EduNET.LK@LEARN

Running Moodle in a virtual or a dedicated machine on the LAMP, LEMP,  
etc. (Linux, Apache or Nginx, MySQL or MariaDB, PHP) stacks is well-
tested technology. However, LAMP occupies the machine and to run  
a second Moodle instance one has to touch the web server. Often that 
interferes with the first Moodle instance. Running Moodle in containers
is a convenient alternative method of bundling dozens of Moodle 
instances into one machine.

Learning outcomes of the workshop
After completion of this workshop the participants will be able to:

- Deploy the Moodle application using pre-built Moodle and database
  container images 

- Upgrade the Moodle version using a newer version of the pre-built
  Moodle container image

- Create their own customized Moodle container images from scratch

Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of the Linux command language

- Owns a recent Windows or Linux computer with minimum of 10 GB
  free storage space.

Program
Preparations: Three days before the start
 - Install docker desktop on own computer

Session 1: 7 November 2024  10:30-12:30 LKT
 - Learn about Docker container essentials (Container, Images, Volumes)
  
 - Build a Moodle site on own computer, using pre-built Moodle and 
   database container images 

Between sessions: 
 - Students build own Moodle site on LEARN server

Session 2: 21 November 2024 10:30-12:30 LKT
 - Upgrading Moodle version using a newer version of the pre-built 
   Moodle container image
   
 - Building your own customised Moodle container image

Between sessions:
 - Students publish their own customised Moodle container image on 
   Docker Hub
   
 - Teachers evaluate Moodle sites built by students
  
 - Teachers evaluate customized Moodle container images published by
   students on Docker hub
 
Closing session: 5 December 2024 10:30-11:30 LKT
 - Release of evaluation results. Those who've successfully completed 
   both evaluations get a certificate.

Course instructor
Dr Nimal Ratnayake

How to apply
First you need an account for the site. If you don't have one already, 
you may request a new account by its sign-up page [1]. Please use
your institution e-mail. We confirm your account within a working day. 

Once you account has been confirmed visit the course page [2]. You
must answer the questions at the top of that page.

Your registration will be confirmed on 5 November, 12:00 LKT.

Deadline: 4 November 12:00 LKT
Note that the number of participants is limited to 30. If there are more
by the deadline we will select 30 participants among those who have
registered.

[1] https://edunet.learn.ac.lk/login/signup.php
[2] https://edunet.learn.ac.lk/course/view.php?id=819

Hi all

Here's an opportunity for everybody involved in teaching programming. Please forward this to your colleagues too.

Date: 30 September 2024

To: The staff of all the institutions under the UGC and the LEARN members

Subject: Develop programming assignments with automated grading, a collaborative course

The book "Programmieren lernen"^[1] (Learn to program) contains a large collection of programming exercises for the novice. Its co-author and the sole copyright owner Dr. Philipp Freimann of Switzerland gave us his explicit permission to use the book and its companion website "programmieraufgaben.ch"^[2] (Programming assignments) in our EduNET@LEARN collaboration. We are delighted to offer you an adaptation of the book to the Moodle LMS making use of its powerful quiz tool and its specialized question types which support automated grading of programming assignments^{[3], [4]}.

The authors of the book believe that introduction to programming could and should be taught independently of a programming language and through many exercises. They encourage the learners to write the solutions initially in pseudocode^[5] and then transfer the solutions to whatever the programming language they use. In this adaptation we support C, Java, Pascal and Python.

Goals and objectives

- Convert the questions in the book to automated grading assignments which you may take home to be used in your own teaching.

- Learn how to convert your programming tasks in automated grading question types in Moodle thereby reducing the burden of correcting.

How the collaboration works

The course contains all the tasks in the book translated into English. You may pick tasks that interest you and solve them. Then we will convert them together to automated correcting quiz assignments.

During the course our teaching assistants will help you with the conversion which you may take home under an open license. We use the Creative Commons CC-BY license^[6].

Note that the book is meant for college education and vocational training in Central Europe. Which means that the tasks are not meant for degree level courses. But they are highly suitable for the foundational and "on-boarding" courses for the new entrants.

How to take part

Register yourself on the EduNET@LEARN site^[7]. Fill the form and submit. Please use your institution e-mail. We confirm your registration within a working day. If you already have an account go directly to the course^[8].

The course is fully on-line. There are no synchronous sessions. Our teaching assistants will be available for person-to-person meetings at announced time slots on demand.

Duration

The course is already on-line and open-ended. Our teaching assistants, who are students from the Open University assigned by LEARN, are available till the end of March 2025.

References

[1] Philipp Freimann, Martin Guggisberg: Programmieren lernen. Orell Füssli Verlag. 184 pages, ISBN: 978-3-280-04066-9. (German) Out of print. PDF at https://www.programmieraufgaben.ch/uploads/endversion.pdf
[2] Companion website https://programmieraufgaben.ch/ (German)
[3] Virtual Programming Lab (VPL) https://vpl.dis.ulpgc.es/
[4] CodeRunner question type https://coderunner.org.nz/
[5] Pseudocode, "a description of the steps in an algorithm using a mix of conventions of programming [..] with informal, usually self-explanatory, notation of actions and conditions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocode
[6] Creative Commons CC-BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
[7] EduNET.LK@LEARN  https://edunet.learn.ac.lk/login/signup.php
[8] Dev-prog-assign course https://edunet.learn.ac.lk/course/view.php?id=718