With the biggest focus on usability and experience yet, the B Certified company behind the popular Learning Management System of the same name brings us Moodle™ 4.0, the global top open source solution’s latest generation.
A “contemporary look and feel” that aims to not just catch up to learners’ expectations, but to set new ideas forward about what free and open source software should look like; the reflection of an “extensive discovery and consultation process” with the community at heart; and a wealth of visual features meant to provide a more consistent, cognitively pleasing experience; that and more awaits you in Moodle™ 4.0
Here are the latest new features coming up in Moodle™ 4.0:
Navigation: Context menus, easy access, declutter
Moodle™’s new layout takes the layout available in Moodle™ 3.11 and earlier, with a few tweaks to make it look more modern and easy to navigate.
- The main course menu still appears on the left side and can be hidden.
- Several sections appear on a course, but are collapsible and can be accessed through the left menu.
- Supporting tools appear on the right-side panel, but can remain hidden.
Course management
A course Dashboard provides a quick overview of courses in which the learner is enrolled, with several sorting and filtering options and bold, clear calls to action for each. Below, a Calendar shows important dates and allows event creation.
- Deadlines and control actions lets you manage, prioritize and stay on top of deadlines.
- Content related to all courses appears in one place, with easy filtering options.
- Courses and activities show completion rates and point to the next activity.
Experience creation
Ongoing improvements on course setup, creation, and activity creation reach a higher note on Moodle™ 4.0.
- Easily add activities and resources from a searchable list, with the ability to “star” frequent items or to recommend site-wide.
- Simple notifications can let learners know of important course updates.
- Extended accessibility in the text editor.
Reporting
The custom report functionality, originally available in Moodle™ Workplace, is now available for all users.
- Build custom reports through drag-and-drop, and be able to preview them.
- Take advantage of comprehensive data fields and aggregation options.
- Schedule and share reports with other teachers and organization members.
Other bells and whistles
- A free version of BigBlueButton is now available out of the box, with limited capabilities but complete analytics.
- Enhanced Assessment tools to help students manage their time.
- Admin presets allow you to transfer settings between sites.
- Newer Question Bank features include versioning, comments, custom fields, column sorting and reordering.
When should you update?
For new adopters, enthusiasts and supporters of new open source toys, there’s no time like the present. You can download the software here. Make sure you do it in an environment with the proper hardware and software requirements. Keep the Docs handy.
For the less technically savvy, you can still get a limited taste of Moodle™ 4.0 using a Moodle™Cloud™ site which is hosted by Moodle™ itself. A 45-day free trial is available.
For organizations looking to migrate to Moodle™ 4.0 for all users, it might be wise to hang on for a little while. In the past, major releases have presented issues, large and small, in some cases leading to quick minor updates following suit. Some experts go as far as recommending upgrading to one or two minor versions down the line, that is, Moodle™ 4.1 or 4.2.
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