Author: Ken Newquist

CLAMP’s Moodle 2.6 and Moodle 2.7 recommendations

CLAMP is pleased to endorse Moodle 2.6.x and Moodle 2.7.x for use during the 2014-15 academic year.

Moodle 2.6’s new features were reviewed and documented as part of Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Winter 2014 at Eckerd College. View CLAMP’s documentation.

Moodle 2.7’s new features were reviewed and documented as part of Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Summer 2014 at Macalester College. That documentation is being edited, and will be released later this summer.

These endorsements come with a few caveats:

1. New WYSIWYG Editor: Moodle 2.7.x introduces Atto as its default What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editor, replacing TinyMCE. By default the editor has a far more streamlined set of options than TinyMCE. It is possible to have Moodle continue to use TinyMCE, but that use is deprecated. It’s also possible to enable additional features for Atto beyond the default functionality; see the Text Editor documentation (http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Text_editor) for details. We recommend testing this editor on your local development installation before deploying to production.

2. Problems with right-to-left text rendering: Related to the text editor, Atto has no mechanism for creating a span of right to left running text in a left to right running paragraph or vice versa. Users would need this if they were quoting another language inline or referencing the title of a book published in another language. This issue is unresolved — see MDL-45953 for more information (https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-45953). This is a potential blocker for colleges that make heavy use of right-to-left languages.

3. PDF Annotation: Moodle 2.6.x and 2.7.x support PDF Annotation. In our experience this worked well enough in desktop web browsers, but did not work well on tablets. This is not a blocker, but tablet-using faculty should be aware of the problem.

Liberal Arts Editions

CLAMP has released Liberal Arts Editions of Moodle 2.6.4 and Moodle 2.7.1. Learn more about the releases.

CANCELLED: Presentations at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Macalester College

We will have a number of lunchtime presentations at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Macalester College, including topics such as “Development Workshop Roundup”, “Poodll Plugin”, and “Review of Gradebook 2.8 Workshop”.

UPDATE: Because of scheduling difficulties, we’re canceling the lunchtime presentations. We will attempt to reschedule the presentations — particularly Gradebook — as online presentations later this summer. 

All times are Central Daylight Time (CDT). The presentations will be available with a 7-second delay via YouTube and live via a Google+ Hangout.

More presentations will be added, so please keep an eye on this page for updates. Read more

Schedule up, registration open for CLAMP’s Moodle User Group meeting

The schedule for CLAMP’s Moodle User Group is now online. The event is being held Monday, June 23 and Tuesday, June 24, 2014.

Registration is now open. There’s still time to respond to the call for proposals; in particular we’re looking for  10 minute lightning round topics about how you use Moodle.

Don’t forget that Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Summer 2014, also at Macalester, will immediately follow the MUG. Learn more about Hack/Doc.

 

 

Registration for Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at Macalester now open

Registration for Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Summer 2014 at Macalester is now open.

The event will be held Wednesday, June 25 through Friday, June 27 at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. A pre-Hack/Doc documentation and coding sprint will be held Tuesday, June 24, 2014. 

This summer’s Hack/Doc follows the CLAMP Moodle User Group meeting, which is being held June 23-24, 2014, also at Macalester College.