Transcript Use of Moodle as a Platform for e

Use of an Open Source Platform for
e-Learning with Virtual Microscopy
H.P. Sinn
Dept. of Pathology
University Hospital
Heidelberg
Agenda
 Platforms for Virtual Microscopy
 Characteristics of Moodle
 Types of courses
 Modules
 Scripts and Tricks
 Application examples
TUB
IDC
ILC
PAP
MPC
ACC
MUC
MED
CRIB
SEC
Introduction
Platforms for virtual microscopy
 Embedded pages (USCAP, AFIP)
 Specialized solutions for virtual microscopy (SlidePath)
 Localized standalone systems (Basel, Zürich)
 Personal sites (Aachen)
 E-learning Systems (Moodle, WebCT)
 Course oriented
 Community oriented
Introduction
Things to consider when choosing a system
 E-learning functionality
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Authentication, LDAP support
Interactive Modules
Exams
Feedback
others
 Easy to use content management system
 Flexibility (Modularity)
 Low or no cost
 Community support
Introduction
Moodle
Modular,
Object-Oriented,
Dynamic
Learning
Environment
 Moodle is an open source e-learning system
 It is course-based
 It uses a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) architecture
Introduction
Course Management
 A teacher administrator has full control over all settings for a course, including
restricting other teachers
 Choice of course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focused
social format
 Flexible array of course activities:
Forums, Journals, Quizzes, Resources, Choices, Surveys, Assignments, Chats,
Workshops, Internalmail
 Display recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on
the course home page
 Easy editing of text for resources, forum postings, journal entries using an
embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor
 Import and export custom courses, examples, and scorm compatible objects
Basic Moodle
Topic based format
 Lists of topics within one course
 Within each topic „activities“ (such as lessons, hyperlinks,
questionaire etc.) or „blocks“ (data, images) may be
included
 Convenient for presentation of a list of cases, such as a
study set of digital slides
Basic Moodle
Topic based format
Basic Moodle
Topic based format
- Drawbacks -
 Not good for maintaining large cases series
 Repetetive formatting of every cases
 Maintainence of hyperlinks tedious
 Not good for structured documents, such as unknown cases
and solutions
 No database facilities like search or sort
Modules
Database module
 Provides one or multiple sub-databases per course
 Database fields include numeric, text, textarea, file, image,
menu, URL and others
 Teacher and/or student can enter data
 Lists can be searched and sorted
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
Modules
Database module
- Further uses -
 Accessability of database content from
other modules
 Linking database from external sources
(e.g. through PHP)
 Interactive use, e.g. allowing students to
enter data
Modules
Book Module
 Provides textual and non textual content
 Arragend in chapters and sub-chapters
 Input is plain HTML using the integrated
HTML editor or not
 No search of sort facilities
Modules
Book Module
Modules
Wiki module
 Uses Nwiki (based on dfWiki), from Moodle 1.9
 Syntax like MediaWiki (used in Wikipedia)
 Ideal for collaborative editing
 Students and Teachers can enter data
 Usueful for collecting structured information, such as when
building a course
 Beware: Texts in the Wiki syntax cannot be used anywhere
else in Moodle
Modules
Wiki module
Modules
Lesson module
 Interactive questions
and answer pages
 Case-based learning
Modules
Lesson module
Modules
Lesson module
lesson construction page
Tricks and Hints
Tricks and Hints
 <iframe> tag
 Javascript
 Execution of custom PHP files
Tricks and Hints
Use of <iframe> and external PHP script
mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$query="SELECT * FROM svs WHERE substr(kurs,12,3)='".$serie."' order by id";
Examples
Example internet sites using Moodle and
virtual microscopy
 IAP Germany (testing site)
www.iap-bonn.de/moodle
 University of Heidelberg
elearning.uni-heidelberg.de
 Sandbox for application development
www.vpathology.org/sandbox
Examples
IAP Germany
www.iap-bonn.de/moodle
Examples
General Pathology
elearning.uni-heidelberg.de
Examples
Neuropathology
elearning.uni-heidelberg.de
Examples
CP Conference
elearning.uni-heidelberg.de
Summary
 Moodle is a versatile platform for
pathology teaching at undergraduate and
postgraduate levels
 Provides connectivity to other systems
through open standards and great variety
of modules