Activity Module Development for Moodle: A Sample Activity Module, EduGame

Abstract

Moodle, one of the most popular course management systems (CMSs), has a highly extendable infrastructure. Moodle is an open source CMS. Everyone can easily contribute to the development of Moodle with plug-ins, activity modules, blocks and so on. The most used contribution method is activity modules. Moodle has a list of activities by default (forums, quizzes, assignments, etc.). Teachers can use these activities in their classroom to support lessons. But sometimes default activities do not meet the needs of teachers. Therefore, activity module development can be important for efficient use of Moodle in some circumstances. In this study, Moodle infrastructure and development steps of a sample activity module, EduGame, will be explained in a step by step manner. EduGame activity module is a tool to integrate educational flash games into the Moodle. It also saves the game points of students into the Moodle database. Educational computer games are great ways for teachers to pique children's interest in the learning process. So integrating educational computer games to Moodle can be crucial for computer game based learning.