Martin Dougiamas

Hi Derek,

There will be a lot more posting and tidying up of pages coming up, but in short what "learning plans" is really finishing off the work to support competency-based education (CBE) that was started in MDL-40230 (Outcomes 2).  And yes, we are using some of Totara's design, although the parts we are taking are quite generic across all sectors, in that they are about every user having a "learning plan" consisting of competencies either gained or yet-to-be-gained.   There are lots of functioning solutions to this problem all over the place, including ELIS, Totara, Exabis and more, but we need a good structure in core for people to build on.

In future a lot of our bigger feature developments will be driven by the new Moodle Association (which should be launched soonish) and it will be a lot easier to see what is coming down the pipe.

Cheers

I can see some logic in making the LTS releases on a regular two year period so people can plan around them.  So that would mean 3.1 is an LTS.   This regular schedule (May every two years) works out probably better for the north hemisphere though ... the south hemisphere would be more or less forced to upgrade annually to stay on a supported LTS, which kinds defeats the purpose.

On the other hand, it's good to have the freedom to plan these LTS releases around releases that have reached a certain "plateau" of features.  Sometimes we have core features integrated to stimulate more development that do not have full implementation in all core modules (eg logging/events).  And it's a shame to have one of those be a LTS release and actively be encouraging people to stay there for years.  In fact 3.1 would be better than 3.0 from this perspective too, given the new learning plan stuff coming in.

People keep mentioning Ubuntu as a model but I think it's a completely different type of platform with very gradual refinements.  We need to think what's best for Moodle.

Remember the tracker has thousands of requests for new features that require database and platform changes, and these can only be made real in new releases.

So while perhaps some administrators would like their Moodle world to stay still there is also a lot of pressure on us for rapid evolution.  Moodle needs to balance these desires.

Yes, the reason for our six-monthly releases is explicitly to cater for both hemispheres.  Down here our school year follows the calendar one, you know!  

Obviously we'd love it if everyone upgraded every six months but don't worry we're very well aware this is not often possible.

Hey Derek, 

So yes, the Moodle Association is a new initiative that allows Moodle users to collaborate on designing and funding major developments in the Moodle core roadmap.   It's not been launched yet so there's not been too much about it.

It's an idea I've been wanting to start (in some variation or another) for years, and I am working on launching it as an independent non-profit incorporated association.  At the moment we are still talking with key stakeholders and developing the idea.   Once launched it will have it's own board and will operate quite independently from Moodle Pty Ltd.  Basically the Association will just be hiring Moodle Pty Ltd to do the work on some major core features.

The Moodle Association does not affect anything else we have now.  It will be completely separate from Moodle Partners, who provide our ongoing funding for maintenance and updating of the project as well as some new features in the platform.  It will also be completely separate from these forums and the tracker, and all this input that we (will continue) to receive and deal with.

These slides may help:

 

Hope you're excited about it as I am!

Martin