MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

SCORM activity

2008-07-27T10:20:25Z

Avicent:

{{Scorm}}

The '''SCORM/AICC''' module is a course [[Teacher_documentation#Activity_modules|activity]] which allows you (the teacher) to upload any SCORM or AICC package to include in your course.

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a collection of specifications that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of web-based learning content.

==See also==
* [[Tools for creating SCORM content]]
* [[SCORM_FAQ]]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=7198 SCORM Repository] - allows uploading/downloading shared Objects
* The official standard: [http://www.adlnet.org/scorm/ Advanced Distributed Learning - SCORM]

Using Moodle forum discussions:
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=3757 Simple introduction to SCORM]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57059 Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool?]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=95946 Is SCORM worth it?]

[[Category:Modules]]

[[es:SCORM]]
[[fr:SCORM]]
[[ja:SCORM]]

Game module

2008-07-13T20:13:05Z

Avicent:

*[[Game_module_demo|References & Demo video]]
*[[Game_module_install|How to install]]
*[[Game_module_configure|How to configure]]
*[[Game_module_developers|Info for developers]]
*[[Game_module_howtohelp|How I can help?]]

*[http://bdaloukas.gr/moodle Demo site] *[http://bdaloukas.gr/moodle/download/game/doc/game.swf Demo flash video]
*[http://download.moodle.org/plugins/mod/game.zip Download latest version]
*[http://cvs.moodle.org/contrib/plugins/mod/game/ Browse CVS]
*[http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB/component/10295 Bugs and Issues]

*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=81900 Discussion in English]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=92033 Success stories of Module Game]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=92581 Suggest modes of educational exploitation]
*[[Game_module_public|Publishes]]
*[[Game_module_sites|Sites that uses it]]

This module contains 8 games and is translated to Basque, Frence, [https://docs.moodle.org/el/Game_module Greek], Norwegian, Rusian, Spanish

1) Hangman: This game takes words from either a Glossary or quiz short answer questions and generates a hangman puzzle. Teacher can set the number of words that each game contains, if shows the first or last letter, or if show the question or the answer at the end.

[[Image:Hangman.jpg]]

2) Crossword: This game takes words from either a Glossary or quiz short answer questions and generates a random crossword puzzle. Teacher can set the maximum number of columns/rows or words that contains. Student can press the button “Check crossword” to check if the answers are correct. Every crossword is dynamic so it is different to every student.

[[Image:Crossword.jpg]]

3) Cryptex: This game is like a crossword but the answers are hidden inside a random cryptex.

[[Image:Cryptex.jpg]]

4) Millionaire: This game takes words from multiple choice quiz questions and creates a “Who wants to be a Millionaire” style game complete with the three lifelines.

[[Image:Millionaire.jpg]]

5) Sudoku: This game shows a sudoku puzzle to the students with not enough numbers to allow it to be solved. For each question the student correctly answers an additional number is slotted into the puzzle to make it easier to solve.

[[Image:Sudoku.jpg]]

6) The hidden picture: This game randomly grabs an image from a glossary and hides it behind panels. As each question is answered correctly a portion of the image is revealed. How fast can they guess the image?

[[Image:Hidden picture.jpg]]

7) Snakes and Ladders: The students have to traverse a traditional “Snakes and Ladders” board by answering questions taken from either a Glossary or quiz short answer questions. As they get n answer right the dice is rolled and a random number displayed. If the student is in the bottom of the ladders and answers correct goes to the top. If he is in head of snake and answers wrong goes to tail.

[[Image:snakes_and_ladders.jpg]]

8) Book with questions: When the student answers correct can go to the next chapter.
Source for each game

Glossary Questions
Game True / False
Short answer Multi choice
Hangman X Χ
Crossword X Χ
Cryptex X Χ
Millionaire Χ
Sudoku X Χ Χ Χ
The hidden picture X Χ Χ Χ
Snakes and Ladders Χ Χ
Book with questions X Χ Χ Χ

[[Category:Contributed code]]

[[fr:Module jeux]]
[[es:Game]]
[[el:Game module]]

Teaching with Moodle

2008-06-28T18:40:59Z

Avicent: Undo revision 38771 by Arakkalpraveen (Talk)

'''Objective:''' To organize and share resources and "good practices" so that teachers and students have a positive Moodle experience that enhances the learning process. The resources presented will focus on the pedagogical implementation of Moodle in a classroom setting (whatever that classroom may look like).

*[[The Good Teacher]] - The best place for a teacher contemplating using Moodle in their classroom to start learning as well as a great place for experienced Moodlers to remember why they began using it.

*[[Teaching Do's]] & [[Teaching Don'ts]] - Good general/pedagogical guidelines to consider when setting up a course in Moodle and introducing students to it.

*[[Learning Activities Overview]] - A list of the different activities available within Moodle, as well as what type of learning strategy they employ, suggested age level, and a link to each activity's pedagogy page.

*[[Moodle Stories]] - This is a subset of the ''[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=127 Moodle Stories]'' forum. It contains a collection of innovative ways teachers are utilizing [http://www.moodle.org Moodle] in their classroom. This is a great place for teachers who like the idea of Moodle and what it has to offer, but could benefit from ideas to start from.

*[[Teaching FAQ | Common Teacher Questions (FAQs)]]

*[[Teaching Good Practices (K-12) | Good Practices (K-12)]]

*[[NECC 06 Collaboration Session | NECC 2006 Bird's of a Feather Session]] - Notes from the NECC 2006 Bird's of a Feather Session. The focus is on using Moodle in educational settings with ideas about how to use it and hints too.

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=61228 How teaching is changing using Moodle] forum discussion

[[Category:Teacher]]

[[fr:Enseigner avec Moodle]]
[[ja:Moodleで教える]]

Grade letters

2008-01-13T09:52:55Z

Avicent: add link to docs spanish

{{Grades}}

==Editing grade letters==

To override the site defaults for the display of grades in the gradebook:

#Follow the grades link in the course administration block.
#Select edit letters from the view dropdown menu at the top left of the page.
#Click the edit tab in the middle of the page.
#Check the override site defaults box.
#Change grade letters and/or boundaries as required. (You may wish to use words, for example Below Pass, Pass, Merit, Distinction, rather than letters.)
#Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Save changes" button
[[Image:Grade letters.png|left|Default grade letters]] [[Image:Editing grade letters.png|Editing grade letters]]

[[fr:Notes lettres]]
[[es:Calificaciones con Letras]]

Course restore

2008-01-03T11:45:10Z

Avicent: + es link

{{Course admin}}
Courses can be restored from a backup made by Moodle. Course backups are usually stored in the '''backupdata''' folder within the [[Files|course files]] folder. There is a link next to every course backup that says restore. Each version of Moodle has its own slightly different process for restoring. Generally speaking a backup may be restored several ways. It can
*Copy over the data in any course, or
*Add the backup to any course, or
*Create a new course that is a duplicate,
*Offers option to include student data and/or course files.

The backup and restore process is a common way of moving or, copying specific courses from one Moodle to another.

{{Moodle 1.6}}Version 1.6 and later offers more options in the backup and restore process. [[Backup restore]] has a more detailed description of the 1.6 process. It is possible to backup and/or restore specific course resources and activities. For example, a teacher can backup the entire course, then restore only Lesson 1 with student data, Lesson 4 without student data and a forum with student data, to a new or existing course.

This selective restore process is similar to the [[Import course data|Import feature]] in the course administration block.

==See also==

*[[Backup restore]]
*[[Roll courses forward]] (in Moodle 1.7) how to repeat a course again
*[[Import course data]] or parts of your other courses. 1.6 feature in Moodle
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR9bsPBBWls How to restore a course backup file in Moodle]

[[fr:Restauration]]
[[ja:リストア]]
[[es:Restaurar_un_curso]]

Latest release notes

2006-04-08T12:53:21Z

Avicent:

{{About Moodle}}

==Moodle 1.6 (Coming soon, currently in Beta testing status)==

===New features===

* [[UTF-8 migration|Unicode]]
::Moodle is now 100% Unicode, which means any language can be mixed together and an end to a number of problems that different character sets caused us.
* [[MoodleDocs development|Documentation]]
::A new one-stop wiki site for ALL Moodle documentation, including links from Moodle itself
* [[Database module]]
::A new activity module that allows collaborative collection of structured data, useful for many things!
* [[LAMS]]
::Integrated via a course format and an activity module
* [[Blogs]]
::Allows reflection on an ongoing basis. Entries are marked and can be viewed by user, course, group, site etc. Contains first new support for [[Tags]].
* [[Reports]]
::All reports are now centralised under Course reports and Admin reports. New reports can be written as plugins and dropped in very easily. One big new report is the new course-based statistics system from Catalyst.
* [[My Moodle]]
::A dashboard interface that allows an overview for each user of all their courses etc.
* [[Hive integration]]
::This initial integration with Hive allows teachers to upload, browse, search and select [[Resources|resources]] within the external repository.
* [[Multiple groups]]
::Users can be part of multiple groups within a course
* [[IMS content package]] resource type
::Supports the loading of any content package as a resource, plus special support for a repository of NLN materials
* [[Course backup|Granularised backup]]
* [[Chameleon|Chameleon theme]]
:: An interactive Moodle theme
* [[Enrolment plugins|Multi enrolment]]
::Moodle's enrolment plugins can be used simultaneously on the same site. Also new [[IMS Enterprise]] enrolment plugin.

