Faculty: What's New in 3.11!

Introducing Moodle 3.11!

Up, Up and Away!

Moodle 3.11 features just a few changes to how Moodle looks, but doesn't represent a major change in how we do our work online.

Read on to learn more!

Due Dates & Completion Tracking

In version 3.11, any due date set for an item can be displayed on the course page under the activity title. This setting is not currently activated by default. See Display Options: Due Dates for how to show due dates on your course page.

The checkboxes used to track completion of course activities have been moved to the left side of the page. By hovering over a checkbox, you can see what the requirement is to have the box checked off. In the student view, items that can be manually checked off by students ("Mark as done") are represented by a solid gray checkbox.

As shown in this image, some items may show multiple conditions that must be met in order to be shown as completed. If you want to simplify the display, turn off the "View" condition when you create an item. (See the guide to completion tracking linked above for more information.)

TIP: Update completion settings for multiple items at once or set default conditions for new activities in your course by following this guide for creating bulk completion settings.

NOTE: The campus course template has been updated to include common settings for completion tracking. In future terms, any new items you add will include those default settings when you create them.

Student Views

Here's how completion tracking and due dates look to students:

Due dates and completion settings are also displayed within the activity when it is opened; if an item is set for manual completion, learners can check the box from within the activity.

Here's what a forum with a due date looks like when you open it and hover over the completion checkbox:

Display Options: Completion

Having completion settings shown on the main course page is the default preference, but you can turn them off there if you wish. Note that if this option is turned off on the main course page, completion tracking icons will still be shown when learners open an activity.

To turn off the display, click on the course admin gear in the upper right corner and select Edit settings. Scroll down to change the Show activity completion conditions to No in the Completion tracking section. (Note: Please do not disable completion tracking completely from your course as many students rely on it to help them keep track of what they have done and still need to do.) NOTE: The "Mark as done" boxes will continue to be displayed even if you change this setting to No—because there aren't any conditions attached to them. (Remember, this is all Moodle's idea, not ours!)

Display Options: Due Dates

To display due dates on your course page, open the course admin gear and select Edit settings. Open the Appearance options area and select Yes in the Show activity dates field. (This will be activated for future terms within the course template.)

Activity Completion Report Refinements

One of the most helpful aspects of specifying student actions to indicate completion — requiring them to submit an assignment or make a forum post, for instance — is the ability to see reports that show the extent to which your learners are engaging with course activities and resources. In 3.11, these reports have been enhanced by the ability to filter the data by type of activity and to change the order that items are shown.

Quiz Enhancements

One of the Grade options for quizzes is setting a minimum grade to pass. In 3.11, a passing score is displayed in the quiz description area when you open the activity. If you have set an override for a student or group of students to allow them more time on the quiz, that information will also be shown (and linked) on the quiz page.

Essay Question Limits

In 3.11, you can set minimum and/or maximum word counts for essay questions in quizzes. Quiz takers are warned if their responses are too brief or too long, based on the word counts you specify. If you enable a word count requirement, be sure to inform students clearly in the question text so they will know that they need to check the length of their response.

We're going to get technical here... read on if this interests you—skip to the next page if it doesn't. 😉

Rather than displaying a word count or immediately warning students that they are over or under the required word count, Moodle posts an alert only after a student leaves the page with the essay question and goes on to another page. As a result, if the last page of questions has one or more essay questions on it and students submit after responding to the last question—without going to another page—they won't be alerted if they haven't met the word count requirement.

Here's a way to help your students be aware of and look for alerts. Import this question into your course and add it on a separate page at the end of your quiz:

To import this question:

1. Save this file to your computer.
2. In your course, click on the admin gear in the upper right corner and select More... from the bottom of the menu.
3. In the Question bank section, click on Import.
4. Select Moodle xml format for the file type.
5. Open the Category options and select the category where you want to store the question.
6. Drag and drop the file you just saved into the file picker and click on Import.
7. Add the question at the end of your quiz and insert a page break before it.
   

Audio/Video Playback

Audio and video clips recorded in Moodle textboxes can now be adjusted for playback speed to meet user preferences.