[sharnon007]

This is kind of a rant- as well as a call for help. (oh, gawd do I need it!)

How many different programming languages am I going to need to be familiar with in order to understand answers to posts that are similar to what I want to know?
(ok I'm done w/the poor, pitiful me's)
Seriously, I plan on working with flash- in the respect of adding games (like Andy's & others that require more 'tweaking); making games & adding to webpages. Honestly, I don't have any desire for 'pretty' when it comes to making a webpage- functional- clean lines- that's me. So could you recommend the languages/scripts that I will need to be the most familiar with? xml, AS3,php? json?
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Here's the situation with my moodle

I have figured that moodle will be the best to put games & such that I've made due to all the modules & such being created by users that have the same needs I do. I also plan to add the links to the games into glogs(made by my community members).
Ok- please help w/these questions.
My main focus is getting the games uploaded & accessible.
1- I want a link to a game to be playable without logging in/the log in page- anything- I want it to go directly to the page.
Which means- how do do I do that? I tried before- but it wouldn't work- I kept getting the login page. Also, as of right now, I don't have a need to use SCORM- yet.

2- Is there something I need to add to my moodle to make it easy to put in the games? let's say that instead of a embedding a game into a page, I'd rather have a link that makes a full-page game on a pop-up (is that possible)- Or things y'all recommend I put in my moodle at all?

3- Most of my games are separated into Grades (there's 7 different grades), then Units, then Stories. I try to have several games for each story and they're usually a combination of congen,wordlearner,what2learn, quizlet, etc. I'd like to keep them in their 'groupings' but i'm not sure what the difference is in courses, classes, or assignments (I'm not sure what I need, especially since if I'm not concerned about logging in?). Wouldn't it be just as easy just to upload the games is hierarchal folders and then just link to them (upload grade 1 games to grade 1 unti 1 folder *nameOfStory* folder? For instance- have a page for Grade 1 Unit 1 Story 1? Or even Grade 1 Unit 1 (there's only 5 stories per unit- and since I don't have 'em all done- this might make better sense until I get better at 'moodling').

The reason for asking all these questions- I did try this before and jumbled it up pretty bad- if I could just get a start w/a bit of help, maybe, just maybe I won't have jumbled it up so bad- that I'd be better off starting over... again.

Sorry I'm not finished- but I think my pc is getting ready to crash... got my pdfs open and about 40+ Windows... I started writing this about 10 hours ago... (I'm serious- between figuring it out, and a 2 year old w/2 older brothers & their dad). My pc ain't the only one about shut down....

[Andrew Field]

Excellent to hear you've installed Moodle. Now take a break!

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How many different programming languages am I going to need to be familiar with in order to understand answers to posts that are similar to what I want to know?
(ok I'm done w/the poor, pitiful me's)
Seriously, I plan on working with flash- in the respect of adding games (like Andy's & others that require more 'tweaking); making games & adding to webpages. Honestly, I don't have any desire for 'pretty' when it comes to making a webpage- functional- clean lines- that's me. So could you recommend the languages/scripts that I will need to be the most familiar with? xml, AS3,php? json?

With Moodle - this answer is actually none, some and all. You can make excellent progress by using all the pre-prepared features, but if you want to tweak things you can experiment and see what happens. As you've already found out there are plenty of game maker tools where you won't need to program. My ones I try to make it very easy so colleagues don't have to become programmers - others vary in their complexity.

With Moodle, you just upload resources and then develop things further. It is all about experimenting and developing confidence - you'll have absoutely no problem. It might be worth purchasing a book and there is currently none better than this: http://www.packtpub....-year-olds/book - it leads you through a comprehensive range of Moodle possiblities, especially integrating external games and other tools.

If you want to develop your own resources, I'd suggest focusing on Flash, thus AS3, but I would say that because it is my chosen tool. If you focus on Flash, .xml forms a significant part of how you can store data. .php is a server programming language which will allow you to customise and develop Moodle further (not sure you'll need that yet). .json is a javascript library which allows you to customise what happens on a webpage e.g. images fade in or allow you to hide / remove parts of pages. Again, ideal to tinker with but not an essential requirement.

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1- I want a link to a game to be playable without logging in/the log in page- anything- I want it to go directly to the page.
Which means- how do do I do that? I tried before- but it wouldn't work- I kept getting the login page. Also, as of right now, I don't have a need to use SCORM- yet.

Yes - a good idea and quite possible - this is how I have all of the main parts of this site setup and the majority of our school Moodle. You need to add a course and change the settings so guests can access without needing to login.

See the Moodle Docs information about this: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Guest_access

But you basically do the following:

1. Setup or edit the settings in your course. If a new course, you'll be given the settings page, if it is a course you've already created look for your admin options and select 'settings':

settings.jpg


2. Within the settings page, scroll down until you see the 'Availability' section - in here, chose the 'Allow guests in without a key':

availability.gif

3. You then go to the bottom of the settings page and save the changes.

This will allow students or anyone else to access the course without needing to login.

