MoodleMoot Ireland and UK 2016 Pecha Kucha about Moodle Mobile offline features

1. the world’s open source
learning platform
Moodle Mobile
offline features
Juan Leyva & Daniel Palou
@moodlemobileapp #mootieuk16
@jleyvadelgado

2. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Topics covered
1.How the app stores data for offline usage.
2.Resources offline support.
3.Activities offline support.
4.Course features offline support.
5.Site features offline support.
6.Future plans.

3. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Data storage for offline
● When you visit a page/section in the app, the data
retrieved from the server is stored for offline usage.
● This data is updated if you visit the same page 5
or more minutes later.
● You can update most pages doing a “Pull down to
refresh”.

4. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Data storage for offline
● When browsing a course, you can download all
the resources in a section for offline usage via the
“cloud” icon at the right.
● This will download all the resources in the course
(file, page, folder, book, IMS CP, SCORM).
● Only the sections with downloadable resources
show the “cloud” icon.
● It can be disabled by the user at app level.

5. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Data storage for offline
● Inside a particular section you may also download
specific resources.
● If the file size is big, you will be noticed prior to the
download.

6. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Data storage for offline
● Images and other media embedded are also downloaded for offline
usage.
● For example:
○ Images in labels or activities description.
○ Images in the participants list.
○ Your own profile image.

7. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Data storage for offline
Some important questions...
Why doesn’t the app pre-fetch more data?
Because the user may have a monthly data plan and also
because the storage space may be limited.

8. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Data storage for offline
Some important questions…
What happens with logging when the app is offline?
The actions the user does when offline are not logged,
supporting this would require changes in the Moodle
logging system.

9. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Resources offline support
The following resources are available offline if the user
previously downloaded them (or downloaded the complete
section where they are):
● Book
● File
● Folder
● IMS CP
● Label
● Page

10. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Activities offline support
Forum:
The user can browse the first ten discussions in the forum if
he had previously visited the activity.
When the user accesses a forum, we pre-fetch the first ten
discussions.

11. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Activities offline support
SCORM:
The user can continue or start new attempts, the tracking
data is synchronized when the user is back online.

12. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Activities offline support
Offline browsing of these activities is only available if the
user previously opened them:
● Glossary
● Assignment
● Chat (only entry page)
● Choice
● Survey

13. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Activities offline support
Others:
Some resources or activities won’t work offline because
they require to access information that is outside Moodle:
● URL
● External tool (lti)

14. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Course features offline support
Offline browsing of these features is only available if the
user previously visited them:
● Participants
● Grades
● Completion
● Notes

15. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Course features offline support
Not supported offline right now:
● Course self-enrolment
● Course guest-access
● Add notes to participants

16. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Site features offline support
Offline browsing of these features is only available if the
user previously visited them:
● Messaging
● Notifications
● Calendar
● Private files

17. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Site features offline support
Not supported offline right now:
● Course search
● Contact search
● Logging
● Upload files
● Send messages to users
● Add/Remove/Block contacts

18. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Future plans
Most important, in the short-term, is to allow the user to
interact with the app when he is offline and then
synchronize the data, for example:
● Add new discussions in the forum.
● Reply to forum posts.
● Send private messages.
● Write user notes.
● Submit assignments.

19. Copyright 2016 © Moodle Pty Ltd - CC SA - support@moodle.comthe world’s open source learning platform
Future plans
Add additional options or changes in the UI to notify the
user that there are data/actions pending to be
synchronized.
The user will have a list of data pending to be
synchronized.
The user will be able to force a full synchronization.

20. Thank you
Community: moodle.org
Commercial: moodle.com
@moodle
the world’s open source learning platform