Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Derek Chirnside -
Number of replies: 27

I've become a lot more aware of the details behind the scenes with the 6 months release cycle.  Tracker.  Docs.  

We should all check out the new releases page: http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/New_features which I've found very helpful in communicating news to regular users.  

Things new in 2.7, a bit random

## SPELL-CHECKER  I have been inspired to make this post with one little thing: 

right click access to spell checker in Atto  rather than control-right click.  cool

I've been surprised here on Moodle.org how much this has benefited me, and I'm now sometimes confused as I use several Moodles each day. There is actually a lot of other stuff in the right click menu as well.  

## ALTERNATIVE USERNAME Also, I noticed this: email username alternative.  http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/New_features#Log_in_with_your_email_address this simplifies a challenge I've had for a while.  Tracker: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-41115 1 vote

## INSERT IMAGE in ATTO  sad ONE EXTRA CLICK to upload an image.  (As if there were not enough clicks already)  sad  I'm going to trackerise this I think. unless I hear that it is a feature.

## FORUMS Changing the subject line of a forum notification.  http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Forum_settings#Changing_the_subject_line_of_forum_notifications  Nice.  Just seems so incredibly random for this to get into 2.7.  The tracker item is here: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-44505  zero votes, and suddenly, it's in core.  (I wonder why?)

I'll be interested to find out if the Post Permalink is there in 2.7 or if it is just a feature of Moodle.org.

## Password expiry option.  https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-42816  1 vote. (Ditto)

## ASSIGNMENT  Whew, at last, teachers can delete user submissions.  https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-28448 70 votes!!  Yeah!!

Many other things I guess are under the hood.

I'm not commenting on questions improvements, scheduled actions etc.  I know they are there, just not looked at them yet.

What has surprised me again is the randomness of some of these additions to 2.7 around the fringes. Some with no or one vote in tracker.  The old story.  One person's essential is another person's trivial.  

-----------------------------------

WHATS NOT THERE in 2.7??  So, some good stuff.  Putting my "Glass half full" hat on, still scores of valuable minor tweaks in the tracker not addressed, often with hanging questions, some with lots of votes and even some with code.  

IGNORE THIS BIT IF YOU LIKE - If I can allow myself one personal hobby horse, I hope someone (with influence) thinks about forum sometime, and then actually takes some action.  We have an epic https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-39707 for forum, arguably a major weakness of Moodle core in the post facebook era . . .  

Musing over.

Cheers,

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Steve Ambro v3.8 -

What is Permalink?

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In reply to Steve Ambro v3.8

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Derek Chirnside -

@Steve, sorry, I missed this question!!  See below.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permalink

@Jez.  "Martin gave a nice presentation at iMoot with some screen shots of work being done on forums by MoodleRooms so it seems to be in progress."  Was this recorded anywhere public?  Is there a link to the specs or the work?

Though: Martin spends a fair bit of time at conferences, and I know first hand that there are all sorts of coinversations and influences on him there.  Could conference organisers maybe capture a bit of this?  Management of com,munication by Chinese whispers and who knows who is OK, but ,maybe not sufficient.

-Derek


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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Jez H -

Martin gave a nice presentation at iMoot with some screen shots of work being done on forums by MoodleRooms so it seems to be in progress.

I thought 2.7 was a bit thin on features, but that goes with having a fixed release schedule.

I think one of the most useful but overlooked improvements is the ability to dock blocks in the new responsive / bootstrap theme. A lot of Moodlers use docking particularly with gradebook which can get pretty wide, until now you had to choose between responsive and docking, with 2.7 you don't.

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by dawn alderson -

Hi,

Derek: IGNORE THIS BIT IF YOU LIKE - If I can allow myself one personal hobby horse, I hope someone (with influence) thinks about forum sometime, and then actually takes some action.  We have an epic https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-39707 for forum, arguably a major weakness of Moodle core in the post facebook era . . .  

my think-speak-write= ...and it has to be a plugin?...seems such a shame all the hold-up with this...I notice no plugin for 2.6 let alone 2.7........or could be wrong....cant it just go in core....part of a nice UI update....and for sure, it would add value to the grader/gradebook feature too; timing seems about right.

