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Sneak peek – 4 new projects our development team are working on

December 4, 2017

Avid readers of this blog will no doubt remember that over summer we welcomed Marcus Green to our Moodle development team. As Senior Developer, Marcus takes the lead on many of our bespoke projects, and he’s certainly hit the ground running at Titus Learning.

Here, Marcus gives a quick round-up of some of the exciting work he and the team have been doing this term – some of which is still a work in progress.

Building the Titus Wall

I have worked on the creation of Titus Wall, a Moodle plugin that allows students to post images and links to videos within a course. It has a social element in that students can “like” the posts of other students by clicking a heart image.

Students can flag posts made by other students if they are of concern and the tutor will be notified. I have also worked on a custom plugin for awarding badges based on when a student’s post has been rated by another student.

Tidying up the Homework block

The Moodle assignment module offers teachers enormous power and flexibility but sometimes this comes at the price of complexity that can be off putting. The Homework block offers a simplified interface to the assignment module making it easier to create and mark assignments.

I have worked on improvements so the teacher is presented a list of subjects to select from rather than a free-form text box. This makes it easier to analyse data – for example maths homework will be listed as ‘Maths’ and not either ‘Maths’ ‘Math’ or ‘Mathematics’.

We have added an archiving feature so that after a pre-set period following the submission deadline assignments are archived to a hidden area of the course. This presents a clearer course structure to students allowing them to focus on current assigned work.

Moodle in the palm of your hand

We have been testing the MoodleBox installation of Moodle, which is a version that runs on the Raspberry Pi single board computer. This is small enough to fit in one hand including a battery power source and will work as a WiFi access point so making it usable in remote areas without any Internet access.

It is a fully featured installation of Moodle that will run standard plugins and we are exploring possibilities of co-operating with charities that look after education in remote areas of the world.

Mapping the Moodle database

I have created and maintain the single most comprehensive diagram and documentation of the Moodle database available anywhere.

The Moodle database has grown in complexity and now includes around 400 tables. This diagram is useful for both developers and report writers as it helps to understand the relationships between the tables.

This is made available under a Creative Commons license and can be viewed at http://www.examulator.com/er

Keep an eye on the blog to see the official announcement as each of these projects goes live. In the meantime, if you’ve got a Moodle puzzle which you’d like our team to solve, please get in touch.

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Phuong Nguyen Hong

Digital Marketing Executive

Super talented, unflappable and very funny, Phuong supports the whole marketing team in her role as Digital Marketing Executive. Phuong holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and recently completed a master’s degree in Management and Marketing. Originally from Hanoi in Vietnam, Phuong is now based in the UK and climatising brilliantly to our weather and food.

Phuong owns a food review Instagram page as travelling and food are her passion. She also has a cute little french bulldog.

Ellie Sharkey

Head of Marketing

Ellie was the first woman to join Titus and has paved the way for many more since then. After studying for a degree in Fashion and Marketing, Ellie was lucky to find herself at fashion weeks and photoshoots.

Now she’s switched from talk of the front row to front end design and has brought loads of transferable knowledge to Titus. Ellie has also found a real passion for tech, especially in the learning sector, helping clients create positive change for their organisations.

Callum Barrett

Senior Brand Executive

As one of the youngest people at Titus but at the same time one of the oldest serving members of the team, Callum has graced Titus with his broad smile and positive attitude for over 5 years now. As a key member of the marketing team, Callum works across all areas, both on and offline, to ensure that all Titus brands and communication are on point.

After missing out on the opportunity to go to University the first time around, management encouraged him to enrol in our course alongside his work. He is now studying to achieve his Level 6 Diploma in Professional Digital Marketing.

Dec Connolly

Acquisition Marketing Manager

Always bringing innovation and new ideas, Dec studied a degree in Journalism but found his passion in digital marketing. Dec has also worked in marketing for one of the countries biggest retailers and within the property sector.

Outside work, Dec Co-founded a news publication where he collaborated with global brands like Uber, Amazon, BooHoo and countless SMEs.