==Moodle 1.5.3 (11th November, 2005)==

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===A few new things===

* We now have SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004) support!
* Much improved Assignment grading interface, including "quick grading" options
* A new Single-Sign-On API is available

===Various fixes===

'''General'''

* Contains warnings when Moodle is used on an PHP configuration known to be insecure
* Contains fixes for some recently reported security problems (see [http://security.moodle.org/ security.moodle.org])
* Backups now runs a lot faster medium/large installs. Many issues fixed in this area
* Listing of directory sizes can be made much faster on Linux/Unix servers, thanks to a performance fix you can enable from Admin->Variables: "path_to_du"
* We now log more meaningful IP addresses when the server or the clients are working behind a proxy
* Fixed some issues with PHP accelerators
* Upgrade scripts have been refined and work much better for PostgreSQL installations
* General PostgreSQL port code cleanup
* Upgrading to 1.5.3 will fix any legacy Journal to Online Assignment upgrade issues
* RSS libraries now support RSS 2.0 categories, see bug 3654
* Better accesibilty in file uploads, see bug 3662
* Better support for site-wide HTTPS, see bug 3848
* We now send away bots (like Googlebot) from that try mangled URLs, see bug 3958
* Better DST support for non-logged-in users
* Better DST support for repeat events in Calendar
* Small fixes to the lesson, choice and grade modules
* Minor CSS improvements to formal_white and orangewhite themes
* Better pagination in course listing and loglive pages
* Fixed an IE-only bug related to HTMLArea content where user-edited tables could float and hide part of the UI.

'''Authentication'''

* Fixes to change password/forgotten password with external auth
* Data fetched from external DB or LDAP is now truncated correctly
* Fixed bug 4305 -- better login block behaviour when using secureforms
* Better support for utf-8 user data from external auth
* LDAP: General fixes covering sync_users script and logging of errors
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3141 - Can't update external data with LDAP authentication
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3992 - LDAP password including a quote does not work - credits go to Kita
* LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory.
* LDAP: Fixed bug #3594
* LDAP: Better handling of multi-source field mapping
* LDAP: Fix for using DN as idnumber - thanks fo Jeff Graham - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28840

'''Enrolment and metacourses'''

* Metacourses: Prevent normal users to gain access to meta courses via manual enrolment
* Metacourses: better support for MySQL v3.23.x
* DB: Enrolment lookups now work reliably with Moodle on MySQL and Postgres
* DB: Non-MySQL databases work again as external enrolment databases
* LDAP: Fixed a wrong call to add_teacher in LDAP plugin.
* LDAP: Servers being down or unavailable no longer prevent logins
* LDAP: Course auto-creation works again
* LDAP: Fixed several bugs reported by Jeff Graham and Barron Koralesky -- including bugs 3912 and 3974
* LDAP: We can now bind non-anonymously to LDAP
* Authorize.net: several fixes

'''Resources'''

* Bugfix: Avoid linking to empty or unlinkable activity names

'''Forums'''

* Big and small optimizations to tracking of read/unread messages, specially for PostgreSQL
* Fixed some PostgreSQL bugs
* Some more actions are now supported by backup/restore when processing log records, see bug 3582
* Now message forum RSS feeds are including category data -- useful under some RSS agregators able to group messages, see bug 3654
* Fixed paging on forum search

'''Blocks'''

* Several performance improvements
* Fixes to the upgrade process, including PostgreSQL syntax and lower memory usage
* Brought in several bugfixes from 1.6dev
* Fixed bug 3478: Cannot add RSS feed as course creator
* Fixed bug 3793: Prevent warning message when configuring a glossary_random block in a course which has no glossaries

'''Quiz'''

* Some CSS style fixes
* Better compatibility with themes that contain forms in the headers
* Highlighting of correct answers can now be turned off
* Fixed bug 3986: Too many random questions. (mindforge)
* Fixed missing action icons
* Fixed bug 3899 and removed some 'missing course object' messages
* Fixed bug 3950: Ee-attempt button inconsistency for multi-attempt quizzes
* Fixed bug 3953: Quiz/report.php pagesize can be set to 0, credits to Jean-Michel
* Fixed potential data data corruption bug 3915
* Fixed bug 3884: Quiz correct highlights missing for 2 of 3 options.
* Fix for the Student review highlight doesn't seem to work bug
* Fixed bug 3804: Differences in question types between 1.5 and 1.6
* Fixed bug 3822: don't count previews as attempts
* Fixed bug 3807: Question numbering issue
* Fixes for the item analysis plug-in, assembled by Jean-Michel
* Now we reset the timeout counter to avoid timeouts
* Several improvements contributed by Jean-Michel Vedrine. You can now change the number of attempts per page displayed on screen, and download results to Excel/text file, including detailed grades
* Fixed export bug with non-English languages

'''SCORM'''

* We now support SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004)!
* Fixed a bug with next and prev SCO search
* Fixed bugs related to masteryscore
* Fixed a problem in AICC course tracking

'''Wiki'''

* Now paging of older versions is showed and working properly, see bug 3750

'''Filters'''

* Mediaplugin filter now finds multi-line links in HTML code
* Censor filter: Added original word as title to the blacked-out version. The filter can obscure actual important words by mistake (eg Dickens) and there needs to be some way to recover the meaning

==Moodle 1.5.2 (16th July, 2005) ==

=== Various fixes ===

* Journal -> Assignment upgrade now works properly :-/
* Assignment submodules now upgrade as expected
* Various other bugs with new Assignments fixed
* Journal module is now disabled by default on new installations
* Login page is now 100% HTTPS if required
* Various small standard theme tweaks
* Fix for recent matching questions display bug in Quiz
* Language editor no longer creates empty files when not necessary (caused country list bug)
* Fixed some manifest parsing problems in SCORM module
* Multilang filter now deals with pack names that contain numbers
* Files are now force-downloaded (fixes IE problems and some security issues)
* Relinking debugging output is escaped
* Large MP3 player now displays ID3 tags properly again
* Some chat daemon improvements

=== Some new things ===

* Orangewhite theme optimised for use on PDA
* Forum user posts page can be called without userid
* Altavista BabelFish now allowed in as guest when Google is

==Moodle 1.5.1 (8th July, 2005) ==

===Various fixes===

* Several potential security problems solved
* Allowobjectembed setting now works correctly
* Speed problem on IE, caused by tab hover fixed.
* Cut and paste in editor on Firefox has a more helpful warning message
* Fixed a session problem when logged on as admin during upgrade from very old Moodle version
* Fixed editing problem in Main menu of site
* Minor CSS display problems in a few areas were fixed
* Fixed the adding of a single discussion forum
* Fixed Lesson problems with calculating grades, and dates
* Fixed Lesson problems with entering a cluster after a page
* Censor filter was fixed to make it work better with old themes

===Some new things===

* New theme: Wood
* Metal theme updated for 1.5
* Many language updates for most languages, including a new language: Khmer
* Block classes can now run custom code when an instance is created/deleted (this is useful for blocks that need to set up non-trivial data structures)
* Wizard for Calculated Questions in Quiz was rewritten
* Backup/Restore module selection is now improved and much easier
* Backup/Restore module has much improved relinking support, it's now faster and easier to implement in new modules

==Moodle 1.5 (5th June, 2005) ==

Here you can find the release notes of the current stable version of Moodle. '''If you experience any bugs in this release, please report them at [http://moodle.org/bugs moodle.org/bugs] so we can fix them in the next release.'''

