Moodle 2.7 – New Features
The Technology Enhanced Learning team and Information Learning Services have been working hard over the last couples of months to bring staff and students an early Christmas present. On the Saturday 13th December, we will be upgrading Moodle to version 2.7. This update brings a lot of exciting new features which we are going to look at more closely in this blog post.
Atto, a new, simple-to-use editor
The new Moodle text editor ‘Atto’ focuses on usability and accessibility. It is the default editor on all Moodle courses and it includes some new features such as an equation editor, screen reader support and an accessibility checker. If you are using FireFox as your browser then you can drag and drop images directly into the text editor on a Page, Quiz question or Label. To find out more about the new text editor watch the video below.
PDF Annotations (Coming soon)
Using the PDF annotation tool you can mark online directly in Moodle. This means that assignment files no longer need to be downloaded to be marked electronically. Simply, click the ‘Launch PDF editor’ button that appears at the button of each students submission/grading page. If you are going to use this feature remember to ask your students to submit their assignments as PDF documents. You can specify this in the assignment instructions. To find out more about PDF annotation feature, watch the video below.
Assignment Workflow and Allocation
With Assignment Workflow and Allocation, module tutors can allocate student work to specific markers (tutors). This feature will be particularly useful for those modules with multiple markers. You can enable this setting by clicking Yes for ‘Use marking workflow’ and ‘Use marking allocation’ in the Assignment settings under the Grade heading. To find out more about Assignment Workflow and Allocation watch the video below.
Improved editing icons
Editing tools have been grouped together to in a simple drop-down menu for easy accessibility across desktop and mobile devices. You will no longer see the editing options (rename, edit, duplicate, etc.) in a horizontal row next to each resource or activity. Instead you will see an ‘Edit’ menu that allows you to select the editing option you wish to use. To see the improved editing icons in action watch the video below.
Improved Conditional Activities – Create better customised learning paths
Conditional activities have also been revamped in Moodle 2.7. The settings for Conditional Activities can be found under the Restrict Access header when editing a resource or activity. Here you can restrict the availability of a resource or activity based on the following criteria: date, grade obtained or activity completion. You could even restrict access to a complete section of a course. To learn more about Conditional Activities watch the video below.
Easily create and manage Quizzes & Questions bank
The Quiz is another activity in Moodle 2.7 that has had a revamp. As well as an updated question type selector, duplicating and moving questions is now easier when creating Moodle quizzes.
Improved integration between Moodle and Mahara
This upgrade also means improved integration between the Moodle assignment tool and Mahara. Student’s submitting electronic portfolio’s created in Mahara will now be able to submit Mahara collections to a Moodle assignment, something which has not been previously possible.
If you would like to find out more about the new features of Moodle 2.7 or have a question about one of the feature then please contact a member of the Technology Enhanced Learning team (tel@yorksj.ac.uk).
Daniel
