Note:

If you want to create a new page for developers, you should create it on the Moodle Developer Resource site.

Roadmap: Difference between revisions

From MoodleDocs
No edit summary
(→‎Where this roadmap comes from: Moodle Users Association fix as commented in the talk page)
(34 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Last Updated: 13 March 2020 Q1'''
= Introduction =
The Moodle Project is designed to have a positive effect on the world by supporting and empowering the educators who are teaching students in all sectors, in all countries.   
The Moodle Project is designed to have a positive effect on the world by supporting and empowering the educators who are teaching students in all sectors, in all countries.   


To do this, our team at Moodle HQ examines the problems around education and creates solutions in the forms of products that fit our values of education, openness, respect, integrity and innovation.  
To do this, our team at Moodle HQ looks to the world, talks with our community, and creates solutions in the forms of products that fit our values of education, openness, respect, integrity and innovation.
 
This document summarises, for a broad audience, the best current plans on the future technical development of the Moodle’s open source learning platform, consisting of Moodle LMS, Moodle Workplace LMS, MoodleCloud, MoodleNet, Moodle Apps, and Moodle Educator Certificates.


This page is your starting point for learning about our plans for upcoming releases of Moodle.  Below you will find information on the features that are currently in progress and those being planned for future releases.
We publish Roadmap updates such as this one every quarter.




==Inputs to the roadmap==
==Where this roadmap comes from==
Proposals for improvements and new features are sourced from a variety of different inputs. Feedback from the community is very important and you can reach us by creating new issues on [http://tracker.moodle.org tracker], joining the [https://moodleassociation.org/ Moodle User Association] to vote on a new project for each release, discussing your ideas on the [https://moodle.org/forums forums], and meeting us in person at one of our [https://moodlemoot.org/ MoodleMoots]!
 
Proposals for improvements and new features come from a variety of different places.
 
Feedback from the community is extremely important and you can reach us by
* creating new issues on [http://tracker.moodle.org tracker],  
* joining the [https://moodleassociation.org/ Moodle Users Association] to vote on a new project for each release,  
* discussing your ideas on the [https://moodle.org/forums forums],  
* creating new solutions as a plugin in the [https://moodle.org/plugins Moodle Plugins directory],
* or meeting us in person at one of our [https://moodle.com/events/ MoodleMoots]!


Moodle also has an extensive network of [https://moodle.com/partners Moodle Partners]. Moodle Partners are service providers that are certified by Moodle HQ to provide high quality Moodle services for schools, institutions and organisations. We work closely with our partners to determine the needs of Moodle Users and improve the platform.
Moodle also has an extensive network of [https://moodle.com/partners Moodle Partners]. Moodle Partners are service providers that are certified by Moodle HQ to provide high quality Moodle services for schools, institutions and organisations. We work closely with our partners to determine the needs of Moodle Users and improve the platform.


==Moodle 3.6: major new features==
Our Roadmap is built via our [[Roadmap process]]. This process is continuously evolving but it always seeks to involve all our key stakeholders - students, teachers, admins, institutions, and of course our partners and supporters.
Introduced for Moodle 3.6:
 
# [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-62870 Improvements to the Dashboard and Course Overview page]. In particular the ability to handle large numbers of courses and activities.  Including new blocks with easy access to the most recently visited courses and activities, ability to favourite and hide courses, ability to load more courses onto one page and providing a separate timeline block.
= The big picture =
# [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-57272 Introduction of group messaging]. The ability to enable group messaging for a course or any other group formed by the teacher.  In line with our focus on protecting privacy, users will be given greater control over who is able to message them.
 
