Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Comments on Moodle-LAMS integration

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hi Josep,

Thanks very much for your comments

- There is something that seems counterintuitive to me in the first step of the process of creation of a LAMS activity. If what you want is to create a new sequence, why are you asked to choose among existing sequences such as 'Greatness', 'Test QA', etc?

Ok, let me rewind to the beginning

LAMS is an application that allows you to author/create a sequence of activities according to a teacher's lesson plan. Then this lesson plan is saved as a "Learning Sequence". These Learning Sequences are saved into a Folder. There are three folders:

* Public folder: everyone can put sequences there and will eb available for every teacher to use

* Organization folder: When in LAMS, you are part of an organization (for instance, Psychology department). When saving a sequence in the org folder, you are sharing the sequence with every teacher on this organization/department

* Private folder: all the Learning Sequences you save here, are only available to you and no one else.

So the actual sequences that you saw there (in the Public folder) are the default learning sequences that come with LAMS.

The reason that they show there, it's because they are available for everyone to choose. But as you well say, you can click on the "Create new sequence" button and it will pop-up a fresh Authoring environment where you can design your learning sequence, save it (into any of the three folders mentioned above) and preview it until you are trully happy with it. Then you can close authoring (which will take you back to Moodle) and click on the "Refresh sequence list" to see the sequence you just added in LAMS.

Once you selected the sequence, you can add the name you want it to have in your Moodle Class, a brief description and then click on "Use selected sequence" to continue. And voila, you have a Moodle activity, featuring a LAMS learning sequence.

Sorry about the "Edit the selected sequence" button. I forgot to disable it. But it will allow you to edit a sequence in authoring, to do what you wanted to do: modify the "What is Greatness" and customize it to fit your needs best

Let me know if this helps. If you think there's an easier way to make this process a bit less complicated or straight forward, please let us know. There's always room for improvements!

thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Josep M. Fontana

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Thanks for your response, Ernie.
I understand what you say about having the choice between the public folder and the private folder. Even so, it still seems a bit counterintuitive that you are forced to select an existing learning sequence (whether this is from the public folder, the organization folder or the private folder) in order to create a new learning sequence.

Now I know how to do it and I would not be confused next time, but this could be a bit confusing for new users, I think.

Josep M.

Posted by Josep M. Fontana

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hey Josep

Maybe what we should do is to change the layout of the screen a bit, so you can "Select an existing sequence" and then the drop down menus to select it, and right next to it "or Create a new sequence". Do you think that will be visually better, make more sense?

I agree that the "Create new sequence" at the button is a bit lost all the way to the bottom of the screen.

Anyone would like to comment on this?

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Scott Casley

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Hi Ernie,

I would suggest that the 'Add New Sequence' option is the first item in the 'Select Sequence' drop down.

Also, a user shouldn't have to click on 'Refresh Sequence List' - I'm guessing (hopefully!) that is just a temporary workaround.

This would mean there would be only three buttons at the bottom of the screen: 'OK', 'Edit Selected Sequence' and 'Cancel'.

Still not convinced that a LAMS Course format is useful but I will persist.

Scott

Posted by Scott Casley

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hey Scott

I just changed the button arrangement a bit. Would you like to comment? (see attached file)

> Also, a user shouldn't have to click on 'Refresh Sequence List

If you click on "Create a new sequence" then you'll get sent to LAMS Authoring. Say you create there a nice and neat sequence and save it. Then when you close the LAMS Authoring windows, you are back in Moodle. And that's where you'll need to "Refresh Sequence List". By clicking there, Moodle makes a webserver call back to LAMS and gets the sequence you just authored.

> Still not convinced that a LAMS Course format is useful but I will persist.

I think that's one of the best features!

When Martin suggested it to us, I remember not thinking much of it. But then it hit me like a train! If a teacher wants to use LAMS as the core of its course, this course format allows her to organize her class around learning sequences instead. For instance, she could have sequences instead of weeks (in the weekly course format) or topics.

I can see value on that. Thanks

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Dennis Williams

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I having been using Moodle for a few years now in a university setting and always saw LAMS format when I set up courses, not knowing what it was. My daughter turned 15 and started taking an online drivers ed class that used moodle in a LAMS format. I thought Eureka! I'm really interested in exploring it for setting up online courses in Moodle now.

Posted by Dennis Williams

By: Josep M. Fontana

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I think what you are proposing is a step in the right direction. The most logical way of operating, it seems to me would be being presented with the choice at the very beginning: what do you want to do? a)use an existing learning sequence? b) build a new learning sequence based on an existing one? or c) create a totally new learning sequence from scratch?.

With the mock screen, things have improved considerably but for some users it might still not be totally clear that you can create a new learning sequence based on an existing one. I know, I know. The manuals make it clear that you have these three options and they would provide guidance as to how to do it, but from a usability perspective, this should be as straightforward as possible even for those who have not read the manuals.

Josep M.

Posted by Josep M. Fontana

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hola Josep,

> The most logical way of operating, it seems to me would be
> being presented with the choice at the very beginning: what
> do you want to do? a)use an existing learning sequence?
> b) build a new learning sequence based on an existing one?
> or c) create a totally new learning sequence from scratch?

Yeah, I think that'll be a winner. Give me a few days to come up with an improve UI that addresses this properly.

