Moodle and the iPad

One common question we get is will Moodle work on an iPad. The answer is yes! This blog entry will talk about the MyMobile theme for mobile devices, My Moodle app, how to submit assignments to Moodle on the iPad, and course development on the iPad.

My Mobile Theme

Moodle has developed a special theme for mobile devices such as the iPad.   Below is a screenshot of what the My Mobile Theme looks like on an iPad.

 

The MyMobile theme needs to be turned on as the site administrator. This allows Moodle to detect what device is being used and turn on the correct theme for that device.

There are two settings required at the administrative level:

Site Administration -> Plugins -> Web Services -> External service (enabled)

Site Administration -> Appearance -> Theme -> Theme Settings (Enable device detection)

The user has the choice of using one or two column display.

My Moodle App

In addition to a Mobile Theme, Moodle has also developed a free My Moodle App.  The Moodle Mobile App is available for the iPhone and Android.  The app works in Moodle 2.1 and above.

In this app, students have the ability to use their iPad to take a picture or video and immediately upload it into their course.  It becomes part of their private files.

Students can also upload files to their private files using the Mobile app.

In version 2.2 and above, students also have the ability to download content from the site through the app.  So for example, they could download pdfs you have posted in the course to their iPad using this app. They can then view this document without being enrolled in the course.

When you 1st set up the MyMoodle app to access your Moodle site, you must type in the url exactly.

Hint: Browse to your regular Moodle login page. Copy and paste the URL directly from there so you know you have it perfect. In fact, in our experience pasting in the URL from the browser is the only way we have found that works. Typing in the correct URL does not work!

Unfortunately, Moodle has decided to drop their support for the My Moodle App.  The MyMoodle App is no longer officially supported by Moodle. This means that it will not be responsible for fixing reported bugs in the Moodle Tracker. The app is still available at iTunes.

Instead Moodle is moving development to HTML5 The new app will be called Moodle Mobile.  The target was release at the end of this year with Moodle version 2.4 however, it is not yet out.  The new app will only work with Moodle 2.4+.

How to Submit Assignments on the iPad

You will not be able to upload files to an assignment on an iPad like you normally do on an iPad.

However, if your school is making use of Google Docs and you have Moodle version 2 or later there is a workaround for this. You can add your Google Docs to the file picker.

A student could use safari to write their documents in Google Docs and then upload them via the Google Docs File Repository.

Course Development on the iPad

I do not recommend doing course development on the iPad.  I recommend using a computer to do this. The iPad is good for reading content and participating in discussion boards. It is not good for editing your courses.

In my next blog entry I will write about Killer Moodle Activities for the iPad.