=== Headline features ===

* Web pages are compliant with XHTML Transitional 1.0
* Improved '''Accessibility''', aiming for compliance with WAI (W3C), SENDA (UK) and Section 508 (US) criteria.
* Very strong '''new Themes system''', allowing cascading themes, user themes, course themes, with very fine control of every page in Moodle via CSS.
* Integrated '''Messaging''' feature for direct communication between all users in the site, featuring realtime popup windows, notification, email copies, blocking, history, WYSIWYG editor, etc
* Forum read/unread tracking with highlights allows you to see new postings at a glance and to control how these are displayed (per forum, per user or per site).
* New '''Blocks''' system, allowing multiple copies of blocks and better block configuration
* Full support for '''Daylight Savings Time''' in every locality around the globe, so everyone always see the correct local time for all events.
* New '''extended gradebook''' allowing custom weighting of different activities, setting extra grades (or taking out others) and improved display and sorting options
* Users can be required to agree to a '''Site Policy
'''

=== Other major system-wide improvements ===

'''Admin'''

* New "maintenance mode" allows the admin to temporarily disable a site (during upgrades, for example).
* Moodle can automatically download a new list of timezones from moodle.org or elsewhere and install it to the database (Olson files are supported too)
* New version of Moodle MySQL Admin module (available separately)
* New calendar options page provides user interface to configure the behavior of the calendar

'''Authentication'''

* New Shibboleth Support
* New CAS Support
* New PAM Support
* Improved LDAP integration, so that LDAP can now control course creation, group assignments. Increased performance and scalability performing user synchronisation.
* Certain user fields can be locked by the admin when using external authentication
* Improved session handling now detects "crossover" sessions that we have found in some buggy PHP installations and prevents them
* Sessions can now be stored in the database (good for clustered installations!)
* Users can be forced to change their password

'''Files'''

* Standardised file browsing in all areas
* Improved uploading, with support for automated Virus scanning of new documents using ClamAV.
* Slasharguments now work also on IIS (upgrade to PHP 4.3.11 needed for ISAPI)

'''Filters'''

* Standardised filter library makes it trivial to write new filters that require searching and highlighting of text.
* Huge efficiency improvements for complex filters like the Glossary filter
* New Tidy filter uses the W3C Tidy program to (optionally) clean all user-entered texts throughout the site and convert it to valid XHTML code
* Improved censorship filter, now "blacks out" words using styles and uses a word list from the language packs.
* Improved Flash MP3 player, now shows progress bar while downloading and playing
* Improved Multi-language filter is faster, more forgiving of syntax errors, and uses new editor-friendly syntax: 
* Auto-linking filters (glossary, activities) can work to link all the occurrences (old behaviour), once for each text block or only once for the whole page ($CFG->filtermatchonepertext, $CFG->filtermatchoneperpage).
* More text can now be filtered in Moodle, including activity names, headings and other such small texts. This makes it possible to design completely multi-lingual sites in Moodle that fully appears in the user's chosen language.

'''Themes'''

* Modules can provide standard styles
* Themes can override required styles of other themes
* Users and courses can choose their own themes if the admin allows it
* Implementation of tabs interface on many pages
* Modules, Blocks and Languages can define their own standard styles

'''HTML Editor'''

* The toolbuttons offered in the editor toolbar are now configurable by the admin
* Search and Replace text within the editor text area (with optional use of regular expressions)

'''Course management'''

* Transparent Blackboard 5.5 course importing (partial 6.0 support)
* The new meta-courses allow to get users automatically enroled in a general course (the metacourse) when enroled in any of the metacourse-linked courses
* New tool to copy content from a course to other.

'''New blocks'''

* HTML block: allowing to place arbitrary content (text, images links) in any course mainpage
* Remote RSS feed: allows to display external news channels inside a Moodle course
* Glossary Selection: to choose and display content from a Moodle glossary in course mainpage

'''Calendar'''

* Major speed improvements for sites with a large number of courses using groups
* Repeating events can now be modified or deleted all at the same time or separately as before
* New "remember filter settings" preference that allows calendar filters to remember their status between logins

=== Activity module improvements ===

'''Assignment'''

* Completely refactored into a new class-based design, allowing new plugin-assignment types
* New Online Text assignment type that doesn't require files and allows inline comments when grading - this new type effectively replaces the old Journal module
* Vastly improved grading interface for handling large classes
* New configuration options to disable late submission and to e-mail alerts to teachers when students submit new work

'''Chat'''

* Streamlined interface looks smoother, works faster, even without using the optional server daemon
* Blocks can now be added to chat pages (e.g. for additional information)

'''Choice'''

* Rewritten to allow any number of choices
* The number of users per choice can be limited, which allows it to be used as tool for "signing up" to an array of options.
* You can now download the results of the choice to XLS or a TXT file

'''Forum'''

* Powerful new Google-like forum searching tools
* Forum read/unread tracking - unread messages are highlighted on the course page, forum page, discussion listing and the discussion view
* The tracking system may be disabled by teachers/users
* User profiles show all posts by a user, as well as all discussions
* When admins edit user messages, a notice is attached
* Discussion listing shows the last user who posted to each discussion and when it was, with a direct link to that post
* In group-enabled forums the discussion listing shows the group the thread applies to, with a link to the group description page.

'''Glossary'''

* New setting to enable/disable the print view of each glossary.
* New search system looks for words everywhere (instead of doing exact phrase match).
* More information is sent to logs to be able to track activity better.

'''Journal'''

* The Journal module has not changed since 1.4, and is now deprecated. The upgrade procedure will convert all your Journal activities into Online Assignments, and hide all the old Journal activities. If you don't want this to happen, then define this in your config.php: $CFG->noconvertjournals = true;

'''Lesson'''

* Now supports timed Lessons
* Can create practice Lessons (grades are not stored)
* Option for students to view points earned while taking the Lesson
* Allow students to review their answers before submitting the Lesson
* New Slide Show Mode (only branch tables are displayed as slides)
* New Left Menu (for enabled branch tables only)
* Lessons can now be Password Protected
* A Tree View can be used for the Lesson creation screen
* Students can post their high scores
* New option to save a Lesson's settings as defaults for new lessons in the same course
* Can delete a student's attempts
* New page Jumps:
** Previous Page
** Unseen question within a branch
** Random question within a branch
** Unseen question within a cluster
* Added functionality to view Lesson statistics
* New question type: Essay. Teachers can view each essay and write comments, assign a grade, and then email it all to the student
* New question creation interface

'''Quiz'''

* Can handle adaptive questions, i.e., questions that allow the student to interact with them repeatedly within the same quiz attempt and that can change in response to student answers.
* Student can be allowed to try a question again immediately within the same quiz attempt until they get the answer right.
* There is a penalty mechanism that deducts a specified fraction of the mark for each wrong attempt at a question.
* Allows questions rendered and scored externally (e.g., by mathematical assessment engines) to be integrated seamlessly into Moodle quizzes via the RQP web services protocol.
* Is prepared for the handling of IMS QTI questions once web services for these become available.
* New tabbed teacher interface for previewing, editing, and reviewing quizzes.
* New "improved security" mode shows quiz in a separate full-screen window, with many browser features disabled
* Quizzes can be presented to students in several pages. The number of questions per page is selectable by the teacher.
* Blocks can now be added to quiz pages (to show results table, or additional information etc)
* Better and cleaner interface for question selection and management in the database. Selected questions can be added to quiz, moved to other categories or deleted en mass.
* Random questions are now added to the quiz question list with a dedicated button, leaving a cleaner interface at questions database without phantom placeholders
* Final grade can be a fractional number, with teacher-defined decimal figures
* Improved results page with user-selectable display of columns, cleaner sorting and new mark display options
* Questions can be edited with one click from the improved quiz preview and question preview screens.
* Questions can be copied with one click, to allow question variations to be created with ease.
* Revamped question categories structures and editing interface.
* Categories now can contain nested subcategories and can be re-ordered.
* It is possible to select whether questions from categories, and or their subcategories are displayed on the question edit page.
* It is now possible to select whether to add random questions from a parent category alone, or from a parent category and its sub-categories.
* Quiz creators are prevented from changing the question set of quizes that have had student responses.
* Recognition, and rejection, of overlapping/redundant questions has been improved.
* The display of questions in longer quiz categories on the quiz editing page is now paginated.
* New export types - IMS QTI (2.0) and xhtml. Improvements & fixes to others.
* New import type - Hot Potato. Improvements & fixes to others.

'''Scorm'''

* The module is now fully conformant with the SCORM 1.2 standard.
* User result data storage and reporting was improved.
* AICC packages can now be imported.

'''Survey'''

* Graph formatting has been improved (labels are more readable)

'''Wiki'''

* Changes to wiki pages are now monitored and displayed in Recent Activity block
* Several under the hood improvements to backup/restore and other routines that enhance the reliability of wikis

== See also ==

*[[Old releases|1.4.5 release notes]]

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]

[[es:Notas de versiones]]

Latest release notes

2006-04-08T12:52:48Z

Avicent:

{{About Moodle}}

==Moodle 1.6 (Coming soon, currently in Beta testing status)==

===New features===

* [[en:UTF-8 migration|Unicode]]
::Moodle is now 100% Unicode, which means any language can be mixed together and an end to a number of problems that different character sets caused us.
* [[MoodleDocs development|Documentation]]
::A new one-stop wiki site for ALL Moodle documentation, including links from Moodle itself
* [[Database module]]
::A new activity module that allows collaborative collection of structured data, useful for many things!
* [[LAMS]]
::Integrated via a course format and an activity module
* [[Blogs]]
::Allows reflection on an ongoing basis. Entries are marked and can be viewed by user, course, group, site etc. Contains first new support for [[Tags]].
* [[Reports]]
::All reports are now centralised under Course reports and Admin reports. New reports can be written as plugins and dropped in very easily. One big new report is the new course-based statistics system from Catalyst.
* [[My Moodle]]
::A dashboard interface that allows an overview for each user of all their courses etc.
* [[Hive integration]]
::This initial integration with Hive allows teachers to upload, browse, search and select [[Resources|resources]] within the external repository.
* [[Multiple groups]]
::Users can be part of multiple groups within a course
* [[IMS content package]] resource type
::Supports the loading of any content package as a resource, plus special support for a repository of NLN materials
* [[Course backup|Granularised backup]]
* [[Chameleon|Chameleon theme]]
:: An interactive Moodle theme
* [[Enrolment plugins|Multi enrolment]]
::Moodle's enrolment plugins can be used simultaneously on the same site. Also new [[IMS Enterprise]] enrolment plugin.

