The Learning Curve - What If?

What if ? 

What if you could streamline your Moodle to make it faster, smoother, and easier to navigate?

At The Learning Curve we have undertaken a huge project beginning last August and ending this coming June: to relocate our members’ Moodle sites to a new server facility. Our primary reason is to improve performance and efficiency for our members. As a result, we have identified a few factors that affect performance and efficiency from the teacher's end as well. So we begin this series of "white papers" by identifying some of the local issues that affect performance and by offering some solutions that require little effort but can result in significant improvements in performance.


Issues and approaches

1. Large files including PowerPoint and Prezi files. One of the easiest ways to include these files is to upload them directly into your Moodle course. This is fine as long as you don't have dozens and dozens of them to upload. As you continue to add these files to your Moodle site, they draw upon your local Moodle server not only for storage but also for running the PowerPoint or Prezi files.
   
   A better approach to upload these files to a free online service like Drop Box, Google Drive, or One Drive and create links to them in your Moodle site. Then, when students activate the presentations, the operating drain will be away from your Moodle server, thereby making your Moodle site more efficient and causing less drain from the Moodle sites of your colleagues. Another advantage to this process is that you can edit these presentations even without entering your Moodle course as long as you don't change their titles or locations. The links in your Moodle site will retain their integrity.
2. Uploaded or embedded videos. Videos provide teachers almost unlimited access to dynamic content not otherwise available. On the other hand, many of them are huge files and cause even bigger problems than PowerPoint or Prezi files in terms of data storage and overall operating efficiency.
   
   Here we have at least two good approaches. The first is to simply add the links to YouTube or any other source of videos. Let those services do the heavy lifting. If you are concerned about having your students see other videos on YouTube, try using http://safeshare.tv. Check it out. It will still take your students to YouTube but without all the extraneous material.
   
   The second approach, especially for teacher made videos, is similar to the approach I suggested for PowerPoint and Prezi. Use Drop Box, Google Drive, or One Drive.
3. Images. Images add nice touches to your course. However, the larger the image, the more space it takes. Upload your images directly into Moodle, but keep them small and use "align left" to eliminate unnecessary white space. In some cases, a large image might be necessary. For example, a teacher might want to show the circulatory system of the human body. Large images can then be uploaded to an outside source as described above. Try using a smaller version in your Moodle course and making it a link to the larger image.

Example: Creating a new course
or reorganizing an older one

1. Create a folder in Drop Box, Google Drive, or One Drive
2. Within that folder, create a folder for each module (topic, week, etc.) in your course
3. For your own materials - documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, Prezis, aodios, videos - pop them into the appropriate folders
4. Organize your Moodle course shell to correspond to the folders you have created online (modules, topics, weeks, etc.)
5. In your Moodle shell, use Add a resource > Page
6. Here is a screen shot of one of the modules in my introductory Moodle course. Note how the resources for this module include an audio file, a video, three PDFs, and a link to an article on the Web. Each of the images is actually a link to the required course content. Note the small sardine can. It is quite small yet large enough to make a point. It is also aligned left of the text - no unused white space. This approach includes a lot of content, yet it causes very little drain on Moodle's operating resources; it is visually appealing yet highly efficnent. This is not the only approach, of course. You might want to do a little experimenting in your own Moodle course.

The issue of course backups

Of course I already know that all of you back up your courses at least once each week. Right? Certainly it is important to back up your courses on a regular basis. However, this often causes a space problem. In some cases I know of teachers who do back up their courses regularly. However, sometimes they leave the backup copies in Moodle. As these backup files accumulate, they consume more and more space, sometimes causing the Moodle server to reach its storage capacity and perhaps even shut down - not really fair to other teachers and students.

Each time you back up your course, download the backup file and save it somewhere else - flash drive, SD card, etc. Then delete the backup file from your Moodle course. That way you will not create any unnecessary drain on your school's Moodle server.

Final word (or two)

A few months ago my wife and I had an electric efficiency study done in our home. The result was a series of steps that enable us to save a few dollars in our electricity consumption. This same approach can help you and your colleagues work together to get the most out of your Moodle site.

One of the simplest ways to improve the performance and efficiency of any of our local Moodle sites is to provide a bigger server with more memory and more storage. However, that would necessarily involve additional cost. The solutions described above are essentially cost free. The Learning Curve is a non-profit education organization and as such we want to work with you in every way possible. 

Questions or comments? 
Feel free to add your thoughts below.
See you online!