Moodle Upgrade

July 2014

Changes The University upgraded to a newer version of Moodle over the first weekend of July, 2014. The changes were mostly aesthetic and you should not notice any changes in the way you interact with Moodle however you will notice that the Settings block is now called the Administration block.

– Bug fixes, improvements, functional changes, and new features = 148

– Changes affecting existing training = 20 – Changes affecting existing resources = 19

• Performance improvements

• Look and feel – Updated Icons – Support for SVG

icons – HTML5 – Themes – Improved TinyMCE

• Enrolment – Cohorts can be

synchronised to course groups

• Misc. – Stream external

calendars

Highlights

What’s Changed – Look and Feel

What’s Changed – Look and Feel Modern and ‘clean’!

Settings block now called Administration and Reports are now

located here

New icons

1.9 blocks restorable in 2.3 onwards

Support for SVG icons.

Improved compatibility with Internet Explorer 8-10

Course Prerequisites renamed Completion Dependencies

• Course listings are displayed consistently throughout the site Categories edit page is separated from view and does not depend any more on global editing mode

• New folder resource setting to display sub-folders expanded or collapsed

• Jump to section navigation for 'One section per page' setting in course formats

• Activities and topics can be restricted according to user profile fields.

What’s Changed – Functionality

What’s Changed – Functionality • Error deleting a course link from the community block is

fixed. • TinyMCE editor now works better with iOS. • Browsing users paginates properly for multiples of 30

users • You can now search the list of users enrolled in a course • Block drag & drop now works throughout the site (not just

on course pages) • Stream your external calendars (e.g. as Google Calendar,

or a calendar from another Moodle site) into Moodle's calendar via the iCal standard.

• Moodle 1.9 to 2.x course restore now works with directory resources

• Automated backup failure is now reported • Automated course backup settings include options to specify

whether the backup of certain courses should be skipped • You will be able to determine when enrolments (self and

manual) expire and what happens when they do • Self enrolment can be restricted to cohort members • When restoring a course to a course with fewer sections the

extra sections were added to the new course • Overview report now gives correct course total by not

including hidden item grades

What’s Changed – Admin

Forums • New forum setting 'Display word count'

Assignments • Essay questions can have a template, so the student starts

answering from the template, not a blank editor • Submit button is not shown after cut-off date in Assignment • Submissions and feedback are now saved with

imported/restored assignments

Groups • Group import allows new groups to be assigned to

groupings • Cohorts can now be synchronised to course groups

Lessons • Lesson now shows attempts if associated with a grouping • Display of student attempts for Short Answer questions in

Lessons is now correct

Editing an activity no longer reveals hidden grades

What’s Changed – Activities

• Not yet opened quizzes show close date as well as open date

• Blank answers in Cloze type quiz questions are treated accordingly, when an answer of zero is expected

• Quizzes in pop-up windows now work correctly • Better grading for partially correct Cloze questions with

Interactive behaviour • Option to sort by last name in Quiz grading report

What’s Changed – Activities

Quizzes • Question category info is now edited using

the HTML editor • The manual graded question behaviour

has been disabled by default

Workshops • Ability to define a conclusion text to be displayed to

workshop participants when the activity is closed • To start writing their Workshop submissions, students now

click a button labelled 'Start preparing your submission' instead of 'Submit'

• Overall assessment feedback support in the Workshop activity

Wiki • Printer-friendly view didn't show / print images

uploaded via html-editor - fixed

What’s Changed – Activities

Labels • Option to drag and drop text or a media file

onto the course page to create a label

EQUELLA • Option to access EQUELLA site when

using EQUELLA repository

What’s Changed – Resources

Books • Upgrading books from earlier versions

now works correctly

Grading • Teachers can assess submissions in the grading evaluation

phase without the need to switch to the assessment phase • Final grades are displayed to workshop participants when the

activity is closed. • Students can now see the content of advanced grading forms

on their assignment page before they submit. • Full support for (Workshop) alternative grading evaluation

methods. • Grade items remain hidden if explicitly hidden via Gradebook

(regardless of activity state). • Feedback forms work correctly when grading a series of

assignments

What’s Changed – Grading

What’s Changed – Accessibility

• Moodle previously used Level 3 Headings as a way for screen-readers to navigate the sections however if the user included H3 in their content it created issues for the screen-reader.

Whilst the upgrade provides improved usability on mobile devices, it is recommended you use a desktop computer for the following tasks (i.e. it is recommended you do NOT use your mobile device):

1. Notify students of course change 2. Setup and make an assignment available to students 3. Assess a students assignment 4. Communicate with a single student 5. Setup a discussion / forum for the students 6. Create two groups for work 7. Create a Quiz & trial it 8. Check a students quiz score

Mobile Devices: Staff

1

Whilst the upgrade provides improved usability on mobile devices, it is recommended you use a desktop computer for the following tasks (i.e. it is recommended you do NOT use your mobile device):

1. Complete and/or submit an assignment 2. Participate in discussion forums and group chats 3. Complete or submit a quiz

Mobile Devices: Students

Resources Updates

• Minor updates • Resources have been updated • Not all resources will be changed

– Most likely will change with major upgrade scheduled for November 2014

• Learning Topics – http://www.vle.monash.edu/supporttraining/learnbytech/

moodle/index.html

• Service Desk – 51777 or log a job at

http://monash.edu/esolutions/contact/index.html

More information