==Moodle 1.5.3 (11th November, 2005)==

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===A few new things===

* We now have SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004) support!
* Much improved Assignment grading interface, including "quick grading" options
* A new Single-Sign-On API is available

===Various fixes===

'''General'''

* Contains warnings when Moodle is used on an PHP configuration known to be insecure
* Contains fixes for some recently reported security problems (see [http://security.moodle.org/ security.moodle.org])
* Backups now runs a lot faster medium/large installs. Many issues fixed in this area
* Listing of directory sizes can be made much faster on Linux/Unix servers, thanks to a performance fix you can enable from Admin->Variables: "path_to_du"
* We now log more meaningful IP addresses when the server or the clients are working behind a proxy
* Fixed some issues with PHP accelerators
* Upgrade scripts have been refined and work much better for PostgreSQL installations
* General PostgreSQL port code cleanup
* Upgrading to 1.5.3 will fix any legacy Journal to Online Assignment upgrade issues
* RSS libraries now support RSS 2.0 categories, see bug 3654
* Better accesibilty in file uploads, see bug 3662
* Better support for site-wide HTTPS, see bug 3848
* We now send away bots (like Googlebot) from that try mangled URLs, see bug 3958
* Better DST support for non-logged-in users
* Better DST support for repeat events in Calendar
* Small fixes to the lesson, choice and grade modules
* Minor CSS improvements to formal_white and orangewhite themes
* Better pagination in course listing and loglive pages
* Fixed an IE-only bug related to HTMLArea content where user-edited tables could float and hide part of the UI.

'''Authentication'''

* Fixes to change password/forgotten password with external auth
* Data fetched from external DB or LDAP is now truncated correctly
* Fixed bug 4305 -- better login block behaviour when using secureforms
* Better support for utf-8 user data from external auth
* LDAP: General fixes covering sync_users script and logging of errors
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3141 - Can't update external data with LDAP authentication
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3992 - LDAP password including a quote does not work - credits go to Kita
* LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory.
* LDAP: Fixed bug #3594
* LDAP: Better handling of multi-source field mapping
* LDAP: Fix for using DN as idnumber - thanks fo Jeff Graham - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28840

'''Enrolment and metacourses'''

* Metacourses: Prevent normal users to gain access to meta courses via manual enrolment
* Metacourses: better support for MySQL v3.23.x
* DB: Enrolment lookups now work reliably with Moodle on MySQL and Postgres
* DB: Non-MySQL databases work again as external enrolment databases
* LDAP: Fixed a wrong call to add_teacher in LDAP plugin.
* LDAP: Servers being down or unavailable no longer prevent logins
* LDAP: Course auto-creation works again
* LDAP: Fixed several bugs reported by Jeff Graham and Barron Koralesky -- including bugs 3912 and 3974
* LDAP: We can now bind non-anonymously to LDAP
* Authorize.net: several fixes

'''Resources'''

* Bugfix: Avoid linking to empty or unlinkable activity names

'''Forums'''

* Big and small optimizations to tracking of read/unread messages, specially for PostgreSQL
* Fixed some PostgreSQL bugs
* Some more actions are now supported by backup/restore when processing log records, see bug 3582
* Now message forum RSS feeds are including category data -- useful under some RSS agregators able to group messages, see bug 3654
* Fixed paging on forum search

'''Blocks'''

* Several performance improvements
* Fixes to the upgrade process, including PostgreSQL syntax and lower memory usage
* Brought in several bugfixes from 1.6dev
* Fixed bug 3478: Cannot add RSS feed as course creator
* Fixed bug 3793: Prevent warning message when configuring a glossary_random block in a course which has no glossaries

'''Quiz'''

* Some CSS style fixes
* Better compatibility with themes that contain forms in the headers
* Highlighting of correct answers can now be turned off
* Fixed bug 3986: Too many random questions. (mindforge)
* Fixed missing action icons
* Fixed bug 3899 and removed some 'missing course object' messages
* Fixed bug 3950: Ee-attempt button inconsistency for multi-attempt quizzes
* Fixed bug 3953: Quiz/report.php pagesize can be set to 0, credits to Jean-Michel
* Fixed potential data data corruption bug 3915
* Fixed bug 3884: Quiz correct highlights missing for 2 of 3 options.
* Fix for the Student review highlight doesn't seem to work bug
* Fixed bug 3804: Differences in question types between 1.5 and 1.6
* Fixed bug 3822: don't count previews as attempts
* Fixed bug 3807: Question numbering issue
* Fixes for the item analysis plug-in, assembled by Jean-Michel
* Now we reset the timeout counter to avoid timeouts
* Several improvements contributed by Jean-Michel Vedrine. You can now change the number of attempts per page displayed on screen, and download results to Excel/text file, including detailed grades
* Fixed export bug with non-English languages

'''SCORM'''

* We now support SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004)!
* Fixed a bug with next and prev SCO search
* Fixed bugs related to masteryscore
* Fixed a problem in AICC course tracking

'''Wiki'''

* Now paging of older versions is showed and working properly, see bug 3750

'''Filters'''

* Mediaplugin filter now finds multi-line links in HTML code
* Censor filter: Added original word as title to the blacked-out version. The filter can obscure actual important words by mistake (eg Dickens) and there needs to be some way to recover the meaning

==Moodle 1.5.2 (16th July, 2005) ==

=== Various fixes ===

* Journal -> Assignment upgrade now works properly :-/
* Assignment submodules now upgrade as expected
* Various other bugs with new Assignments fixed
* Journal module is now disabled by default on new installations
* Login page is now 100% HTTPS if required
* Various small standard theme tweaks
* Fix for recent matching questions display bug in Quiz
* Language editor no longer creates empty files when not necessary (caused country list bug)
* Fixed some manifest parsing problems in SCORM module
* Multilang filter now deals with pack names that contain numbers
* Files are now force-downloaded (fixes IE problems and some security issues)
* Relinking debugging output is escaped
* Large MP3 player now displays ID3 tags properly again
* Some chat daemon improvements

=== Some new things ===

* Orangewhite theme optimised for use on PDA
* Forum user posts page can be called without userid
* Altavista BabelFish now allowed in as guest when Google is

==Moodle 1.5.1 (8th July, 2005) ==

===Various fixes===

* Several potential security problems solved
* Allowobjectembed setting now works correctly
* Speed problem on IE, caused by tab hover fixed.
* Cut and paste in editor on Firefox has a more helpful warning message
* Fixed a session problem when logged on as admin during upgrade from very old Moodle version
* Fixed editing problem in Main menu of site
* Minor CSS display problems in a few areas were fixed
* Fixed the adding of a single discussion forum
* Fixed Lesson problems with calculating grades, and dates
* Fixed Lesson problems with entering a cluster after a page
* Censor filter was fixed to make it work better with old themes

===Some new things===

* New theme: Wood
* Metal theme updated for 1.5
* Many language updates for most languages, including a new language: Khmer
* Block classes can now run custom code when an instance is created/deleted (this is useful for blocks that need to set up non-trivial data structures)
* Wizard for Calculated Questions in Quiz was rewritten
* Backup/Restore module selection is now improved and much easier
* Backup/Restore module has much improved relinking support, it's now faster and easier to implement in new modules

==Moodle 1.5 (5th June, 2005) ==

Here you can find the release notes of the current stable version of Moodle. '''If you experience any bugs in this release, please report them at [http://moodle.org/bugs moodle.org/bugs] so we can fix them in the next release.'''

