Moodle

Very cool indeed! We could do so much with something like this!

I agree, this would be a fine Repository plugin!

Nanogong could be a good place to start:

http://gong.ust.hk/nanogong/moodle.html

Tim, thanks for your suggestion, watchers, thanks for your interest, and thanks to everyone who has voted

This feature idea is now included in the list http://docs.moodle.org/en/Projects_for_new_developers

Could this also work for video - to record directly from a webcam?

As a language teacher, this would be a great asset. It would change every computer lab into a language lab. I like the record video from a webcam also, and would like to see recording of both ends of a conversation.

Tim,
Sounds great! Intergrating the audio recording with the upload so that if a 'title' has been defined the audio appears when the recording ends would reduce clutter perhaps.
Doing this with video as well (as Clark suggests) would be superb (and I don't think at all trivial), I know one or two lecturers at Ravensbourne College, UK, who video blog their lectures. Though you then have to consider hiding the resource for a week or students never need get out of bed!
Not necessarily a 'webcam', but a plugged in camcorder for example.
And note the fabulously clever BBC model where the server is fed a file stream from the news desk, which is immediately streamable from the front end! But perhaps that is TOO exotic!

It is a GSOC project, so assign this to moodle.com

Repository API

The riffly repository plugin provides integration of the riffly.com web services, allowing recording of audio and video content. The content is stored on the riffly.com servers and requires no account, streaming software or additional storage space on the Moodle side.

For the benefit of watchers, and anyone else viewing this issue, I'm just adding a link to a blog post where Andrei explains how to install and use the riffly repository plugin:

http://abautu.blogspot.com/2009/07/midterm-plugin.html

here is a patch for a similar purpose that you can apply to Moodle 1.9.x
it enables audio/video posts in forums:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-19192

i will keep you posed when i have integrated it into htmlarea
(for moodle 1.9.x users, that will not be moving to ver 2.0 this year)

The latest riffly plugin is in CVS contrib/repository/riffly. I'm also attaching the nanogong plugin for repository. It's not in CVS, yet.

The two plugins are in CVS /plugins/repository/riffy and /plugins/repository/nanogong.

Andrei, thanks for adding the plugins to the modules and plugins database

http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=2611
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=2612

For anyone wishing to try out the plugins, please see http://abautu.blogspot.com/2009/08/completed-audio-repository-plugins.html

Hi Andrei,

I've just tried the riffy plugin on my 2.0 test site. I couldn't get my riffy instance to appear in the list of repositories in the file picker until Jerome figured out that 'Download files locally' needed to be set to Yes in the repository instance settings. (The default is No.)

Hope this little problem can be fixed easily.

Hi Helen,

Thank you for your observation. "Download files" option defaults now to Yes because the File picker displays only plugins that can provide it with actual files (ie. it does not accept links).

Andrei, thanks for fixing the problem.

Watchers, and anyone else interested, please feel free to try out the repository plugins on our test site:

http://test.moodle.org/audiovideo/ - login with username test and password test

Thanks to Jerome and Jordan for setting up the test site.

Just installed the Riffy plugin. I am getting this error message: Plugin "mod_riffly" is defective, can not continue, sorry.

My 2.0 installation is not current, though. Maybe I need to update and try again.

– Art

Hi Art,

Thank you for the comment. Did it work with the latest 2.0 dev?

Andrei

Following is the result of trying 'Riffy plugin' on Moodle 2.0 dev (Build 20090822)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plugin "mod_riffly" is defective, can not continue, sorry.

More information about this error
Missing version value in version.php
Stack trace:

• line 434 of /lib/upgradelib.php: plugin_defective_exception thrown
• line 294 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins_modules()
• line 1079 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
• line 251 of /admin/index.php: call to upgrade_noncore()
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi George,

I just updated the Moodle and pluings' code. I tried to replicate this error but I could not (ie it worked correctly). Can you update your code and retest? Maybe the error was fixed already in someplace else. If it shows up again, can you provide more details:

• can you replicate the errors multiple times?
• what are the steps that trigger it (where did you clicked, what you typed) ?
• how is your plugin configured?

Hello

I've got a question about Nanogong repository in Moodle 2.0: will it be compatible with recordings created by Nanogong HTML Area in version 'Nanogong 3' (available here: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1209)?

I'm looking forward for response.

Regards

@Lukasz: The repository plugin uses the same Nanogong applet, so the file format is the same. The difference is that for the repository plugin, after recording the file goes under the repository management (which is part of Moodle), instead of begin managed by the 3rd party plugin you mentioned. A tool to migrate the files from the Nanogong HTML Area inside the repository might be helpful though (especially if you have many files).

Hi all,

Maybe a bug - or not. I checked out the forum post at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=130822 which pointed me to the demo site at http://test.moodle.net/audiovideo/course/view.php?id=2 in which I tried to test the functionality.

For NanoGong I got this error - http://screencast.com/t/ZDYwZDgyN
For Riffly I got this error - http://screencast.com/t/MTEyOWIzO

I'm getting our dev team to install these plugins on a local Moodle, but wondering if they are known bugs or if that site is out of date (looks like there are some fairly old posts in there), in which case it might be good to put a warning on there or update it or something.

