Hello Moodle community,

We're excited to announce that our Moodle 5.3 QA cycle begins today, August 31st, and will run for five weeks until the release date on October 5th.

About the QA Cycle

The QA cycle is an important part of Moodle's release process. During this time, the community helps test new functionality and verify fixes to ensure the next Moodle version is stable, reliable, and ready for release.

First Time Joining a QA Cycle?

No worries! We have put together a guide for first time testers that walks you through getting set up, picking up your first test, and reporting a result.

What's New in Moodle 5.3

There are lots of cool new features and improvements coming in 5.3, including linear course navigation, marking workflows, a refreshed look and feel and forum updates, and we're also saying goodbye to the Classic theme, leaving Boost as the only theme bundled with the LMS.

Your Reports Turn Into Fixes

Issues found by community testers during a QA cycle are tagged with the qa_identified label so we can track them through to a fix. A number of those have been resolved during the 5.3 cycle, including:

• MDL-70225 - Simple global search now matches the start of words
• MDL-88393 - Performance issue when upgrading due to a question bank upgrade step
• MDL-88432 - Single quotes in a search query returned no results on MSSQL
• MDL-83815 - Unable to remove a forum rating or set it to none

More are on their way, including MDL-74915, which adds an obvious way to reach the course calendar page.

How You Can Help

• Execute MDLQA manual tests assigned to this cycle
• Perform exploratory testing on the QA testing site
• Report any issues you discover in the Moodle Tracker
• For detailed instructions, please see the QA testing guide

Important Reminders

• Please only assign tests to yourself if you plan to execute them within the next few days.
• If you're unable to complete a test, please press cancel testing so other testers can pick it up.
• Comment and report results on the cloned test for this QA cycle, not the original MDLQA parent test. Double-check that both the Fix Version and Affected Versions fields are set to Moodle 5.3 and not "Original - DO NOT REPORT TEST RESULTS HERE".

Thank you for helping improve Moodle and contributing to the quality of the Moodle 5.3 release 🚀

If you've visited the Moodle Plugins Directory over the years, you're not alone. It's been part of the Moodle community since 2011, helping millions of Moodlers discover the plugins that make Moodle solutions so flexible, adaptable, and uniquely yours.

Today, we're excited to share its next chapter.

The Moodle Plugins Directory is now Moodle Marketplace.

This isn't just a new name. It's a new home for Moodle plugins and integrations — one that's been designed to make it easier to discover, evaluate, and access the solutions that help you get even more from Moodle. And it’s all built on a new, modernised platform, capable of evolving to meet your changing needs. 

Over the past year, we've spoken with educators, administrators, instructional designers, Moodle Certified Partners, developers, Moodle Certified Integrations providers, and other plugin providers around the world. We heard the same themes again and again: finding the right plugin could be difficult, information wasn't always consistent, and providers needed a better way to sustain the work that keeps the Moodle ecosystem thriving.

Moodle Marketplace is our response. You can read more about the launch and what's new in our announcement on Moodle.com.

You'll still find the free plugins you know and trust, but you'll also discover a more modern browsing experience, clearer compatibility information, improved search and filtering, and trusted solutions to help you make confident decisions. For plugin providers, Moodle Marketplace also introduces a more streamlined path to listing and maintaining solutions, making it easier to get great work into the hands of the Moodle community. 

Importantly, Moodle Marketplace is designed to support a healthy, sustainable plugin ecosystem. Behind every plugin is a developer investing time and expertise to build, maintain, and improve it. By making it easier to discover and support their work, Moodle Marketplace helps ensure the Moodle ecosystem continues to thrive.

This is just the beginning. We'll continue listening, learning, and evolving Moodle Marketplace alongside the Moodle community. And as Moodle Marketplace evolves, we'll continue improving the experience for users, developers, and everyone who relies on Moodle plugins every day.

Thank you to everyone who shared feedback, tested ideas, and helped shape what Moodle Marketplace has become. We can't wait to see what you'll build with it next.

Explore Moodle Marketplace today and discover what's possible.

Setara Singh
Senior Product Manager, Moodle Marketplace Solutions

The transition to Moodle Marketplace may require you to make some adjustments to your Moodle site set-up. See what’s changed at Plugins Directory has moved to Moodle Marketplace.

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Hi Everyone,
We’re pleased to announce the release of Moodle LMS 5.2.

This release focuses on making courses clearer and easier to follow, improving how you manage assessment and reporting, and continuing to strengthen the platform for the future.

Behind every new feature, improvement, and fix are the contributions of our global Moodle community, our partners, and the Moodle LMS team. Thank you to everyone who helped bring Moodle LMS 5.2 to life.

Here’s what’s new in Moodle LMS 5.2

🪜 Clearer course structure and activity experience
Moodle LMS 5.2 makes course expectations and structure easier to understand. Restricted content is now more transparent, with dedicated pages that clearly show availability conditions. Activity pages have also been refreshed, with improved completion signals, clearer placement of key actions, better date visibility, and more consistent structure.

Why this matters: Educators can design courses that are easier to follow, helping learners understand what to do, what to expect, and how to move forward.

📊 Better tools for assessment and reporting
Updates to the question bank, report builder, and grading workflows make assessments easier to organise and manage. Question categories are simpler to edit and move, reporting includes more flexible filtering and clearer feedback, and new multi-marker workflows support collaborative grading.

Why this matters: Spend less time managing assessments and reports, and gain consistent, reliable insight into learner progress.

⚙️ A more modern, future-ready Moodle platform
Moodle LMS 5.2 continues important technical platform improvements, including the introduction of React foundations in core, closer alignment with the Moodle Design System, and support for installation using Composer.

Why this matters: These changes strengthen the foundation of Moodle LMS, making it more consistent, maintainable, and ready for future improvements.

Other improvements

In addition to these core updates, Moodle LMS 5.2 includes a wide range of improvements designed to make everyday work in your Moodle platform simpler and more efficient, including:

• Better defaults and first-time experiences: A more useful dashboard, clearer navigation, and improved login flows help users get to their courses faster.
• Smoother course editing and management: Faster handling of large courses and options like duplicating subsections make course building and admin more efficient.
• More AI flexibility: Expanded AI provider support (including Gemini and AWS Bedrock) gives you more choice in how AI fits your environment and policies.

Moodle LMS 5.2 also includes many more updates across usability, collaboration, mobile support, and platform simplification — each designed to save time and reduce friction in day-to-day workflows. You can explore the New features documentation for a full overview, or, for more technical details, review the developer update.

Come and see Moodle LMS 5.2 for yourself

Want to see how these updates come together in practice? Join us!

📅 Designing for success: Simplifying the learner journey in Moodle LMS 5.2

Taking place on Thursday, 23 April at 2:00pm CEST (GMT+2), this session explores what’s changed and why it matters, with practical examples across course flow, navigation, restricted content, and assessment.

👉 Register now (Can’t attend live? Sign up and we’ll send you the recording.)

Thank you for being part of the Moodle community and thank you for all of your contributions.

Kind regards,
Matt Porritt
Product Director, Platform Solutions

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