Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project

Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Winter 2012 concluded at Tulane on Friday, January 14. The event culminated with the release of Moodle 1.9.16+LAE1.6 Beta 1, which is a maintenance and security release that folds in fixes from Moodle 1.9.16. We also finalized plans for Moodle 2.2+LAE2.0 Beta 1, our first formal Moodle 2 release.

New releases

We are releasing betas for two new Liberal Arts Editions at the end of Hack/Doc: a maintenance release for Moodle 1.9 and our inaugural edition for Moodle 2.2.

• Moodle 1.9.16+LAE1.6
  • Incorporates maintenance and security fixes from 1.9.16 into the LAE.
  • Check out the release.
• Moodle 2.2+LAE2.0
  • Anonymous Forums: Allows for anonymous posting to Moodle forums.
  • Filtered Course List Block: Lets administrators to display a block with courses based on a particular search string (e.g. the current term)
  • Simple File Upload Course Import Fix: The 1.9 LAE had a streamlined upload interface called “Simple File Upload”; this created a new file upload type in the database. Moodle 2 doesn’t recognize this custom file type, which causes course restores to fail when upgrading or restoring a course. This fix changes Simple File Upload content into regular Moodle 2.x files.
  • Quickmail: The LSU implementation of the popular Quickmail block, which allows faculty to easily email students in their classes from Moodle.
  • File Interface Exit Warning: In our testing we found that Moodle’s file upload interface can be confusing — it requires users to upload files, then click a save button, but the interface itself makes it look as though the file has already been saved. This tweak displays a warning message if the user tries to surf away from the file interface without saving.
  • Moodle 2.2+LAEv2.0 Beta 1 will be released on Wednesday, January 18, 2011

Moodle 2.2 Status Report

• The Moodle 2.0 status report was reviewed, and all outstanding blockers have been evaluated. We plan on releasing a Moodle 2.2 status report — which will include a review of popular Moodle 2 modules — in February 2012.

Presentations

• Kaltura by Deb Sarlin, Bucknell University
  • Deb gave an overview of Kaltura, a streaming media solution that integrates with Moodle.
  • She should an example of how video can be recorded and added to an assignment in Moodle.
  • We discussed the new version of the plugin for Moodle 2.2.
• eReserves by Daniel Landau, Reed College
  • Daniel presented on his home-grown eReserves system for Reed College, which was programmed in Ruby-on-Rails.

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.14+LAE v1.5. Full details about this release can be found in the LAE_readme.txt file in the download. This version release merges the Liberal Arts Edition with Moodle 1.9.14.

Visit the release’s home page to download the code:

• http://www.clamp-it.org/code/moodle-1-9-14lae-v1-5/

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.13+LAE v1.4. Full details about this release can be found in the LAE_readme.txt file in the download. This version release merges the Liberal Arts Edition with Moodle 1.9.13.

Visit the release’s home page to download the code:

• http://www.clamp-it.org/code/moodle-1-9-13liberal-arts-edition-v1-4/

Moodle 1.9.12+LAE1.3 released is available for download. This is a maintenance and incorporates Moodle 1.9.12+ (from mid-June 2011) as well as bug fixes from Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Hampshire College in June 2011. It supersedes the Moodle 1.9.11+LAE1.2 releases.

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.3 Beta 1. Full details about this release can be found in the LAE_readme.txt file in the download. Note: This is a beta release for testing purposes only; it is not recommended for use on production web sites

• Code freeze was Wednesday, July 6, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.3 Beta 1 was released Wednesday, July 6, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.3 is scheduled for release on Friday, June 15, 2011

Visit the release’s home page to download the code:

• http://www.clamp-it.org/code/moodle-1-9-12liberal-arts-edition-v1-3/

Moodle 1.9.12+LAE1.2.1 released is available for download. This is a maintenance and security release that incorporates Moodle 1.9.12. It supersedes the Moodle 1.9.11+LAE1.2 releases.

In addition to Moodle 1.9.12, it includes two new backup options: 1) if ZipArchive is installed on the server, Backup will use that instead of the regular zip routines 2) you can now specify whether to skip courses of a certain size when creating backups. This replaces a hardcoded value of 512 MB from the previous version of the LAE.

Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.2.1 Beta 2 is available for download. This release fixes a bug in the forum code that caused the upgrade to 1.9.12 to fail. Many thanks to Lael for reporting the bug.

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.2.1 Beta 1. This is a beta release meant for testing only; it is not recommended for use on production systems. Full details about this release can be found in the LAE_readme.txt file in the download.

• Code freeze was 5 p.m., Thursday, May 26, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.2.1 Beta 1 was released Thursday, May 26, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.2.1 final will be released Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

This version release merges the Liberal Arts Edition with Moodle 1.9.12. 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.

We need specific feedback on:

• Course backups
• General use of Moodle 1.9.12+LAE v1.2

Visit the release’s home page to download the code:

• http://www.clamp-it.org/code/moodle-1-9-12liberal-arts-edition-v1-2/

Moodle 1.9.11+LAE1.2 released is available for download. This is a maintenance release that incorporates Moodle 1.9.11. It supersedes the Moodle 1.9.9+LAE1.1.4 releases. It includes incorporates new bug fixes and features from Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Furman University, as well as a specific bug with TinyMCE 3.0 that was introduced in the LAE1.1.2 release.

CLAMP is pleased to announce the release of Moodle 1.9.11+LAE v1.2 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, April 8, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.11+LAE v1.2 Beta 1 was released Wednesday, April 13, 2011
• Moodle 1.9.11+LAE v1.2 Final Release is scheduled for Monday, April 18, 2011

This version folds merges the Liberal Arts Edition with Moodle 1.9.11. 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. EDT on Monday, April 18 to review any comments and give the go-ahead for the final release.

Go to the 1.9.11+LAE v1.2 home page to learn more and get the code.