Mastodawn

I wrote a static site generator for a course web site (https://comp127.macalester.digital/f25/). I like it, and I’m poking at documenting and open-sourcing it so that other instructors can use it for their own courses if they want to.

It needs a cute name. Suggestion box is now open in the replies.

EDIT: I was a fool to mention Moodle in the original version. It’s wrecked the replies: everyone’s talking about LMSes, and all the name suggestions are about Moodle — when the point is that this is not anti-Moodle, but a tool to solve a different set of problems.

COMP 127 – Home

Blech Moodle yuck yuck yuck. My current institution loves it but I've never used it in all the almost 20 years I've worked there until this semester when the current dean pushed through a requirement that everyone had to put their syllabuses on course Moodle pages. I put them up along with a statement that I wouldn't be doing anything else at all there.

Possible name: MoodleThrough

roux bricks

Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱19h ago

I can't tell if it's a Splort or a Mwerp.

Ken Butler 19h ago

@inthehands my only suggestion is a terrible one: Bad Moodle.

Ken Butler 19h ago

@inthehands all right, sensible comment: a course needs to have two things, (i) a place to share material, and (ii) a place for grades (and maybe things like submitting work online and grading it). I don't like our Canvas any more than you like Moodle, but I have to concede that (ii) is something I am going to delegate to it. I have no interest in letting Moodle/Canvas near (i), though, partly because I want anyone interested to be able to see the material, and our Canvas is only accessible to students actually enrolled in the course (and not even those on the waitlist).

Guitarsophist 19h ago

@inthehands Back when Covid happened I redesigned all my courses to work in Blackboard. Then the university system decided the next year that we had to switch to Canvas, and I redesigned them again. I have played with Moodle, which as I remember is open-source and non-corporate. Is it really worse than these two corporate monsters? It is hard to imagine.

Steve Bellovin 19h ago

@inthehands Let me know what your second-best choice is — I need to document my version (see https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/classes/f23/lectures.html for sample output) and post it somewhere, and I haven't even thought about a name. I've always posted my course material online and freely available, which is one reason I don't lock it up inside Canvas, but I despise Canvas about as much as you despise Moodle. (I've used Canvas only for grade recording—I didn't want to deal with the privacy issues of managing students' access to their own grades, plus the integration with the university's final grade system—and for the in-class chat room, since like you I prefer static web sites.)
Aside: my version started as a simple Python script to generate the list of dates for my lectures in any given semester, and it grew…

COMS E6184, LAW L7777-001: Anonymity and Privacy

xcorvis 18h ago

@inthehands possible nose-thumbing with Muddle, Mogul, or Meddle, (or Moogle for the Final Fantasy fans)
Other low effort suggestions: Classy, Coursica, HomeRoom, SillyBus
Or you could always name it after a cute animal or maybe a flower.

@inthehands "Broodle" is punny; might give the wrong impression, though.

aburka 🫣17h ago

@inthehands doomle

arclight 15h ago

@inthehands Danger Moodle

Claudia Schwemmers 13h ago

@inthehands Sorry, but this looks extremely boring. I know that Moodle might be difficult to use at the beginning but you can build fantastic courses with individual self-learning paths which are motivating for students. At first glance Moodle looks old-fashioned and boring but it has so much more to offer than just data files’ upload. No other LMS has as much to offer as Moodle. #moodle

Paul Cantrell 6h ago

@FreakyClaudi I’ve been teaching courses using Moodle since 2008, and have read substantial portions of the Moodle source code. I’m familiar with it, thanks.

I’m sure it serves the needs of many situations and many people quite well. It serves my needs for this particular course extremely poorly — thus my desire to build a different tool that solves a different set of problems.

When the information you have to share is “I don’t have the same problem as you and I prefer a different tool,” you can always just choose not to reply.

Marcos Dione 9h ago

@inthehands "Paul CanTeach".

Paul Cantrell 6h ago

@mdione
Paulific CourseMaterials 365

Marcos Dione 6h ago

@inthehands you forgot the AI sparkles :)

PaulDavisTheFirst 6h ago

@inthehands Stadic