Infos on the upgrade to Moodle 4.3
RWTHmoodle has been updated from version 4.1 to version Moodle 4.3 on May 23, 2024. The RWTHmoodle team will also make some adjustments that take into account feedback from the user surveys. On this page we inform you about the most important changes.
Table of Contents
- What does the update mean for me?
- Training courses for lecturers
- Overview of the most important changes
3.1. Course page - Activity cards
3.2. Course page - Conditions for activity completion
3.3. Course page - Restrict access
3.4. Course index - Display of activity icons and Text and media areas
3.5. New text editor TinyMCE - Changes for managers only
4.1. Course page
4.2. Grades
4.3. Question bank
4.4. Quiz activity - Reopen Quizzes that have never been submitted
4.5. Assignment Activity - Reminder for missing submissions - Customizations by the RWTHmoodle team
- Additional information
1. What does the update mean for me?
In Moodle 4.3, the user interface of the learning management software has been further revised to improve its user-friendliness. New features such as collapsible and expandable elements, enhanced search and filter functions, revised icons and more easily accessible editing options ensure less information density, a better overview and faster access to content and functions.
Most of the changes in Moodle 4.3 only affect views that are available to managers. For example, the new functions for faster editing of the Course Page and the revision of the Grades section.
Innovations in Moodle 4.3 that are visible and usable for all users of the learning platform relate in particular to the display of content on the Course Page and the new text editor TinyMCE, which replaces the previous editor Atto.
An overview of the most important changes can be found below. Under 6. Additional information you will also find videos on the changes in English.
2. Training courses for lecturers
The CLS offers two one-hour online training courses for all teaching staff at RWTH Aachen University on May 28 and 29, 2024, in which the most important adjustments and innovations will be presented. Further information on the training dates and registration can be found in the Staff Development Event Database.
3. Overview of the most important changes
3.1 Course page - Activity cards
The activity cards have been redesigned in Moodle 4.3 and take up less space on the Course page. The RWTHmoodle team already anticipated the changes in the winter semester 2023/24 and reduced the size of the icons and the inner spacing of the activity cards.
3.2 Course page - Conditions for activity completion
In Moodle 4.3, the display of completion conditions for activities has changed. Activities that can be manually marked as completed - this is also the system-defined default condition - will retain the clickable field "Mark as completed". Other completion conditions are no longer listed directly in the activity card, but are moved to a drop-down menu "To do". If several completion conditions are combined, this saves space and ensures a more uniform page layout.
For all activities on the course page, managers will see a "Completion" drop-down menu that displays the completion conditions. If the course page is in edit mode, they can adjust the completion conditions directly via the drop-down menu.
3.3 Course page - Restrict access
Access restrictions for an activity are now highlighted more clearly. In addition, only one restriction is displayed by default. If several restrictions are defined, these can be expanded via the "Show more" drop-down menu.
If the Course page is in edit mode, managers can adjust the access restrictions directly on the Course page via the "Edit restrictions" link.
3.4 Course index - Display of activity icons and Text and media areas
The Course index now shows the title of an activity as well as its icon. This makes it easier to find elements. In addition, the Course index now also lists Text and media areas. All sections in the Course index can be expanded or collapsed via a new three-dots menu.
Managers will also find a new field "Title in course index" in the settings of a Text and media area. The title defined here is displayed in the Course index. If the title is missing, the (abbreviated) content of the Text and media area will appear in the Course index instead.
The text editor "TinyMCE" replaces the previous editor "Atto" as the standard editor. The structure of the TinyMCE toolbar is similar to familiar office programs and offers a toolbar for quick access as well as tabs with submenus for additional functions.
TinyMCE offers advantages when working with tables and accessibility and is altogether more powerful than Atto. However, some functions developed specifically for Atto may not yet be available. If you prefer the Atto editor, you can switch back to this editor via your personal system preferences until the next upgrade in 2025. To do this, click on your display name at the top right of the page, select "Preferences" and then "Editor preferences".
In addition to the functions already mentioned above, the course page has been given some new functions that allow you to work faster.
4.1.1 Course page - Insert new activities
Activities and materials can now be inserted directly into a section at any point. When hovering over the page, a plus sign appears between two activity cards, which you can use to insert a new activity at the desired position. This eliminates the need to scroll to the end of a section and then move the newly created activity or material within the section.
4.1.2 Course page - Bulk actions
The new "Bulk actions" function saves time when editing the Course page: you can now select several activities, materials or entire sections at the same time and duplicate, move, delete or adjust their availability using the action bar at the bottom of the page. The action bar scrolls with you when you navigate to and select elements distributed across the page. To start bulk actions, click on the link of the same name to the right of the course title.
