AAPT Summer Meeting, Minneapolis, 2014
American Association of Physics Teachers
Using Moodle to design Physics online courses
with virtual and remote laboratories based on EJS
Luis de la Torre1, Sebastian Dormido1, Jose Sánchez
Ruben Heradio2
1 Dept.
of Computer Science and Automatic Control
2 Dept. of Software Engineering and Computer Systems
July 26-30, 2014 - Minneapolis, USA -
Contents
1. Motivation
2. Why Moodle?
3. Our approach for Virtual and Remote Labs (VRLs)
4. What is EJSApp?
5. EJSApp plugins
i.
EJSApp
ii.
EJSApp File Browser
iii.
EJSApp Booking System
iv.
EJSApp Collab Sessions
v.
OSP
6. UNILabs – an example of an online course with EJS VRLs
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1. Motivation
• Online courses (Moodle)
• Experimental practices (VRLs)
• Easy construction of VRLs (EJS)
• Easy deployment of VRLs (EJSApp)
• Easy management of VRLs (EJSApp)
• Enhanced functionalities of VRLs (EJSApp)
• Enhanced functionalities of online courses (EJSApp)
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2. Why Moodle?
• Moodle is a free open source LMS.
• Supports teachers with their teaching and
learners with their learning.
• Integrates anything needed for a course (blocks,
activities…).
• It can be customized to support the needed features.
• It can be used from any device (tablets, smartphones…).
• More than 60 million users (one of the most used LMS in
the world).
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3. Our approach for virtual and remote labs
(Moodle)
(EJSApp)
(EJS)
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4. What is EJSApp?
Free & open source!
5 plugins
> 8000
downloads in
one year and
a half
Moodle Hat
Award
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5. EJSApp plugins
•
•
•
•
Core plugin (EJSApp)
Storing data and other files (EJSApp File Browser)
Managing the access to the RLs (EJSApp Booking System)
Allowing collaborative work with the VRLs (EJSApp Collab
Session)
• Accesing simulations from the OSP-ComPADRE library
directly from Moodle (OSP)
• Download them from
https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=27
• Visit our channel in Youtube: UNEDLabs
(http://www.youtube.com/user/UNEDLabs)
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5. EJSApp plugins - EJSApp
• Add EJS applications to a Moodle course
– Simulations or virtual laboratories
– Remote laboratories
• Set standard Moodle conditions for accessing
these new activities
• Automatic backup and restore features
• Multi-language support
• Personalize EJS simulations for each student
• Different initial states for each EJS simulation
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5. EJSApp plugins – EJSApp File Browser
• Extends Moodle’s Private Files native
repository
• Store files saved from an EJS application
integrated into Moodle by means of EJSApp
– Image files
– Text (data) files
– State files
• Load previously saved states for a particular
EJS simulation
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5. EJSApp plugins – EJSApp Booking System
• Provides a way to manage the access to the RL
resources
– Students need to make a booking before they can
work with the RL
– Teachers have free access to the RLs
• Sends e-mails to both students and teachers
about the bookings and the state of the RLs
• Allows teachers to control the booking rights
of students over each individual RL
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5. EJSApp plugins – EJSApp Collab Sessions
• Real time collaboration with VRLs between
two or more Moodle users
– Student-student(s)
– Teacher-student(s)
• The session director creates the collaborative
session
– Selects the VRL to work with
– Selects the invited users
• Sends Moodle’s IMs and e-mails to the users
invited to a collaborative session (Mobile too)
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5. EJSApp plugins – OSP
• Access to the OSP-ComPADRE repository
directly from Moodle
– Over 500 ready-to-use simulations
– Add them automatically as an activity to your
Moodle course using the EJSApp plugin
• Java and Javascript simulations
• List all of them or search for a particular one
• Read a brief description and watch an image
to get the look and feel of a simulation before
you download it
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5. UNILabs – Online courses with EJS VRLs
• Network of VRLs in different fields
• Based on Moodle, EJS and EJSApp
http://unilabs.dia.uned.es
• Open course with free VRLs in Automatic
Control
• Coming soon: a course with free VRLs in
Physics (documentation only available in Spanish atm)
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AAPT Summer Meeting, Minneapolis, 2014
American Association of Physics Teachers
Thank you for your attention!