Since the early days of its development, the Moodle community has worked hard to translate Moodle, making it truly accessible for all to use. Here we explore three areas: customising a Moodle site into a native language, teaching languages via Moodle and support in your own language.
Available in many Languages
As an open source and free product, Moodle aims to be available to all. There are over 100 language packs available which administrators can install for their site and no limit to the number they can install. For more information on language packs and installation, read the documentation here.
Teaching Languages in Moodle
Moodle lends itself beautifully to the teaching of languages, both with its standard collaborative activities such as Forum, Chat or Wiki and, for those with the time and aptitude for DIY, suggestions include a number of plugins like Hot Pot quizzes, audio and video through PoodLL and live web conferencing with Big Blue Button. There is even a dedicated Moodle for Language Teaching community on moodle.org.
The multi language content filter and the contributed Restriction by language filter allow you to have the same content in several different languages.
Alongside the importance in global business of communicating in your clients’ language, it is estimated that a language disappears every 14 days, making the teaching of languages to preserve a part of culture, quite imperative.
Help is here, in many Languages
Whilst we cannot say that all languages are represented in the list of forums and support services, there is certainly a vast range. The community support forums on moodle.org are available in over 25 languages, with each allowing collaboration of user issues, sharing ideas and general discussions. For those seeking assistance with Moodle implementation including training, hosting, installation and customisation, the Moodle Partner network comprises over 60 members across over 40 countries.
We’re happy to announce that the upcoming release of Moodle 2.8 will provide an option to update installed language packs as a scheduled task, independently of site updates and through the GUI.
To find out more about Moodle Language Packs, visit our site.
If you would like to submit a translation, contribute here.
