On August 12, Education Technology will be upgrading Moodle from version 3.9 to version 4.1. Unlike several of our past Moodle upgrades, this update will bring major changes to the appearance, workflow, and overall feel of Moodle. You can get a sense of the scale of these changes by watching our short “Welcome to Moodle Boost 4.1” video below:

While maintaining consistency with our learning platform is always a priority for NMC’s Ed Tech team, the security and accessibility changes in August’s Moodle upgrade also necessitate a change in Moodle theme. Although our new theme will look different, it will retain Moodle’s core features, as well as offer the following improvements:

1. A Course Index: This feature enables users to navigate smoothly between course resources, track activity completion, and allow instructors to quickly rearrange course sections and activities. It is collapsible and will appear on the left side of each course.
2. Improved Accessibility: Our new theme is the most accessible Moodle release to date. Users who rely on accessibility tools to engage with digital content will notice these improvements immediately.
3. Streamlined Navigation: The previous theme’s “Course Dashboard” pop-up will be replaced by an edit toggle switch and contextual navigation links at the top of course pages. These changes will make it easier to find, access, build, and edit Moodle resources.
4. A Cleaner Dashboard: Moodle’s new homepage will have a different appearance, with courses more prominently displayed and a new “recently accessed” block that allows users to return to recently-viewed activities with one click.
5. Moodle Activities Improvements: Instructors will now have the ability to auto-notify students of changes made to assignments and quizzes. Question banks will have streamlined settings and new features. The database activity will come with presets. Assignments will have the ability to be time-sensitive and the gradebook will include new features and functionality (expect more details on these improvements later in the summer).

Unfortunately, starting in the fall, two popular Moodle features will no longer be available:

1. Quickmail: Quickmail is currently not supported in newer versions of Moodle. While we are working on alternative solutions, including a possible updated version of Quickmail itself, instructors should prepare for the possibility of using “My Success” and/or the Moodle announcements forum to communicate via email with students. If you use Quickmail to present course materials, it is advisable to preserve those messages before the service (likely) disappears.
2. MB2 Shortcodes: These shortcodes, created for our current theme by the theme developer, are not compatible with other themes. MB2 shortcodes allowed instructors to add button links, tabs, accordions, and other unique graphic features directly into their course shells. If you use these features (added via the gear icon in the Moodle text editor), they will break when we switch themes. While we are working on alternatives, any solution will require the rebuilding of all instances of the MB2 shortcodes. If you use these features in your Moodle courses, now is the time to start making alternative plans for displaying that content to your students. Similar resources already available in Moodle are the H5P and Poodll widgets (please watch our “Considering Shortcode Options in Moodle 4.1” if you think you may have used MB2 shortcodes).

Education technology will be working throughout the summer to prepare for the upcoming upgrade on August 12 by making adjustments to our tutorial pages, OLO, teachingSOLUTIONS, and Moodle Basics for Instructors. We are also ready to assist instructors who used MB2 shortcodes and may need to rebuild sections of their courses to accommodate the new theme. While we understand that change can be difficult, we are confident this update will ultimately benefit the entire NMC learning community.

If you have any questions about how your course might appear and function in Moodle Boost version 4.1, please schedule a meeting with a member of the Ed Tech team