If they are bugs then I can do a screencast to show more detail about the error, but afaik I'm using the plugins in a pretty standard way on that test site.

Cheers!

Mark.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for reporting. I'll try to take a look at it. I believe some APIs changed since the plugin code was written.

Cheers.
Andrei

I think riffly.com is out of business and not responding for my emails for a few months, now.
Shame. They are such a good idea for a service.

we are using http://www.voice-it.biz/lang/EN/homepage
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-21990

I think you should consider using Kaltura (http://www.kaltura.org/moodle-kaltura-plugin)
We are testing there product and it looks very promising

Pity this didn't work out for 2.0, hopefully someone can develop something later.

(Something that does not rely on a dodgy Web 2.0 start up )

It would be nice if we can get this resolved by 2.1. We host for 20 school districts (and growing) that would put this to good use. One of the school districts just inquired about this.

This does not need to wait until Moodle 2.1. Repository plugins are just that, plug-ins. Anyone can try making a record audio plugin and then share it using the Modules and Plugins database, and then people can try it in Moodle 2.0 if they want.

If someone makes a really good plugin like that, that works reliably on most people's computers, then we can consider including it in Moodle 2.x.

JFTR

The Moodle for Language Teaching folks are desperately waiting for a recording plug-in for Moodle 2.0 before they can/will switch, see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=170422 (NanoGong).

Our language training centre has just installed Moodle 2.02 on a trial basis and a voice recorder is indeed desperately needed!

I'm a language teacher and I would be grateful if you could install Nano Gongon Moodle 2.
Thanks a lot!

JFTR

A bit of development for upgrading NanoGong to Moodle 2.0 is going on at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=170422 and documented at http://docs.moodle.org/en/NanoGong/Converting_to_Moodle_2.0

Any testing, comments and help welcome!

Cheers,
Frank

As a language teacher, I came to, and adopted, Moodle primarily because of Nanogong. Hearing my students' presentations on line, recording and inserting my own comments in their assignments were priceless features - so interesting that my colleagues asked me to train them and to let them develop their own courses on my site. Now, I feel stuck - between my Moodle 1.9.9 site in which my colleagues and I have invested a lot of time and energy - and Moodle 2.1. in which we won't be able to transfer our courses but have to start all over again from scratch - to find fewer of the features we have come to find indispensable.
I think that what has not been taken into consideration in the move to Moddle 2.0 is the time it takes for busy teachers to build, test, develop activities - and the time it takes developers to come up on their "free" time with solutions to problems they have not created.
I feel let down - and my time taken for granted.

Herve

@Herve,
I share with you the hope to see a NanoGong plugin for Moodle 2. However, there is no reason to feel let down. Moodle 1.9.x works very well and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Encourage the coders, donate some funds if you can, or contribute with code yourself, if you wish to speed up the development.

@Herve

I have recently uploaded a new set of plugins that integrates into the Moodle 1.9.x HTMLAREA Editor,
one of them allow you Audio Recording. you can try it out : http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2730

When we move to Moodle 2, we will convert those plugins to work with TinyMCE.

Hope you will find it usefull

I took the liberty of keeping a history of Nanogong code here: http://gitorious.org/nanogong/

@Frank Ralf

Did you ever see my comment re: my test of your first try here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=170422 ?

Thanks everyone for your comments and votes. Increasing priority and setting a fix version of DEV backlog for the issue to be considered for inclusion in the next version of Moodle.

I have been bored due to rain for the last few days so I have been learning php and Moodle API. I now have a working Nanogong Text Filter for Moodle 2.1+. I guess it will probably work on 2.03 but I don't have one setup to test it. I have been making the Nanogong sound files in My Mooodle 1.9.12+ and then uploaded them into Moodle 2.1 repositories, forums, topic areas, and test questions and the files work perfectly like they do in the same areas of Moodle 1.9.

I have also been working on getting the old GSOC2009 Nanogong repository updated so I can record directly in Moodle 2 but I am stuck. I can create the repository but have not been able to figure out how to get the recorder to pop up for use. The actual code I'm having trouble with is : 'iframe' => $CFG->wwwroot . '/repository/nanogong/record.php?repo_id=' . $this->id,

Anybody have any ideas for me?

It is likely to be hard to get the recorder to pop-up in the file-picker. I believe that iframe option may not be properly implemented because none of the other repositories use it. (It used to work, then it got broken by other changes.). So, it will require hairy debugging in the filepicker code, which is not simple.

Of, course, very worthwhile to get it working. So good luck!

Thanks!

There has been quite some progress lately. See the following threads:

• Dataform module beta with a Nanogong field
• Online Audio Recording - free Flash-based record & upload assignment
• P3 Quickie - a new MP3 voice recorder for Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.x to record 20-second "quickies"
• Release of NanoGong 4.1, an important update for Moodle users

What is the prospect for nanogong for moodle 2.0+?

I would really like to see this NanoGong repository work, as it comes closest to the functionality the 1.9 NanoGong plugin provides and I am willing to put (some of) my money where my vote is. I have some change left over from the Christmas shopping spree. Where and how can I donate it towards the completion of this repository?

This tracker issue could be combined with http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2174