# [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-62331 Additional privacy features].  This continues on from the privacy features implemented in Moodle 3.5 for the European data privacy regulations: [https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en GDPR]. The enhancements include a more human friendly readable format of the data export, ability to perform an erasure request on previously (prior to Moodle 3.5) deleted users, improved control over the purpose and retention period for different types of activity modules, and more!
Working on the Moodle learning platform involves millions of moving parts, and every release generally includes hundreds of improvements.  However, there are '''four main goals''' that we are focussing on for the next two years:
# '''Improvements to Quiz analytical tools'''. This is a project selected by the Moodle User Association (MUA) to simplify the way response statistics for random question pools are displayed. Further information can be found on the [https://moodleassociation.org/mod/page/view.php?id=548 MUA page] and in the [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MUA-33 tracker].
# [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-27520 Adding file and media support for assignment feedback]. This allows teachers to upload files and media when providing students with feedback on their work.
# '''Accessibility improvements'''. Inclusiveness for people with disabilities is the driver for this project and the work in this area is focused on improving accessibility of the [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-62476 Boost theme] and [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-62475 Forum].


==Moodle 3.7: planning in progress==
=== User experience and flow ===
Planning for Moodle 3.7 and beyond is in progress, so stay tuned!


Here are some items we are currently working on for Moodle 3.7:
The entire user experience from onboarding, into daily teaching/learning and expert customisation of Moodle is the core value of what makes Moodle useful or not in the real world, in fully online and blended modes.<br />
<br />
While we’re working on hundreds of smaller, annoying issues, we are also doing some major re-thinking around what an LMS should be in the next decade and beyond as a tool to empower educators and learners.


# In line with our goal to ensure Moodle is feature competitive we are currently undertaking a review of the '''open educational standards''', such as the [https://www.imsglobal.org/specifications.html IMS Interoperability Standards]. Support for LTI 1.3 will be included in Moodle 3.7 and we are in the process of reviewing and prioritising standards for subsequent Moodle releases.
=== Enabling all our developers ===
# '''Themes''': with the introduction of Bootstrap 4 final for Moodle 3.5 we will now focus on further improving the Boost theme.  As discussed on the [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=373899#p1510580 forum] we will retain Bootstrapbase and the Clean theme for Moodle 3.6, but will remove them for Moodle 3.7. Supporting multiple frameworks and themes increases our development and testing efforts as all new features require development and testing across the different themes.  In turn this means that less time is available to work on new features, bugs, and other user-facing functionality. In the long term this is not sustainable and also not beneficial.  This will allow us to focus our efforts on improving the core theme and ultimately serving our users better. A new ‘Classic’ theme, based on Bootstrap 4 final, will be introduced that is more in-line with the Clean theme, retaining the 2 and 3 column grid layout, and the classic navigation block.


==3.7 Dates==
Our significant community of developers are an amazing group of over 1000 people - many of them make a living being part of the Moodle community.
* Code freeze (no new features accepted): '''1st April 2019'''
* QA cycle (start of QA testing): '''8th April 2019'''
* Release date (once QA passed): '''13th May 2019'''


==Moodle releases==
We are of course working on ways to make Moodle programming easier and better, with better training and support as well as improved APIs, plugins, integrations and support for modern technologies.
See our [[Releases]] page for information about past releases.
 
After Moodle 2.0 we switched to time-based releases rather than feature-based releases (see our [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Process development process]). Because of this, the details above on future releases are an indication of current priorities only, and are targeted to be released in the upcoming releases. Anything not ready by the next release date will generally be pushed to the following major release.
However, a particularly exciting initiative is the new Moodle Plugins Service, due in 2021, which will provide an “app store” experience on which all developers can build financial sustainability for their work, while teachers will have easier access to use hundreds of new plugins in their courses via the web interface, without needing to convince their admins to install code. This will help the entire plugins ecosystem.
 
===Better integrations between Moodle products===
 
The current Moodle products already integrate with each other, of course, but there is much more to be done to make them work together more seamlessly, as part of one platform, so that our users have a better experience and also so that they become more aware of solutions to their problems.
 
=== Better integration with the world ===
 
Moodle is never used alone, and it is a part of many ecosystems at many levels. We must connect to all kinds of other systems, we must of course comply with new legislation such as the GDPR, Accessibility and much more.
 
In particular though, we are committed to helping to promote [https://openedtech.global/ <span class="underline">Open EdTech</span>] and to work closely with qualified Open EdTech products and major stakeholders to design and build an open architecture for a long-term future.
 
