Moodle LMS: Hot Potatoes is Now Free!

I blogged recently about the development of the Nanogong and the Riffly audio-visual plugins for Moodle 2.0. Today, I'm pleased to announce that an old - that is, well-established -Moodle plugin is now freely available.

Now read on…

I first encountered the Hot Potatoes question-test (Q-T) and exercise generation suite back in 2006 as an MSc student in Dublin. As a commercially-available utility, it offered well-rounded enhancements to the fairly basic Q-T capabilities of the Moodle platform. As of version 6.2, Hot Potatoes is now free to use.

According to the developers Half-Baked Software Inc.

The purpose of the Hot Potatoes is to enable you to create interactive Web-based teaching exercises which can be delivered to any Internet-connected computer equipped with a browser. The exercises use HTML and JavaScript to implement their interactivity, but you do NOT need to know anything about these languages in order to use the programs. All you need to do is enter the data for your exercises (questions, answers, responses etc.), and press a button. The program will create the Web pages for you, and you can then upload them to your server.

There are five basic programs in the Hot Potatoes suite:

1. JQuiz creates question-based quizzes.
   Questions can be of four different types, including multiple-choice and short-answer. Specific feedback can be provided both for right answers and predicted wrong answers or distractors. In short-answer questions, the learner's guess is intelligently parsed and helpful feedback to show what part of a guess is right and what part is wrong. The learner can ask for a hint in the form of a "free letter" from the answer.
2. JCloze creates gap-fill exercises.
   Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap, and the learner can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is also included. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every nth word in a text.
3. JCross creates word jumble / crossword puzzles which can be completed online.
   You can use a grid of virtually any size. As in JQuiz and JCloze, a hint button allows the learner to request a free letter if help is needed.
4. JMix creates jumbled-sentence exercises.
   You can specify as many different correct answers as you want, based on the words and punctuation in the base sentence, and a hint button prompts the learner with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.
5. JMatch creates matching or ordering exercises.
   A list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), with jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation.

These tools are complemented by a program called the Masher, which facilitates the creation of complete units of material (such as multiple-question quizzes) in one simple operation. The utility supports a range of question types including:

• True/False
• Short Answer
• Multiple Choice
• Cloze Test
• Word Jumble / Crossword
• Drag and Drop
• Mix and Match

Hot Potatoes allows you to add:

• Text
• Images
• Audio
• Video
• Question Timer
• Web plug-in objects like Flash Player

to your web server or LCMS-deployed question tests. The tool also adds interoperability in the shape of SCORM 1.2.

Hot Potatoes is available for Windows (except 95), for Linux running Wine version 6.3 and for Mac OS X.

Click here to find out more about Hot Potatoes (external link to developer's site). .

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Some interesting Moodle audio visual plugins just released

I've been discussing podcasting in some depth recently: today I've decided to take a break from the topic, and tell you about a related subject.

Now read on...

Let's pretend for a moment that you've followed all my advice, tips, and suggestions about creating, authoring, recording and producing podcasts with alacrity. Your content needs to be stored somewhere to be distributed to your audience. In the e-learning world we use learning management systems (or LMS) to manage this task.

An LMS (or the related Learning Content Management System) is software for delivering, tracking and managing training and education resources. LMSs range from systems for managing learner records to software for distributing coursesvia the Internet, typically including features for online collaboration. LMSs can also automate record-keeping, as well as for:

• Registration of learners for classroom and online courses
• Student self-service (e.g., self-registration on instructor-led training), training workflow (e.g., user notification, manager approval, wait-list management)
• The provision of on-line learning (e.g., Web-Based Training, podcasts)
• On-line assessment
• Management of continuous professional education (CPE)
• Collaborative learning (e.g., application sharing, discussion threads)
• Training resource management (e.g., instructors, facilities, equipment)

One of the most popular, effective, and easy-to-use LMSs is Moodle. Moodle has been taking part in the Google Summer of Code, and it looks like some interesting new plugins have emerged from the project. Among them are the Nanogong and the Riffly plugins for Moodle 2.0.

The Nanogong plugin allows audio-only recording inside Moodle repositories. Captured in WAV format, files are stored in Moodle using the ImaACPCM or Speex codecs. Recorded files and the recording applet are available in all places where the repository is used to select files.

The Riffly plugin allows audio-only or audio-video recording inside Moodle repositories. Encoding in Flash FLV forma,t files can be stored on riffly.com servers or downloaded to Moodle. Recorded files and the recording Flash object is available in all places where the repository is used to select files.

Note that Moodle 2.0 is under development, and is UNSTABLE. It should NOT be used for production sites. For developers, testers and any other people who helping create the next generation of Moodle. The latest stable release of Moodle is 1.9.5. I recommend that your download, install and have a play with the platform if you haven't done so already.

Next time: Back to podcasting

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Where is my comment? E-Learning Curve Blog site maintenance notice

No blog post today, as I’ve just discovered that since I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress (WP2.8.0) comments haven’t been published, because of a plugin being incompatible with this version of WordPress.

Virginia, Suzanne, and all the others who have commented: apologies for apparently not getting back to you – I wasn’t being rude, the technology was, for once getting in the way rather than facilitating dialog.

So today is a time to pause, reflect – and sort out the back end of the site.

I’ve just batch-approved all comments since mid-May and I expect you’ll get an e-mail notifier that your comment has been approved. If you’ve taken the time to write to me, and you haven’t got a notification, let me know via e-mail and I’ll investigate further.

Thanks for your patience!

Tomorrow: Normal service resumes – Brandon Hall

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