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224 lines
12 KiB
HTML
224 lines
12 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Moodle Docs: Background</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../theme/standard/styles.php" type="TEXT/CSS">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#ffffff">
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<h2>Features</h2>
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<p>Moodle is an active and evolving product. This page lists just some of the
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many features it contains:</p>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Overall design</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Promotes a social constructionist pedagogy (collaboration, activities, critical
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reflection, etc)</li>
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<li>Suitable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning
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<li>Simple, lightweight, efficient, compatible, low-tech browser interface</li>
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<li>Easy to install on almost any platform that supports PHP. Requires only
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one database (and can share it).</li>
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<li>Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database (except
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for initial table definition)</li>
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<li>Course listing shows descriptions for every course on the server, including
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accessibility to guests.</li>
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<li>Courses can be categorised and searched - one Moodle site can support thousands
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of courses</li>
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<li>Emphasis on strong security throughout. Forms are all checked, data validated,
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cookies encrypted etc</li>
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<li>Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings, journal entries etc) can
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be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Site management</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Site is managed by an admin user, defined during setup</li>
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<li>Plug-in "themes" allow the admin to customise the site colours, fonts, layout
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etc to suit local needs</li>
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<li>Plug-in activity modules can be added to existing Moodle installations</li>
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<li>Plug-in language packs allow full localisation to any language. These can
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be edited using a built-in web-based editor. Currently there are language
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packs for over <a href="http://moodle.org/download/lang/" target="_top">34
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languages</a>.</li>
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<li>The code is clearly-written PHP under a GPL license - easy to modify to
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suit your needs</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">User management</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum, while retaining high
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security</li>
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<li>Supports a range of authentication mechanisms through plug-in authentication
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modules, allowing easy integration with existing systems.</li>
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<li>Standard email method: students can create their own login accounts. Email
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addresses are verified by confirmation.</li>
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<li>LDAP method: account logins can be checked against an LDAP server. Admin
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can specify which fields to use.</li>
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<li>IMAP, POP3, NNTP: account logins are checked against a mail or news server.
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SSL, certificates and TLS are supported.</li>
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<li>External database: any database containing at least two fields can be used
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as an external authentication source.</li>
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<li>Each person requires only one account for the whole server - each account
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can have different access</li>
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<li>An admin account controls the creation of courses and creates teachers by
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assigning users to courses</li>
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<li>A course creator account is only allowed to create courses and teach in
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them</li>
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<li>Teachers may have editing privileges removed so that they can't modify the
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course (eg for part-time tutors)</li>
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<li>Security - teachers can add an "enrolment key" to their courses to keep
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out non-students. They can give out this key face-to-face or via personal
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email etc</li>
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<li>Teachers can enrol students manually if desired</li>
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<li>Teachers can unenrol students manually if desired, otherwise they are automatically
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unenrolled after a certain period of inactivity (set by the admin)</li>
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<li>Students are encouraged to build an online profile including photos, description.
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Email addresses can be protected from display if required.</li>
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<li>Every user can specify their own timezone, and every date in Moodle is translated
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to that timezone (eg posting dates, assignment due dates etc)</li>
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<li>Every user can choose the language used for the Moodle interface (English,
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French, German, Spanish, Portuguese etc)</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Course management</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>A full teacher has full control over all settings for a course, including
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restricting other teachers</li>
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<li>Choice of course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focussed
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social format</li>
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<li>Flexible array of course activities - Forums, Journals, Quizzes, Resources,
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Choices, Surveys, Assignments, Chats, Workshops</li>
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<li>Recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on the
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course home page - helps give sense of community</li>
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<li>Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings, journal entries etc) can
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be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor</li>
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<li>All grades for Forums, Journals, Quizzes and Assignments can be viewed on
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one page (and downloaded as a spreadsheet file)</li>
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<li>Full user logging and tracking - activity reports for each student are available
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with graphs and details about each module (last access, number of times read)
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as well as a detailed "story" of each students involvement including postings,
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journal entries etc on one page.</li>
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<li>Mail integration - copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed
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in HTML or plain text.</li>
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<li>Custom scales - teachers can define their own scales to be used for grading
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forums, assignments and journals</li>
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<li>Courses can be packaged as a single zip file using the Backup function.
