Moodle 4.5 update

By Eliot Hoving and Kerry, on 19 December 2024

UCL Moodle will be updated to version 4.5 on the 2nd of January 2025. 

The main change staff will notice is that the Moodle assignment submissions interface has been revamped with a new full width display, fixed headers and footers that allow for better navigation, improved filtering as well as easy access to key actions at the top and bottom of the page.

Staff can learn more by watching Moodle’s Assignment improvements in Moodle 4.5 video.  

Other improvements include: 

• Students will now receive notifications when a Quiz is about to open, when an assignment is due (in 7 days or 48 hours) and also when an assignment is overdue. 

• Staff will be able to set assignment resubmissions to be offered automatically if students are allowed more than one attempt.  

• Staff will now be able to regrade specific questions in a Quiz and question categories can be organised using drag and drop or using the three dots action button (for accessibility requirements).  

• The Tiny MCE Editor will now include the option to record the screen and computer audio as well as record video. 

• There are several administrative enhancements, speed improvements and bug fixes. 

You can read more about the changes on Moodle’s 4.5 new features page.  

Please note that UCL has NOT enabled Moodle’s AI subsystems or subsections at this stage as our current focus is on improving UCL Moodle’s performance and reliability. However, those features may be reviewed in the future if there is sufficient demand 

New Moodle unfreeze course feature

By Wong Wan Ling, on 16 December 2024

We would like to introduce a new feature in Moodle that provides administrator roles (Course Administrators, Tutors, and Category Administrators etc.) greater flexibility in managing their courses. Previously, unlocking a course site set to Read-Only mode required assistance from our support team. With the new unfreeze functionality, this process is now simpler.

How to unfreeze your course

If your Moodle course site has been set to Read-Only mode, you can unfreeze it by clicking the Enable editing button in the Lifecycle block. A confirmation pop-up message will appear for you to proceed.

By default, the course will automatically revert to Read-Only mode the next day. While the new feature allows you to extend or disable this automatic reset, we strongly recommend using the Read-Only mode to avoid potential data loss within the Moodle courses. If you need to keep a course active indefinitely, it should either be placed in a Timeless category, or have no end date set in the course settings.

If you need additional assistance, please contact us via MyServices.

Feedback tracker update

By Eliot Hoving, on 12 December 2024

The Feedback Tracker has been updated today (Thursday 12th December 2024).

The update introduces improvements for staff. The display for students will not change.

The display of the Feedback tracker configuration page has been changed to align it with UCL’s design system and improve accessibility and useability.

The update also introduces two new features to assist staff in marking and returning feedback:

• a progress indicator showing the % of marking completed for each assessment, and
• a count of extensions applied on Moodle assignments and quizzes based on user and group overrides.

Configuration options have been relocated to make the editing of the Feedback tracker more intuitive.

Several bugs have also been resolved, with any outstanding issues listed under Known issues.

To learn more about the Feedback tracker, please see the Feedback tracker documentation.

Assess coding with Moodle’s CodeRunner question type

By Eliot Hoving, on 4 December 2024

UCL Moodle quizzes now support the CodeRunner question type.

CodeRunner questions allow students to submit code and for teachers to run a program in order to grade a student’s answer.

CodeRunner will be of most benefit to programming courses where students are asked to write program code to some specification and that code is then graded by running it in a series of tests. CodeRunner questions are also relevant for areas of computer science and engineering to grade questions in which a program must be used to assess correctness.

UCL Moodle has support for the following common coding languages: Python, Java, C, SQL, PHP.

CodeRunner questions are an advanced question type. You should always run a practice assessment with students prior to any summative assessments to ensure your questions are working properly and that students are familiar with answering CodeRunner questions.

If you wish to run a summative assessment using Moodle Quiz. Please follow UCL guidance and notify Digital Education in advance to ensure any necessary checks can be completed.

To learn more, please see the CodeRunner documentation.

Moodle exam guard, and 23/24 course read only date

By Pauline Harding, on 22 November 2024

Moodle Exam guard

Exam guard will prevent users from editing their course from 10 minutes before the start of a Moodle quiz until 10 minutes after the quiz has finished. Exam guard does this by looking at the “open the quiz”/ “close the quiz”  setting when a Moodle quiz is created. The course editing freeze will only apply where the Moodle quiz is open for less than 5 hours as it is designed to target Moodle quizzes being used for controlled condition exams.  To avoid any disruptions, we recommend setting the “Open the quiz” time to match the exam start time when creating the quiz, as well as leaving the quiz availability setting on “Show on course page” rather than “Hide on course page”. 

A banner will appear at the top of your course when Exam guard is in effect.

For further details, please refer to our wiki guide.

23/24 Moodle course read-only date

The read-only date for many Moodle courses from the 23/24 academic year will be activated on 29th November, 2024.  Once the Read-Only date is reached a course becomes uneditable.  If you will need any 23/24 courses to remain editable after 29th November, please adjust the read only date on the course as needed, and while the course is editable.

For guidance on amending the read-only date before it is globally activated, please refer to our Moodle miniguide.

If you need additional assistance, please contact us via MyServices.

Kind regards

Digital Education team

Develop your digital skills: Term 2 training courses and more

By Katy O Foster, on 13 November 2024

Term 2 workshops and training courses

Develop you digital skills with a training course or workshop from Digital Education.

Our term 2 schedule of courses is now live.

The courses on offer cover a range of topics including:

• Accessibility and assistive technology
• Data analysis and visualisation
• Interaction and collaboration
• Mastering Excel
• Multimedia content: creating and editing
• Programming
• Software for success
• Teaching and assessment
• Written content: creating, presenting and referencing

Discover LinkedIn Learning

This term the team will also run a webinar to take users through the key features of LinkedIn Learning – a learning platform with a vast array of video tutorials which is free for all UCL staff and students to use.

Discover LinkedIn Learning – free online learning for everyone at UCL|Tuesday 21st February|13:00-14:00|Online

Digital skills support: Office hours

Office hours support will continue next term. Meet one to one with a digital skills trainer to discuss a specific issue: Book your appointment here

Join the mailing list

To receive updates on digital skills training, join our mailing list.

Contact us

For any questions on Digital Skills Development at UCL, email isd-digiskills@ucl.ac.uk