D


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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Tim Hunt -
Immàgine de Core developers Immàgine de Documentation writers Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Peer reviewers Immàgine de Plugin developers

MDL-44505 was done by Henning Bostelmann, from the University of York, UK, presumably because his university wanted it. That is how open source works. People implement the things they want. If they are not inconsistent with where Moodle is going, they get into the core package.

Similarly, MDL-42816 was done by Gilles-Philippe Leblanc of the University of Montreal.

There were 104 contributors to Moodle 2.7. Only about 20 of them work for Moodle HQ.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by dawn alderson -

understand.

changed profile pic for this response-as a bit obvious, perhaps.

I suppose I always think of the slick OU forum structure, when I think about forums...and especially when visiting moodle.org  here :0).

  It seems, little stuff can be ever so useful, like less of a scroll, pick/choose what is hidden....and so on.

Would be nice to have an update of sorts here...tis why I mentioned UI...all part of the ease of access/nav and so on.

D

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Derek Chirnside -

@Tim, just smiling here a bit with this comment.

"If they are not inconsistent with where Moodle is going, they get into the core package"

I'm finding it increasingly hard to figure out where Moodle is actually going.  Complexities under the hood mean we cannot even start to think about some things without help from the home base.  It's a bit hit and miss to know sometimes.

-Derek

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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Translators
The good news is that version 2.7 is LTS.

Now the bad news: it is the wrong version to be a LTS. It is the beginning of a new generation of Moodle. A LTS should be the last version of a former generation. Like Moodle 1.9, for example.

Talking of generations, my taxonomy is: 1.4 - 1.6, 1.7 - 1.9, 2.0 - 2.3, 2.4 - 2.6, 2.7 - ?.
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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Robert Brenstein -
Indeed, despite all the goodies in 2.7, it doesn't appear to be complete enough to be a true lasting LTS. At the same time, users world-wide seem to have implicitly declared to treat 1.9 as LTS without the S part, as usage statistics show.
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In reply to Robert Brenstein

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Translators
Nothing against 2.7 or calling for a resurrection of 1.9, it was just an example to argue that a version has to qualify itself for a LTS by refusing to die. Debian Squeeze is another example. They declared Squeeze LTS at an old age. Moodle 2.7 was declared LTS before its birth.
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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by G. M. -

"Moodle 1.9, come forth" smile

"by refusing to die", best definition ever; my WinXP complies with it big grin

 

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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Matt Bury -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Plugin developers

Maybe the issue with WinXP is that most people don't even know what an operating system is. They simply have a computer and turn it on and use it.

For people who do know what an OS is, why mess everything up by upgrading to a foreign looking one? (Some people get upset if a button than used to be blue is now green). And why pay for an upgrade and go through the inconvenience if your current one works OK and does everything you want?

So much for M$'s great idea of charging people to upgrade their OS! black eye

My Linux updates and upgrades effortlessly smile

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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by G. M. -

I don't know if I know, but what I do know is that WinXP allows me to work as I want/require in an almost effortless way. Forget about having to waste precious time relearning how everything works or finding out where they decided to bury whatever module one is searching for, just to mention a couple, to me, a self-defined power-user, the real problem is that with newer versions one is forced to increase the number of keystrokes (assuming that the navigate-with-keystrokes option is still available) to do anything and so, one ends up having to depend way more on the mouse. I won't get into Windows itself, but a clear-cut example regarding this particular issue would be to compare working at Word or Excel with the "old" menu bar vs. doing it with the "new" ribbon. Moodle, unfortunately, followed suit with version 2.x, and we all know what that meant.

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Windows XP or alternatives?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Translators
Guillermo

So you are one of those diehards:
“I use a third-party firewall, a free virus checker, and run Housecall periodically,” Appel told PCWorld via email. “My Firefox browser uses Keyscrambler, HTTPS Anywhere, Ghostery, and Disconnect. I also have a VPN account (PIA) when traveling. For suspicious email attachments, I deploy private proprietary bioware (me!) to analyze before opening. All the 'experts' say I am crazy. Thing is, I stopped the security updates in XP years ago after a bad update trashed my system, and yet I have never been infected, although online for hours each day. So, crazy though I be, I am sticking with XP.”
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/04/08/1240245/meet-the-diehards-who-refuse-to-move-on-from-windows-xp ?

Once such life becomes unbearable, make a bootable USB memory stick with Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php, my preferance the Mate version, and compare it with XP.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by G. M. -

Hehe! Yes indeed!

