Ready for Moodle™ 3.5 and GDPR? We Are at Lambda Solutions!

It’s here, the version Moodlers have all been waiting for! Moodle 3.5 focuses on GDPR compliance and enhanced usability and accessibility. With the GDPR being enforced in Europe next week (May 25), the EU is forcing practically all software makers and websites in the world to put control of data firmly back into the users hands. If you are using Moodle and have any of your servers or users in the EU, then just upgrading to a recent version isn’t enough. New tools in Moodle 3.5 make things easier but you are still responsible for ensuring that your organization is GDPR-compliant.

New GDPR-Related Moodle 3.5 Features

• New Site Administration Setting with Privacy and Policies settings
• Set up age checks
• Handle user agreements to site policies
• Manage data requests and data deletion

Tip! These features are also available as plugins for Moodle 3.3.6 and Moodle 3.4.3.

General New Moodle 3.5 Features

• Bootstrap 4 Standard and Course Images
• Enhance the look of courses in the dashboard with images or colored patterns
• New icons for course links are highlighted when clicked on
• Series of new fonts including the Apple user system interface (new fonts will default based on the users browser and operating systems)
• Question Tagging
• Filter questions in the question bank through tags
• Record Audio and Video Easier in the Atto Editor
• Easily record and embed media into courses
• Simple Global Search
• Find anything in Moodle without going to an external browser
• New Badge Criteria
• Make awarded badges even more special
• Receive a badge for uploading a profile picture
• Use badges for criteria for other badges
• Use membership of a cohort as a badge criteria
• Cohort Themes
• Give administrators options to allow, edit and select a specific theme
• Assign cohorts to a specific theme
• Allow cohort themes
• Quiz and Choice Improvements
• Instructors can include files when grading essays
• Learners are informed of the display of choice results
• Other Features
• Bulk edits and un-enroll of users previously self-enrolled
• LTI advantage extensions
• Messaging backend improvements

GDPR and Compliance Related Resource

Case Study: Learn how Sandler Training was able to reignite stalled revenues and deliver a superior learning experience for its 37,000 students worldwide by upgrading to an open source LMS (Totara Learn) and Zoola Analytics, and how our team at Lambda is helping them prepare their system to meet the new GDPR laws.

eBook: Read Compliance and Competency Training Made Easy with LMS, a guide to reducing costs, mitigating risks, elevating team members and increasing business value.

Moodle HQ Resources: 

• New Features;
• Release Notes; 
• Moodle 3.5 Video Overview

Articles:

• Get Ready for GDPR with Moodle 3.5 and Lambda Solutions
• Mastering GDPR Compliance For Your eLearning Solution
• 9 Ways To Use Real-World Examples In Compliance Online Training
• Make Sure Your LMS Is GDPR Compliant By May 25, 2018

Want to Upgrade to Moodle 3.5?

Here are the basic requirements:

• You can only upgrade to Moodle 3.5 from Moodle 3.1 or later. If upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 3.1 as a first step.

• The minimum PHP version has increased and is now 7.0.0.

• The PHP extension intl is now required in Moodle 3.4 (previously it was only recommended).

Need help? The team at Lambda Solutions are experts in all things Moodle and helping customers upgrade to new versions. Save time and get it done properly and quickly. Set up an appointment to talk to one of our experts!