In the summer of 2018 we will be upgrading QMplus. Since QMplus runs on Moodle, this means we are moving from Moodle 3.2 to Moodle 3.4. In this post we outline just a few of the new features that will come as part of the upgrade.

To keep up to date with all the latest news about the summer upgrade, please visit our QMplus summer 2018 upagrade page.

New Features of Note

Changes to Assignment settings

• Can specify the types of file the students can upload to the assignment. The file types may be added with their file extension, such as .png and mp3, or else as image/png and audio/mp3. Leaving the field blank will allow all file types. See Restrict file types students can submit for more details.
• Annotated PDF comments are collapsible.

Stealth mode

Resources/activities in stealth mode are not displayed on the course page but are still available for students. (Avoids the need for orphan topics as used in earlier versions of QMplus.) Read more

Drag and Drop

File(s), images, media zips and SCORM can be dragged and dropped directly onto a course or within Atto Editor. Read more

Merging Participants and Enrolments page

Currently Moodle has two different pages with almost identical list of users and without any significant advantage. The new merged page will seamlessly give all the details on a single page so that they are easy to find, filter etc. Read more

Calendar

The new improved calendar interface will give user-friendly and modern features like drag and drop events. Read more

Moodle Mobile App

Support for all Moodle core activities and resources

Sharing Cart

Now featuring whole Section Copy feature.

Easier activity navigation

‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ links, along with a jump-to menu make navigating around courses easier and more intuitive. Read more

Completion Progress Block

This time management tool for students replaces the “Progress Bar Block”. Read more

New user Accessibility Tools in Text editor

Accessibility Block: The block allows users to customise Moodle to their visual needs. Read more

Accessibility Checker: One of the new tools available in the text editor is an automated accessibility checker which checks for some common errors in the text e.g. images with missing or empty alt text; missing captions on tables; lack of headings on long blocks of text. Read more

Screen Reader Helper: The new screen reader helper provides information about the currently selected text (e.g. is it bold), as well as a listing of any images or links in the text. Read more

Image Optimiser

The image optimiser automatically resizes large images to maximum allowed at server level, which is 800 pixels (aspect ratios are preserved). Now course designers and students don’t have to resize images prior to upload. This tool also helps to optimise the page load time. Read more