Upgraded MoodleCloud sites enjoy all of the benefits of new features and improvements from 3.3 release!

June 1, 2017

Two weeks after Moodle 3.3 was released (on Monday 15 May), we are very pleased to announce that all MoodleCloud sites have now been upgraded to this latest version!

Chris Reid, MoodleCloud Product Manager, commented that the key major new features and improvements are all aimed at further improving accessibility and user experience.
“There are a number of exciting new features and improvements that have landed in all MoodleCloud sites, which are all available right now,” said Chris.
“The new features have been designed to give teachers better control over their learning environments while improving communications between educators and students.”
“The upgrade to the 3.3 version also means that MoodleCloud users are amongst the very first to experience the benefits this release brings.”

Here are the new features that all MoodleCloud users will enjoy through their upgraded sites:

Improved dashboard for faster and easier access to required activities

  • When a student logs into their MoodleCloud site, their dashboard will show a timeline of activities due and links to activities that can be sorted by date or courses. The courses tab also features an overview of current courses, those in progress and a list of past and future courses.
  • Teachers have a similar overview with reminders on relevant activities such as assignments that need to be graded being clearly visible.

Faster access to all your learning tools through Moodle’s integration with Google G-Suite and Microsoft Office

  • Moodle’s integration with Google G-Suite and Microsoft Office means one log in to access all other tools that may already be used and the ability to open documents from other systems while on your MoodleCloud site.
  • As a MoodleCloud site administrator, you can easily set up the integration through a one-time setup from the OAuth2 services link in Site Administration. Once setup, your users can connect to their account making access to their documents easy.

More control and faster updating option for your activities

  • Activity completion enhancements in the upgraded MoodleCloud site allow teachers to manually change the default settings for activity completions for all activities. They can also make changes to completion settings to multiple course activities at once through the bulk update option.
  • Doing this will also make courses clearer for students’ viewing!

Improved assignments setting that makes grading and management easier!

  • Teachers now have more control over the types of files that students submit in assignments – either in any readable types or specified according to your assignment submission requirements.This can help make grading and assignment management much easier.
  • If a student attempts to upload an assignment in a format not specified, a warning note will appear to say their file type is not accepted and to try again with the acceptable format.

Better online communications through more support for emoji characters

  • Better emoji support in MoodleCloud sites means it will work more naturally for a wider variety of languages, such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
  • MoodleCloud sites will also have much better support for emoji characters everywhere that text can be entered, such as forum posts and of course messaging both on the web and in our Moodle Mobile App!

Have the option of putting activities into “stealth mode”

  • In your upgraded MoodleCloud sites, you can now put any activity into “stealth mode.” This means activities can be hidden inside “extra” weeks or topics, but still be accessible to students.
  • By putting activities into stealth mode you can achieve particular designs for your courses.

Improved assignment annotating and feedback that makes it easier to read and access

  • Annotating assignments is now enhanced in your upgraded MoodleCloud sites with the possibility of collapsing and expanding comments.
  • This feature gives teachers the option of writing comprehensive feedback on assignments that can be collapsed so it won’t block over the original text. This makes it easier for students to read their feedback!

Faster and easier uploading of media files by dragging and dropping directly onto course page

  • In the upgraded MoodleCloud site you can now add sound and video files directly to your course page by dragging and dropping in the same way you can already add images.

Ability to tag more of what you want to save and see in Moodle

  • It is now possible to tag forum posts and glossary entries and teachers are now also able to tag book chapters

To check the full list of new and improved features now available in your MoodleCloud site, please view the Moodle 3.3 release highlights or infographic.

All of these new features and improvements have been made possible through the hard work and support of the global Moodle community, Moodle HQ developers, and the Moodle Users Association!
MoodleCloud users – we hope you enjoy your upgraded sites!

Find out more about MoodleCloud.