SMUGThe second Scottish Moodle User Group event was held at the CDN offices on 21 October with around 35 members from colleges, universities and public sector organisations attending. A series of short presentations gave an interesting overview of:

•    Implementing TinCan API and Learning Record Stores
•    H5P in Moodle
•    Integrating Unit-E and Moodle
•    Connecting distance-based students
•    Badgemaker Moodle plugin

If you are interested in joining SMUG – and it’s open to anyone with an interest in the platform, you can subscribe to the SMUG Jiscmail list here. There’s no requirement to be a member of a particular institution/organisation. You just need to be willing to share your experiences with others!

Below you’ll find content from the presentations that were delivered on the day.

Implementing TinCan API and Learning Record Stores

Presentation delivered by Ian Hesketh from Edinburgh Napier University.

Download the TinCan API and Learning Record Stores – Presentation Notes

H5P in Moodle

Kenji Lamb from CDN gave a presentation on the H5P plugin for Moodle – a collection of online activities that can be added to courses. Really an evolution of Hot Potatoes from ‘back in the day’.

•    Examples of H5P plugins (really, you have to try these!)
•    Moodle plugin

The activities can be added to a course in the regular way. However, if you want to embed more than one activity on a page, you need to create a free account on the H5P site, create your activity there and then insert the resulting embed code in a Moodle page. Alternatively, you can set up a WordPress or Drupal site and create your activities there. You have the option of downloading activities to transfer them easily between courses/sites.

Activities that are worth taking a closer look at are:

•    Documentation Tool – a simple scaffolding exercise that produces a Word doc; so much potential in a college context
•    Interactive Video – embed notes, quizzes and other activities within a video

Honestly, you’re going to be so impressed if you haven’t seen this before.

Connecting distance-based students
Presentation delivered by Jackie Graham from Edinburgh Napier University.

Integrating Unit-E and Moodle

This was a recorded presentation by Connor Bradley from Borders College; we played an excerpt at the meeting, but you can watch the presentation in its entirety here:

Connecting distance-based students

Presentation delivered by Jackie Graham from Edinburgh Napier University.

Badgemaker Moodle plugin

This presentation was delivered by Snook, a design agency based in Glasgow who worked with Borders College to develop the Badgemaker Moodle plugin. Follow the links to view their presentation and a demonstration of the Badgemaker plugin on Vimeo.