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' I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive.' John W Gardner
Feb
28
Moodle Theme
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by Beth Still on 28-02-2010
We are making some changes at my online school and one of the most visible things we are doing is with Moodle. We are attempting to brand our courses so that there is a distinct and consistent look and feel. We don’t have anyone in house that knows their way around CSS so I did what any connected educator would do—-I crowdsourced the project. I turned to my PLN to see if there was anyone who was willing to help us pro bono with tweaking the code. Jason Buck from came through for my school. He did an absolutely awesome job! There are some minor things to work out, but before I ask him to invest more time I need some feedback from my PLN.
The theme below is still a work in progress. I have copied and pasted in some things like our logo and the name of the school on the banner that will not look the same once we are done. Someone pointed out that these colors are not going to work for someone who is colorblind. If you fall into the incredibly small percent of people that is colorblind then I could really use your feedback. If you are not colorblind, but have experience with webpage design or course design then your input is valuable as well.
The specific concern is that people will not be able to see the red text on the white background. If you have any input on this please fill in the Google form so I can share the results with my team on Tuesday. If you like what Jason has done with this theme please leave a comment and let him know. He worked so hard on this project.
8 Responses to “Moodle Theme”
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February 28th, 2010 at 3:25 p
Hi beth,
Your web design looks good, I might direct you to the University of Nebraska website http://www.unl.edu/ where you will see many of the same types of design. I looked at your design in the using the high contrast setting found in the Ease of Access Center in Vista, it reduced all of the colors to different grays blacks and white, the red lettering is ok with this setting on. Looking Good!
February 28th, 2010 at 3:28 p
I think that red ican be difficult to read when set on a white background. It looks good with your theme but, usability should always trump looks. The purpose of good design is to meld the two together, make it completely usable an good looking. I think that I would use dark grey on the white if it were me. That being said I think that red works on white in this case because there is a lot of contrast around the red. I’ll try to get my buddy @matthewlspeas to comment here too because he is in that small population of color blind folks.
February 28th, 2010 at 7:51 p
I am a student at the University of South Alabama and took a look at your blog as part of an assignment with my EDM Class. Our class blog is http://edm310.blogspot.com and my personal blog is http://paulacasalloedm310.blogspot.com if you want to take a look. I am still in the early phases of all this technology and developing a PLN. As an educator I do want to be an effective teacher and I realize that technology is the way to get kids engaged these days. That said, I think it is great that you are so eager to learn and share with teachers everywhere. I know you are making a difference in the lives of your students.
As far as your website goes, I think the font of your title is a little difficult to read. I agree with Jason (read your comments) and think you need to make it dark grey on white so that it is easier to read. Other than that it looks pretty good. How awesome that someone from your PLN stepped in to help you out. I guess that is what a PLN is all about.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:19 p
So I learned I was colorblind after my parents pulled me off my sister … she was trying to “cheat” in a game when we were both very young. Needless to say she was right and I learned I couldn’t see colors as they were intended.
With regards to the colors on the design … I have no trouble seeing any of the text nor differentiating between the backgrounds of different sections. I do think that the red is a bit trying on the eyes though. It may be less stressing if the red was darker (or softer) and the text was bolder. I don’t have trouble reading the text but I did have trouble finding “red text on white background” … looked green to me at first.
Please understand that I am no developer nor designer. So take my comments with a grain of salt.
March 1st, 2010 at 10:08 p
Thanks Matt. We are leaning toward a deeper red. While I personally love the bright, cheerful red I do appreciate that it may not be as appealing to everyone.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:14 p
Hi
You may be interested to see a couple of standard Moodle themes I’ve cobbled together for a large number of elementary and high schools in the Hunter Central Coast Region in NSW. Just visit http://hccweb2.org and follow the link to Moodle COWs.
This has provided a ‘like but different’ environment,which promotes a sense of affiliation between teachers, yet allows much site based difference.
March 11th, 2010 at 3:28 p
I am not a professional web designer but I do play around with design and graphics. I did most of the work on my site, altering another theme. I point you to my site, not as a plug but just a suggestion that the red is to harsh.
Use your bold colors in your logo and title but be subtle when it comes to content.
Take a look: http://www.hallsville.org/elementary/cunningham/moodle/
April 8th, 2010 at 6:02 p
I’m not a designer what so every, however I did enjoy the moodle idea.