Moodle 2.5 is coming this summer and after seeing some of the features demoed during the General Developer’s Meeting yesterday I can say that I am very excited. Here are my top five improvements to Moodle 2.5:
1. WordPress like install and update for plugins: Administrating your Moodle and managing plugins and addons just became wayyyy easier. This is perhaps my favorite advancement to Moodle since I’ve started using it. No longer will users be required to have FTP or write access to their servers just to install a new theme or try out a plugin, by connecting sites to Moodle.org everyone now has just a few clicks to install a new addon and get it up and running. Even better: when there is and update you’ll be prompted to update as well! So awesome.
Below is a demonstration of how this works as recorded during the General Developer’s Meeting on 4/23:
2. Boot Strap: this is a new base theme for Moodle (which I believe will be called “Shoelace” or “Simple – Base”) which has responsive design and a few other features. It’s a slick looking theme, check out our earlier coverage here.
3. Shorter Forms: collapsed forms give Moodle a much less daunting and clean look when working with the long forms of Quizzes, Administration and Course settings. A good admin can set the defaults and save teachers a lot of guessing at what settings do what and which are necessary to configure their next course or activity. Try it out today at QA.Moodle.net.
4. Badges: fully integrated with http://openbadges.org/ this is going to be a super way to highlight certifications, mastery and other milestones that your students have achieved. Certificates on steroids. Read more about the integration here: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/openbadges
5. Assignment Improvements: Assignment history and more settings for mastery http://docs.moodle.org/25/en/New_features#Assignment_enhancements