=== Headline features ===

* Web pages are compliant with XHTML Transitional 1.0
* Improved '''Accessibility''', aiming for compliance with WAI (W3C), SENDA (UK) and Section 508 (US) criteria.
* Very strong '''new Themes system''', allowing cascading themes, user themes, course themes, with very fine control of every page in Moodle via CSS.
* Integrated '''Messaging''' feature for direct communication between all users in the site, featuring realtime popup windows, notification, email copies, blocking, history, WYSIWYG editor, etc
* Forum read/unread tracking with highlights allows you to see new postings at a glance and to control how these are displayed (per forum, per user or per site).
* New '''Blocks''' system, allowing multiple copies of blocks and better block configuration
* Full support for '''Daylight Savings Time''' in every locality around the globe, so everyone always see the correct local time for all events.
* New '''extended gradebook''' allowing custom weighting of different activities, setting extra grades (or taking out others) and improved display and sorting options
* Users can be required to agree to a '''Site Policy
'''

=== Other major system-wide improvements ===

'''Admin'''

* New "maintenance mode" allows the admin to temporarily disable a site (during upgrades, for example).
* Moodle can automatically download a new list of timezones from moodle.org or elsewhere and install it to the database (Olson files are supported too)
* New version of Moodle MySQL Admin module (available separately)
* New calendar options page provides user interface to configure the behavior of the calendar

'''Authentication'''

* New Shibboleth Support
* New CAS Support
* New PAM Support
* Improved LDAP integration, so that LDAP can now control course creation, group assignments. Increased performance and scalability performing user synchronisation.
* Certain user fields can be locked by the admin when using external authentication
* Improved session handling now detects "crossover" sessions that we have found in some buggy PHP installations and prevents them
* Sessions can now be stored in the database (good for clustered installations!)
* Users can be forced to change their password

'''Files'''

* Standardised file browsing in all areas
* Improved uploading, with support for automated Virus scanning of new documents using ClamAV.
* Slasharguments now work also on IIS (upgrade to PHP 4.3.11 needed for ISAPI)

'''Filters'''

* Standardised filter library makes it trivial to write new filters that require searching and highlighting of text.
* Huge efficiency improvements for complex filters like the Glossary filter
* New Tidy filter uses the W3C Tidy program to (optionally) clean all user-entered texts throughout the site and convert it to valid XHTML code
* Improved censorship filter, now "blacks out" words using styles and uses a word list from the language packs.
* Improved Flash MP3 player, now shows progress bar while downloading and playing
* Improved Multi-language filter is faster, more forgiving of syntax errors, and uses new editor-friendly syntax: 
* Auto-linking filters (glossary, activities) can work to link all the occurrences (old behaviour), once for each text block or only once for the whole page ($CFG->filtermatchonepertext, $CFG->filtermatchoneperpage).
* More text can now be filtered in Moodle, including activity names, headings and other such small texts. This makes it possible to design completely multi-lingual sites in Moodle that fully appears in the user's chosen language.

'''Themes'''

* Modules can provide standard styles
* Themes can override required styles of other themes
* Users and courses can choose their own themes if the admin allows it
* Implementation of tabs interface on many pages
* Modules, Blocks and Languages can define their own standard styles

'''HTML Editor'''

* The toolbuttons offered in the editor toolbar are now configurable by the admin
* Search and Replace text within the editor text area (with optional use of regular expressions)

'''Course management'''

* Transparent Blackboard 5.5 course importing (partial 6.0 support)
* The new meta-courses allow to get users automatically enroled in a general course (the metacourse) when enroled in any of the metacourse-linked courses
* New tool to copy content from a course to other.

'''New blocks'''

* HTML block: allowing to place arbitrary content (text, images links) in any course mainpage
* Remote RSS feed: allows to display external news channels inside a Moodle course
* Glossary Selection: to choose and display content from a Moodle glossary in course mainpage

'''Calendar'''

* Major speed improvements for sites with a large number of courses using groups
* Repeating events can now be modified or deleted all at the same time or separately as before
* New "remember filter settings" preference that allows calendar filters to remember their status between logins

=== Activity module improvements ===

'''Assignment'''

* Completely refactored into a new class-based design, allowing new plugin-assignment types
* New Online Text assignment type that doesn't require files and allows inline comments when grading - this new type effectively replaces the old Journal module
* Vastly improved grading interface for handling large classes
* New configuration options to disable late submission and to e-mail alerts to teachers when students submit new work

'''Chat'''

* Streamlined interface looks smoother, works faster, even without using the optional server daemon
* Blocks can now be added to chat pages (e.g. for additional information)

'''Choice'''

* Rewritten to allow any number of choices
* The number of users per choice can be limited, which allows it to be used as tool for "signing up" to an array of options.
* You can now download the results of the choice to XLS or a TXT file

'''Forum'''

* Powerful new Google-like forum searching tools
* Forum read/unread tracking - unread messages are highlighted on the course page, forum page, discussion listing and the discussion view
* The tracking system may be disabled by teachers/users
* User profiles show all posts by a user, as well as all discussions
* When admins edit user messages, a notice is attached
* Discussion listing shows the last user who posted to each discussion and when it was, with a direct link to that post
* In group-enabled forums the discussion listing shows the group the thread applies to, with a link to the group description page.

'''Glossary'''

* New setting to enable/disable the print view of each glossary.
* New search system looks for words everywhere (instead of doing exact phrase match).
* More information is sent to logs to be able to track activity better.

'''Journal'''

* The Journal module has not changed since 1.4, and is now deprecated. The upgrade procedure will convert all your Journal activities into Online Assignments, and hide all the old Journal activities. If you don't want this to happen, then define this in your config.php: $CFG->noconvertjournals = true;

'''Lesson'''

* Now supports timed Lessons
* Can create practice Lessons (grades are not stored)
* Option for students to view points earned while taking the Lesson
* Allow students to review their answers before submitting the Lesson
* New Slide Show Mode (only branch tables are displayed as slides)
* New Left Menu (for enabled branch tables only)
* Lessons can now be Password Protected
* A Tree View can be used for the Lesson creation screen
* Students can post their high scores
* New option to save a Lesson's settings as defaults for new lessons in the same course
* Can delete a student's attempts
* New page Jumps:
** Previous Page
** Unseen question within a branch
** Random question within a branch
** Unseen question within a cluster
* Added functionality to view Lesson statistics
* New question type: Essay. Teachers can view each essay and write comments, assign a grade, and then email it all to the student
* New question creation interface

'''Quiz'''

* Can handle adaptive questions, i.e., questions that allow the student to interact with them repeatedly within the same quiz attempt and that can change in response to student answers.
* Student can be allowed to try a question again immediately within the same quiz attempt until they get the answer right.
* There is a penalty mechanism that deducts a specified fraction of the mark for each wrong attempt at a question.
* Allows questions rendered and scored externally (e.g., by mathematical assessment engines) to be integrated seamlessly into Moodle quizzes via the RQP web services protocol.
* Is prepared for the handling of IMS QTI questions once web services for these become available.
* New tabbed teacher interface for previewing, editing, and reviewing quizzes.
* New "improved security" mode shows quiz in a separate full-screen window, with many browser features disabled
* Quizzes can be presented to students in several pages. The number of questions per page is selectable by the teacher.
* Blocks can now be added to quiz pages (to show results table, or additional information etc)
* Better and cleaner interface for question selection and management in the database. Selected questions can be added to quiz, moved to other categories or deleted en mass.
* Random questions are now added to the quiz question list with a dedicated button, leaving a cleaner interface at questions database without phantom placeholders
* Final grade can be a fractional number, with teacher-defined decimal figures
* Improved results page with user-selectable display of columns, cleaner sorting and new mark display options
* Questions can be edited with one click from the improved quiz preview and question preview screens.
* Questions can be copied with one click, to allow question variations to be created with ease.
* Revamped question categories structures and editing interface.
* Categories now can contain nested subcategories and can be re-ordered.
* It is possible to select whether questions from categories, and or their subcategories are displayed on the question edit page.
* It is now possible to select whether to add random questions from a parent category alone, or from a parent category and its sub-categories.
* Quiz creators are prevented from changing the question set of quizes that have had student responses.
* Recognition, and rejection, of overlapping/redundant questions has been improved.
* The display of questions in longer quiz categories on the quiz editing page is now paginated.
* New export types - IMS QTI (2.0) and xhtml. Improvements & fixes to others.
* New import type - Hot Potato. Improvements & fixes to others.

'''Scorm'''

* The module is now fully conformant with the SCORM 1.2 standard.
* User result data storage and reporting was improved.
* AICC packages can now be imported.

'''Survey'''

* Graph formatting has been improved (labels are more readable)

'''Wiki'''

* Changes to wiki pages are now monitored and displayed in Recent Activity block
* Several under the hood improvements to backup/restore and other routines that enhance the reliability of wikis

== See also ==

*[[Old releases|1.4.5 release notes]]

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]

[[es:Notas de versiones]]

Latest release notes

2006-04-08T12:51:25Z

Avicent:

{{About Moodle}}

==Moodle 1.6 (Coming soon, currently in Beta testing status)==

===New features===

* [[en:UTF-8_migration|Unicode]]
::Moodle is now 100% Unicode, which means any language can be mixed together and an end to a number of problems that different character sets caused us.
* [[MoodleDocs development|Documentation]]
::A new one-stop wiki site for ALL Moodle documentation, including links from Moodle itself
* [[Database module]]
::A new activity module that allows collaborative collection of structured data, useful for many things!
* [[LAMS]]
::Integrated via a course format and an activity module
* [[Blogs]]
::Allows reflection on an ongoing basis. Entries are marked and can be viewed by user, course, group, site etc. Contains first new support for [[Tags]].
* [[Reports]]
::All reports are now centralised under Course reports and Admin reports. New reports can be written as plugins and dropped in very easily. One big new report is the new course-based statistics system from Catalyst.
* [[My Moodle]]
::A dashboard interface that allows an overview for each user of all their courses etc.
* [[Hive integration]]
::This initial integration with Hive allows teachers to upload, browse, search and select [[Resources|resources]] within the external repository.
* [[Multiple groups]]
::Users can be part of multiple groups within a course
* [[IMS content package]] resource type
::Supports the loading of any content package as a resource, plus special support for a repository of NLN materials
* [[Course backup|Granularised backup]]
* [[Chameleon|Chameleon theme]]
:: An interactive Moodle theme
* [[Enrolment plugins|Multi enrolment]]
::Moodle's enrolment plugins can be used simultaneously on the same site. Also new [[IMS Enterprise]] enrolment plugin.

