Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project

After careful assessment, CLAMP has concluded that Moodle 2.0.1 is not production ready. This assessment was conducted at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest VII at Furman University in January 2011. CLAMP will re-evaluate the progress of Moodle 2.0.x in March 2011 and make a recommendation then about deploying Moodle 2.x for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Our full report outlines notable improvements to Moodle 2.0, as well as known blockers, possible blockers and other potential issues that affect its production readiness. Download the full report [PDF]

The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Exchange is pleased to announce the launch of the CLAMP Moodle Exchange (CME). The site is the successor to the NITLE Moodle Exchange (NME) that was hosted by NITLE for the last several years and served as the launching off point for many of CLAMP’s efforts.

The CLAMP Moodle Exchange provides a place for instructional technologists, developers, and other Moodle enthusiasts to meet and discuss the open source learning management system. The new Moodle Exchange is free to use and open to the NITLE, CLAMP and the larger Moodle community.

We’ve migrated all of the content from the old NME to the new CLAMP Moodle Exchange, although we’ve archived much of the older or unused sections of the site.

You can log into the site using your original NME username, but you will need to reset your password when you do so. The site is accessible at:

http://cme.clamp-it.org

CLAMP Members: Please note that you’ll need to use your old NME username to login, NOT your CLAMP username. Because the Moodle Exchange will be frequented by members of both CLAMP and NITLE, we’ve decided to maintain its stand-alone authentication.

Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.4 is available for download. This is a security release that backports fixes from Moodle 1.9.10 to Moodle 1.9.9. It supersedes the Moodle 1.9.9+LAEv1.1.1 and LAE v1.1.2 releases. It also incorporates a number of bug fixes and new features developed at Hack/Doc Fest VII at Furman University, and fixes a bug with TinyMCE 3.x that was introduced in LAE 1.1.2.

Visit the project page to learn more and download the code.

CLAMP will soon be releasing Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.3, which fixes an issue with TinyMCE not displaying in text fields. We hope to have this release out by the 1/28/2011.

The fix for this problem is straight forward and involves updating a few lines of /lib/editor/tinymce.js.php; details can be found in this Redmine Development thread.

Update: We’ve released Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.4, which fixes this problem. We skipped over 1.1.3 for strictly logistical reasons.

Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.2 is available for download. This is a security release that backports fixes from Moodle 1.9.10 to Moodle 1.9.9. It supersedes the Moodle 1.9.9+LAEv1.1.1 release. It also incorporates a number of bug fixes and new features developed at Hack/Doc Fest VII at Furman University.

Visit the project page to learn more and download the code.

The following Moodle 2.0 issues were identified at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Furman University in January 2011. Please review and vote for these issues in Moodle Tracker:

Critical Issues

• 2.0 gradebook moves grades information for unenrolled students to history table — opposite of 1,x behavior
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-25718
• Upgrade fails for wikis with the same title
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-25501
• META: Restore 1.9 backups into Moodle 2.0
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-22414

Notable Issues

• Table of Contents links broken in Moodle 2.0 wiki
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-25695
• Wiki Comments HTML Editor Broken
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-25883
• In collaborative wiki, with separate groups, teacher cannot view group wikis
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-25732
• Teacher listed in assignment grading (but not gradebook)
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-25872
• The name of the first page in the wiki can not be changed
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6488
  • (this could be a feature or a bug, but our sense is that you should be able to change the page name)

Third-Party Block & Module Issues

• Block: Quickmail – migrate to 2.0
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2014
• Update Scheduler Module for 2.0
  • http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2636

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.2 Beta 1. This is a beta release meant for testing only; it is not recommended for use on production systems.

• Code freeze was 5 p.m., Friday,  January 7, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.2 Beta 1 was released Tuesday, January 11, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.2 Final Release is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19, 2011

This version of the LAE incorporates a number of bug fixes developed at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Furman University in January, 2011. We need help testing these fixes and verifying that they work for you. Feedback can be added as comments on this post or sent to Ken Newquist at newquisk@lafayette.edu.

The Development Committee will be meeting at 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 17 to review any comments and give the go-ahead for the final release.

Note: We will be releasing a beta of Moodle 1.9.10+LAEv1.2 in late January which folds in the 1.9.10 upgrades from Moodle core. However, we recommend that people use the 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.2 release in their production Moodle instances (this release includes security fixes backported from Moodle 1.9.10) because we will not have had time to fully test the 1.9.10 code before the start of the spring semester.

Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.1 is available for download. This is a security release that backports fixes from Moodle 1.9.10 to Moodle 1.9.9. It supersedes the Moodle 1.9.9+LAEv1.1 release. It also incorporates a number of bug fixes and new features developed at Hack/Doc Fest VI at DePauw University.

During the Moodle Hack/Doc Fest pre-meeting on Tuesday, 12/21/10 we discussed evaluating Moodle 2.0. That in turn gave  rise to a question of triaging evaluation tasks — what’s most important to our campuses? What’s most likely to break? What new features do we want to test?

Here’s our initial breakdown, based on Tuesday’s meeting. Please add your own suggestions and priorities as comments on this post.

Our goal is to assess the state of Moodle 2.0 and determine what documentation is going to be needed, what code must be upgraded, and offer suggestions on when to make the move.

A list of major changes and additions to Moodle 2.0 can be found on the Moodle Documentation web site:

• http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:DB_layer_2.0_migration_docs

The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) is launching several new committees and is looking for volunteers to serve on them. The goals of these committees are to support CLAMP’s efforts outside of our Hack/Doc Fests, help prepare our members for the jump to Moodle 2.0, and provide more opportunities to schools to participate in meaningful ways.

The four committees are:

• Development: work on bug fixes, develop existing and new functionality, and support the release of Moodle: Liberal Arts Edition.
• Documentation: Create and update generic Moodle documentation – including written, audio, and video –  that can easily be adapted to individual colleges.
• Event Planning: Plan brown bag lunches, special talks, and the biannual Hack/Doc Fests.
• Next Generation: research and prepare for the next major version of Moodle; today that’s Moodle 2.0, which has major changes to blocks, modules, themes, and core code.

Here’s the schedule of upcoming committee meetings:

• Event Planning – Monday, Dec. 6, 2010 @ 2 p.m. EST
• Documentation – Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 @ 2 p.m. EST
• Next Generation – Thursday, Dec 9, 2010 @ 2 p.m. EST
• Development – Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 @ 2 p.m. EST

Anyone at a CLAMP school can serve on any committee; no nomination is required.

• Sign up for a committee.