Is there money in the Moodle stand?
Despite the limited options to commercialize and promote Moodle plugins from within, and the prodigiously long review queue, the entrepreneurial spirit that comes along with open source learning remains defiant. Many of the new plugins here are the perfect illustration. Freemium, licenses, donationware or simply a talent showcase defy the barricades and enhance the experience of what, after all, is an apreciable captive market of LMS users and owners.
UbiCast MediaServer
Add MediaServer to the list of LMS-ready Video Platforms. While the official site is light on details, we do know MediaServer offers a cloud-based video creation and library management experience, easy to customize and share. The plugin extends the seamless experience by allowing providing direct streaming into the LMS. LTI compatible, it offers similar functionality for proprietary LMS such as Canvas. Free 1-month trial.
PDF Annotations
For those who love to hold conversations over PDF comments, this gift from RWTH Aachen University is a real treasure. Use it to comment on student coursework, or better yet, enable students to add commentary and question sources, all without ever leaving the PDF environment. It includes notifications and a handy toolbar. Free
BLC Modules
The Blended Learning Consortium started as a Worcestershire College initiative aimed at exchanging experiences and best practices around Blended Learning, especially in the British segment of “Further Education.” (Between secondary and Higher Ed.) Leveraging technologies came as a reasonable strategy, which soon was bolstered thanks to support from Instructure Canvas LMS. Internal demand led to the development of Moodle-based plugins, which makes it ready to plug BLC’s exclusive SCORM packages. BLC memberships start at £5,000 annually
Supporter
Don’t let the vague name distract you. This single page tool gives you quick access to courses, user and settings without reloading or opening multiple pages. Create, delete, edit and enroll while forgetting all about your ‘Back’ and ‘F5’ keys. Query all kinds of information about your learning in a privacy and GDPR friendly way. It’s the spiritual successor of the Moodle Analyst plugin. Free
Assignment submission and export report
Get a handy breakdown of the status of one or all submission assignments at any point of a course. You can decide which user or assignment information to join the report. (Personal or identifying info requires admin permission.) Reports can also include info from compatible assignment plugins, plagiarism services Turnitin and Urkund included. Free
Wooclap
Wooclap leverages the magical powers of friendship smartphones in the classroom by embedding them into lectures. Interactive class activities, instant polls and one-click digital hand raising are but a few tools in this data harvesting toolbelt for the classroom. Free trial, real price undisclosed
Forum Keywords
This simple, open and free toy generates word frequency analysis for Forums with participants communicating in English and Chinese, language for which it also detects Parts Of Speech. Use it curiously or to wet your get into sentiment analysis and other things NLP can do to try and better understand your students. It takes advantage of Open Source jiebah-php (Chinese text segmentation) and d3-cloud (data visualization) libraries. Free
Moodle App Link Filter
Simple and extremely handy tool that creates app-friendly links. When you click on a link created by this plugin on a mobile browser, external app, or on a desktop with the Moodle App installed, it will open the app right on the course, page or section you specified. It works on the official Moodle app, Branded Moodle apps and other Moodle apps independently developed. Free, for the Atto text editor only
Films On Demand
Get the renowned academic and social sciences database Films On Demand from Infobase right at your LMS fingertips. PBS programs, unedited CNBC political footage and productions from the Biography Channel and the American Museum of Natural History. Compatible with several LMS including Canvas and Contact Infobase for pricing
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