Several new features are coming to Course Site during its monthly scheduled maintenance window on the first Sunday of the month. On Sunday, January 5, 2025, Course Site will be upgraded to Moodle version 4.4, bringing with it several enhancements - many of which are the result of instructor and student feedback following the major user-interface changes brought in Moodle 4.x. Below are key features worth highlighting.
Course page layout, look, and feel improvements
The screenshot above shows what the course home page will look like post-upgrade. Key enhancements of note include:
Smaller iconography, using an accessible color palette, making it easier to scan and recognize as well as reducing visual bulk
Reduced space between activities and simplified display
Smaller iconography using accessible color palette; removal of activity/resource type display except in Edit mode; more clearly defined sections; less wasted white space.
Quick add new content button, indicated by a '+' icon, appears in edit mode when hovering in between sections and in between activities/resources.
Indent activities/resources (left or right) from the secondary (three dots) menu. Indenting an activity or resource in the course timeline will also be reflected in the course index. This effectively brings back the course hierarchy that many instructors used to like.
New section options from the secondary (three dots) menu
View - takes editor to a view of only the corresponding section for easier editing
Duplicate - duplicate item/section
Permalink - generates a permalink to a section (sections only, this doesn’t apply to content items)
Highlight - highlights the corresponding section for all enrollees of a course
Activity names now only display in edit mode. For example, if an activity is a book or forum, the activity type name “book” or “forum” will only appear above the name of that activity if in edit mode.
Bulk editing mode
There is a new button that appears to the right of the course title when edit mode is on labeled bulk edit. Click to enable/disable bulk edit mode. When enabled, new bulk actions are now available by selecting multiple content items OR topic sections (cannot combine items and sections). With selected items or sections, you can bulk delete, move, duplicate, and/or change visibility from a slide-out menu that opens from the bottom of the page.
Topics format has been renamed to “Custom sections”
Collapse/Expand all course index items
UI refinements
Smaller iconography using accessible color palette; removal of activity/resource type display except in Edit mode; more clearly defined sections; less wasted white space.
Activities/Resources improvements
Quiz
Ordering question type - create questions with several response options that a student needs to put in the correct order. These response options can be single words or sentences. If using the HTML format option, images may also be used as response options.
Last saved timestamp displayed in quiz navigation - students can now see the time their attempt was last saved within the quiz navigation panel.
Section grading - Teachers can allocate grades to groups of questions.
Reopen attempts - Teachers can reopen quiz attempts that never submitted.
Question numbers - Teachers can customize question numbers.
Forum
Post to all groups - option to post a copy to all groups on create new post screen.
Gradebook
Sticky footer - common action buttons and navigation now appears at the bottom of the screen regardless of scroll position.
Collapse columns - in the grader report screen
Collapse category - in the gradebook setup screen
View feedback - feedback is now directly viewable from the grader report via a new ‘three-dots' menu that appears to the right of the grade where applicable
