Developer Standards
Below are some of WCLN's standard settings for putting new resources and activities into Moodle.
Text Fonts:
We have had a lot of creative lesson building in the past. As we work towards improved quality and consistency, please follow the following:
- in general, books should hold 3-10 lessons
- in general, lessons should be about a screen size (not overly small or big). Avoid lessons that require excessive scrolling (overwhelming).
- please don't specify font size or family unless absolutely needed (improves general accessibility)
- if you choose to bold "key words," that's fine, don't use various colors and/or underlines and/or highlight colors
- if you choose a different color for examples (eg. Example 1:), keep consistent throughout course
- sometimes <hr> tags (line) are nice to separate sections or items.
- don't over-format, as different browsers and/or screen sizes will mess with this anyway
- if you copy from WORD, please do some clean-up (button or HTML mode)
Embedding Videos:
When you embed a video into a lesson, here's how to do it.
<p align="center"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JAIHikod-Q0?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640" longdesc="examples of volcanism"></iframe></p>
- align="center" ensures the video is centered on the lesson
- ?rel=0 ensures that a bunch of "recommended videos" don't show-up at end
- width = 640 is a nice size for a typical screen, generally good not to go wider
- height = 360 complements the 640 height for typical videos, but just set it to keep proportions
- longdesc = a description in case the video becomes unavailable.
Question Database:
To ensure quality and consistency in our question databases, the following rules are followed.
D2L Compatibility:
- Always build questions in the Questionbanks THEN add to quiz (don't build in quiz).
- Avoid matching questions, particularly those using extra distractors (D2L doesn't support this).
- Avoid "multiple select" questions (as they don't load properly in D2L).
- Avoid "include subcategories" (as D2L doesn't yet support this).
QuestionBank Organization:
- categories are organized by lesson, then level
- each question has a unique name (this helps us track problems)
- question names should not be crazy long (hard to search)
- for equations, use text where possible, then WIRIS / MathML as needed.
- don't use WIRIS to make division questions with "long division symbol"
Course Settings:
I've laid these instructions in the "Step" order to allow completion tracking settings to be available in the quizzes and assignments before you get there.
STEP 1: Completion Tracking Set-up
STEP 2: Quiz and Exam Settings
Learning Guides:
To ensure quality and consistency in our question databases, the following rules are followed.
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- include both .docx and .pdf files named exactly the same for /LOR
- don't combine images on a page with text-boxes or built-in graphics (one total image)
- use template with page numbers, dynamic date, and standard headings
Quizzes / Exams:
A small thing to watch for in our courses is to always split up (paginate) tests so that a student doesn't spend too much time on any one page. For example:
- never have a big test with 10+ questions on a single page.
- never have more than one essay questions on a page
- for multiple choice, good to do 2-3 questions per page.
Reason: Moodle doesn't save a student's work on a test until they change pages. If something happens during the test (Internet burp or server timeout or whatever), the student loses everything on that page. If they lose 2 questions (or one essay), that's sad. If they lose 30 questions or multiple essays, that's terrible. Also, if a student spends a long time on a page it also increases the chance that the server will time-out. Therefore, paginate and save our students from a possible disaster.
Canadian Spelling:
When doing text, let's make sure we're loyal to our Canadian way of spelling (eg. colour vs. color).
Other words? See: https://opentextbc.ca/selfpublishguide/back-matter/appendix-3/