[Carl Shepherdson]

Thanks. Moodle is excellent and i learn something new every day. Ive actually started a little project offering educators a free course to practice features which can benefit there school/college. Click here anyone who is intrested (Hope this is ok to post )

Your best bet would be to ask advice on the Moodle Forums regarding working with Moodle for your own Module i would imagine. Maybe Development news & discussion

Quote

Carl - what would you hope a Moodle-module could do? Are there any equivalent modules already?

As far as i know, there are no flash based/fun interactive quizzes OR games. But there are quiz. multiple choice and questionaire modules.

It would be nice to see:

*More interactive/fun/colourful quiz, multiple choice modules etc.

*Statistics on results of the quiz's or games etc (I know this is not the main aim of your generators but this is what teachers like to see and what Moodle offers a lot off compared to other CMS's).

*A web-based interface for creating games/quizzes

I imagine this would take time and would prove costly.

[Andrew Field]

Carl Shepherdson, on Aug 8 2005, 04:07 PM, said:

*More interactive/fun/colourful quiz, multiple choice modules etc.
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This is much as I thought . The more interactive quizzes etc. will obviously be possible via the free ContentGenerator.net programs. Much in the same way as Moodle supports Hot Potaotes. I will look and do what I can to integrate the quiz formats.

In some ways, there isn't really any integration to do in this sense - you generate your game / quiz / activity and then upload it. You do the integration rather than the program.

Quote

*Statistics on results of the quiz's or games etc (I know this is not the main aim of your generators but this is what teachers like to see and what Moodle offers a lot off compared to other CMS's).
*A web-based interface for creating games/quizzes

It is plausible to integrate the games and quizzes so they can communicate with Moodle, but I will have to do an extensive amount of work. This will have to be a long-term development.

The web-based interface isn't possible unless it is remotely hosted on a asp.net server - even then the bandwidth requirements would be extensive and out of the reach of normal Moodle users. I think the comparison with the Hot Potatoes program is best here - that is an installable program that works with Moodle.

I do have a number of developments and ideas that might prove useful in relation to all this though. When I've got them working (or perhaps if I get them working) I'll post more.

This post has been edited by Andrew Field: 08 August 2005 - 05:27 PM

[Andrew Field]

Carl Shepherdson, on Aug 8 2005, 05:29 PM, said:

Thats a shame, would be great if it could be done via PHP/SQL as these are Moodle requirements. 
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This isn't seeing the programs in quite the way I do. You are talking about dyamnic generation of Flash content online. I'm suggesting that the programs should be identified in the same way as Hot Potatoes.

Both are downloadable programs that can generate content to use on websites - and this generated content can be used in Moodle. You install the program, produce the activity and then add it into Moodle.

Hot Potatoes quiz files can also be used within Moodle to create integrated quizzes.I'll look to allow some sort of 'export' option so the .txt data files can be reused in Moodle in the same way too.

[Carl Shepherdson]

Quote

Both are downloadable programs that can generate content to use on websites - and this generated content can be used in Moodle. You install the program, produce the activity and then add it into Moodle.

Yes that is correct.

What i was 'hoping' was to integrate the cg.net applications into a Moodle module. But as you have outlined this would prove very difficult as it requires ASP.net.

[Adrian Murray]

Andrew Field, on Aug 8 2005, 06:20 PM, said:

Hot Potatoes quiz files can also be used within Moodle to create integrated quizzes.I'll look to allow some sort of 'export' option so the .txt data files can be reused in Moodle in the same way too.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This would be great! I have also begun creating teaching materials for use with Moodle (Business Studies Online VLE) and was slightly disappointed that it seemed to have a Hot Potatoes module and nothing more. Having just moved all of my Hot Potatoes activities to better software platforms I feel it would be a backward step to go back to using Hot Potatoes.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you can do something Andrew!

[Andrew Field]

Well I'll certainly see what can be done - as I said above it is something I've only started experimenting with anyway.

The .swf files that the existing programs produce can obviously be integrated into Moodle-based lessons already.