 
= Roadmap timeline =
 
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! '''2020'''
! '''Moodle LMS'''
! '''Moodle Workplace'''
! '''Moodle Apps'''
! '''MoodleCloud'''
! '''MoodleNet'''
! '''Moodle Certificates'''
|-
| '''Q1'''
|
|
| '''Launch of new Moodle app plans'''
| '''Launch of Workplace hosting<br />
<br />
'''Free trials
|
|
|-
| '''Q2'''
|
'''Release 3.9'''
 
LLTS (Long Long Term Support)
 
'''New:'''<br />
<br />
Create H5P content<br />
<br />
MoodleNet
 
'''Improved:'''<br />
<br />
Activity chooser
 
Participants filters (MUA)
 
Accessibility
 
Safe Exam Browser
|
'''Release 3.9<br />
<br />
New:'''<br />
<br />
Appointments
 
Data Importers and exporters
|
'''Release 3.9<br />
<br />
New:'''<br />
<br />
Text editor draft autosave
 
'''Updates:'''<br />
<br />
Moodle LMS 3.9 compatibility
 
'''<br />
'''Moodle Workplace 3.9 compatibility
|
Improved connections with other Moodle products
 
'''<br />
'''Self-service for renames and restores
|
'''Release 1.0'''
 
'''New:'''<br />
<br />
Integrates to Moodle 3.9 and later
 
Moderation<br />
<br />
Federation<br />
<br />
HQ-run home instance
 
GDPR compliance<br />
<br />
Themeable
|
'''MEC 2020 launch<br />
<br />
'''6 courses covering all 22 competencies
 
Translated into multiple languages
|-
| '''Q3'''
| '''Minor release(s)'''
| '''Tenant-shared learning
| '''Notifications of new grades
 
Improved connections with other products
| New:'''<br />
<br />
New plans<br />
<br />
'''Updates:'''<br />
<br />
Simplified signup and upgrades
|
|
|-
| '''Q4'''
| '''Minor release(s)
| Report Builder improvements
| '''Functionality gaps for students
 
UX improvements
| Improvements based on customer needs
|
| '''MEC Direct Release<br />
<br />
'''MEC licensing for large institutions
|-
| '''2021'''
| '''Moodle LMS'''
| '''Moodle Workplace'''
| '''Moodle Apps'''
| '''MoodleCloud'''
| '''MoodleNet'''
| '''Moodle Certificates'''
|-
| '''Q1'''
| '''Minor release(s)
| '''Dashboards
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''Q2'''
| '''Minor release(s)
 
'''Moodle Plugins Service Soft Launch'''
|
|
|
|
| Other certifications
|-
| '''Q3'''
| '''Minor release(s)
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''Q4'''
| '''Release 4.0'''<br />
<br />
'''New:'''
 
Workplace features:<br />
- Certificates<br />
- Report Builder<br />
<br />
'''Improved:'''<br />
<br />
UX navigation
 
UX biggest pains
 
UX consistency via component library
 
Information flow and task management
| '''Release 4.0'''
| '''Release 4.0'''
 
'''Improved:'''<br />
<br />
Moodle LMS 4.0 compatibility
 
'''<br />
'''Moodle Workplace 4.0 compatibility
 
Classroom tools with friendly UX
| '''Release 4.0<br />
<br />
'''
|
|
|-
| '''2022'''
| '''Moodle LMS'''
| '''Moodle Workplace'''
| '''Moodle Apps'''
| '''MoodleCloud'''
| '''MoodleNet'''
| '''Moodle Certificates'''
|-
| '''Q1'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''Q2'''
| '''Release 4.1'''
| '''Release 4.1'''
| '''Release 4.1'''
| '''Release 4.1'''
|
|
|-
| '''Q3'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| '''Q4'''
| '''Release 4.2'''
| '''Release 4.2'''
| '''Release 4.2'''
| '''Release 4.2'''
|
|
|}
 
== Notes on some of these major release dates: ==
 
===Moodle 4.0 in November 2021 ===
 
Normally Moodle LMS major releases are every 6 months, in May and November.
 
However, for our very large new releases such as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and now 4.0, we often take longer so that we can tackle more significant chunks of important core work, giving us the opportunity sometimes to make more serious changes to UX or architecture.
 
