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.

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 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