Adapt Project Plugin Checklist

This blog post continues from my previous post where I outlined how plugins allow great customization within an open source platform, however without proper curation you risk having clients who feel disconnected from the plugin choice process and feel uninvolved from their own project. I thought the best way to solve this issue was to create a resources, the Adapt Project Plugin Checklist (APPC).

As much as there is already a great community of open source developers there has been very little effort made into creating resources to help developers create courses by taking advantage of the open source plugins that are available to them. I've created a resource that allows me to offer my clients a curated checklist of plugins that I would recommend using in their projects and I've decided to share it freely with the Adapt Learning community. You can download this free Excel spreadsheet resource here.

At the start of a new project I arrange a call with my client and present this Excel spreadsheet checklist to them. From what I have already gathered about their needs I make amends before showing it to them. For example, if they have requested an assessment, I will add the assessment extension and assessment results component. The APPC supports all the core components by defaults as these are usually some of the easiest to support with strong alignment to the core "vanilla" theme. In terms of the community plugins I recommend the ones that I have seen from the community which other new functionality that is highly requested or unique. For example, I recommend lots of Daniel Story's components as they offer new interactions. I recommend the Contents extension for course navigation rather than the PLP extension.

As I go through the community components and extensions, I explain what each of them does and suggest if it makes sense to add it to the project. Of course, it's great to add as much as possible. However, the more plugins that are added to the project the more challenging it will be to support them, which makes the theme development process longer.

Once the call is over, I send the client a version of the APPC so that they can confirmation of what exactly will be used in the project. I will then create a prototype course with the newly created theme and all the plugins that have been selected to be supported in the theme.

I hope that any e-learning developers or teams out there can get great use out of this resource. I'm hoping to improve it through 2019 and add any new exciting plugins that the community creates!

You can download the APPC here.