Moodle 2 Theme Contest

We're challenging the Moodle community to create some new and exciting themes to show off how great and perhaps different Moodle 2.0 can look.

Prizes

Apple iPad

The Grand Prize winner will receive a magical and revolutionary Apple iPad1 along with inclusion of his/her theme in the Moodle 2.0 core.

Of course, all the best themes will be included in the 2.0 release of Moodle next month. So even if you don't win the Grand Prize, it'll still be awesome knowing that your theme is included in each of the 150,000 Moodle downloads each month.

Rules

  1. All submissions must be your own work. It's acceptable to port over a GPL design from another platform, but we'd certainly prefer original ideas.2
  2. All themes must be built for Moodle 2.0. If you have previously designed a Moodle theme for 1.x, you're free to recode it to work in 2.0.
  3. There is no limit on the number of themes one person can submit as long as each submission is a unique design.
  4. Submitted themes must look good in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, IE7+.
  5. Themes should use both Base and Canvas as parent themes unless you have a specific reason not to do so. If you have a specific reason not to use one or both of these parent themes, please tell us why in your submission narrative.
  6. All included code and images must be GPL compatible and free of branding, trademarks, etc.
  7. Employees of NewSchool Learning are ineligible of winning the Grand Prize, but they are certainly welcome to submit themes for possible inclusion in the Moodle core.
  8. NewSchool Learning reserves the right to amend the contest and the contest rules at any time if necessary.

Timeline

We'll stop taking submissions on Friday, July 9, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. Community members will be invited to vote on their favorite theme starting on Monday, July 12, 2010. We'll announce our Grand Prize winner as well as which themes were selected for the Moodle 2.0 core on Friday July 16, 2010.

Selection

Moodle community members will be invited to view the themes on our server and download the source files for review before voting for the theme that they think should win the Grand Prize. During this time, they'll also be able to make comments and ask questions about your submission. You're encouraged to answer their questions and comment on your theme.

Throughout the week of community review, we'll also look at your theme for compliance with the rules, cleanliness of code, and creative use of the new Moodle 2.0 theme engine. The Grand Prize winning theme will be the one with the highest community ratings, the cleanest code, and the most creative use of the 2.0 theme engine.3

How to enter

  1. Design a great theme for Moodle 2.0.
  2. Archive your theme as a .zip file.
  3. Mention the competition with a link to this page on your blog, website, or Twitter.
  4. Send us an email at contest [at] newschoollearning.com with the subject "Moodle 2.0 Theme Contest." Include your theme .zip file and the URL of the site where you mentioned this page. Also, please tell us about yourself and your theme.
  1. We're talking a brand new 16GB WiFi Apple iPad that can be picked up at the 2010 Goshen MoodleMoot in Goshen, Indiana. If you win but are unable to make it to the 2010 Goshen MoodleMoot, we'll gladly send it to your part of the world for the cost of shipping and handling.
  2. If you do port over another GPL design, please be sure to give credit where credit is due both inside the source code of the theme and in your submission email.
  3. Our goal here is twofold: 1.) We're hoping to encourage people to learn the new Moodle 2.0 theme code. 2.) We want themes that are both attractive and solidly coded included in the Moodle 2.0 core. Hence the combination of community vote and internal review in the selection process. Assuming all submissions follow the rules and are coded really well, we'll go strictly by the community vote. In the event of a tie in the community vote, NewSchool Learning will make the selection.