There are a lot of ideas around for 4.0 - we will be relying on our new UX team to organise and prioritise a lot of it during the next 6 months.
 
=== Moodle 3.9 release in June 2020 ===
 
In support of a longer release timeframe for Moodle 4.0, we have decided to release Moodle 3.9 in June.
 
The extra month will give us time to bring in a number of extra items in support of Moodle’s other products, which are in addition to the planned features for the 3.9 release.
 
It will also allow us to include as many community contributions as possible as we work towards the release date.


==General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)==
* Code freeze (no new features accepted): '''4th May 2020'''
* QA cycle (start of QA testing): '''11th May 2020'''
* Scheduled release date (once QA passed): '''8th June 2020'''


The EU data protection regulation came into effect on 25 May 2018 and all organisations in the EU, as well as those outside the EU that store data of EU citizens, have to comply.  Moodle 3.5 introduced features that assist these organisations to become GDPR compliant.  These features focus on functionality to:
=Past releases=


* [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-61275 Provide additional privacy information during user sign up, as well as more extensive recording and logging of user consents] 
See our [[Releases]] page for information about past releases.
* [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-61306 Provide additional means for users to obtain a copy or their data, invoke their right to data erasure and keeping track of all types of data within Moodle in a data registry]


Further data privacy enhancements were developed for Moodle 3.6:
After Moodle 2.0 we switched to time-based releases rather than feature-based releases (see our [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Process development process]). Because of this, the details above on future releases are an indication of current priorities only, and are targeted to be released in the upcoming releases. Anything not ready by the next release date will generally be pushed to the following major release.
* [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-62331 Additional privacy features]. The enhancements include a more human friendly readable format of the data export, ability to perform an erasure request on previously (prior to Moodle 3.5) deleted users, improved control over the purpose and retention period for different types of activity modules, and more!


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 10:09, 3 April 2020

Last Updated: 13 March 2020 Q1



Introduction

The Moodle Project is designed to have a positive effect on the world by supporting and empowering the educators who are teaching students in all sectors, in all countries.

To do this, our team at Moodle HQ looks to the world, talks with our community, and creates solutions in the forms of products that fit our values of education, openness, respect, integrity and innovation.

This document summarises, for a broad audience, the best current plans on the future technical development of the Moodle’s open source learning platform, consisting of Moodle LMS, Moodle Workplace LMS, MoodleCloud, MoodleNet, Moodle Apps, and Moodle Educator Certificates.

We publish Roadmap updates such as this one every quarter.


Where this roadmap comes from

Proposals for improvements and new features come from a variety of different places.

Feedback from the community is extremely important and you can reach us by

Moodle also has an extensive network of Moodle Partners. Moodle Partners are service providers that are certified by Moodle HQ to provide high quality Moodle services for schools, institutions and organisations. We work closely with our partners to determine the needs of Moodle Users and improve the platform.

Our Roadmap is built via our Roadmap process. This process is continuously evolving but it always seeks to involve all our key stakeholders - students, teachers, admins, institutions, and of course our partners and supporters.

The big picture

Working on the Moodle learning platform involves millions of moving parts, and every release generally includes hundreds of improvements. However, there are four main goals that we are focussing on for the next two years:

User experience and flow

The entire user experience from onboarding, into daily teaching/learning and expert customisation of Moodle is the core value of what makes Moodle useful or not in the real world, in fully online and blended modes.

While we’re working on hundreds of smaller, annoying issues, we are also doing some major re-thinking around what an LMS should be in the next decade and beyond as a tool to empower educators and learners.

Enabling all our developers

Our significant community of developers are an amazing group of over 1000 people - many of them make a living being part of the Moodle community.

We are of course working on ways to make Moodle programming easier and better, with better training and support as well as improved APIs, plugins, integrations and support for modern technologies.

However, a particularly exciting initiative is the new Moodle Plugins Service, due in 2021, which will provide an “app store” experience on which all developers can build financial sustainability for their work, while teachers will have easier access to use hundreds of new plugins in their courses via the web interface, without needing to convince their admins to install code. This will help the entire plugins ecosystem.

