Author: Ken Newquist

Moodle 1.9.9+LAE v1.1.2 Beta 1

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 2.0 Triage

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.

  • Enrollments
    • gradebook and how enrollments work.
    • what happens when someone is unenrolled from a course, deleted from moodle, etc.
    • ways to get around auto-deleting student course information
  • Repository/Files
    • How does uploading of files work?
    • SMB mounts?
    • External repos?
    • User quotas?
  • Block and Module Evaluations
    • needed updates for database backend?
  • Restoring courses from 1.9, upgrading courses from 1.9
  • Thirdparty apps like plagerism tools
  • Moodle Luminis Message Broker Plugin
    • 2.0 beta in January

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:

New committees are looking for volunteers!

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.

Hack/Doc Fest: Winter 2011 Project Suggestions

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.