Text: Marianne Fuglsang Welling Farsinsen, ITS Photo and video: Brian Møller, ITS

 

The upgrade is based on ongoing feedback, a baseline survey on digital support of teaching among students and lecturers, as well as ITS' user satisfaction surveys. Brian Møller, who works with maintenance and development of Moodle at ITS, explains:

- We're excited to introduce a new, more contemporary visual identity. Another goal of the upgrade has been to reduce complexity, improve navigation and increase recognizability within and across courses. These measures aim to create a better experience for users, whether they are students, lecturers or study secretaries using the system.

The upgrade of moodle.aau.dk will take place on Monday, July 3rd starting at 10:00 am. Moodle will be unavailable during the upgrade process on that day, but will be available again from July 4th. At the same time as the upgrade, new instructions that are consistent with the new features and the new design in Moodle will be added to the instructions pages on www.en.its.aau.dk/instructions/moodle. ITS' Tina Funck, who also works with maintenance and development of Moodle, explains:

- It is very difficult to find an ideal time to upgrade Moodle, which is one of the most used systems at AAU. But precisely because there are so many users and it is a vital system, it is also important that we give users the best conditions to get a good experience of what Moodle can help them with, Tina explains and continues:

- The upgrade will take place in July, when no student teaching is taking place, but on the other side of the upgrade, lecturers and study secretaries will have the best possible chance to get to know the new design and new functionalities in Moodle before the start of the new semester in September. The aim is to create a user-friendly and intuitive design, so we hope that, in combination with new instructions, users will feel well supported, Tina explains.

Moodle in a new look

Students and staff will see Moodle "in a new look", but the new design will not mean any particular changes to the usual workflows that, for example, student secretaries have in Moodle. For all users, the courses, materials, etc. that you currently have in Moodle will also be there on the other side of the upgrade. This means that if you as a teacher are currently preparing courses for the next semester and uploading materials for them, everything will also be available in Moodle after the upgrade.

- The biggest change we expect users to notice is the new design. Hopefully, many will experience it as a much welcome upgrade. In addition, we're also introducing the use of templates. These can make it easier for lecturers to get started creating courses and can help provide a more consistent view for the student across courses. A newly developed course setup block can also support lecturers in easily getting started setting up their course via three small, initial steps, says Brian Møller about some of the new things you will encounter in Moodle after the upgrade.

Watch a short video presentation of the "new" Moodle at the bottom of the article here or follow this link

You can also stay up to date with news about Moodle in connection to the upgrade and see the new instructions from July 3rd at www.en.its.aau.dk/instructions/moodle

Questions and assistance with Moodle can, as always, be submitted to ITS Support on tel. +45 9940 2020, support@its.aau.dk or by visiting ITS’ service desks.