Moodle 3.1 will be installed during the Moodle refresh this August. It has lots of new features so we have collated them into four categories:
Course Editing
Inline editing, section titles and labels can be added or edited directly on the main course page. Whole sections can now be deleted and the Atto text editor now has text auto save, an equation editor and improved tables functionality.
Reading lists are now added using the External Tool or a reading list block.
Lecture capture is now added using the Echo360 plugin, which is found under ‘add activity resource’ when you are editing your moodle course.
Activities
Quizzes
New question types have been introduced: drag and drop text, drag and drop onto image, and select missing words.
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The format and look of the questions has been improved. You can now make the display of a question dependent on a previous question being answered first.
Forums
You can now pin discussions so that key information is not lost. There are also improvements to subscription of forum posts.
Lessons
You can add a countdown timer for lessons, this could be useful for timed formative/summative tasks.
Assignment
Assessments can contain files for students to review before uploading their work for example marking guidelines or rubrics.
You can also now download individual files and submissions from students.
Choice
You can now add more than one choice to this activity as a quick way of getting feedback from students.
Competencies
Competency frameworks can be set up at Site or Category level and these can be used to create learning plan templates and teachers can then add competencies to courses and course activities. Learning plans can be assigned to individual selected students or to whole cohorts. Staff and students can then view and review individual learning plans. If you are interested in using competency frameworks please contact LTI.support@lse.ac.uk.
User Features
We are making LSE Moodle compatible with the Moodle App which is available for free from Google Play and the Apple Store. Once you download the app you can view your Moodle courses even when offline. Receive instant notifications of messages and other events, view your course grades, complete quizzes and post in forums.
‘My Moodle’ is changing to Dashboard which is customisable and allows all users to add various blocks including ‘upcoming events’, ‘activities’, ‘course completion status’,’calendar’ and many more.
The profile page has been moved to a drop down menu format in the top right hand corner. It now collates forum posts, blog entries, learning plans, and grades. Many settings have been put into one ‘preferences‘ section which allows you to choose your choice of editor, forum settings and notifications and change your password.
Global search allows users to search for material from any courses that they have access too. For example a students could search their courses for particular lecture notes or a teacher could search for subject related activities.
The Atto editor has text auto save and drag and drop for images.
Course Administration
A Recycle bin means that if you accidentally delete course items or courses it is easier to restore them.
Activities can now be tagged, making it easier to find related content. Tags can be combined, grouped into collections and searched for if using global search.
Many improvements have been made to the gradebook, with the grader report now functional across all devices with smooth scrolling. Cells can be quickly edited without reloading. A new single view allows editors to view either all the grades of one single student or a single grade item for all students.
See the Moodle overview of new features in 3.1 and watch a video. To read more about why we are upgrading see our blog post.