==Moodle 1.5.3 (11th November, 2005)==

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

===A few new things===

* We now have SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004) support!
* Much improved Assignment grading interface, including "quick grading" options
* A new Single-Sign-On API is available

===Various fixes===

'''General'''

* Contains warnings when Moodle is used on an PHP configuration known to be insecure
* Contains fixes for some recently reported security problems (see [http://security.moodle.org/ security.moodle.org])
* Backups now runs a lot faster medium/large installs. Many issues fixed in this area
* Listing of directory sizes can be made much faster on Linux/Unix servers, thanks to a performance fix you can enable from Admin->Variables: "path_to_du"
* We now log more meaningful IP addresses when the server or the clients are working behind a proxy
* Fixed some issues with PHP accelerators
* Upgrade scripts have been refined and work much better for PostgreSQL installations
* General PostgreSQL port code cleanup
* Upgrading to 1.5.3 will fix any legacy Journal to Online Assignment upgrade issues
* RSS libraries now support RSS 2.0 categories, see bug 3654
* Better accesibilty in file uploads, see bug 3662
* Better support for site-wide HTTPS, see bug 3848
* We now send away bots (like Googlebot) from that try mangled URLs, see bug 3958
* Better DST support for non-logged-in users
* Better DST support for repeat events in Calendar
* Small fixes to the lesson, choice and grade modules
* Minor CSS improvements to formal_white and orangewhite themes
* Better pagination in course listing and loglive pages
* Fixed an IE-only bug related to HTMLArea content where user-edited tables could float and hide part of the UI.

'''Authentication'''

* Fixes to change password/forgotten password with external auth
* Data fetched from external DB or LDAP is now truncated correctly
* Fixed bug 4305 -- better login block behaviour when using secureforms
* Better support for utf-8 user data from external auth
* LDAP: General fixes covering sync_users script and logging of errors
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3141 - Can't update external data with LDAP authentication
* LDAP: Fixed bug 3992 - LDAP password including a quote does not work - credits go to Kita
* LDAP: Better support for ActiveDirectory.
* LDAP: Fixed bug #3594
* LDAP: Better handling of multi-source field mapping
* LDAP: Fix for using DN as idnumber - thanks fo Jeff Graham - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=28840

'''Enrolment and metacourses'''

* Metacourses: Prevent normal users to gain access to meta courses via manual enrolment
* Metacourses: better support for MySQL v3.23.x
* DB: Enrolment lookups now work reliably with Moodle on MySQL and Postgres
* DB: Non-MySQL databases work again as external enrolment databases
* LDAP: Fixed a wrong call to add_teacher in LDAP plugin.
* LDAP: Servers being down or unavailable no longer prevent logins
* LDAP: Course auto-creation works again
* LDAP: Fixed several bugs reported by Jeff Graham and Barron Koralesky -- including bugs 3912 and 3974
* LDAP: We can now bind non-anonymously to LDAP
* Authorize.net: several fixes

'''Resources'''

* Bugfix: Avoid linking to empty or unlinkable activity names

'''Forums'''

* Big and small optimizations to tracking of read/unread messages, specially for PostgreSQL
* Fixed some PostgreSQL bugs
* Some more actions are now supported by backup/restore when processing log records, see bug 3582
* Now message forum RSS feeds are including category data -- useful under some RSS agregators able to group messages, see bug 3654
* Fixed paging on forum search

'''Blocks'''

* Several performance improvements
* Fixes to the upgrade process, including PostgreSQL syntax and lower memory usage
* Brought in several bugfixes from 1.6dev
* Fixed bug 3478: Cannot add RSS feed as course creator
* Fixed bug 3793: Prevent warning message when configuring a glossary_random block in a course which has no glossaries

'''Quiz'''

* Some CSS style fixes
* Better compatibility with themes that contain forms in the headers
* Highlighting of correct answers can now be turned off
* Fixed bug 3986: Too many random questions. (mindforge)
* Fixed missing action icons
* Fixed bug 3899 and removed some 'missing course object' messages
* Fixed bug 3950: Ee-attempt button inconsistency for multi-attempt quizzes
* Fixed bug 3953: Quiz/report.php pagesize can be set to 0, credits to Jean-Michel
* Fixed potential data data corruption bug 3915
* Fixed bug 3884: Quiz correct highlights missing for 2 of 3 options.
* Fix for the Student review highlight doesn't seem to work bug
* Fixed bug 3804: Differences in question types between 1.5 and 1.6
* Fixed bug 3822: don't count previews as attempts
* Fixed bug 3807: Question numbering issue
* Fixes for the item analysis plug-in, assembled by Jean-Michel
* Now we reset the timeout counter to avoid timeouts
* Several improvements contributed by Jean-Michel Vedrine. You can now change the number of attempts per page displayed on screen, and download results to Excel/text file, including detailed grades
* Fixed export bug with non-English languages

'''SCORM'''

* We now support SCORM 1.3 (SCORM 2004)!
* Fixed a bug with next and prev SCO search
* Fixed bugs related to masteryscore
* Fixed a problem in AICC course tracking

'''Wiki'''

* Now paging of older versions is showed and working properly, see bug 3750

'''Filters'''

* Mediaplugin filter now finds multi-line links in HTML code
* Censor filter: Added original word as title to the blacked-out version. The filter can obscure actual important words by mistake (eg Dickens) and there needs to be some way to recover the meaning

==Moodle 1.5.2 (16th July, 2005) ==

=== Various fixes ===

* Journal -> Assignment upgrade now works properly :-/
* Assignment submodules now upgrade as expected
* Various other bugs with new Assignments fixed
* Journal module is now disabled by default on new installations
* Login page is now 100% HTTPS if required
* Various small standard theme tweaks
* Fix for recent matching questions display bug in Quiz
* Language editor no longer creates empty files when not necessary (caused country list bug)
* Fixed some manifest parsing problems in SCORM module
* Multilang filter now deals with pack names that contain numbers
* Files are now force-downloaded (fixes IE problems and some security issues)
* Relinking debugging output is escaped
* Large MP3 player now displays ID3 tags properly again
* Some chat daemon improvements

=== Some new things ===

* Orangewhite theme optimised for use on PDA
* Forum user posts page can be called without userid
* Altavista BabelFish now allowed in as guest when Google is

==Moodle 1.5.1 (8th July, 2005) ==

===Various fixes===

* Several potential security problems solved
* Allowobjectembed setting now works correctly
* Speed problem on IE, caused by tab hover fixed.
* Cut and paste in editor on Firefox has a more helpful warning message
* Fixed a session problem when logged on as admin during upgrade from very old Moodle version
* Fixed editing problem in Main menu of site
* Minor CSS display problems in a few areas were fixed
* Fixed the adding of a single discussion forum
* Fixed Lesson problems with calculating grades, and dates
* Fixed Lesson problems with entering a cluster after a page
* Censor filter was fixed to make it work better with old themes

===Some new things===

* New theme: Wood
* Metal theme updated for 1.5
* Many language updates for most languages, including a new language: Khmer
* Block classes can now run custom code when an instance is created/deleted (this is useful for blocks that need to set up non-trivial data structures)
* Wizard for Calculated Questions in Quiz was rewritten
* Backup/Restore module selection is now improved and much easier
* Backup/Restore module has much improved relinking support, it's now faster and easier to implement in new modules

==Moodle 1.5 (5th June, 2005) ==

Here you can find the release notes of the current stable version of Moodle. '''If you experience any bugs in this release, please report them at [http://moodle.org/bugs moodle.org/bugs] so we can fix them in the next release.'''