The next obvious step is to try and enable the data to be passed onto the Moodle database - this is not something that I'll be able to do immediately, but something I'm personally very interested in doing for my own uses anyway!

[Carl Shepherdson]

Adrian Murray, on Aug 9 2005, 12:26 AM, said:

This would be great!  I have also begun creating teaching materials for use with Moodle (Business Studies Online VLE) and was slightly disappointed that it seemed to have a Hot Potatoes module and nothing more.  Having just moved all of my Hot Potatoes activities to better software platforms I feel it would be a backward step to go back to using Hot Potatoes.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you can do something Andrew!
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Adrian,

Moodle offers a lot more than just hot potatoes module Take a look here

You may be using an old version of Moodle on your server hence not being able to see other features

If your not up to date take a look on my Testing Ground VLE. If you register for than account i will upgrade your account so you can test out the addtional modules what i have installed.

I am also keeping my fingers crossed!

[Adrian Murray]

Hi Carl,

Thanks for that. I am still finding my way around Moodle - but am aware of most of the modules as im using version 1.5 . It's just a shame that the quizzes are not as pleasing on the eye as the ones created by Andrew's excellent software. However, I'm encouraged by the flash module that I have just installed. It's clear that there is a movement towards this in the development of moodle.

This post has been edited by Adrian Murray: 09 August 2005 - 01:12 AM

[jamiesensei]

Hi all,

Andrew emailed me about the possible integration of his activities into Moodle.

For those who have not seen the Flash Module in Moodle I suggest checking out my web site http://jamiep.org where you can see some examples of how it can be used. The Flash module is a framework which can be used to easily integrate Flash movie based activities into Moodle. With just a few lines of action script and a little php you can get your Flash movies talking to the Moodle database and have your movie store results and grades from quizzes and test in the Moodle db.

I develope and maintain the Flash module.

You can find some documentation on the Flash module on my web site. There are some instructions on how to use the module. I'm hoing to add some step by step tutorials soon.

Requirements for the Flash module : it runs on PHP 4 (not 5 yet) and uses a MySQL db. Client needs Flash player 6.

Jamie

[Andrew Field]

Hi Jamie - thanks so much for taking the time to join the forum and responding so quickly. Excellent!

Your Flash module is exactly the kind of thing people here are interested in using. What I'd like to do, if that is ok, is do my best to get the free multi-choice generator working within Moodle. Simply being able to store the results / grades within Moodle is what is required.

I downloaded the module last night having e-mailed you and have already had a play with it. Great stuff. When I have time I'll see what I can do to integrate the free multi-choice generator but I may have to call on your expertise!

[jamiesensei]

Look forward to hearing more about your endeavours with the Flash module.

I'll subscribe to this topic so I hopefully get any updates you post here.

Please do get in touch with any questions.

[Carl Shepherdson]

jamiesensei, on Aug 9 2005, 05:56 AM, said:

Hi all,

Andrew emailed me about the possible integration of his activities into Moodle.

For those who have not seen the Flash Module in Moodle I suggest checking out my web site http://jamiep.org where you can see some examples of how it can be used. The Flash module is a framework which can be used to easily integrate Flash movie based activities into Moodle. With just a few lines of action script and a little php you can get your Flash movies talking to the Moodle database and have your movie store results and grades from quizzes and test in the Moodle db.

I develope and maintain the Flash module.

You can find some documentation on the Flash module on my web site. There are some instructions on how to use the module. I'm hoing to add some step by step tutorials soon.

Requirements for the Flash module : it runs on PHP 4 (not 5 yet) and uses a MySQL db. Client needs Flash player 6.

Jamie
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Jamie,

Nice to see you are helping Andrew out on this

I also have the Flash Module installed, not had time to use it yet but it does look very good. I have installed it onto my 'Testing Ground VLE''Testing Ground VLE'

[Adrian Murray]

Hi,

This is great news! I have successfully managed to get a published flash file working on my moodle site thanks to the Flash module that Jamie has developed. However, my flash skills are somewhat poor - and so I use Opus to create my flash activities. This of course means I can't use the actionscript that Jamie indicates can enable the flash file to talk to Moodle. Therefore, if Andrew can get integration through the contengenerator software it would be fantastic!

