For more information visit: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_2.0_release_notes

Here’s to hoping.  Stay tuned for QA testing information to find out how you can help out.

Read the articles here: http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=141641 and http://www.pioneerlocal.com/mundelein/news/2593194,mundelein-communication-081910-s1.article

While the use of social network sites (such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace) in schools is a contentious issue, I’m curious what general opinion about student-teacher communication in schools looks like today (via Moodle or not).

Can and does Moodle provide an adequate communication venue for students, parents and teachers?  What Moodle tool works best?  What specifically might it be missing?¹

While banning communication through Facebook (or other social networks) may prevent otherwise positive and learning-focused communications, I can see where the school (and it’s legal team) might be coming from.

By strengthening the walled-garden that is their school’s website portal and LMS, its possible for a school to get the best of both worlds (i.e. that is, stem potentially dangerous communications before they happen and promote adequate, informal and formal educational discussions between students, parents and teachers)?

¹ Moodle 2.0 provides a much more robust communication tool for students and teachers (specifically enabling a inbox and message system).  I think that it will change how many schools view Moodle in terms of providing an adequate communication channel [http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_2.0_release_notes#Messaging]

His opening was preceded by a special treat: a sing-a-long song about Moodle to the tune of “Thank god I’m a country boy“.  The song was then immediately followed by Martin’s best southern sounding “howdy y’all”.  As usual, a high level overview of the Moodle.org, .com and Partners structure was provided for newbie Moodlers.  An interesting fact is that while Moodle’s official programming staff can be counted on two hands, over 250 developers have various permissions to submit and post code to the Moodle core at Moodle.org (a sizable workforce!).

Martin then summarized the benefits (as he sees them) of Moodle 2.0:

• Security
• Performance
• Media and File Management
• Integrations
• Improvements and major rewrites

Aesthetics:

Among the improvements (here in started the demonstration of a live Moodle 2.0 running locally on Mr. Dougiamas’ Macbook) were aesthetic.  Martin even went so far as to call Moodel 1.X “ugly” (many would agree).  2.0, from the visions provided on Martin’s screen and the various 2.0 themes around the web (here and here) certainly prescribe to that notion: Moodle 2.0 is much more aesthetically pleasing.

Navigation:

Martin went on to show the various changes to navigation.  what I previously did not realize is that the Navigation block is a personalized utility that allows the deepest opportunity to drill down, even to individual Forum posts from anywhere on the site.  It’s like a teleporter for your Moodle account.

My Moodle and Private Files:

Perhaps one of the most exciting feature overhauls is MyMoodle and the addition of the private files block.  Private files provide a file structure (similar to that of a course in 1.X) for each individual user.  A mini-portfolio if you will.  This block can be located into MyMoodle, effectively giving all student not only a convenient “jump off” or starting point on the site, but a digital backpack replacing the need for any thumbdrive or external storage.  Truly a utility worth exploring.

Media/File Management:

Probably the feature that will cause the most waves and controversy is the redesign of the file structure for Moodle courses.  The structure has been changed completely, which Martin admits, may force a change in training and methodology of how teachers manipulate courses (but in the end he hopes it will be seen as overall beneficial).  Adding files to Moodle can now be done from various file repositories (Google Docs, Flickr, Youtube¹, or a organizations own private digital repository) and was designed to eliminate duplication of files from course to course.  In one pilot, by eliminating duplication of files which were used in multiple courses (and allowing those courses all to call the same file) reduced the digital storage footprint of the site by 30-40%.

Messaging:

Messaging as well received an overhaul, a few highlights,

• No more popups
• Provides an “inbox” for students
• All messages go through Admin (I believe this was what Martin said)
• Notifications provided as Ajax popups immediately when logged in (can even set that notification to include new forum posts)

Other Features:

Other various improvements included,

• Ajax popup of Moodle documentation and help (the ever present ? button).
• Conditional activities and course completion.
• The retooled Workshop Module (which is equally functional but now includes a step by step “how to” displayed on each step of setup and implementation.
• New Enrollment plugin system; this last one provides course level enrollment options including unlimited group specific course enrollment keys, Cohorts, and a revamped UI for managing course roles (which is pretty slick).

Before launching into a demo of the Mooch (http://hub.moodle.org), Martin talked briefly about the workload of Moodle developers and how he hoped that once 2.0 was released that they would start managing community produced code more (rather than spending the majority of their time developing the code for the community).  This would allow them to focus on creating a more fully featured Moodle.org, including the capacity to rate, vet and manage plugins, blocks, themes and whatnot (and to manage their other long term projects).

An exciting feature in the roadmap (sometime in the future) is the inclusion of Admin ability to search, review and download/install Modules directly to a Moodle installation, which would be similar to the current capabilities of WordPress.  This would truly be a game changer for LMSs.

MOOCH:

Finally Martin touched on and demonstrated the Moodle.org Course Hub (Mooch) software plugin which will allow 2.0 users to share and adopt or search and locate constructed courses to use in their own classroom or enroll in for PD/learning, respectively.  It’s a feature that’s been “in the works” for several long years but will finally come to fruition with the release of 2.0.

In conclusion, Martin gave a keynote that was very much focused on the release of 2.0 and the roadmap thereafter (which presented a vision of a dominant Moodle LMS).

This session was recorded and will be posted as soon as it is available from the conference organizers.

¹This calls to question the practice of districts in the US (and worldwide?) blocking Youtube and other open repositories of information, images and content.

This post and all posts from the #mootustx10 were made possible with support from Wiris.com and Moodlerooms.com.

Final Release date: September, 2010 (if testing goes well)

Previously the push to release Moodle 2.0 was focused on readying the code for use by schools starting this September, unfortunately, with at least one more QA testing cycle in store for Moodle 2.0 the release has been pushed back to September, 2010 (at the earliest).

For more information:

• http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_2.0_release_notes
• Until then, get your Moodle 2.0 fix in the archives: http://www.moodlenews.com/?s=2.0
• Or on the Moodle 2.0 Moodlenews.com page: http://www.moodlenews.com/moodle-2-0/
• to cheer you up: http://ismoodle2outyet.com/

If all goes well, it’s looking like we should be able to hit a usable and feature-complete state for Moodle 2.0 in a couple of weeks, around July 20. You can follow the the main blockers in the tracker to see progress towards this. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can call that a final release yet, because the testing period for much of it has not been long enough, so at this point we’ll call it Moodle 2.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=153815]

So unless you’re using a Preview Release or are planning to adopt the RC1, the wait will be a little longer.  Why?  For the sake of quality; which is a good thing.

For information on helping with the QA Cycle 1 check out our previous post or Helen Foster’s call to QA at Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=153814

Related:

• http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_2.0_release_notes

Congratulations to Caroline who won a 16GB iPad.  And a hearty thank you to New School Learning for creating and moderating the contest which turned out some GREAT themes:

Check out the various inherent headers of the Splash theme in screen shots below or at the demo site: http://www.newschoollearning.com/moodle2/?&theme=splash

Read more about it and the presentation given at Moodle Moot Australia 2010: http://www.markdrechsler.com/?p=225

Pretty slick.

GO VOTE!

http://newschoollearning.com/theme/submissions/

Personally, it makes me think of the WordPress administration dashboard.

Can’t wait to see what mods and pretty skinning other developers do to this one.  Check it out here: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=4000; or give it a test run here: http://lei.jobhunting.co.nz/moodle2/.

This one was also entered into the Moodle 2.0 theme contest.  If you like it a lot, consider weighing in to make it (and Lei) a winner.