I couldn't agree more with the author. My setup is way simpler but as secure and efficient as any other well though scheme: no windows update (since millenia ago and for the same reason: bad crashes), non-windows firewall & AV, encrypted disks (TrueCrypt) for everything that matters, some good cleaners, a disk defrag, a disk imager, backups (local and cloud) and of course, the best security system of all, Substantia grisea big grin So, days start and end with brief rituals (nothing that unbearable, really) that certainly have kept my beloved computer working fine. But yes, it's a fact, this is the last Windows version I use, so thanks for the tip! Eja I just haven't found the time to start getting prepared, but I'll do as you recommend smile

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Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Translators
Taling of Windows alternatives, "XP's decline has flattened: cheapskates, ignoramuses and the brave clearly feel little incentive to move to another version of Windows". In any case Windows 8 is not going to be an alternative: "analysis by Netmarketshare and StatCounter has found Windows 8's market share fell during September 2014".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/03/microsofts_nightmare_deepens_windows_8_market_share_falling_fast/
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by Matt Bury -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Plugin developers

I'm sure that lots of FOSS advocates would like to get some of those XP users to switch over to some version of Linux. The thing is, most people couldn't tell you what they use other than it's a PC and not a Mac. The OS came with the computer when they bought it.

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Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by G. M. -

Hi Matt,

I'd say that those who haven't changed and won't change, are not your common everyday users; quite the opposite. Normal users have no problem in changing, even more, they are willing to (just consider all the scary messages they've been given about the dangers of working with an obsolete, unsecure, vulnerable to every possible virus in the loose, OS). So no, people that are clinging to XP are the ones that really know their OS and have very good reasons for not letting it go.

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Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Translators
Matt

You wrote:
> lots of FOSS advocates would like to get some of those XP users to switch over to some version of Linux.

Initially, Yes. Specially during the Vista debacle. In the ensuing years a good portion of them went to Windows 7. The next debacle, Windows 8, is still quite new, say, until last week.
:-')

For the surviving Windows XP users, I agree with Guillermo:
> those who haven't changed and won't change, are not your common everyday users;

Most of them company computers which still run on legacy systems. From the private users, you get these diehards. Both are not "normal" in the sense that they know that the operating system is not a part of the hardware. Well there may be a small fraction of "normal" who are still on XP because their computers still run. But once they buy a new computer they'll come home with a shiny Windows 8.1.
sad
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by G. M. -

http://www.admin-magazine.com/Archive/2014/22/Welcome-to-ADMIN

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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Windows XP or alternatives?

by G. M. -
Does everyone need (or want) to run a copy of VisiCalc? No. But being able to do so allows us to keep our past... alive. To see how things were in decades past. To learn from them. To enjoy them. This is our common computer history, and it should be cherished and preserved.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2226809/opensource-subnet/why-we-should-preserve-useless--old-software.html

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Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Jez H -

Depends which bit of Moodle you are talking about, and how you use it.

One area criticised for adding more clicks is file repositories, but editing teachers can drag and drop multiple files straight into the page, or drop a zip file and it will unpack it to a folder... so it got harder and easier depending how you look at it.

I think most people would be better off on 2.7 than 1.9.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Jez H -
Ubuntu declare LTS releases at the point they are released.
They dont know how popular / long lasting a release will be, they are making a commitment to support it.

Reading between the lines I guess HQ thought this release was a good one to offer LTS and try to move more users off 1.9.

From what ive seen of it having used it live for a month its pretty good, no real issues with it yet (but wise), performance is good, automated backups seem to be running very quickly (I noticed that was an area they worked on).l

So far so good!
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In reply to Jez H

Re: Reflections and Musings on Moodle 2.7

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Immàgine de Particularly helpful Moodlers Immàgine de Translators
If Ubuntu is your model for running a FOSS project, may that be. For me its ominious leader has annoyed a whole generation of FOSS activists with his unpredictable decisions (with due respects for popularizing Linux which he calls Ubuntu).

In fact Ubuntu was also influential in spreading the time based version model as opposed to the prevalent feature based model. Unfortunately Moodle followed and now we all are part of its great version march. One would think, the 2.7 LTS would give us a break. No, its fixes for core bugs end after 12 months, like in any other (recent) non-LTS release.
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