Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project

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.

Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Furman University is a month away and we’re looking for  suggestions for bug fixes, documentation and new features for Moodle  that the community would like us to address. You can add your requests by making a comment on this blog post. You don’t have to be attending Hack/Doc Fest to make suggestions — we’d like suggestions from the entire community.

Here’s our short list of projects for Hack/Doc Fest:

• Evaluating what works — and doesn’t work — in Moodle 2.0, with a particular eye toward third party blocks, modules and themes as well as our own custom code.
• Identifying what new documentation is needed for Moodle 2.0.
• Fixing bugs in the Moodle Liberal Arts edition.
• Working on unit testing scripts to help automate testing new Moodle releases.

This year two of the inaugural members of the Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) steering committee, Reed College and Earlham College, will be stepping down as part of our governance rotation. CLAMP is accepting nominations of member colleges to succeed them; terms are for two years.

The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project uses the Redmine collaboration suite to coordinate projects, track bugs and features, and discuss upcoming projects.

On Wednesday, Dec. 1 at Noon EST, Caroline Moore of Smith College will be leading an “Introduction to Redmine” brown bag that provides an overview of its features and how we use it to support our efforts, both during the academic year and at Moodle Hack/Doc Fests.

This event will be conducted virtually in CLAMP’s Elluminate Room. The event is free, but registration is required so that we can send you the Elluminate room link.

• Register for the brown bag.

Registration is now live for Moodle Hack/Doc Fest: Winter 2011, which will be held January 4-6, 2011 at Furman University  in Greenville, SC.

As with prior events, Hack/Doc will feature programmers and instructional technologists coming together to improve Moodle. Our short-list of Moodle work includes:

• Evaluating what works — and doesn’t work — in Moodle 2.0, with a particular eye toward third party blocks, modules and themes as well as our own custom code.
• Identifying what new documentation is needed for Moodle 2.0.
• Fixing bugs in the Moodle Liberal Arts edition.
• Working on unit testing scripts to help automate testing new moodle releases.

Moodle Hack/Doc Fest is a free event. Attendees will need to pay for their own transportation, lodging, and dinner. In addition to the conventional Hack/Doc Fest, we’re planning on coordinating a virtual component to Hack/Doc Fest that will allow people to participate from their own campuses on a limited basis.

The registration deadline is December 15, 2010.

• Learn more about the event
• Register online now.

The Moodle 1.9.9+Liberal Arts Edition v1.1 Beta 3 is available for download. This is a beta release meant for testing only; it is not recommended for use on production systems. The Beta 3 release includes some hack/doc developed refinements to the gradebook’s administration settings (MDL-22931, MDL-22928) and a new graphic for TinyMCE’s “Insert File” icon.

• Code freeze was 6/29/2010
• Beta 1 released on 6/26/2010
• Beta 2 was released on 7/2/2010
• Beta 3 was released on 7/14/2010
• The final version will be released on 7/15/2010

This version of the LAE incorporates a number of bug fixes and new features developed at Hack/Doc Fest VI at DePauw University. We need help testing these features and verifying that they work for you.

• Go to the project home page to download the code.

Please post feedback as a comment on the project page. CLAMP members can post feedback to the Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1 Beta 3 thread in the Redmine forum.

The CLAMP Development Committee has decided to do one final beta release for — Beta 3 — for Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1. This release includes a few bug fixes from Hack/Doc Fest that didn’t make it into the Development branch and tweak to TinyMCE 3 to make the “file upload” icon clearer. The release will be posted Wednesday morning by 10 a.m. EDT; the Development Committee will then conduct its last round of testing on Wednesday and Thursday, with Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1 dropping Thursday afternoon.