Moodle Theme Development

Silvina Paola Hillar

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781786463210
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

Build customized themes to make your Moodle courses engaging and interactive

About This Book

• Leverage the power of Moodle 3 to create interactive and engaging themes for your courses
• Experience and integrate the power of Bootstrap and CSS into your Moodle app
• Implement your plans with illustrative examples to become a top notch designer

Who This Book Is For

If you are a Moodle administrator, developer, or designer and wish to enhance your Moodle site to make it visually attractive, then this book is for you. You should be familiar with web design techniques such as HTML and further experience with CSS would be helpful.

What You Will Learn

• Plan a personalized Moodle theme from start to finish
• Install a Moodle theme in different operating systems and change Moodle's theme settings
• Add your own customized logo and test your changes in several web browsers
• Customize the Moodle site to fit in with other elements such as websites and social networks, among others
• Create a design mock-up using graphics software
• Design themes that are capable of working with a huge number of different resolutions, screen sizes, screen orientations, and pixel densities
• Work with code to adjust the theme to users requirements
• Create new custom icons for your theme

In Detail

Theming is one of the main features of Moodle, and it can be used to customize your online courses and make them look exactly how you want them to, according to your target audience. If you have been looking for a book that will help you develop Moodle themes that you are proud of, and that your students will enjoy, then this is the book for you.

We start off by introducing Moodle 3 and explaining what it is, how it works, and what tools you might need to create a stunning Moodle theme. We then show you how to choose and change the pre-installed Moodle themes in detailed steps, and explain what Moodle themes are and how they work. Next, we show you how to change an existing theme and test the changes that you have made.

You can not only plan the customization of theme, but also tailor it using advanced Moodle theming processes; this book is your one-stop guide to creating your own personalized Moodle 3 theme.

Style and approach

This book acts as a comprehensive guide which helps you to create visually stunning and responsive themes to add that extra edge to your Moodle apps.

Moodle Theme Development

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Moodle Theme Development

Copyright © 2016 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, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and 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 of 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: December 2016

Production reference: 1021216

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78646-321-0

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author Silvina Paola Hillar	Copy Editor Safis Editing
Reviewer Susan Smith Nash	Project Coordinator Ulhas Kambali
Commissioning Editor Amarabha Banerjee	Proofreader Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor Larissa Pinto	Indexer Rekha Nair
Content Development Editor Onkar Wani	Graphics Abhinash Sahu
Technical Editor Rashil Shah	Production Coordinator Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Silvina P. Hillar is Italian and has been teaching English since 1993. She has always had a great interest in teaching and has done a lot of research on teaching methodologies, management techniques and embed them into e-learning and teaching. She has also explored different types of e-learning combining them with Moodle. She also researches on multimedia assets that enhance teaching and learning through VLE platforms. She tries to embed the learning of students through new resources that are appealing and innovative for them. In this way, she ensures that multimedia stimulates different thinking skills as well as multiple types of intelligence.

She is an English teacher, a Certified Legal Translator (English/Spanish), and has a postgraduate degree in Education (graduated with honors).

She has worked at several schools and institutions with native English speaking students and students of English as a foreign language, and as an independent consultant for many international companies in the capacity of an Interpreter, Translator, and Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Course Designer.

She has always had a passion for technological devices concerning education. Formerly, videos and cassettes were a must in her teaching lessons; the computer was, and still does, play a big role. Her brother, Gastón C. Hillar, designed some programs and games for her teaching. Lately, she has been teaching using Moodle and the Web. She believes that one of the most amazing challenges in education is bridging the gap between classic education and modern technologies.

She has authored: Moodle 1.9: The English Teacher's Cookbook, Moodle 2.0 Multimedia Cookbook, Moodle 2.5 Multimedia Cookbook second edition, Mind Mapping with FreeMind and Moodle 2.3 Multimedia Video Course.

When not tinkering with computers, she enjoys travelling with her son, Nico and her love, Jorge, with whom she spends wonderful time.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank all the team members at Packt Publishing, who worked with me as an incredibly helpful team; Larissa Pinto, who trusted me to work on this project--we worked together so that the idea came into this book--and Onkar Wani, who was very patient and helpful with time management. I would like to thank my technical reviewer, Rashil Shah; my reviewer Susan Nash; and proofrea...