My review of “Designing Moodle Themes [Video] by Susan Smith Nash, a Packt video.

June 24th, 2014

Getting to know all that Moodle offers may take a lot of time and effort, not to mention much “know-how”. If you are interested in mastering Moodle to a level where you can understand it very well, then taking courses provided by highly qualified instructors, and also sharing experiences with fellow “Moodlers” will help you a lot. I have done that. It may, however, not be enough if you aim higher than average.

I believe that getting to feel that you understand Moodle very well requires the help of even more professionals than great course instructors. People like me, for example, like to check  both printed  and / or digital books (I love books) as well as carefully arranged, step - by - step tutorials that can be handy whenever needed.  This is precisely why I have turned to what Packt Publishing offers. That is also the reason I have some of their products on Moodle, and why I share my opinion with anyone interested. Perhaps somebody will benefit from my words.

I have just got one new Packt Publishing video: the” Designing Moodle Themes [Video] course”. I am a field Spanish and English as Foreign Languages teacher  (I write this to let you know that I am not a computer person, a program developer, and the like. I wish I knew what they do, but I don’t). The thing is that this video course does allow me to get to understand stuff I doubt I could learn on a course on Moodle for teachers, simply because getting into such detail as Susan Smith Nash gets into would take too much course time.

Being just a teacher who likes to be considered a “Moodler”, the video tutorials that make up this course have got me to learn a lot about Moodle design. While one should never judge a book by its cover, there is no doubt that when it comes to creating a Moodle course, its cover, by which I mean its design, is important, and certainly enough people will judge your course based on that as well. As for Moodle, understanding design means coming to grips with Moodle Themes. Incidentally, I also learned that Themes provide a "skin" to completely change the look and feel of your site (or even an individual course).

Note: This is how you may see the videos on your computer folder. Downloading is as easy as can be.

You may say a teacher does not have to deal with  “Pre-installed Themes”, “Customizing the Appearance of Activities”, “Customizing the Appearance of Resources”, “Downloading Themes”, “Developing Our Own Themes", and the like. I could certainly learn about that in the video.  Consider this, please: it is useful to learn about them because you may find yourself in a position where you are asked to give an informed opinion, or even better, when you may have a say on the Moodle course design most appropriate for you.

Needless to say, administrators and course designers will find answers to all sorts of questions, and help with solving all sorts of problems.

I have managed to get the school administration where I teach to purchase some of Packt Publishing’s work on Moodle. I have even go as far as to review such products because I honestly believe that Packt people produce quality stuff. As I see it, teachers, Moodle Administrators and anyone involved in helping teachers to use Moodle for the benefit of the school, its pupils and yes, the teachers themselves, may eventually agree with me.

I recommend this video course highly. It may take a toll on you when it comes to devoting time to get what it offers, but it may eventually be time well invested.

Eduardo Lina