=== Headline features ===

* Web pages are compliant with XHTML Transitional 1.0
* Improved '''Accessibility''', aiming for compliance with WAI (W3C), SENDA (UK) and Section 508 (US) criteria.
* Very strong '''new Themes system''', allowing cascading themes, user themes, course themes, with very fine control of every page in Moodle via CSS.
* Integrated '''Messaging''' feature for direct communication between all users in the site, featuring realtime popup windows, notification, email copies, blocking, history, WYSIWYG editor, etc
* Forum read/unread tracking with highlights allows you to see new postings at a glance and to control how these are displayed (per forum, per user or per site).
* New '''Blocks''' system, allowing multiple copies of blocks and better block configuration
* Full support for '''Daylight Savings Time''' in every locality around the globe, so everyone always see the correct local time for all events.
* New '''extended gradebook''' allowing custom weighting of different activities, setting extra grades (or taking out others) and improved display and sorting options
* Users can be required to agree to a '''Site Policy
'''

=== Other major system-wide improvements ===

'''Admin'''

* New "maintenance mode" allows the admin to temporarily disable a site (during upgrades, for example).
* Moodle can automatically download a new list of timezones from moodle.org or elsewhere and install it to the database (Olson files are supported too)
* New version of Moodle MySQL Admin module (available separately)
* New calendar options page provides user interface to configure the behavior of the calendar

'''Authentication'''

* New Shibboleth Support
* New CAS Support
* New PAM Support
* Improved LDAP integration, so that LDAP can now control course creation, group assignments. Increased performance and scalability performing user synchronisation.
* Certain user fields can be locked by the admin when using external authentication
* Improved session handling now detects "crossover" sessions that we have found in some buggy PHP installations and prevents them
* Sessions can now be stored in the database (good for clustered installations!)
* Users can be forced to change their password

'''Files'''

* Standardised file browsing in all areas
* Improved uploading, with support for automated Virus scanning of new documents using ClamAV.
* Slasharguments now work also on IIS (upgrade to PHP 4.3.11 needed for ISAPI)

'''Filters'''

* Standardised filter library makes it trivial to write new filters that require searching and highlighting of text.
* Huge efficiency improvements for complex filters like the Glossary filter
* New Tidy filter uses the W3C Tidy program to (optionally) clean all user-entered texts throughout the site and convert it to valid XHTML code
* Improved censorship filter, now "blacks out" words using styles and uses a word list from the language packs.
* Improved Flash MP3 player, now shows progress bar while downloading and playing
* Improved Multi-language filter is faster, more forgiving of syntax errors, and uses new editor-friendly syntax: 
* Auto-linking filters (glossary, activities) can work to link all the occurrences (old behaviour), once for each text block or only once for the whole page ($CFG->filtermatchonepertext, $CFG->filtermatchoneperpage).
* More text can now be filtered in Moodle, including activity names, headings and other such small texts. This makes it possible to design completely multi-lingual sites in Moodle that fully appears in the user's chosen language.

'''Themes'''

* Modules can provide standard styles
* Themes can override required styles of other themes
* Users and courses can choose their own themes if the admin allows it
* Implementation of tabs interface on many pages
* Modules, Blocks and Languages can define their own standard styles

'''HTML Editor'''

* The toolbuttons offered in the editor toolbar are now configurable by the admin
* Search and Replace text within the editor text area (with optional use of regular expressions)

'''Course management'''

* Transparent Blackboard 5.5 course importing (partial 6.0 support)
* The new meta-courses allow to get users automatically enroled in a general course (the metacourse) when enroled in any of the metacourse-linked courses
* New tool to copy content from a course to other.

'''New blocks'''

* HTML block: allowing to place arbitrary content (text, images links) in any course mainpage
* Remote RSS feed: allows to display external news channels inside a Moodle course
* Glossary Selection: to choose and display content from a Moodle glossary in course mainpage

'''Calendar'''

* Major speed improvements for sites with a large number of courses using groups
* Repeating events can now be modified or deleted all at the same time or separately as before
* New "remember filter settings" preference that allows calendar filters to remember their status between logins

=== Activity module improvements ===

'''Assignment'''

* Completely refactored into a new class-based design, allowing new plugin-assignment types
* New Online Text assignment type that doesn't require files and allows inline comments when grading - this new type effectively replaces the old Journal module
* Vastly improved grading interface for handling large classes
* New configuration options to disable late submission and to e-mail alerts to teachers when students submit new work

'''Chat'''

* Streamlined interface looks smoother, works faster, even without using the optional server daemon
* Blocks can now be added to chat pages (e.g. for additional information)

'''Choice'''

* Rewritten to allow any number of choices
* The number of users per choice can be limited, which allows it to be used as tool for "signing up" to an array of options.
* You can now download the results of the choice to XLS or a TXT file

'''Forum'''

* Powerful new Google-like forum searching tools
* Forum read/unread tracking - unread messages are highlighted on the course page, forum page, discussion listing and the discussion view
* The tracking system may be disabled by teachers/users
* User profiles show all posts by a user, as well as all discussions
* When admins edit user messages, a notice is attached
* Discussion listing shows the last user who posted to each discussion and when it was, with a direct link to that post
* In group-enabled forums the discussion listing shows the group the thread applies to, with a link to the group description page.

'''Glossary'''

* New setting to enable/disable the print view of each glossary.
* New search system looks for words everywhere (instead of doing exact phrase match).
* More information is sent to logs to be able to track activity better.

'''Journal'''

* The Journal module has not changed since 1.4, and is now deprecated. The upgrade procedure will convert all your Journal activities into Online Assignments, and hide all the old Journal activities. If you don't want this to happen, then define this in your config.php: $CFG->noconvertjournals = true;

'''Lesson'''

* Now supports timed Lessons
* Can create practice Lessons (grades are not stored)
* Option for students to view points earned while taking the Lesson
* Allow students to review their answers before submitting the Lesson
* New Slide Show Mode (only branch tables are displayed as slides)
* New Left Menu (for enabled branch tables only)
* Lessons can now be Password Protected
* A Tree View can be used for the Lesson creation screen
* Students can post their high scores
* New option to save a Lesson's settings as defaults for new lessons in the same course
* Can delete a student's attempts
* New page Jumps:
** Previous Page
** Unseen question within a branch
** Random question within a branch
** Unseen question within a cluster
* Added functionality to view Lesson statistics
* New question type: Essay. Teachers can view each essay and write comments, assign a grade, and then email it all to the student
* New question creation interface

'''Quiz'''

* Can handle adaptive questions, i.e., questions that allow the student to interact with them repeatedly within the same quiz attempt and that can change in response to student answers.
* Student can be allowed to try a question again immediately within the same quiz attempt until they get the answer right.
* There is a penalty mechanism that deducts a specified fraction of the mark for each wrong attempt at a question.
* Allows questions rendered and scored externally (e.g., by mathematical assessment engines) to be integrated seamlessly into Moodle quizzes via the RQP web services protocol.
* Is prepared for the handling of IMS QTI questions once web services for these become available.
* New tabbed teacher interface for previewing, editing, and reviewing quizzes.
* New "improved security" mode shows quiz in a separate full-screen window, with many browser features disabled
* Quizzes can be presented to students in several pages. The number of questions per page is selectable by the teacher.
* Blocks can now be added to quiz pages (to show results table, or additional information etc)
* Better and cleaner interface for question selection and management in the database. Selected questions can be added to quiz, moved to other categories or deleted en mass.
* Random questions are now added to the quiz question list with a dedicated button, leaving a cleaner interface at questions database without phantom placeholders
* Final grade can be a fractional number, with teacher-defined decimal figures
* Improved results page with user-selectable display of columns, cleaner sorting and new mark display options
* Questions can be edited with one click from the improved quiz preview and question preview screens.
* Questions can be copied with one click, to allow question variations to be created with ease.
* Revamped question categories structures and editing interface.
* Categories now can contain nested subcategories and can be re-ordered.
* It is possible to select whether questions from categories, and or their subcategories are displayed on the question edit page.
* It is now possible to select whether to add random questions from a parent category alone, or from a parent category and its sub-categories.
* Quiz creators are prevented from changing the question set of quizes that have had student responses.
* Recognition, and rejection, of overlapping/redundant questions has been improved.
* The display of questions in longer quiz categories on the quiz editing page is now paginated.
* New export types - IMS QTI (2.0) and xhtml. Improvements & fixes to others.
* New import type - Hot Potato. Improvements & fixes to others.

'''Scorm'''

* The module is now fully conformant with the SCORM 1.2 standard.
* User result data storage and reporting was improved.
* AICC packages can now be imported.

'''Survey'''

* Graph formatting has been improved (labels are more readable)

'''Wiki'''

* Changes to wiki pages are now monitored and displayed in Recent Activity block
* Several under the hood improvements to backup/restore and other routines that enhance the reliability of wikis

== See also ==

*[[Old releases|1.4.5 release notes]]

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]

[[es:Notas de versiones]]

Performance recommendations

2006-03-30T16:36:10Z

Avicent:

Moodle can be made to perform very well, at small usage levels or scaling up to many thousands of users. The factors involved in performance are basically the same as for any PHP-based database-driven system, and Moodle's design (with clear separation of application layers) allows for strongly scalable setups. See [[Large installations]] for some large Moodle installations.

Large sites usually separate the web server and database onto separate servers, although for smaller installations this is typically not necessary.

It is possible to load-balance a Moodle installation, for example by using more than one webserver. The separate webservers should query the same database and refer to the same filestore area, but otherwise the separation of the application layers is complete enough to make this kind of clustering feasible. Similarly, the database could be a cluster of servers (e.g. a MySQL cluster).

