Introducing “Guidance”
Great news from last week’s MoodleMoot DACH! It all started when our CEO, Stefan, pitched a compelling idea for an “Activity Wizard” at the DevCamp: a smart system designed to help teachers build better courses, choose the right pedagogical activities, and use pre-configured templates.
This pitch inspired the creation of Team 34. Together, the team turned that spark into something much bigger — ultimately securing first place in the “Improvements” category!
Their winning prototype, now named Guidance (plugin name: tool_guidance), tackles one of the most common hurdles in digital learning: making course creation and optimization truly intuitive for educators.
The Motivation: Simplifying Moodle for Teachers
Moodle’s greatest strength is its immense flexibility, but that can also be overwhelming. Teachers often find themselves staring at a long list of options, wondering whether to choose a forum, a quiz, or an assignment — and how to navigate all the complex settings.
Guidance bridges this gap. The goal is simple: instead of forcing teachers to figure out technical Moodle terminology, the plugin guides them using natural language based on what they actually want to achieve pedagogically.
How it Works: Smart Guidance & Templates
During the intense two-day hackathon, the team built a functional framework centered around three core pillars:
- The Guided Question Flow (“Pull”): Teachers can click a “Help me choose…” button to answer a few goal-oriented questions (e.g., “I want to assess students” or “I want to start a discussion”). A pedagogical decision tree then guides them to the right tool.
- Course-Aware Suggestions (“Push”): We built a dedicated Moodle Block that sits directly on the course page and automatically suggests the best next step for the teacher (e.g., “Add an introductory forum”). Teachers can instantly set it up with one click, skip the suggestion, or reset their skipped tips later.
- Ready-to-Use Presets: When a teacher selects an activity, the wizard can deploy pre-configured templates with sensible default settings, saving time and reducing configuration mistakes.
For those interested in the tech: The plugin works entirely without AI using rule-based logic, but there is a future AI layer planned to help customize and re-rank recommendations based on course context.
Current Status & How You Can Help
The fundamental codebase is up and running as a functional alpha release, though significant code refinement is still down the road.
To turn Guidance into a sustainable, long-term tool for the Moodle ecosystem, we would love your support:
- Share Your Feedback: We are wide open to suggestions! What do you think of the decision tree approach? How can we improve the pedagogical questions and content?
- Funding & Collaboration: To ensure future compatibility, continuous maintenance, and further development, we are looking for voluntary funding and partners. If your institution wants to help make Moodle easier for teachers, let’s connect.
👉 Check out the repository, explore the roadmap, and get involved on GitHub.