mMoodle

Since starting the MET program in January 2011, I have occasionally interacted with the UBC LMS with iOS mobile devices including iPad2 (which I no longer have access to), an iPhone 4S (also no more), and my current iPhone 4. The predominant context for these interactions were to check and read forum updates when I had no access to my regular computer. Although not impossible, I find responding through the mobile browser to be sub-par at best – even with the keyboard accessory that I had when using the iPad 2. Reading content isn’t difficult, although because the Connect system is not optimized or responsive to mobile devices, there is copious amounts of panning and zooming. One little thing that really irks me is that on the CWL login page for Connect, the username field is set to have the first letter capitalized, which results in an error if you do not manually change it. The general SSC login page with the CWL does not have that problem, and it gets me almost every time!

After reading the mLearning page on the ETEC565a eLearning Toolkit, I checked the Apple App store for “UBC” and found some interesting looking apps, although none for Connect as I had suspected. Checking for Moodle I found two apps – Moodle Mobile, which is newer, and My Moodle, which is older. I downloaded both, but neither work. After looking into the reasons why, I suspect that the UBC Moodle server is not configured for app access. I’ve made an inquiry into the possibility of allowing this, as I believe that testing the Moodle Mobile app would support my learning goals for this term.

I’ve known for some time that in order for the Apple store to approve an app, it has to provide a substantial difference than a corresponding webpage does. It turns out that in the case of Moodle Mobile, there are some substantial differences including allowing offline access to course content, and easier communication between students supported by push notifications on your phone). One great feature of the open-source nature of Moodle is that external organizations can use CSS to brand the app to their own purposes. Searching the App store, I found many Moodle Mobile-based apps for a variety of purposes, from educational institutions to conferences (known sometimes as “Moodle Moots”). I’m uncertain at this time if design changes can be affected through the Moodle Mobile app – it may just be an end-user experience.

Here is a short tutorial from Graeme Boxwell about the Moodle Mobile app. The tutorial comes from his larger video training package “Moodle for Mobile Learning,” which I will be looking into the other modules, particularly Mobile Assessment.