==Web server performance==

* The amount of '''RAM''' on your web server is the strongest factor in performance - get as much as possible (eg 4GB).
* Linux or Unix is the recommended '''operating system''' for the server. They perform much better than Mac OSX or Windows servers at high loads.
* You are strongly recommended to use a '''PHP accelerator''' to ease CPU load, such as [http://turck-mmcache.sourceforge.net/ Turck MMCache] or PHPA.
* Performance of PHP is better when installed as an Apache module (rather than a CGI).
* On a Unix/Linux system, performance can be greatly improved by allowing the webserver to use the system '''zip/unzip''' commands (rather than PHP-based zip libraries) - visit Admin/Configure/Variables and enter the path to the relevant executables. (Similarly, filling in the path to '''du''' will improve Moodle's speed at listing directory contents.)
* Note that using '''secure web connections''' ('''https''' rather than '''http''') carries a higher processing burden, both for the webserver and the client - particularly because cacheing cannot be used as effectively, so the number of file requests is likely to increase dramatically. For this reason using https for all Moodle pages is not recommended. You can enable https just for the login screen, simply from Moodle's config page.
* You can increase performance by using the light-weight webserver [http://www.lighttpd.org/ lighttpd] in combination with PHP in fastCGI-mode instead of Apache, due to much lower memory consumption. One single apache process requires more RAM than the whole lighttpd with all of its fastCGI-processes together. Note that this may not be a good solution if you can afford lots of hardware power, because administration takes a little more time.
* Consider lowering MaxRequestsPerChild in httpd.conf to as low as 20-30 (if you set it any lower the overhead of forking begins to outweigh the benefits). Also check the memory_limit in php.ini, reduce it to at least 16M. ([http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39656 Suggested by Rory Allford])

==Database performance==

* [[Arguments in favour of PostgreSQL]]
* [[Increasing the database connection lifetime]]
* [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-parameters.html Tuning MySQL parameters] (advice from the MySQL manual)

==Performance of different Moodle modules==

Moodle's activity modules, filters, and other plugins can be activated/deactivated. If necessary, you may wish to deactivate some features (such as chat) if not required - but this isn't necessary. Some notes on the performance of certain modules:

* The '''Chat''' module is [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37979&parent=175079 said] to be a hog in terms of frequent HTTP requests to the main server. This can be improved if you're using a Unix-based webserver by running the chat in daemon mode.
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=25616&parent=120770 Brief report on performance for 55 students simultaneously using '''Quiz''']
* The Moodle '''cron''' task is triggered by calling the script ''cron.php''. If this is called over HTTP (e.g. using wget or curl) it can take a large amount of memory on large installations. If it is called by directly invoking the php command (e.g. ''php -f /path/to/moodle/directory/admin/cron.php'') efficiency can be much improved.

==See also==

*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=94 Servers and Performance] moodle.org forum

[[Category:Administrador]]
[[Category:Performance]]

Performance recommendations

2006-03-30T16:34:33Z

Avicent:

Moodle can be made to perform very well, at small usage levels or scaling up to many thousands of users. The factors involved in performance are basically the same as for any PHP-based database-driven system, and Moodle's design (with clear separation of application layers) allows for strongly scalable setups. See [[Grandes Instalaciones]] for some large Moodle installations.

Large sites usually separate the web server and database onto separate servers, although for smaller installations this is typically not necessary.

It is possible to load-balance a Moodle installation, for example by using more than one webserver. The separate webservers should query the same database and refer to the same filestore area, but otherwise the separation of the application layers is complete enough to make this kind of clustering feasible. Similarly, the database could be a cluster of servers (e.g. a MySQL cluster).

==Web server performance==

* The amount of '''RAM''' on your web server is the strongest factor in performance - get as much as possible (eg 4GB).
* Linux or Unix is the recommended '''operating system''' for the server. They perform much better than Mac OSX or Windows servers at high loads.
* You are strongly recommended to use a '''PHP accelerator''' to ease CPU load, such as [http://turck-mmcache.sourceforge.net/ Turck MMCache] or PHPA.
* Performance of PHP is better when installed as an Apache module (rather than a CGI).
* On a Unix/Linux system, performance can be greatly improved by allowing the webserver to use the system '''zip/unzip''' commands (rather than PHP-based zip libraries) - visit Admin/Configure/Variables and enter the path to the relevant executables. (Similarly, filling in the path to '''du''' will improve Moodle's speed at listing directory contents.)
* Note that using '''secure web connections''' ('''https''' rather than '''http''') carries a higher processing burden, both for the webserver and the client - particularly because cacheing cannot be used as effectively, so the number of file requests is likely to increase dramatically. For this reason using https for all Moodle pages is not recommended. You can enable https just for the login screen, simply from Moodle's config page.
* You can increase performance by using the light-weight webserver [http://www.lighttpd.org/ lighttpd] in combination with PHP in fastCGI-mode instead of Apache, due to much lower memory consumption. One single apache process requires more RAM than the whole lighttpd with all of its fastCGI-processes together. Note that this may not be a good solution if you can afford lots of hardware power, because administration takes a little more time.
* Consider lowering MaxRequestsPerChild in httpd.conf to as low as 20-30 (if you set it any lower the overhead of forking begins to outweigh the benefits). Also check the memory_limit in php.ini, reduce it to at least 16M. ([http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39656 Suggested by Rory Allford])

==Database performance==

* [[Arguments in favour of PostgreSQL]]
* [[Increasing the database connection lifetime]]
* [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-parameters.html Tuning MySQL parameters] (advice from the MySQL manual)

==Performance of different Moodle modules==

Moodle's activity modules, filters, and other plugins can be activated/deactivated. If necessary, you may wish to deactivate some features (such as chat) if not required - but this isn't necessary. Some notes on the performance of certain modules:

* The '''Chat''' module is [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37979&parent=175079 said] to be a hog in terms of frequent HTTP requests to the main server. This can be improved if you're using a Unix-based webserver by running the chat in daemon mode.
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=25616&parent=120770 Brief report on performance for 55 students simultaneously using '''Quiz''']
* The Moodle '''cron''' task is triggered by calling the script ''cron.php''. If this is called over HTTP (e.g. using wget or curl) it can take a large amount of memory on large installations. If it is called by directly invoking the php command (e.g. ''php -f /path/to/moodle/directory/admin/cron.php'') efficiency can be much improved.

==See also==

*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=94 Servers and Performance] moodle.org forum

[[Category:Administrador]]
[[Category:Performance]]

Decision FAQ

2006-02-20T07:22:41Z

Avicent:

{{FAQ}}

Frequently asked questions about '''Moodle''' asked by people who are deciding whether Moodle is right for them.

==What is Moodle?==

Please see [[About Moodle]].

==What do you need to run Moodle?==

If you want to try Moodle out, you can easily [[Windows installation | install it on a standard Windows computer]] on your desktop (or a Mac).

If you want to run a stable Moodle service for a school or college, you should really invest in a dedicated server (typically a Linux computer). Moodle runs on a variety of platforms, the most preferred being Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP. Please see [[Installing Moodle]] for more specifics.

==I don't understand this technology... how can I use Moodle?==

Any organization with more than a few computers likely has a technology person who understands this. If you are not running a large operation, many website providers include an optional Moodle install on their site. Usually this comes with a package called Fantastico. Contact them for more information.

==Is Moodle complicated?==

Moodle is very powerful, and with power comes complexity. However, it is designed to be easy for teachers to use, and for technicians to install, and for administrators to manage. There are however a lot of options and settings, but getting started is easy if you're not afraid to explore on your own, or if you get some training from a Moodle partner or someone who knows Moodle well.

==Is Moodle for teachers or administrators?==

Moodle is a Learning/Course Management Systems (LMS/CMS) which helps individual, groups, schools, institutions, business, and even boards of education and school districts manage courses for anyone involved in teaching. Courses can be from 5 minutes to 5 years, from 1 person to 500 (or more!), and for everyone from first-graders to senior-citizens. The tools built into Moodle are appropriate for everything from social groups to professional development to traditional students in class.

==Why would a school trust their enterprise work to a free software package?==

Almost 70% of the world's websites run on Apache, which is a free webserver. Moodle is open-source, and while this FAQ is not the appropriate place to discuss open-source software, a quick google search on the viability of open-source products should provide ample material. Other great examples of widely-used open-source software include Linux, Sendmail, and numerous other packages that you probably use daily that you don't even know about.

==How can Moodle be free?==

[http://moodle.org/ Moodle.org] is supported by [http://moodle.org/donations/ donations], by consulting generated by clients who need specific enhancements and are willing to pay for them, and by dividends paid by [http://moodle.com/partners/ Moodle Partners].

==What is a Moodle Partner?==

Moodle Partners are companies around the world that have been certified to deliver high-quality Moodle services to customers. Please see [http://moodle.com/ moodle.com] for further details.

==How many people are using Moodle?==

Because Moodle is free, there is no simple way to count its "customers" since anyone can use it any time with no record. However, please see [http://moodle.org/stats/ Moodle statistics]]. There are a number of [[Large installations | large installations]] of Moodle which cater for thousands of users each.

==How do we know Moodle will still be in business in the future?==

If you note the installed base (the number of organizations and people using moodle), and note that all the software is open, you'll realize that even if the supporting organization were to drop off the earth, others would quickly network and step in to continue improvement of the product. There are already numerous partners around the world who make their living off helping clients with Moodle and improving the product and contributing to the community. One coming or going does not have a tremendous impact on the product as a whole, and it's openness assures that people will always be able to access, modify, and support the code - at least for as long as people are teaching with technology.

[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:FAQ]]