Introducing Moodle's Mobile apps
Themes are good, but they don't allow you to load the site for offline use, or take advantage of smartphone features like the camera. For this you need an app. Moodle does have an official Moodle Mobile app. This is a HTML5 app that works on both Android and Apple devices. The developers of the app have purposely not chosen to simply recreate Moodle for a mobile device, but have selected a number of specific tasks that the learners are mostly likely to do on their mobile devices.
The Moodle Mobile app allows learners to capture and upload images, audio, and video; view course participants; and use Moodle messaging and enable push notifications. This chapter will show you how to download and set up the official Moodle app.
There are also a number of unofficial apps available in the Android and Apple app stores that could work with your Moodle site, including one that works with Moodle 1.9. We will wrap up this chapter with an overview of the alternative apps available.
Note
A little bit more mobile Moodle history…
There is a previous version of the official Moodle app hanging around in the Apple app store. This was the first attempt at creating a native app for Moodle and was released in late 2011. It targeted Apple devices only, and there was scheduled to be another version released for Android in 2012.
However, the mobile landscape changes fast and it became apparent during 2012 that a different version for each platform was not an efficient way to develop for mobile, so a decision was taken to embark on a developing a HTML5 app that worked with all devices. So in July 2012, Moodle HQ changed direction and started work on a HTML5 app instead.
The HTML5 app is a continuation of the work by Moodle developer Juan Leyva on his Unofficial Moodle Mobile app, or umm for short (refer to the Third-party Moodle apps section).