Login as guest:
These is one more setting to change though - which will mean people bypass the login screen, meaning that a user can access your site without needing to press 'login as guest'. You can do that by following these instructions:

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http://docs.moodle.org/en/Guest_access

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Enabling guest access
To enable guest access to a Moodle site, the guest login button should be set to "show" by an admin in Administration > Users > Authentication.

Teachers can then set whether their courses allow guest access in the course settings.

To allow visitors to be logged in as guests automatically when entering courses with guest access, the autologinguests box should be checked by an admin in Administration > Users > Permissions > User policies.

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2- Is there something I need to add to my moodle to make it easy to put in the games? let's say that instead of a embedding a game into a page, I'd rather have a link that makes a full-page game on a pop-up (is that possible)- Or things y'all recommend I put in my moodle at all?

add a resource.gif

You can do all of this - you can embed games within a page - see http://www.effective.../view.php?id=11 or you can add them as pop-up pages - all these options are available within the default Moodle. I find the 'Insert a label' option very useful where I just add information, images and links directly. Whereas if you want pop-up pages you can use the 'Link to a file or website' option - here you can set exactly what you want. Again experiment and see what happens!

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3- Most of my games are separated into Grades (there's 7 different grades), then Units, then Stories. I try to have several games for each story and they're usually a combination of congen,wordlearner,what2learn, quizlet, etc. I'd like to keep them in their 'groupings' but i'm not sure what the difference is in courses, classes, or assignments (I'm not sure what I need, especially since if I'm not concerned about logging in?). Wouldn't it be just as easy just to upload the games is hierarchal folders and then just link to them (upload grade 1 games to grade 1 unti 1 folder *nameOfStory* folder? For instance- have a page for Grade 1 Unit 1 Story 1? Or even Grade 1 Unit 1 (there's only 5 stories per unit- and since I don't have 'em all done- this might make better sense until I get better at 'moodling').

This really refers to how you want to structure your courses. Again Moodle is the ideal way to do this. You could setup a series of courses in categories. Your categories could be the Grades. Then within those you split it into sub-categories (your units) and then you could make each story a course.

Moodle - at least up until the current version - allows you to upload files exactly as you would to any other website or you can use the options within Moodle itself.

This issue is more about thinking about how to best structure your webpage - you have complete control over how to do this. Have a think and then post again

N.B. You have just asked some of the key Moodle questions - not bad for the first Moodle post

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[goneunderground]

Hi again I do Moodle and I don't know any coding languages at all; I am a teacher so if I can, you can! Personally I'd forget trying to learn anything (even Flash) for the immediate future and just focus on getting games on your site that others have structured for you and that you just need to add questions to and link to. You can have your games available without logging in - then your Moodle will be like a website -which is ok - what you need to do is on the front page where all your site admin stuff is - click users>permissions>user policies and tick auto login in guests. Then each time you make a "course" which is Moodle's name for a page, really , make sure in the settings you have set it to allow guests without the key. Personally I'd have a "course" for each grade. EDIT... I just saved this and discovered Andrew had added more to his post -I'll leave mine for now and let him do the work!

[Andrew Field]

... and just to add - play with Moodle to see what you can do. You've asked some quite complex questions and been given the full answers. When you first start you don't need to worry too much about all this. One of the great features within Moodle is that you can change settings and options, meaning initial experiments can be adapted and used.

[sharnon007]

WOW!
Great replies. From both of you.
I would think y'all could tell that I really tried before and got so mixed up and frustrated- hence the questions I asked. I'm determined NOT to quit this time. What really prompted me to come back to moodle- was that I remembered how easy it was to put in a game that I couldn't figure out how to do in regular ftp (like this question I posted.

Andy, I see now, where I didn't do the last part about the login problem.
Thanks for the pics- it must've took u some time to post.

Oh- by the way- I have that book!

goneunderground-thank you for the helping hand. It's really nice to know- that I'm not 'the only one'. So- perhaps you started out as, ummm.... ignorant as I am- and you've grown and lived through it =)
Seems like Andy was probably born knowing all of this.
I'm learninf Flash w/my 10 year old. he wants to, so we're taking it slow. Imagine- a 12 year old, proficient in Flash! Hey- it's what he wants!


Gotta' go now. Gotta' go w/hubby to watch 22 guys chase each other up & down a field. hmmmm- (just 'cause you're on a diet, doesn't mean you can't look at them menu) lolololol =)

Sharnon

[Andrew Field]

Excellent - enjoy the Superbowl. You do realise that goneunderground actually wrote that book?

None of us were born knowing these things - it is about the enthusiasm to tinker and experiment with the tools to encourage students to make effective use of computers. Pictures don't take long at all either - there is a free tool built into Windows 7 but I prefer to use Snag-It.

Do keep posting any questions - you most certainly are not alone!