Category: News

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Moodle upgrades on June 30th 2021

Moodle will be upgraded to version 3.10 on June 30th, 2021, from 8 AM to 5 PM. During this time, Moodle is closed and cannot be logged into. The update may not take the whole day, but the time is reserved as a precaution to prepare for potential update issues and fixes.

The update does not bring major changes to Moodle, just some minor usability improvements. For example, in new Moodle areas, activity completion will be on by default. This makes it easier to enable the feature in activities. A major layout update is coming with Moodle 4.0 version (follow the development of moodle.org). The University of Helsinki is launching it in the summer 2022.

Moodle is now better accessible with WCAG 2.1. version. To increase accessibility, we have added a small arrow ➚ to links made in the editor that open in a new window / tab. This can be seen, for example, in texts made with Page, Book and Label resources.

Contact us

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Subscribe the new Moodle-News mailing list

The Moodle-News mailing list will be renewed and everyone will have to subscribe to the news again.  As of August 2021, we will only communicate through the new mailing list.

How do I subscribe the mailing list?

  • Send an email to majordomo@helsinki.fi
  • Enter the command subscribe moodle-news firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi in the text section of the e-mail. (The subject field of the message can be left blank.)
  • See more detailed instructions on the Helpdesk website

Problems? Please contact moodle@helsinki.fi

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Unitube videos on Moodle are unavailable on 8 June 2021

The entire Unitube video service will be out of use due to a service break on Tuesday, 8 June 2021. The service break is due to the mandatory version update of the Unitube backend system Opencast, which allows us to improve the further development of Unitube services.

During the service break on 8 June 2021:

  • Unitube Uploader and Viewer Services as well as Unitube facilities and Studios will be unavailable.
  • Unitube videos on Moodle are unavailable.
  • Please contact the IT Helpdesk in case of problems.
  • See the news in Flamma.

We apologise to university staff and students for any inconvenience caused by the service break!

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Moodle operates normally during the Sisu deployment

Due to the deployment of the Sisu student information system, Oodi and Sisu are not available as usual from 17th to 30th May, 2021 (see Flamma News). During this time, Moodle will work normally.

New Moodle areas only with the order form

During the interruption of Sisu deployment, 17th to 30th May, Moodle areas cannot be created through course pages. If you want to create a Moodle area on the course pages, do so before or after the break (see Moodle Teacher’s Guide).

During the break, Moodle areas can be ordered using the form on the Moodle home page (see Moodle Teacher’s Guide).

Grades from Moodle to Sisu

From 31st May, 2021 you can export the final grades from Moodle directly to Sisu. This requires that the Moodle area has been created on the course pages and that Moodle Gradebook is in use. Instructions are coming in English to page Instructions for teaching.

Support

If you have any questions about Moodle, please contact moodle (ät) helsinki.fi.

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Many usability improvements in the new Moodle version

Moodle will be upgraded to version 3.9 on January 5th, 2021, from 8 AM to 5 PM. During this time, Moodle is closed and cannot be logged into. The update may not take the whole day, but the time is reserved as a precaution to prepare for potential update issues and fixes.

“Turn editing on”/”Turn editing off” on the Moodle home course page

The long-awaited update is now available: the edit mode can now be switched on directly from the Moodle course home page with the button “Turn editing on”.

TurnEditingOn

The new appearance of the “Activity chooser”

Although the look of the activity selection tool is different, you can still find all the familiar activities and resources there. Now, you can also select only resources or activities or the tools that you have marked as your favorites.
See more: Activity chooser.

ActivityChooser

Attendance Plug in

The Attendance activity allows teachers to maintain a record of attendance, replacing or supplementing a paper-based attendance register.
See more: Attendance activity

Help with navigation

If the Moodle page is lengthy, the “Go to top” button will appear on the Moodle page, which you can click to jump to the top of the Moodle area.

Atto editor

The Atto editor has useful new features. Images can be added directly to the editor from the clipboard or by dragging from files. The text field for image description is now larger and includes a character length counter. The editor also now has an option to mark individual paragraphs to be read from right to left.

Forum

  • Teachers will now be able to view the summary report for just one forum or all forums in a course.
  • The name of the grader is visible to the student in the whole forum grading.

Safe Exam Browser (SEB)

The quiz activity can now easily be configured to use SEB, which is a special browser application that the student has to download and install first (Windows, Mac OS X or iOS is supported). The SEB-application restricts the use of other software and prevents navigating outside the Moodle quiz. The required SEB-configuration file for safe exams can now be configured and distributed from the quiz settings inside Moodle without having to use the SEB-configuration utility.

NB. It is recommended to consult the Exam services before using the SEB feature – SEB has so far been used in a few faculties with supervised BYOD-exams. SEB is not a tool for remote monitoring of exams.

Contact us

  • You can ask questions and give feedback about the update at moodle@helsinki.fi
  • More Moodle guides: MoodleDocs
  • Book Moodle trainings through SAP Suffeli.