Mobile device support

Moodle 2.6

This pages summarizes development efforts being made as part of the development of Moodle 2.6. Specifically, enhancing the experience for users accessing Moodle via a tablet or smartphone. Mobile devices are now extremely common and Moodle must evolve to allow Moodle users to make full use of their devices.

Priorities

Mobile device support will be an ongoing priority for Moodle HQ. With additional core development and base theme alterations Moodle should be able to function equally well on desktops, tablets and smartphones. This will enable Moodle sites to be confident that their Moodle installation will be usable on whatever devices are in use by their students and staff.

To enable us to achieve the greatest impact with finite resources we have decided on the following set of priorities.

Content Before Configuration

It's extremely important that users be able to easily access course content on their various devices. For the time being it is acceptable to require the user to use a desktop or laptop computer to perform site or course configuration. Once we have ensured that users can easily access course content we will move on to improving the mobile experience for admins and users who are creating courses.

1. Students

Students typically outnumber staff by a large margin and have a very high rate of mobile device ownership. "Read only" tasks like checking assignment due dates, retrieving grades and accessing course resources must be painless. "Write" tasks like submitting photos taken with the device camera should be accommodated as much as possible.

2. Teachers

Less numerous than students. They should be able to participate in their courses, for example participating in forum discussions, as well as perform some core activities like grading of assignment submissions. Some areas, most notably the gradebook, will likely not be optimized for mobile devices until a later release.

3. Admins

Site administration is expected to still be performed primarily on desktop and laptop computers. Mobile optimization of admin tasks may occur in the future but is not a priority for this release.

Summary

In summary, the following types of use are anticipated:

Activity	Student	Teacher	Administrator
Checking Assignment metadata	M / T / D	M / T / D	M / T / D
Viewing Gradebook	M / T / D	M / T / D	M / T / D
Editing Gradebook	N/A	T / D	N/A
Accessing Course Resources	M / T / D	M / T / D	M / T / D
Reading forum discussions	M / T / D	M / T / D	M / T / D
Participating in forum discussions	M / T / D	M / T / D	M / T / D
Uploading multimedia (images, video, audio)	M / T / D	M / T / D	M / T / D
Uploading other files	D	D	D
Site administration	N/A	N/A	D

M = Mobile; T = Tablet; D = Desktop (or Laptop).

Device Support

Rather than listing or blacklisting devices that do or do not present Moodle correctly, we are aiming to create a list of recommended specifications for a device in order to have an optimum experience with Moodle.

Android

We recommend a 1GHz single core, or better device, with 512MB or more RAM. A resolution of 480x320 in Landscape mode is also recommended.

iOS

Any device capable of running iOS 4 or greater is recommended.

Device Testing

Testing of current Moodle functionality on a range of mobile devices has been performed. iPads, recent iPhones, Android tablets and Android phones have been targeted for thorough testing. This testing will be repeated in the future to detect device specific problems.

Testing is limited by what devices are physically available to HQ staff. As we near the release of 2.6 testing by the community will be required to test additional devices, most notably the iPhone 5.

High Priority Devices Available to HQ

Operating System	Device	Browser
iOS	iPad 2	Safari
iOS	iPad 3	Safari
iOS	iPod Touch	Safari
iOS	iPhone 3gs	Safari
iOS	iPhone 4s	Safari, Chrome and Opera
Android	Acer Iconia 10"	Stock 4.0.3
Android	HTC Sensation 4"	Stock 4.0.2
Android	LG Optimus L7	Stock (Android 4) and Chrome
Android	Samsung Tab 2 7"	Stock (Android 4) and Chrome
Android	Nexus 4	Chrome
Android	HTC Desire	Stock (Android 2.3)
Android	Motorola Xoom 10"	Chrome

Getting It Done

Tracker issues have been created as part of device testing and also after discussions about possible improvements. The tracker issues are sub-tasks of MDL-38856 and MDL-39665.

Broadly speaking the issues can be grouped by area. Note that this listing will fall out of date very quickly. It is only intended to provide an approximate sense of where work is to be done. Please consult MDL-38856 and MDL-39665 for a completely up to date summary of the work being done.

Blocks

• MDL-39715
• MDL-39812
• MDL-39813
• MDL-39735
• MDL-39814
• MDL-39749
• MDL-39815
• MDL-39749
• MDL-39796

Front Page

• MDL-39798

Course Page

• MDL-39750
• MDL-39816
• MDL-39817

Activities/Resources

• MDL-39748
• MDL-39746
• MDL-39736
• MDL-39737
• MDL-39773
• MDL-39770
• MDL-39705
• MDL-39704
• MDL-39779
• MDL-39766
• MDL-39771
• MDL-39715
• MDL-39818
• MDL-38347

Major Projects

Several projects are under way to attempt to resolve many of these issues at once. They are...

Full Screen Popups

Popups such as the file picker and the message notification popup function poorly on a small screen. Refactoring them could significantly improve the experience throughout Moodle.

• MDL-39851 - Full screen popup for mobile (filepicker./activitychooser)
• MDL-39852 - Adjust file picker / activity chooser forms to full screen popup.

Relative Scaling

Text sizing in Moodle is currently often done with hard coded pixel sizes. This makes scaling for different devices difficult. Switching Moodle to using relative scaling based around the html concepts of "em" and "rem" should allow us to make better use of the available screen real estate throughout Moodle.

Blocks

Where and how the blocks should be displayed on small screens is the subject of debate. See MDL-39715.

Navigation

Further information is needed about how the navigation tree can be optimized and when it should be displayed in full or at all.