4.1.3 Course page - Duplicate sections
In addition to activities, sections and their content can now be easily duplicated by clicking on the corresponding function in the drop-down menu.
4.1.4 Course page - Hide activities
If the Course Page is in edit mode, you can hide activities and materials via the three-dot menu as before. However, the entry has been renamed "Availability". If an activity is hidden, i.e. not available, the status can also be changed directly on the Course Page via the "Hidden from students" label.
The user interface in the Grades section has been significantly revised and simplified. The various views now appear tidier and less cluttered with information. The functionality has also been improved.
4.2.1 Grader peport - Search function and filters
A new search function (see figure, no. 1) allows targeted searches for individual students, for example by name or matriculation number. The filter options for name initials (see figure, no. 2) are no longer visible per se, but can only be called up if necessary.
4.2.2 Grader report - New context menu
Each grade item, i.e. each column of the report, has a new context menu (three-dot menu). This enables various actions such as editing the associated grade item, switching to the User report, adjusting the sort order, hiding or collapsing the column.
Columns that are not required can be collapsed using the new three-dot menu to avoid scrolling sideways. The number and name of the collapsed columns are displayed compactly in a drop-down menu at the top right of the Grader report. The menu can also be used to expand several columns at once.
4.2.3 Grader report - Entering grades
In edit mode, you can enter grades directly into the page as before. However, the button for saving the changes is now always visible and scrolls along.
4.2.4 Gradebook setup
You can collapse and expand grade categories that are not required using the arrow icons (see figure, no. 1). This improves the overview in course rooms with many grade items and grade categories.
The icons in the new "Status" column (see figure, no. 2) indicate whether a grade item or a grade category is hidden or locked. Text labels also show the aggregation type and other current settings that have been made for the respective grade category.
The context menu for actions is now displayed as a three-dot menu (see figure, no. 3) and therefore takes up less space visually.
Grade categories and grade items can be added or edited without leaving the page. A window opens in which you can make the desired entries. Meanwhile, the original page and its content remain visible in the background.
An improved filter function (see figure, no. 1) with the three criteria "Category", "Show hidden questions" and "Tag" (see figure, no. 2 and 3) allows you to search for and filter out specific questions. The example image shows a filter set for questions with a certain category and a tag "RWTH". The new layout has also been aligned with other areas in Moodle to provide a more consistent user experience.
You can also customize the display of the Question Bank to your own needs by dragging and dropping columns, removing them or changing their size.
4.4 Quiz activity - Reopen Quizzes that have never been submitted
Under "Results", you can now reset the quiz attemps of students with the status "Never submitted" to the status "In progress" and thus reopen them. This status can occur if the option "Attempts must be submitted before time expires, or they are not counted" has been selected in the quit settings under "Time". If students do not submit an attempt within the allotted time, the attempt is considered not submitted and will not be graded.
4.5 Assignment Activity - Reminder for missing submissions
Under "Submissions" you can send a message to several students at once, for example to remind them of a missing submission. Select the students in the list and click on "Send a message" in the "With selection" drop-down menu below the submission list. You can then write the message in the new window and send it.
5. Customizations by the RWTHmoodle team
In addition to the upgrade to Moodle 4.3, the RWTHmoodle team has made further adjustments in response to feedback from user surveys and support.
As mentioned above, the RWTHmoodle team has already anticipated the smaller icons and activity cards of Moodle 4.3 in the winter semester 2023/24. The course page thus shows more information at a glance and requires less scrolling.
In addition, a few weeks ago the “My courses” page became the landing page after logging into the system. This fulfills users' wish to get to their own courses more quickly after logging in instead of being directed to the dashboard first. In return, the information on “New activities” and access to the student course evaluations (EvaSys) are now only available on the dashboard.
The performance of the system has also been noticeably improved in some areas to enable faster work. The list of participants and the submission list for assignments now load significantly faster than before.
Over the next few weeks, we will also be preparing the help materials for the system in a more target group-specific way and making them available in a new separate tab next to the dashboard and My Courses, together with news about changes to RWTHmoodle. This will make the information easier to find.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
On the Moodle community pages you will find additional information on the new features in Moodle. Please note, however, that not all functions of Moodle are used in RWTHmoodle and that the appearance of the software may differ in certain areas.
- The official release notes provide an overview of all new features in Moodle.
- Most of the changes described on this page can be viewed in the "What's New" videos on YouTube from the Moodle Academy, the learning management system's training portal.
Further reading:
