Accessibility: Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. A variety of techniques, such as having high and low contrast color schemes, are used to ensure that people who have visual disabilities can still access the content.
Add-ons: Another term used for "extensions" in Mozilla Firefox, and is sometimes used as a term for Moodle plug-ins or modules.
Administration block: The block in Moodle that has the main administrative functions used to control the way that Moodle functions.
Adobe Photoshop: One of the world's leading graphic and photo manipulation software packages. For those who don't have the money or do not want to use proprietary software, there are open source alternatives such as GIMP. (Please see separate entry for GIMP later in this chapter.)
ALT tag: An alternative description tag for images in HTML. This will be displayed instead of the image if the user disables images in his or her browser.
Apache: A public, open source, web server software application.
Attribute: A value associated with an element, consisting of a name, and an associated value.
Blackboard: The largest of the commercial VLE competitors to Moodle.
Breadcrumb trail: A term used to provide a clear navigation route back to the home page of a website.
Browser: Any software used for "browsing" the Internet.
Browser compatibility: The concept that web pages should look similar in all browsers.
Class Selector: A syntax for specifying a CSS selector by using the class attribute of an element.
CSS: An abbreviation for Cascading Style Sheets—a technique of separating functionality from presentation.
Debugging: The process of checking computer code for errors.
Declaration: A matching pair of property and value parameters that creates a CSS style for a selector.
Design mockup: A sample design created with graphic manipulation software.
Dialog box: An instructional box that is used with software, including web browsers, to give instructions to users.
Drop-down menu: A menu system for websites and software packages that displays a menu of options when the user clicks on or hovers the mouse over the links or a predefined area.
Elements: Refers to each individual part of a web page. Elements can be blocks, boxes, navigational areas, or content sections that sometimes have CSS declarations associated with them.
Firebug: A Mozilla Firefox extension that allows the user to inspect HTML and CSS code.
Font: The typeface of text displayed on a computer.
Footer: The bottom section of a Moodle page.
GIMP: A free, open source, graphics manipulation software package.
Google Chrome: A web browser created by Google.
Grouped Selector: A means of grouping a range of selectors in a comma-separated list.
Header: The top section of a Moodle page.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The main language used to create web pages.
HTML editor: A web-based text editor, normally present in web applications such as Moodle. This allows the user to have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor experience.
Internet Explorer: A web browser created by Microsoft.
LAMP: A free, open source software stack consisting of Linux (OS), Apache (web server), MySQL (database), and PHP (scripting language).
Moodle: Acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Moodle is an open source course management system, originally developed by Martin Dougiamas. It is used by thousands of educational institutions around the world to provide an organized interface for e-learning or learning over the Internet.
Moodle docs: The Moodle documentation wiki where all of the Moodle documents are kept. (http:moodle.org/docs)
MySQL: The world's most popular open source database.
PDF (Portable Document Format): A document type created by Adobe specifically for the transfer and rendering of electronic documents regardless of the operating system being used.
PHP: A scripting language for producing dynamic web pages.
Platforms: A term used to refer to the type of operating system that an application runs on.
Rollover menu: A website menu that changes the color or style of either the background or font color when the user hovers his or her mouse over the links.
Safari: A web browser created by Apple Macintosh for Apple computers. It can now be run on Windows and Linux as well.
Screenshot: An exact captured image of the computer monitor's visible area.
Sideblock: The name for Moodle's content areas on either side (right and left) of the screen.
Slice and dice: The practice of slicing up a mockup graphic for use in a web page design.
Splash screen: The opening screen for software programs and websites.
Theme: Refers to the user "view" (interface) that can be chosen by the site administrator, teacher, or student (if enabled).
Theme priority: The order in which Moodle loads different themes.
Theme types: The different types of themes available to the Moodle application. These are site themes, user themes, course themes, category themes, session themes, and page themes.
User agent: A software application that is used to view web pages or electronic documents. It is typically a web browser.
Validators: Software systems that validate code against predefined rules. An HTML validator will check that the HTML code is valid by comparing it against the correct HTML rules.
WAMP: The Windows version of LAMP, consisting of Windows (OS), Apache (web server), MySQL (database), and PHP (scripting language).
Wireframe: A method used to visually map out the different areas of a website, or to map functionality.
WordPad: A compact Microsoft text editor with basic formatting capabilities for editing files that use the standard .txt file extension.
W3C: Acronym for World Wide Web Consortium. It is an international community that develops standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web.
XML (Extensible Markup Language): Used to create standards-compliant content delivery.