Topic outline

  • General

  • Introduction

    • Photographs can now be set as tile backgrounds, like this one!

      Photo tiles look different, but still behave in the same way.

      Sample Heading

      Tiles is intuitive for students and does not require a great deal of explanation.

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    • Assignment icon
      Opened: Saturday, 10 September 2022, 12:00 AM
      Due: Saturday, 17 September 2050, 12:00 AM
  • Icon and photo picker

    • How to use photos?  Launch the icon picker, in the same way as before, by clicking the tile icon (or photo) in editing mode.

      Launch icon picker



      The icon picker now has three tabs.

      Tab 1 is as it always was – to pick a tile icon

      Icon picker tab 1
      Tab 2 is Photo Library. The teacher sees a library of images which they previously uploaded to this course, or other courses. Clicking an image selects it for that tile.
      Icon picker tab 2

      Tab 3 is Upload new photo.

      The teacher can upload a file in JPEG, PNG or GIF format.

      Large images are scaled down and compressed. This ensures that the page does not take a long time to load when students are viewing it.

      Icon picker tab 3
  • Course backup, restore, deletion

      • Back up: tile photos are automatically included in course backups.
      • Restoring: tile photos are applied to the restored course.
      • Deleting: photos for a deleted course are deleted from the database. However, if they have been used in other courses too, via the photo library, they will be retained in those other courses

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  • Course settings

    • Course settings are unchanged.  Teachers can still apply the "Tiles" format to any existing course easily by picking "Tiles" (instead of say "Topics") under Course Administration > Edit Settings > Course Format.  Tile colours and so on can also be changed here
      Edit course settings
  • PDFs, Word, and Excel samples

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    • This is a label.  

      Where a label is added it will break the flow of the sub tiles, to allow for sub headings between activities.  Headings in labels can be set to have a coloured tab next to them (as above) or not, in course settings.

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  • Assignment, book etc samples

  • Video

    • Video embedded in labels

      This is a YouTube link embedded into a label, so that Moodle's media player filter handles it.  The same can be done with Vimeo links.

  • Switching to / from Tiles format

    • Switching formats is still done under Course Administration > Edit Settings > Format.

      • Switching to or from Tiles format, still does not require changes to course content or structure, provided that the other format follows the standard Moodle course structure (e.g. “Topics”). “Tiles” follows the standard structure, so will work with others that do.
      • Switching out of Tiles format means that tile photos and icon choices for that course are deleted (so backup the course first if you want to keep them).
      • Grid format courses can now also be switched in to Tiles format easily. On switching, all photos in “Grid” format for that course will be copied into “Tiles” and applied to the course. The teacher will be able to deal with the course as a normal “Tiles” course, or switch it back to Grid if required. (Switching back to Grid is also easy.  The original photos you had in Grid, before you switched to Tiles, will be used).

  • Administrator settings

    • Several settings have been added under Site Administration > Plugins > Course Formats > Tiles Format. For example:

      • a setting to disable “photo tiles” altogether and have the format behave as it did previously (i.e. tile icons only).
      • settings to optimise the appearance of photo tile titles. The best settings for these may vary a little depending on theme or accessibility requirements. Some of the changes you can make are:
        • have a solid (non transparent) title background
        • adjust the line height of the titles
        • display the title at the bottom of the tile instead of the top.


      Alt style tile

      A tile in alternative style (title at the bottom)

  • Layout, themes and colours

    • Layout

      In the previous version, sometimes on page load the tiles would not line themselves up in the best way. For example, you might have one tile on the last row, when the previous row was full. Tiles may not be centred very well.

      The latest release addresses this point, with an experimental new feature, which uses JavaScript to calculate the best fit for the tiles on the particular user’s screen. When the page first loads for a given course, tiles are hidden momentarily. A “loading” icon is shown instead while the tiles are adjusted. This happens very quickly (less than half a second) and then the tiles appear. If the user comes back to the course again, they will see the tiles straight away as the best fit is already known (it will be forgotten on log out).

      There is a site administrator setting to activate or deactivate the feature.

      Themes

      • The primary intended theme is “Boost” (the main Moodle theme).
      • Other major themes should also work (e.g. Essential, Moove, Adaptable, Clean).
      • Some enhancements for non-Boost themes were made in this version (e.g. display issues fixed in Moove and Adaptable fixed, animation fixed in RemUI).

      Colours

      It was always possible for an administrator to define the colour palette available to teachers, to make sure that the available colours matched the theme.

      Teacher colour picker:

      Teacher colour picker

      Now, if the administrator changes the set of available colours, they can force that change onto all existing courses in bulk.

      Reset all course colours