Many thanks to both Andrew and Jamie for this.

[Andrew Field]

Jamie - just to add I've been able to get the Flash module working on my test Moodle setup, as the others above have been able to. I also noticed that it uses an adapted version of PHPObject from Ghostwire studios. This is great - I use Sunny's components - they are marvellous - so it is really good to see quality coding being used.

Anyway, what I'm now trying to do is to get the Multi-choice generator send the final scores / marks to Moodle.

Your excellent Flash module communicates with Moodle to get the question data and to check whether the answer is correct or not. As my multi-choice generator does all this internally i.e. all the question data, answer checking etc. etc. is done within the .swf - it doesn't need to communicate with Moodle that much.

Thus, I'm concluding that all I need to do is send the finished result back to Moodle, telling the database what the result was i.e. "User has got 8 / 10" etc. etc.

In future developments, where I will release further free games and quizzes I can change the way the games and quizzes work, so the question data can be called and checked externally to Flash, but currently I really like the fact it is all integrated.

So - having looked through the coding and the examples, am I correct to suggest that I need to add the following into the multi-choice code:

1. Either use the preloader or add the actionscript and classes specificied on http://jamiep.org/mod/wiki/view.php?id=145...gs+for+yourself

2. Let the .swf continue as normal - user takes the quiz and the result is reached - e.g. user gets 8 / 10.

3. Then get the .swf to send the result to Moodle.

This final section is where I'm getting a bit stuck. I've found all the code you mention on http://jamiep.org/mod/wiki/view.php?id=145...des+and+Answers. I'm thinking that to send just the result to Moodle I need to make use of:

getURL("../../view.php?sess_token="+POMovieSess);

All the other actionscript on the above page refers to checking correct answers and then calling functions within the actual Flash movie. However, can you let me know the best way to simply send the result to Moodle?

In the php communication I've done in the past it has been a simple matter and sending the php command via a getURL. I don't think this should be too tricky, but then again....

In return for your assistance with all this - which I and many others here will be extremely grateful for - I am, of course, more than happy for this free program to form part of an add-in to the Flash module. As mentioned above too, if I can get it working, we can very easily adapt the other free quizzes that I'll release to fit in much more closely with the Flash module - i.e. allowing users to setup their own questions and answers via .php / .xml. I'd also be delighted to use my experience to help setup some form of user-friendly generator screen, meaning teachers avoid having to edit code directly.

[jamiesensei]

Here is a service.php file that you should put in the same directory as your movie :

<?php
global $CFG;
require("$CFG->dirroot/mod/flash/movies/send_answer.php");
class service extends send_answer
{
   var $_frmCredentials;
    
    function service($toPass)
    {
  //this will allow you to access the first name of the user
        global $USER, $CFG;
        parent::send_answer($toPass);//default constructor
  $this->userFirstName=$USER->firstname;
    }
    function answers($answers, $grades)
    // pass answers to this function in an array with question 1's answer in 
    // $answers[1] etc and grade for q 1 in $grades[1]
    {
        for ($n=1; $n++; $n<=count($answers))
        {
            $anstodb=array('answer'=>$answers[$n]);
            parent::answer(1, $anstodb, $grades[$n]);//always pass a q no : 1 and a grade : 100 %
            return true;
        };
    }
} 
    
?>

The Flash activity module lets you call the functions on this class directly from your action script.

So somewhere in your script in response to some event you initialise the object as so :

onClipEvent (load) {
	// first request username 
	this._visible = false;
	_root.firstname = "default";
	moodleService.onInit=function()
	{
  _root.firstname = moodleService.userFirstName;
  _root.dreams =moodleService.oldanswer;
  _root.gotoAndPlay("Intro");
	}
	moodleService.init();
}

init() will call the constructor on the service.php class - the function called service(). This will give you access to the firstname of the user and you can then use that in your movie. You could access other data through this init function such as some questions and answers stored in the Moodle db.

