Moodle 1.9 Math

Table of Contents

Moodle 1.9 Math

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgements

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Moodle Mathematics

Are you a Moodle administrator?

What version of Moodle will I need?

Introduction to teaching Mathematics with Moodle

Starting an online discussion

Configuring your course

What we have learned so far

Summary

2. Getting Started with Mathematical Notation

Equation editors

Microsoft Office Equation Editor

How to use the Equation Editor

Copying equations to Moodle

Creating equations with the Microsoft Equation Editor—recap

Grabbing math notation with the Print Screen (PrtSc) key

Microsoft Equation Editor resources

OpenOffice.org Math

Creating math notation in OpenOffice—recap

Equation editors: Hints and tips

Ideas to try—create an animated equation using Microsoft PowerPoint

Problems with equation editors

Configuring and testing the Algebra Filter

Algebra Filter troubleshooting

Debugging the Algebra Filter

Debugging the Algebra Filter—recap

Algebra Filter—details on implementation

Troubleshooting on shared hosting

If all else fails...

How the Algebra Filter works

Typesetting mathematics

Algebra Filter examples

Experimenting with the Algebra Filter

Summary

3. Enhancing Your Math Teaching

PowerPoint and Mathematics

Quickly crafting a Pythagorean PowerPoint

Uploading to Moodle

Providing an audio commentary

Recording a separate narration—using Audacity to narrate a slideshow

Recording a narration—recap

Audacity can't export an MP3 file: Lame_enc.dll not installed

Adding sound effects to your recording

Providing a Next Slide cue

Including your presentation and audio file in a course

Creating a Moodle web page for your presentation and audio narration—recap

Uploading to SlideShare

Audio commentaries and SlideShare—slidecasts

Converting PowerPoint to Moodle—more options

Including YouTube videos

YouTube videos—recap

Don't get caught out with copyright

Creating screencasts

Incorporating third-party content

Summary

4. SCORM and Flash

SCORM

Where to find free SCORM content

Adding SCORM to a course

Display options

SCORM and the grade book

DIY SCORM

Creating SCORM for free

eXe (eLearning XHTML editor)

Using eXe—recap

Udutu

Commercial products

A SCORM course

Being Flash

Including Flash resources in your course

Creating your own Flash resources

Flash requirements

Java—a SCORM and Flash alternative

Moodle Ideas: Getting students to create games for your Moodle courses

Summary

5. Geometry

About GeoGebra

Installing and testing GeoGebra

Incorporating GeoGebra activities in Moodle

Installing the GeoGebra filter—Moodle admins only

Changing the size of the GeoGebra window

Interactive activities with GeoGebra—dynamic worksheets

Simple dynamic worksheets—Exploring linear functions with GeoGebra

Advanced dynamic worksheets

Exploring the Pythagorean Theorem with GeoGebra

Exploring the Pythagorean Theorem with GeoGebra—recap

Hiding objects in the Graphics view

More GeoGebra examples

GeoGebra: Where to get further help

Summary

6. Math Quizzes

Creating quizzes

Question types

Calculated question type

Including an image in the question text

Calculated question type: Frequently asked questions

Numerical question type

Other question types

Import your questions: Hot Potatoes quiz

Adding a math quiz

Encouraging students as they attempt the quiz

Reporting quiz results

Monitoring the success of your teaching

The Feedback module

Gathering Feedback

Configuring a Feedback activity

Feedback example: Create a departmental survey

System for Teaching and Assessment using a Computer algebra Kernel (STACK)

System requirements

Moodle requirements

Installing STACK

Using STACK

Creating a STACK question

Enhancing STACK questions—graphs, charts, and random variables

Getting more help with STACK

Ask the admin: Installing the Feedback module

Summary

7. More Mathematical Notation

Why is including mathematical notation so complicated?

Advanced notation using the TeX filter

Turning on the TeX filter

Testing the TeX filter

Useful TeX notation

TeX filter troubleshooting

The TeX filter on shared hosting

TeX filter—further guidance

Introducing the jsMath filter

DragMath

Installing DragMath

Using DragMath

Verifying your DragMath installation

Supporting multiple Moodles: Hiding the DragMath button

Hiding the DragMath button—recap

Using DragMath with different filters

DragMath troubleshooting

Resizing the HTML editor toolbar

ASCIIMathML

Installing ASCIIMathML

Why didn't we need to enable the ASCIIMathML filter?

Enabling ASCIIMathML in your Moodle theme

Including support for MathML in Internet Explorer

Browser requirements

ASCIIMathML with fallback

ASCIIMathML further options

Summary

8. Graphs and Charts

ASCIIMathML and ASCIIsvg

Including graphs using ASCIIsvg

Basic ASCIIsvg commands

More ASCIIsvg examples

ASCIIsvg browser support

Creating charts in Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice.org Calc

Creating charts with Microsoft Excel

Creating a chart in Microsoft Excel

Including an Excel chart in a Moodle course—recap

Creating charts with OpenOffice.org Calc

Creating a bar graph in OpenOffice.org Calc

Google Docs

Creating a pie chart in Google Spreadsheets

Using Google Docs—recap

Further study—Google Chart API

Summary

9. Doing More with Math and Science

Alternative ways to create math notation

MathType

WIRIS

Sitmo

Detexify

Math Input Panel (Windows 7 only)

Math+Magic

Formulator Weaver

Google Docs and the Google Chart API

MathTran

Publicon

Math teaching resources

Resources you can link to

Resources you can upload

Resources students can download

Science modules

Summary

Index

Moodle 1.9 Math

Ian Wild

Moodle 1.9 Math

Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: November 2009

Production Reference: 1181109

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road

Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847196-44-6

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Parag Kadam (<paragvkadam@gmail.com>)

Credits

Author

Ian Wild

Reviewers

Mary Cooch

Mauno Korpelainen

Howard Miller

Acquisition Editor

David Barnes

Development Editor

Darshana Shinde

Technical Editor

Bhupali Khule

Indexers

Monica Ajmera

Hemangini Bari

Editorial Team Leader

Akshara Aware

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Rajashree Hamine

Proofreader

Jade Schuler

Production Coordinator

Dolly Dasilva

Cover Work

Dolly Dasilva

About the Author

Ian Wild, a physicist by profession, has always focused primarily on communication and learning.