Better integrations between Moodle products

The current Moodle products already integrate with each other, of course, but there is much more to be done to make them work together more seamlessly, as part of one platform, so that our users have a better experience and also so that they become more aware of solutions to their problems.

Better integration with the world

Moodle is never used alone, and it is a part of many ecosystems at many levels. We must connect to all kinds of other systems, we must of course comply with new legislation such as the GDPR, Accessibility and much more.

In particular though, we are committed to helping to promote Open EdTech and to work closely with qualified Open EdTech products and major stakeholders to design and build an open architecture for a long-term future.


Roadmap timeline

2020 Moodle LMS Moodle Workplace Moodle Apps MoodleCloud MoodleNet Moodle Certificates
Q1 Launch of new Moodle app plans Launch of Workplace hosting


Free trials

Q2

Release 3.9

LLTS (Long Long Term Support)

New:

Create H5P content

MoodleNet

Improved:

Activity chooser

Participants filters (MUA)

Accessibility

Safe Exam Browser

Release 3.9

New:

Appointments

Data Importers and exporters

Release 3.9

New:

Text editor draft autosave

Updates:

Moodle LMS 3.9 compatibility


Moodle Workplace 3.9 compatibility

Improved connections with other Moodle products


Self-service for renames and restores

Release 1.0

New:

Integrates to Moodle 3.9 and later

Moderation

Federation

HQ-run home instance

GDPR compliance

Themeable

MEC 2020 launch

6 courses covering all 22 competencies

Translated into multiple languages

Q3 Minor release(s) Tenant-shared learning Notifications of new grades

Improved connections with other products

New:


New plans

Updates:

Simplified signup and upgrades

Q4 Minor release(s) Report Builder improvements Functionality gaps for students

UX improvements

Improvements based on customer needs MEC Direct Release


MEC licensing for large institutions

2021 Moodle LMS Moodle Workplace Moodle Apps MoodleCloud MoodleNet Moodle Certificates
Q1 Minor release(s) Dashboards
Q2 Minor release(s)

Moodle Plugins Service Soft Launch

Other certifications
Q3 Minor release(s)
Q4 Release 4.0


New:

Workplace features:
- Certificates
- Report Builder

Improved:

UX navigation

UX biggest pains

UX consistency via component library

Information flow and task management

Release 4.0 Release 4.0

Improved:

Moodle LMS 4.0 compatibility


Moodle Workplace 4.0 compatibility

Classroom tools with friendly UX

Release 4.0


2022 Moodle LMS Moodle Workplace Moodle Apps MoodleCloud MoodleNet Moodle Certificates
Q1
Q2 Release 4.1 Release 4.1 Release 4.1 Release 4.1
Q3
Q4 Release 4.2 Release 4.2 Release 4.2 Release 4.2

Notes on some of these major release dates:

Moodle 4.0 in November 2021

Normally Moodle LMS major releases are every 6 months, in May and November.

However, for our very large new releases such as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and now 4.0, we often take longer so that we can tackle more significant chunks of important core work, giving us the opportunity sometimes to make more serious changes to UX or architecture.

There are a lot of ideas around for 4.0 - we will be relying on our new UX team to organise and prioritise a lot of it during the next 6 months.

Moodle 3.9 release in June 2020

In support of a longer release timeframe for Moodle 4.0, we have decided to release Moodle 3.9 in June.

The extra month will give us time to bring in a number of extra items in support of Moodle’s other products, which are in addition to the planned features for the 3.9 release.

It will also allow us to include as many community contributions as possible as we work towards the release date.

  • Code freeze (no new features accepted): 4th May 2020
  • QA cycle (start of QA testing): 11th May 2020
  • Scheduled release date (once QA passed): 8th June 2020

Past releases

See our Releases page for information about past releases.

After Moodle 2.0 we switched to time-based releases rather than feature-based releases (see our development process). Because of this, the details above on future releases are an indication of current priorities only, and are targeted to be released in the upcoming releases. Anything not ready by the next release date will generally be pushed to the following major release.

See also