> for those who have not read the manuals.

Like me

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Dirk Herr-Hoyman

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I just tried the Moodle-LAMS integration and was also initially confused
by the offer to pick an from some existing activty sequence or to create some new sequence. Since this is a Moodle Topics course format, I was just assuming these would be new activities, starting from blank.

However, if presented with more context of what I was picking from, like it was a bunch of intro algebra activities or maybe some basic biological science concepts, perhaps it would make more sense.

I would, still, suggest that a clear separation of the usages into "blank slate" and "existing sequences" would be more profitable.

Posted by Dirk Herr-Hoyman

By: Henry Johnson

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I may be missing something completely obvious here. I'm running Fedora Core 4 with Firefox 1.0.7. I'm a student teacher who is trying to change over from a career in IT to that of a science teacher, and as such, am keen to find open source tools to assist me in my new career. I have an account and can access all the lessons, but seem to be unable to author a sequence. Where do go to "create new sequence"?

E.g. I go to:

TS » CW01 » LAMS » Lola (empty sequence)

I get a button to "Update this LAMS Activity"

Click on it and get a pink box with:
You can only update the name and introduction

I assume I don't have access to a LAMS server to create a sequence?

I am new to this stuff. They don't seem to cover any online learning tools in my teacher ed course, so I am trying to remedy the situation. Do I have to create a LAMS sequence on my own server (which I haven't installed) and somehow upload it? Or do I just go through the sequences supplied?

Thanks
Henry

Posted by Henry Johnson

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hi Henry,

Yes, you do have access to create sequences.

On the "Moodle Integration: Course 1" (http://elche.melcoe.mq.edu.au/moodle/course/view.php?id=2), you are a "Teacher" so you can create sequences and add them to this course.

Once you are in the course:

1.- Click on the "Turn editing on"
2.- On one of the drop down menues that say "Add activity..." click it once and select the "LAMS" activity (that will take you to the LAMS Moodle "author" page (?).
3.- In there you have to options:

3.1 Select an existing sequence
3.1.1 Select a Workspace (or folder) from the drop down menu
3.1.2 Once you select a workspace/folder, all the sequences in that folder will be in the "Select Sequence" drop down menu. Choose the sequence you want to add as an activity for this course.
3.1.3 Complete Name and Description
3.1.4 Click on "Use selected sequence"

3.2 Create a new sequence
3.2.1 Click on the "Create a new sequence" button an LAMS Authoring environment will be displayed.
3.2.2 Go about as crazy as you like create your sequence.
3.2.3 Click on Save
3.2.4 Close LAMS Authoring environment (you'll be back on the Moodle window again)
3.2.5 Click on the "Refresh Sequence list"
and then you are back on "Select an existing sequence" (3.1)

Please let me know if you neeed any further help.

We do acknowledge that there's some work we need to do in the flow, since Moodle works a bit different... but we have had some good suggestions from Josep and Dirk (http://lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/technicalcommunity/forums/message-view?message%5fid=15743) and we should be on the right track.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: James Dalziel

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Just a general comment on LAMS compared to any other LMSs (Moodle included) - LAMS introduces a new step in the course authoring process.

In the traditional LMS, a teacher has editing access to a course, they do edits, and these are "live" immediately. There is no "intermediate" edited object separate from the live course.

In LAMS, there are two steps - you edit an "abstract" sequence first (using LAMS Authoring), then separate from this step, you choose a class for the sequence and then run it with this class (using LAMS Monitoring). This means you can edit independent of course delivery, and hence easily re-use your LAMS course/sequence structures without mucking up your current (live) course in your LMS. NB: It is this aspect of LAMS makes it possible to share sequences in the LAMS Community.

So for those who are testing LAMS with Moodle, my great thanks for helping us with this task. We've tried to link LAMS to Moodle in an intuitive way (although we welcome suggestions for improvement!), and have provided some short-cuts to starting sequences (given the Moodle course page can tell LAMS what the class is for launching the sequence in LAMS Monitoring) - but don't be surprised if something feels *different* in the LAMS authoring process.... it's not just a feeling

Posted by James Dalziel

By: Dean Shankle

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I like the survey activity.

However, there are a few things about it that I thought I would mention.

First, the process for finding the results are not intuitive, although I did figure it out. (Note: I have chosen to work without reading the instructions to most closely duplicate the experience my clients would have. :) )

Second, the pie charts and bar graphs are not working. I use firefox and have not tried IE. Are others experiencing this problem?

Posted by Dean Shankle

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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> First, the process for finding the results are not
> intuitive, although I did figure it out.

True.

However, that will change with the release of 1.1

Regarding the current version, I'm working on the LAMS Monitor animation, so hopefully understanding how LAMS Monitor works and where to find learner's responses/feedback will be easier.

> Second, the pie charts and bar graphs are not working. I use
> firefox and have not tried IE. Are others experiencing this
> problem?

Now they are. And they work with any browser.

Sorry about that, I didn't realize they weren't working.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Dean Shankle

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Ernie,

The animations are very helpful and just the type of thing that I use with clients to help them understand.

Thanks for fixing the charts and graphs.

Being able to embed this in the moodle will make the after class customized survey more likely to be completed and allow at least one of my clients to quit paying for Zoomerang.

Posted by Dean Shankle