My school recently updated to (I assume) the latest version of Moodle, and teachers have lost access to the old menu of course themes. We now just have Clean, Snap, and More. Our admin says that he "doesn't have access at the level" necessary to add the old themes back. It seems like a simple matter of downloading a plugin file. Why would my admin not be able to add the old themes back for us, and is there anything we can do about that? Thanks.
Whoever upgraded your Moodle has the capability to add back those themes. The plugin files need to be downloaded and placed in the theme directory. The Moodle admin then visits the notifications page and the update is triggered. I would ask again until the person says yes. It is not a lot of work.
I am in the process of updating my school district's Moodle. I will be using Evolve-D as the site theme. I plan to add back legacy themes so teachers will have the option of keeping the look they are used to in their courses.
Thanks very much, Rob. Are there different levels of Moodle ownership? I'm sure we have whatever the least expensive option is, if so. I wonder if having whatever the "economy" version of Moodle is would limit our admins' access to features?
I want to push the issue, but it's hard to determine on my end whether the school just doesn't want to bother, or they legitimately can't access plugins.
Least expensive is "free". Is your Moodle self hosted or via a Moodle Partner?
Yes, we use Moodlerooms, so Joule. From the resources I've browsed, it looks like we'd have to pay a fee for each plugin, and that is only if the old themes are available?
I don't understand why they would limit the number of themes. The new ones look ridiculous on a laptop screen and are not an effective or user-friendly use of screen space.
Which version of Moodle were you using before the upgrade? There have been lots of changes to the Moodle theme engine in the last few versions of Moodle and some themes for older versions of Moodle will not work in the current version of Moodle without some modifications. You can't just download an old theme into the current version of Moodle.