Moodle Fall Update — Patch Notes

Summary

• A class roster plugin has been added to Moodle. This will let faculty view class pictures from Moodle now that Campus Login has been discontinued.
• Instructors can now use Moodle to add annotations and highlights to student assignments submitted as PDFs.
• The Offline Quiz activity has been added to Moodle, this activity will let instructors use Moodle question banks to generate paper quizzes.
• The attendance plug-in used on the previous UPEI Moodle has been added to the current version.
• The EBSCO Curriculum Builder plugin has been installed, this plugin will let instructors create and curate reading lists for courses.
• Faculty, staff, and students who access Moodle.upei.ca from a tablet or smartphone will see Moodle in a more mobile friendly theme. If you experience issues with these themes from your mobile devices, please contact us at moodle@upei.ca
• moodle.upei.ca will now load in the Moodle mobile and desktop apps. The ELO recommends the standard website over these apps as there are some known issues such as not loading embedded videos or other embedded materials.

Full Notes

Class Roster

Campus Login provided a visual class roster that helped faculty put a face to a name. This functionality has been to added Moodle.

To view your class roster, open your course page. In the Administration block, press the Report dropdown and choose Roster.

Offline Quiz

Moodle question banks can now be used to create paper copies of quizzes. This is a separate activity that needs to be set up. To create one, add an activity or resource and select the Offline Quiz activity. You can then build the quiz as you would using the standard quiz activity, and generate a number of different versions using Moodle’s question banks.

Annotated PDF Grading

If students submit assignments to the Moodle assignment activity, a preview of the assignment can be opened directly in Moodle, allowing for highlighting, annotation textboxes, and more. A demonstration of PDF Grading is available on the Faculty and Staff Support Moodle page.

Class Reading List

The EBSCO Curriculum Builder plugin has been installed, allowing instructors to aggregate a class reading list. This plugin connects with the Robertson Library search allowing you to link students to its collections, as well as adding external links for articles and other digital readings.

Mobile Friendly Theme

The theme has been set to switch to the Moodle’s default Clean theme if you access Moodle from a web browser on your mobile device or tablet. This theme should be more responsive for mobile users instead of the UPEI default Anomaly theme.

Mobile and Desktop App Access

Access for Moodle.upei.ca for the Moodle mobile and desktop apps has been set to allowed, though we advise accessing Moodle through your web browser for the best experience. These apps do not display embedded objects like vidoes, H5P activities, or other iframe materials. The apps also do not adapt to include useful site links, such as the Moodle Faculty and Staff Support page or AccessDeck.

Attendance

The Attendance plugin from Old-Moodle has been brought into the current version of Moodle. This functionality was thought to be covered by myUPEI but instead the Moodle version was better suited for some programs.

If you have any issues with Moodle using any of these features, please let us know and contact us at moodle@upei.ca.

Thanks!