With just under a month to go until the QMplus upgrade, here is a summary of activities for you to refer to.
Apologies for the length, but there is quite a bit going on.

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Upgrade information:
Firstly, information about the upgrade can be found on our website at: http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/about-us/projects/qmplus-upgrade/
You can also follow us on #iloveqmplus

Code freeze:
We are still testing, but have a code freeze scheduled for Friday, 27th June. By this time any modification to QMplus will need to cease – if you have been able to do your own testing, please submit bugs or errors found via our online bug form, before 27th June, so that it can be investigated and fixed in time. Our testers are testing away, however you know your course areas best and have a better understanding of what you should be able to do.

Dry run:
Final configurations will be sent to our host providers, ULCC, between Monday, 30th June and Tuesday, 1st July and a dry run of the upgrade has been arranged to take place on their servers.

ULCC test site:
ULCC have provided an upgraded version of QMplus on their servers and this is being configured and will be available via http://test.qmplus.qmul.ac.uk – this will be set up to replicate the upgraded server which will be provided by ULCC and released on 17th July. Until we have finished setting up shibboleth on this server, you may not be able to access it. Please continue to use the in-house test site located at: http://qmplus-dev-web2.ad1.qmul.ac.uk/

Administrators:
We have identified ‘e-learning champions’ within various schools, who we will be approaching soon to offer the new administrator access to their school’s area within QMplus. Administrator access will grant privileges to be able to conduct many activities which would normally require raising an ITS helpdesk ticket. We can also consider administrator access requests, and have received some already. Administrator training is being organised to start at the beginning of August.

AFTER THE UPGRADE…

Archive site:
Around the same time that the upgraded version of QMplus is released to the public, the current version of QMplus will become the 2013/14 QMplus archive and will be accessible via http://2013.qmplus.qmul.ac.uk – alternatively, you will be able to navigate to this archive via the main http://archive.qmplus.qmul.ac.uk website, where it will join the previous 2012/13 archive.

Future releases:
Should there be any further tweaks to be made to the upgraded QMplus environment, these will be done via planned releases, requiring a short outage to the system – these will be scheduled to take place during the normal at risk period of Tuesday mornings between 7-9am where possible. Currently we are planning a release for mid-end of August, before the official 2014/15 term starts. We will display these planned releases on the ITS Status page (there is a feed to this on QMplus homepage).

Rollover or duplicate:
Before the next intake of students can get access to their 2014/15 QMplus course areas, the course area must be rolled over or a duplicate copy of the course area must be created for these students. Staff who have administrator access will be able to do this via a Course Rollover Block which will become available in course areas during the week beginning 21st July. Alternatively a request can be raised via the ITS helpdesk. Further information about this will be added to our website soon.

Assignments:
After the upgrade, the number of assignment types will be reduced from six to two. Staff may need to re-create assignments using one of these. Please see this webpage for this information: http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/about-us/projects/qmplus-upgrade/moodle-vs-turnitin-assignment/

User guides/videos:
We are currently putting together user guides and videos on the new features of QMplus. These will be available on our new website which is due to be released around the same time as the upgrade. Details to follow. In the meantime you can see a list of new features on this webpage: http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/blogposts/whats-coming-in-qmplus-2-6/

Drop in sessions:
Staff drop-in sessions are being planned for week beginning Monday, 21st July and we will endeavor to schedule these at various campuses and times of the week. Staff will be able to drop by during these scheduled times, to meet with a member of the E-Learning team to discuss any E-Learning related queries. Times/dates/locations to be announced soon.

Scheduled and bespoke workshops:
Our scheduled staff development programme will begin in time for the 2014/15 academic year, and staff will be able to attend a hands-on workshop about various E-Learning tools. Details coming soon. We can deliver bespoke workshops for staff in groups of 5 or more. We can also present at student inductions. Please get in touch at elearning@qmul.ac.uk to make a request.

Your questions answered:
There were questions raised on our poll everywhere from the event on 11th June. We are compiling the answers and investigating others and will circulate these questions and answers soon. These will be sent via the E-Learning Practitioners Group in QMplus (Mahara).