Preface
Mobile devices have become ubiquitous, and both smartphones and tablets offer so many new possibilities for learning. Moodle is gradually becoming more mobile-friendly, with the inclusion of a mobile theme in Moodle 2, the availability of responsive third-party themes, and the launch of an official Moodle app. Moodle and mobile are coming together and this opens up a new world of possibilities for teachers, instructors, and training professionals.
This book is a hands-on guide that provides you with practical ideas and step-by-step exercises that will help you to take advantage of mobile devices in your Moodle course designs, as well as providing you with an understanding of mobile learning theory so that you can create your own effective mobile learning interactions.
You will learn how to develop your mobile learning strategy and decide whether to use a mobile-friendly Moodle theme or a Moodle Mobile app to deliver this strategy. There are some types of learning activities that are perfectly suited to mobile delivery. We will look at delivering podcasts, engaging with social media, setting up photo, video, and audio assignments, setting up e-book and app libraries, uploading audio assignment feedback, submitting reflective logs, using chat and messaging tools, using web conferencing, and much more.
Mobile devices already form the backbone of learners' daily lives. If you want to use Moodle to bring those devices into the learning process, then this book is for you.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Developing Your Mobile Learning Strategy, will aim to give you an understanding of the key concepts in mobile learning so that you can apply these to enhance your own Moodle courses . It also provides you with a vision of how Moodle for mobile learning can be put to use in your own organization.
Chapter 2, Setting Up Moodle for Mobile Learning, will help you to get your Moodle site set up so that it can be used for mobile learning, introduces the mobile-friendly themes that ship with Moodle, and explores the official Moodle Mobile app.
Chapter 3, Delivering Static Content to Mobiles, will look at how to deliver static content (that does not involve the use of multimedia) from Moodle to mobile devices.
Chapter 4, Delivering Multimedia Content to Mobiles, will cover how to deliver multimedia content from Moodle to mobile devices.
Chapter 5, Submitting Audio, Video, and Image Assignments, will explore an important element of mobile learning: using the built-in audio recording and camera capabilities of the mobile devices in students' pockets to allow them to capture audio, photos, or videos and upload these into Moodle for sharing or grading.
Chapter 6, Using Mobiles for Capturing Reflective Logs and Journals, will look at the use of reflective logs and journals for knowledge capture on mobile devices, the shorter nature of these activities lending themselves well to production on a tablet or even a smartphone.
Chapter 7, Performing Assessments Using Mobiles, will explain how a number of different types of assessment tools can built in Moodle by using the quiz activity, and how these can be optimized for mobile learning.
Chapter 8, Communicating with Mobile Users, will cover the wide range of communication tools that come with Moodle, and explores how these can be used in a mobile learning context.
Appendix, has a list of reference links that will help you to dig deeper into merging Moodle with your mobile device.
What you need for this book
Mobile support in Moodle depends on the version of Moodle you are using. At a minimum you will require Moodle 2.2, which was the first version to officially have any level of mobile support.
Who this book is for
This book is primarily aimed at Moodle course practitioners—teachers, tutors, instructors, and learning and development professionals. The book concentrates on understanding how the features and capabilities of mobile devices can be taken advantage of in your Moodle course design. There is just a single section on setting up Moodle for mobile delivery, which is aimed more at Moodle administrators. However, this book will also be useful for course practitioners who need to influence their IT team to make any required system changes. The book does not require any prior knowledge of mobile technology or the capabilities of the latest smartphones. Indeed, by the end of the book you will realize that anyone can deliver great courses that allow their learners to interact with their courses using the mobile devices in their pockets.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Copy the bootstrap folder into your <moodle site>/theme folder."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "On the ADMINISTRATION block, navigate to Site administration | Appearance | Themes | Theme selector."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Customer support
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.
Piracy
Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
Questions
You can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.