Overview

Unlike last year, which saw a major change with the new Moodle theme, this upgrade does not have any drastic changes. This should mean that using the system is very similar, but with a number of additional plugins - some of which have been included to allow cpontionunity for member sof staff joining us from the Institute of Education.

For a detailed look at the changes to Moodle please see the Moodle 2.8 Release notes on the Moodle.org official website , and also the 2.7 release notes

Highlights of these new features are:

New Grader report (the main interface showing all grades)
New quiz-building page
Forum - you can subscribe to get email copies of individual discussions
Improved 'restrict access' functionality
Improved course logs with greater detail

Other new features/ plugins

Blackboard collaborate - The Blackboard Collaborate web-conferencing software is now integrated into Moodle. Please have a look at the /wiki/spaces/MoodleResourceCentre/pages/31865647 and at the Blackboard User Guide
Attendance Activity/Block - The attendance module and block are designed to allow instructors of a course keep an attendance log of the students in their courses.
Atto text editor - Moodle 2.8 has a new text editor. It has a cut down icon set, and a new equation editor and will auto-save your content in case you forget to save.

Improved tabs format

The tabs format now includes the ability to:

Add and remove tabs - by clicking the small + or - icons to the right of the last tab
Move the current tab to a new location in another tab - in edit mode a 'Tabs editing options' link near the bottom, left back button (which takes you to the previous tab), you can temporarily enable the ability to move items between tabs.
- Editing actions are only enabled for the current session, it is not permanent. Therefore, Moodle will revert back to disabling this setting next time you log in.

New course formats

Two new course formats will be introduced

Collapsed Topics

This format gives an 'accordion' style page with expandable/collapsable topic headings. More information can be found at the Moodle plugin page

Grid Format

Grid format give a graphical front end to the course with a clickable image that links to each topic. More information can be found at the Grid format Moodle plugin page

Further improvement details

Moodle Text editor

The Moodle text editor areas will auto-save your text and images. This means if you navigate away from the page without saving, Moodle will automatically restore the content for you - although you can always undo this using the undo button in the text editor.

Choice activity

The choice activity will allow multiple choices. Previously students could only select one choice. External tool

External tool

LTI 2.0 support

Lesson

The lesson now includes an introduction like other modules
Better handling of images in questions

Workshop

Workshop submissions and/or assessments can be removed during the course reset

Forum

You can subscribe to get email copies of individual discussions
You can now reply to forum posts received by email, and even include attachments
You can jump to the next and previous discussions easily
New discussions are displayed in full recent activity report

Assignment

Option of adding additional files for use in the assignment, such as answer templates
New capability that allows to control which grader receives notifications

Quiz

Gradebook

Usability improvements to the Moodle Gradebook - see the release notes for details....
- New Grader report (the main staff interface showing all grades):
  - Uses the whole window.
  - Smooth, stable scrolling in all directions.
  - Works on all platforms, including phones and tablets.
  - A new Single view mode allows editing of any row or column on its own.
  - Allows quick editing of any cell without reloading.
- New Natural weighting aggregation method making it simpler and clearer to combine grades
- Improved Grader setup page (for defining items and categories)
  - Bugs fixed relating to how grades are added in some scenarios
  - Prevents loss of data when you leave the window
- Improved User report (default student view)
  - Clearer calculations
  - Contributions column explains grade calculations
- New Grade history report lists full details of all grade changes

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