Customization of Language Strings

Many different terminologies are used in the TanSSe-L system that is not present in Moodle. Moodle has a “lang” directory with a number of files each having a list of strings which are used to convert table field names, with other strings giving a mean- ingful language display on Moodle web pages. Customization of language strings for the TanSSe-L system is divided into two groups:

• Adding string definition of all the new word names introduced in Moodle tables e.g. mdl_user table, and in Moodle directory files. Some examples are:

$string[‘region’] = ‘Region’; $string[‘district’] = ‘District’;

$string[‘schoolregno’] = ‘School Reg. No.’; $string[‘formlevel’] = ‘Form Level’; $string[‘formi’] = ‘Form I’; etc etc

• Customization of strings found in Moodle to suit TanSSe-L system terminolo- gies was done through site administration block, and the edited strings were stored in a local “lang” directory. Examples are:

$string[‘course’] = ‘Subject’;

$string[‘shortname] = ‘Subject Code’; $string[‘phone’] = ‘User Phone No.’; $string[‘address’] = ‘User Address’;

$string[‘formattopics’] = ‘Chapter Format’; etc etc

Language customization also covered help files within the TanSSe-L system. Custom- ization of the existing string was done through “Site Administration >> Language >> Language editing”.

8.2.9 TanSSe-L System User Roles

Moodle comes with a number of capabilities which can be performed within the sys- tem. What is required is to select capabilities and grant permission to those selected capabilities to a role. It was important to thoroughly study the default user roles and their permissions which come with Moodle to see if they suited the TanSSe-L system. Almost all of the default Moodle user roles were adopted except for “Teacher (edit- ingteacher)” role since learning materials for the TanSSe-L system would be centrally created. However, some adopted roles needed modification in setting permissions to suit the TanSSe-L system’s roles. These roles include: ‘Administrator’, ‘Subject Creator’, ‘Non-Editing Teacher’, ‘Student’, ‘Guest’ and ‘Authenticated user’.

The TanSSe-L system needed more user roles to be created and set permissions accord- ingly. The new user roles created were: ‘School Administrator’, ‘Educational Advisor’ and ‘Content Administrator’. The creation of TanSSe-L system user roles was done with the help of the guide from moodle.org Website. Table 8.1 shows a summary of all TanSSe-L user roles.

Table 8.1: TanSSe-L System User Roles Moodle User Roles TanSSe-L User Roles Remarks

Administrator Administrator Adopted from Moodle

Course Creator Subject Creator Adopted from Moodle and modified Non-Editing

Teacher Non-Editing Teacher Adopted from Moodle and modified Student Student Adopted from Moodle

Guest Guest Adopted from Moodle Authenticated User Authenticated User Adopted from Moodle

- School Administrator Added new user role for TanSSe-L - Educational Observer Added new user role for TanSSe-L - Content Administrator Added new user role for TanSSe-L 8.2.10 Other Customized Areas

(a) HTML editor with mathematical expression

“DragMath” is an open source drag and drop equation editor. It is an excellent piece of work contributed by Marc Grober to the Moodle community. This package was integrated into the TanSSe-L system’s (symbolized as p) HTML editor provided within the system. The package can be used to create simple mathematical and science expres- sions like

whenever needed. Using DragMath, science and mathematical expressions can be written in the normal way and DragMath converts them into a variety of different linear syntax for mathematics which includes: MathML, LaTex, Maple, Maxima or any user defined style (moodle.org, 2009). Latex equivalent expression for the given quadratic equation is

“$$x= \frac{-\left(b\right) \pm \sqrt{b^{2}-4 \cdot ac} }{2 \cdot a} $$”.

Figure 8.12 shows the DragMath equation editor with a mathematical expression ready to be inserted into HTML editor.

(b) Settings through site administration block

Moodle provides a number of possible settings under administrative privilege. The fol- lowing have been done for TanSSe-l system:

• Security settings include a disabling “self-registration” feature to prevent users from registering themselves and creating accounts through email.

• Security settings include an enabling “force users to login for profiles” feature in Moodle to prevent anonymous visitors and search engines from seeing system us- ers’ profiles.

• Moodle comes with a number of activity modules which can be used to create ex- ercises in different formats. At the time of starting the TanSSe-L system, only a few activity modules were enabled, namely: Assignments, Choice, Exercise, Forum, Quiz and Hot Potatoes Quiz. Others may be enabled latter.

• Inclusion of a “topic section” sometimes called “topic 0” can be used to display any information on the TanSSe-L home page (front page).

(c) “crontab” file

In order to run statistical reports which use graphs, crontab must be installed and en- abled. Each installed Moodle package need one crontab file. An example of a “crontab” or sometimes called “cronjob” is:

“*/30 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php”

(d) Links to learning content repositories if any

Learning content can be stored in a repository and viewed by the TanSSe-L system. To provide for this, the researcher activated the instructional management system, which comes with Moodle for the TanSSe-L system. Instructional management sys- tem repository was activated to take care of any IMS and SCORM learning packages.

With the content packaging specification of the instructional management system, it is possible to store chunks of materials in a standard format which can be reused in different systems.