Re: Org-Mode as authoring tool for Moodle courses

["Łukasz Stelmach" <lukasz.stelmach@iem.pw.edu.pl>]

Gruenderteam Berlin <gruenderteam.berlin@googlemail.com> writes:

> Hello,
> beeing still in the process of learning the amazing org-mode,

This never ends ;-)

> I wonder if somebody has tried to use org-mode's publishing capacities
> as an authoring tool for the Online Learning Platform Moodle

We had tried to use moodle at our division before I learnt about
org-mode, and frankly speaking I didn't like moodle that much. Today, I
prepare and publish my courses with org-mode as standalone
web-pages. Considering endless capabilities and flexibility of org-mode,
moodle just scares me. Take for example grading. Org's spreadsheet
(or column-view, I have to try it out myself) is by far more convenient
to use than moodles tables. OK, that's enough, I suppose you'd like to
read something more constructive.

As I said I haven't done this myself but this is how I imagine this can
be done, here and now with as little elisp coding as possible.

1. Create org files in a directory structure resembling the structure of
   the SCORM zip file. That's obvious.
2. Set up a publishing project [[info:org:Publishing]]
3. Add "static" content (scripts, images) that will be published with
   org-publish-attachment function.
4. Create a script (this might imho be a shell script) that generates
   manifest file. Launch it after publishing using :completion-function
   project parameter. The script may create a zip file too. And upload
   it... too ;-)

What I don't know (as I browse through a SCORM zip for the second time
in my life) is what are all xsd files for and how to create them. Are
they optional? Does their content depend on the contents of the course?
If it does then elisp coding might be inevitable, however, since org
generates XHTML it can be reliably parsed with some external tools.

If I had to use moodle today I definitely would use org-mode for html
authoring: exporting to a temporary HTML buffer and then c'n'p to a
browser window.

I know that's not much but I hope I wrote something you haven't known
already or at least I give you a new idea how to put things together.

-- 
Miłego dnia,
Łukasz Stelmach