See how onInit is called on return from the php function and then moodleService.userFirstName will contain the username.


Similarly you can send your answers to Moodle by calling the moodleService.answers function, for example in response to an onRelease event :

onRelease () {
	moodleService.answers_onResult=function()
        //results have been stored
	{
  _root.gotoAndPlay("End");
	}
	moodleService.answers(_root.arrayWithAnswersIn, _root.arrayWithGradesIn);
}

Use the 'preloader' this will set up all the remoting code for you.

WHen your movie is finished call :

moodleService.cleanUp('course'); // this will take you back to the course page after
                                               //cleaning up session vars

Or :

moodleService.cleanUp(); // this will take you back to the results page for this 
                                      // activity after
                                      //cleaning up session vars

Or :

moodleService.cleanUp(URL); // this will take you to URL 
                                      // activity after
                                      //cleaning up session vars

Hope this helps.

Have a good read through the info I put up on my wiki as well.

Jamie

This post has been edited by jamiesensei: 10 August 2005 - 04:14 PM

[Andrew Field]

Great! Thanks very much - I'll see what I can do with this.

Much appreciated!

Just to check - this code still seems to send the answers etc. to Moodle. Do I really need to do this?

Within the multi-choice generator I can handle all the question data - I don't think I need to share this with Moodle.

All I'm looking to do is pass the final result to Moodle i.e. tell Moodle that the user got 100% in the quiz and then record that in the database.

[jamiesensei]

Andrew Field, on Aug 10 2005, 11:12 PM, said:

Just to check - this code still seems to send the answers etc. to Moodle.  Do I really need to do this?

Within the multi-choice generator I can handle all the question data - I don't think I need to share this with Moodle.

All I'm looking to do is pass the final result to Moodle i.e. tell Moodle that the user got 100% in the quiz and then record that in the database.

Hi Andrew,

Yes, but why not send the answers to Moodle. It doesn't require much work. Then the test creator will have the option of letting users see answers they have given to questions and teachers will see what answers there students have submitted. The test creator can choose what guest users will see, probably you wouldn't show a guest user answers submitted by other guests and the grade they got for them.

Jamie

[Andrew Field]

Ah - I understand now. This makes the feedback much more usable. Good idea. Thanks for this.

[ Code removed ]

Sorry for this - just getting my head around the techniques you are using. Marvellous to send the answers back though - I had though this was so Moodle would 'mark' the test, but this instead provides addional recorded feedback.


Edit: Looked at this again now - ignore what I've said above - I'll have a go implementing your code and then post again.

This post has been edited by Andrew Field: 10 August 2005 - 05:12 PM

[jamiesensei]

If you really just want to send one score for the whole activity you should do somthing like this :

Use this service.php file that you should put in the same directory as your movie :

<?php
global $CFG;
require("$CFG->dirroot/mod/flash/movies/send_answer.php");
class service extends send_answer
{
   var $_frmCredentials;
    
    function service($grade, $toPass)
    {
  //this will allow you to access the first name of the user
        global $USER, $CFG;
        parent::send_answer($toPass);//default constructor
        parent::answer(1, array(), $grade);//always pass a q no : 1 and blank answer
    }
} 
    
?>

And just before you finish the movie use something like this :

onRelease () {
	// first request username 
	moodleService.onInit=function()
	{
            moodleService.cleanUp('course');	
        }
	moodleService.init(grade);//pass the grade to Moodle
}

init() will call the constructor on the service.php class. And then when it returns the cleanUp function will be called which will end your movie and jump to the course view in Moodle.

Jamie

[Carl Shepherdson]

Nice to see you are sharing the development of the module with us all

What sort of results would the teacher would see i.e.? just how many questions they got correct i.e. 5/10 etc or detailed stats such as which questions, how long it tooks for each question

Thanks,

Carl