What is this Moodle Evolution Blog about?
The Moodle Evolution blog is designed to be a centralized location for all sorts of news and updates about Moodle. With a system of Moodle’s size, it’s often difficult for faculty, staff, and students to be aware of the goings-on behind the scenes. And really, that’s a shame; lots of cool people both inside and outside Butler University are working hard to do innovative things with Moodle. In response, we created the Moodle Evolution Blog to serve as a source of info and updates about improvements and additions to Moodle—especially our next big upgrade endeavor, which we’re calling the Moodle Renovation project.
Who’s involved in the Moodle Renovation?
Moodle is currently governed and administrated by two teams: Moodle Operations and Implementation (MOI), and Moodle Development and Steering (MDS). MOI’s membership is comprised of a number of Information Technology staff whose work is crucial to Moodle’s ongoing function and upgrades, while MDS is comprised of staff from the Center for Academic Technology, staff from the Library, and faculty members. Both teams work together to determine how Moodle can be improved and expanded and how to best implement those improvements.
What is the Moodle Renovation project?
Moodle, in its most basic sense, is a piece of software. It needs updates the same way any other software does. We do these sorts of updates all the time, and they’re typically pretty uncomplicated. However, the next Moodle update is going to introduce big improvements to all sorts of functionality, and we thought it would be a natural time to make some improvements of our own at the same time. As a result, alongside this update, we’re going to be putting tons of time and effort into improving Moodle’s look and feel. In total, the Moodle Renovation project will include a software upgrade (to add and improve functionality), an updated visual theme (to make Moodle prettier, easier to read, and make it work great on mobile devices), and an unprecedented user-centered design process (to make it easier to navigate and get to what you need, and fast).
What actions do I need to take?
None! The Moodle Renovation project just consists of improvements to Moodle. We’re not moving to another host, we’re not buying a new edition of a Moodle “product,” we’re not swapping out systems. Nothing’s moving, converting, transitioning, transferring, or migrating. You don’t need to do anything to prepare your courses or your material for the “new” Moodle; it’s the same Moodle, just better.
How much training will I need to use the improved features?
Quite a few of the improvements are just additional functionality and won’t require you to learn anything new. Meanwhile, the user-centered design process is intended to allow you to use Moodle more naturally so that training and tutorials won’t be necessary to find and use all your ordinary stuff. There will, however, be lots of resources on hand to help you take advantage of all of the improvements and updates to the gradebook, since it’s been redesigned to be much faster, much easier, and much less fiddly. Stay tuned for updated materials!
How will this affect my gradebook?
Lots of people everywhere in the Moodle world have wanted a quicker, easier, more effective gradebook. The new-and-improved gradebook is the product of a concerted group effort on the part of Moodle developers and users all over the world (including, perhaps most prominently, folks from other liberal arts institutions like our own). The new Moodle gradebook is much easier to read, much easier to fill out, and much easier to set up. Fewer fiddly workarounds, less confusing terminology, and plenty of new tools to make grading faster and easier.
Will I have to grade differently?
If you import one of your previous courses, your grades will work just the way you set them to before. As explained above, we want the Moodle Renovation to be as unobtrusive as possible. We don’t want to make you spend a ton of time relearning everything and then reworking all your courses, content, and grades to make them play nice with an updated version of Moodle. When the Moodle Renovation is complete, you won’t have to touch anything to make your courses work as they did before. We’re betting, though, that you’ll want to take advantage of all the new shiny benefits, and the Moodle Evolution blog is designed to introduce you to those, too. Check out our gradebook page to learn more about the biggest new feature.
How can I see the progress of the Moodle Renovation?
If you’re interested in seeing the improved Moodle ahead of time and helping us to make it as great as it can possibly be, we invite you to get involved with testing. To ensure that the Moodle Renovation goes as smoothly as possible, we’ve instituted a large, sophisticated, long-term testing process to help iron out any potential problems well ahead of time. We have a number of people slated to test functionality and make sure everything works, but we also need real live day-to-day Moodle users to make sure it doesn’t just work, but works well.