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These can be restored on any Moodle server.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Assignment Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.</li>
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<li>Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server -
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they are date-stamped.</li>
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<li>Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly
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to the teacher</li>
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<li>For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and
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comment) on one page in one form.</li>
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<li>Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student, and
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notification is mailed out.</li>
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<li>The teacher can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading
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(for regrading)</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Chat Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Allows smooth, synchronous text interaction</li>
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<li>Includes profile pictures in the chat window</li>
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<li>Supports URLs, smilies, embedded HTML, images etc</li>
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<li>All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available
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to students</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Choice Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Like a poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback
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from every student (eg research consent)</li>
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<li>Teacher sees intuitive table view of who chose what</li>
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<li>Students can optionally be allowed to see an up-to-date graph of results</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Forum Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Different types of forums are available, such as teacher-only, course news,
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open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user.</li>
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<li>All postings have the authors photo attached.</li>
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<li>Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.</li>
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<li>Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person so that copies are
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forwarded via email, or the teacher can force subscription for all</li>
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<li>The teacher can choose not to allow replies (eg for an announcements-only
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forum)</li>
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<li>Discussion threads can be easily moved between forums by the teacher</li>
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<li>Attached images are shown inline</li>
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<li>If forum ratings are being used, these can be restricted to a range of dates</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Journal Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Journals are private between student and teacher.</li>
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<li>Each journal entry can be directed by an open question.</li>
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<li>For each particular journal entry, the whole class can be assessed on one
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page in one form</li>
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<li>Teacher feedback is appended to the journal entry page, and notification
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is mailed out.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Quiz Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Teachers can define a database of questions for re-use in different quizzes</li>
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<li>Questions can be stored in categories for easy access, and these categories
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can be "published" to make them accessible from any course on the
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site. </li>
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<li>Quizzes are automatically graded, and can be re-graded if questions are
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modified </li>
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<li>Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available</li>
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<li>At the teacher's option, quizzes can be attempted multiple times, and can
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show feedback and/or correct answers</li>
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<li>Quiz questions and quiz answers can be shuffled (randomised) to reduce cheating</li>
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<li>Questions allow HTML and images</li>
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<li>Questions can be imported from external text files</li>
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<li>Quizzes can be attempted multiple times, if desired</li>
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<li>Attempts can be cumulative, if desired, and finished over several sessions</li>
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<li>Multiple-choice questions supporting single or multiple answers</li>
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<li>Short Answer questions (words or phrases)</li>
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<li>True-False questions </li>
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<li>Matching questions</li>
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<li>Random questions</li>
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<li>Numerical questions (with allowable ranges)</li>
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<li>Embedded-answer questions (cloze style) with answers within passages of
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text </li>
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<li>Embedded descriptive text and graphics</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Resource Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Supports display of any electronic content, Word, Powerpoint, Flash, Video,
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Sounds etc</li>
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<li>Files can be uploaded and managed on the server, or created on the fly using
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web forms (text or HTML)</li>
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<li>External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within
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the course interface.</li>
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<li>External web applications can be linked in with data passed to them</li>
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</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Survey Module</h3>
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<ul><li>Built-in surveys (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analysing online classes</li><li>Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.</li><li>Survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.</li><li>Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages</ul>
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<h3 class="sectionheading">Workshop Module</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Allows peer assessement of documents, and the teacher can manage and grade
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the assessment.</li>
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<li>Supports a wide range of possible grading scales</li>
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<li>Teacher can provide sample documents for students to practice grading</li>
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<li>Very flexible with many options.</li>
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</ul>
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<p> </p>
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<p align="CENTER"><font size="1"><a href="." target="_top">Moodle Documentation</a></font></p>
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<p align="CENTER"><font size="1">Version: $Id: features.html,v 1.2 2001/12/09
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10:34:19 martin Exp $</font></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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