Fifteen years spent in private industry designing communication systems software eventually saw Ian concentrate on the development of accessibility and learning aids for blind, partially sighted, dyslexic, and dyscalculic computer users, while also working part-time as a math and science tutor

Teaching only part-time meant not spending as much time with his students as he would have wanted. This, and his background in learning and communication technology, seeded his interest in virtual learning environments.

Ian is author of the popular book Moodle Course Conversion: Beginner's Guide also from Packt Publishing.

He lives in rural Worcestershire with his wife Karen and three children Matthew, Lian, and Ethan. To learn more about Ian and his work, visit http://www.yourmathstutor.info.

Acknowledgements

The one aspect I enjoy most about being an author is having the opportunity to work with wonderful people. Firstly, I must thank the development and editorial teams at Packt Publishing, most notably David Barnes, Rajashree Hamine, Darshana Shinde, and Bhupali Khule. Thank you for your wisdom, guidance and, above all, your patience. A thank you must go to the reviewers for keeping my work focused and on track. Their input has been invaluable. I must thank you, the reader, for taking the time to read this book. I do hope you find it useful. I will mention quickly that if you do need any further help at all with mathematics support in Moodle, then please do visit the Mathematics Tools forum on Moodle.org (http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=752). That's where you'll find me and my colleagues, all ready to help you with your Moodle math-related issues.

My final and very big thank you must, of course, go to Martin Dougiamas and his team. Please keep up the excellent work.

About the Reviewers

Mary Cooch is the author of Moodle 1.9 for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds from Packt Publishing and has taught languages and geography in the UK for over 20 years. She manages several websites, even more Moodles, and runs her own Moodle blog. A Moodle Certified Course Creator, she now spends part of her working week traveling the country as a VLE trainer specializing in Moodle. She regularly promotes its benefits in schools and has a deep understanding of what works best for younger students. Known online as moodlefairy, Mary helps moderate the forums on www.moodle.org where she aims to enthuse others with her passion for this Open Source Virtual Learning Environment.

Mary works at Our Lady's Catholic High School in Preston Lancashire UK, and can be contacted on <mco@olchs.lancs.sch.uk>.

I would like to express my thanks to my family for their patience and to Our Lady's Preston Assistant Headteacher, Mark Greenwood, for his unique motivation.

Mauno Korpelainen teaches Mathematics for high school and adult students in Hyvinkää, Finland and has been several years a PHM (Particularly Helpful Moodler) and moderator of Mathematics Tools forum on Moodle.org.

To my family with love

Preface

You've started converting your mathematics teaching over to Moodle. Perhaps you've been reading the general guides to teaching with Moodle: Moodle Course Conversion (ISBN: 1847195245), Moodle 1.9 for Teaching 7-14 Year Olds (ISBN: 1847197140), or Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development (ISBN: 1847193536). However, teaching mathematics online means we have special requirements when it comes to how we present information to our students.

The most obvious is mathematical notation. How do we insert a simple fraction into a Moodle web page? What about derivatives, integrals, or matrices? In this book, you'll find simple and effective solutions to the problem of including mathematical notation in your Moodle courses.

Then, there's how we present data to our students; how do we quickly and easily include graphs and charts in a Moodle course? We will see more samples and solutions that you can use in your teaching.

And what's great about moving over to Moodle is that we can set online tests and have the computer mark them for us. In this book, we'll be showing you how to create math-specific questions—including how to configure Moodle so that it can recognize that 3x+4 is algebraically equivalent to 4+3x .

What's great about being a teacher of math is that there is a wealth of engaging and entertaining teaching material available for us to include in our Moodle courses. This book shows you the most efficient and effective ways of including a variety of content—from interactive math exploration tools to online simulations—with minimum fuss.

Because of the specialized nature of math teaching, we are required to assume some familiarity with Moodle. Otherwise, this book would have been twice as long! If you are completely new to Moodle then visit http://www.packtpub.com/moodle-books, and check out the other great Moodle books from Packt Publishing, especially the Beginner's Guide series.

Above all, the focus of this book is on getting results fast, moving your mathematics teaching over to Moodle so that your lessons become more effective for students and less work for you.

What this book covers

Chapter 1:Moodle Mathematics explains how to upload past exam papers for students themselves to access through the Internet. You will learn how to include a forum so that students can discuss problems they are having and where we teachers can gauge the areas we need to go over again in class. In my case, students were having problems with the Pythagorean Theorem, so I'm going to create an online Pythagorean Theorem course in Moodle.

Chapter 2:Getting Started with Mathematical Notation shows you how to include mathematical notation in your Moodle courses using the tools you will be familiar with: Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org. You will also learn how Moodle's built-in Algebra Filter can be used to create simple mathematical notation.

Chapter 3:Enhancing your Math Teaching teaches you how to create an interactive PowerPoint presentation and shows you the different ways of incorporating presentations in a Moodle course. There are many great math videos on YouTube, and you'll learn how to include those videos in a Moodle course.

Chapter 4:SCORM and Flash discusses how to include SCORM and Flash resources in your Moodle courses. SCORM and Flash are two formats that are becoming more popular with content providers (who know that SCORM and Flash resources will work in any VLE).