We announced last week that Moodle 2.9 is on its way. The enhancements made in 2.9 are in response to the pain-points expressed by the Moodle community. This new version is coming equipped with over 300 improvements, 9 of which we will go through with you.
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# 1) Currently, in a sequence of questions that build on each other, the text of question 2, for example, often gives away the answer to question 1. In Moodle 2.9, teachers can control the order in which questions are answered, meaning that users cannot jump ahead and have answers given to them.
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# 2) Students will now be notified when they have assignments that need attention. In that same respect, teachers will receive the same notification when there are new submissions that require grading. This will ensure that everyone keeps on top of their work.
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# 3) Currently, it is not possible to subscribe to site-wide events relating to the site course, as site course events and site wide events are different. Moodle 2.9 will change this, by allowing users to subscribe to site-wide events relating to their site course.
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# 4) Teachers will have the option to allow students to redo a question they initially answered wrong, immediately after answering, instead of having to wait until the entire quiz is over. This allows teachers to provide more formative quizzes to their students, with immediate feedback.
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# 5) There is now a drag and drop capability, making editing much easier.
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# 6) Moodle 2.9 will include a new page that shows all browser sessions of current user. The purpose of this page is to allows users to verify whether or not somebody else is using their account, and allow users to log themselves out of the system from one computer, when they have forgotten to do so from a computer they were previously on.
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# 7) Moodle 2.9 makes it simpler for teachers and administrators to set the “grade to pass”, as they can now do it right from the activity screen.
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# 8) In Moodle’s current version, all questions in a quiz are shown in one big, unmanageable section. With 2.9, teachers can add section headings to the quiz to break up the questions, making it easier to navigate.
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# 9) Right now, when using the forums in group mode, new posts have to be started individually for each group in order to maintain group participation, rather than the whole-class involvement. The option for new discussion threads to be started that will automatically post that new discussion for each group would decrease some confusion.
Again, these are only a few of the many improvements to come. Hold onto your hats until May 18th, which is the official release date of Moodle 2.9! We would also like to note that after May 15th those on Moodle 2.6 and lower will no longer benefit from security and bug-fixes. We know how crucial it is to operate on a secure, bug-free and well-functioning Moodle site, so are happy to offer a 20% discount for those who upgrade before June 20th.
