside Moodle, and what you can achieve by linking Moodle with outside Web or Internet services either via embed codes or other means. If I miss any Moodley stuff with a Wow Factor, please shout it out on the rooftops by commenting in the comments section.

Before I continue with my list, I would like to say that Moodle and its collective code by the Community is already a HUGE Wow Factor. Every piece of code written by a developer, enthusiast or teacher is already a gift and a gem to educators and students worldwide. I salute all coders, testers, end users and students who have given their time and effort in creating the world's best and most-used Learning Management System. Okay, here we go then. In no particular order.

Extend the functionality of OUWiki in Moodle 1.9.x by adding links to its interface

The BEST thing about Moodle is that it is Open Source and written in PHP. That means absolute heaven for the programmer within the Teacher or Educator. Ah! To be able to modify code to suit your needs. Pure joy indeed.

Figure 1. The OUWiki - A great collaboration tool!

One of the BEST collaboration tools in Moodle is the Wiki. In fact, the standard Moodle Wiki has been enhanced by the boffins at the Open University, United Kingdom and we are blessed with the OUWiki.  With the OUWiki, we have a Moodle resource that allows students to not only build a webpage asynchronously, but also to annotate their work for others to read. As Sam Marhall pointed out in this Moodle.org post:

"The big new feature is annotation which is intended to replace comments. Comments were a nice idea but didn't work with students - they put things in comments instead of editing the page as they should (either too timid or just didn't know which was appropriate), and it was also too complicated for them. So if you choose, you can get rid of 'em. Instead you can have annotation. Annotation lets the teacher add 'red pen' notes to a wiki page and lock it, so as to give feedback when marking a wiki page."

Lesson Objective
In this post, I want to show you how you can add more links into OUWiki's interface. Clicking on a link will bring you to your intended URL or open a new tab for the destination webpage. It's actually pretty easy.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this post, you will be able to customise your OUWiki so that more hyperlinks can be added to it. You will be able to extend the functionality of your Wiki. You will be able to take your OUWiki from here:

Figure 2. The OUWiki menu items 

to here:

Figure 3. Adding a new menu hyperlink to the menu list - done!

Create your own Chatbot - Great for English Classes

HTML5 Speech Recognition API with Google Chrome

Meet Nick Walker

Use with Google Chrome to access the voice-to-text Automated Speech Recognition system (ASR).
Like what you see? Want to know how to setup your own Chatbot with custom speech questions and answers?

Contact Nicholas Walker of Montreal.

Another addition to planet Earth for one proud Moodler in Montreal

Congratulations to you, Nicholas Walker, and to your wife, Helen, on the birth of your baby son, Julian, on Saturday 11:49pm, 14th January 2012 in Montreal, Canada! What a GREAT moment this is.

Way to go, Nick! And Nick, thanks for all the help you've been to me, thus far. May the joy you experience during this time of rejoicing, bring about more innovative ideas and creative information systems for the good of your family, students and colleagues.

Frankie Kam

Virtual Student for your Moodle site

Nicholas Walker, an ESL teacher at Montmorency College, has used Google Chrome + HTML5 + Google Speech Recognition + code embed into Moodle to create a Virtual Student. It is as part of a English Language Lab HTML activity that Nicholas and his colleague, Melvin Shantz, are currently testing.

What's really GREAT about the experimental Virtual Student is that it can be used by English language students to test their pronunciation skills.

An interesting way to navigate Moodle with hotspots

  Nicholas Walker of Collège Montmorency has shared an interesting and instructive post on how to create a Moodle block that contains a image with hotspots that link to various parts of your Moodle course.

For those of you who would like a different approach for your users to navigate through your Moodle activities and resources, why not try it out? You can read about his method at http://adte.ca/2011/09/navigate-moodle.