The MyNotes block - a simple yet effective ToDo list from year 2007 for Moodle 1.9

If you ever needed a ToDo list in a block on your Moodle 1.9.x site, look no further than Hugo Santos' MyNotes block. You can use it as a reminder system, a ToDo list, or to manage personal notes for own convenience.

Sounds a bit like the MediaBird Study Notes module. However, this Portugese-made block is less complex, but simpler to install and to use.

Giving students a feel good factor with a Stamp Collection pseudo-block (Moodle 1.9.x)

The Stamp Collection module by David Mudrak is one of my all-time favourite modules on my Moodle 1.9.15 site. It's a great tool to provide feedback to students and to reward them whenever work has been done. I like to think of it as a motivational tool.

I had always wished that there could be a block that shows the student how many stamps he or she has earned. Why? This is because at the moment, the student has to click on the Stamp Collection module to view the stamps earned. So this evening, I sat down to craft such a block. And I failed miserably because of my lack of experience in PHP coding!

Undeterred, I had a brainwave of how I could achieve the same effect as a real block. Within 4 hours, I crafted something that made use of David's existing code, HTML, PHP and some tricks. Here's what it looks like:

So the advantage of this 'block' is that the student can see his Stamp collection. Is it growing? Is it stagnant?

Giving students a feel good factor with the Online Users block (Moodle 1.9.x and Moodle 2.2)

Fourteen days ago, I set out to modify Andy J. Davis' Online Users block. My objective was to make my Moodle site more engaging. I think that with the generous help of PHP developer, Matteo Scaramuccia of Italy, and Stephane Gully's Shoutpro Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License code,  the objective has been achieved.

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Kuala Lumpur

The year of the Dragon starts today as the Chinese celebrate the Chinese New Year 2012. For the next 15 days the Chinese will celebrate the year 2012. As for me and my family, we're in Kuala Lumpur for the traditional famuily reunion dinner and to visit relatives and friends.