Do you want grade statistics reports to be made available in the next Moodle release?
Or what about a read-only state option for courses or specific activities in a course?
How do improvements to the calendar, combining enrolled users and participants list in Moodle sound to you?
These exciting features are just some of many from a list that might get chosen to be part of Moodle, driven by voter participation from Moodle Users Association (MUA) members.
Late last year, we featured an article on the MUA by interviewing the Chair, Steve Powell.
Since then, the MUA members have undergone a voting process to decide which MUA member submitted projects, some of them mentioned above, should be included in Moodle.
Whilst voting for this cycle has now closed, you can still get involved, by firstly becoming a member. From there, you can get involved in the MUA’s project cycle and never miss an opportunity to cast your Moodle vote!
With the help of MUA committee member, Joe Thibault, we look through the project development cycle calendar to explain how the MUA’s voting and project cycle process works.
There are two project cycles for the MUA each year- both lasting 6 months and 2 weeks – running from January – June/July (1st cycle) and then July – December/January (2nd cycle).
As you can see, the two weeks of each cycle overlaps to allow for the MUA Committee to finalise votes and do all the necessary follow up work.
In phase 1 (which has just started), the project development phase, members (no matter the membership level), can propose projects to improve Moodle.
This part of the cycle lasts 4 months and is collaborative with other members as we work collectively to create refined, well defined, and clear project proposals.
During the review, project proposers can edit their submissions, discuss using Moodle forums, and collaborate on documentation using a Wiki. This process is essential as we prepare proposals to be reviewed by Moodle HQ whose developers/staff provide a cost estimate for each project. This is phase 2 – the project consolidation stage.
In phase 3, it’s all about voting, voting and voting!
Each member casts a number of votes according to their membership level for the project they want to be implemented in Moodle. You have one month to submit your vote through the MUA membership portal.
Then it’s up to the Committee to tally and rank the votes, from most to least. Successful projects are those ranked highest and projects are selected in order until an appropriate amount of funding is allocated and handed across to Moodle HQ for implementation.
Now, if your project is unsuccessful this time around, don’t worry! Your project can be rolled over into the new cycle if you want to. There’s always more than one chance to make your dream Moodle feature in the core development come alive.
You can find a more detailed explanation on the MUA’s project development cycle on their website.
Hopefully, this sheds some light on how the MUA’s project development cycle works.
If you follow the timeline above, you can also see that voting has ended but, if you are a member, you now have the chance to propose and influence the projects which will be voted on in June this year.
So, what are you waiting for?
If you are passionate about a particular project or feature for Moodle that you think would enhance and innovate the platform, get involved, become a member and have your say with the Moodle Users Association today!
