Martin Dougiamas from Moodle.org announced today the release of Moodle 2.1. Moodle is a learning management system which in simple terms can be described as a niche CMS geared toward the education field.

Major new features in Moodle 2.1 include the following:

• A new question engine (used by quizzes, for example), which makes questions more robust and will enable developers to create all kinds of interesting question types in the future.
• Restoring of Moodle 1.9 backups is now possible.
• Moodle 2.1 now directly supports mobile apps for some functions. In addition, there is direct support for mobile-specific Moodle Themes and automatic detection of mobile browsers.

Digging into the release notes, you'll also find additional changes in this version of Moodle include:

• Ability to copy (or clone) an activity
• Ability to navigate navigation/settings menu and dock with keyboard
• Improved plugins check/overview page
• Upgraded TinyMCE (a rich text editor) to the latest version 3.4.2
• New performance setting for calculating an appropriate timeout during large cURL requests
• Daylight saving should be calculated for users having string timezone
• Messaging Improvements: Site administrators can now control which message delivery methods can be used for each message type

Moodle 2.1 is available from a number of sources including packaged form from the Moodle download page, direct access via a git repository or one of Moodle's CVS mirrors.

The folks over at Moodle have released versions 2.0.3 and 1.9.12 of their open source learning management system (LMS). Helen Foster writes in the Moodle announcement:

In addition to a number of bug fixes and small improvements, five security vulnerabilities (4 major, 1 minor) in 2.0.2 and two security vulnerabilities (both major) in 1.9.11 have been discovered and fixed. Thanks to the reporters and to all the team responsible for fixing these security issues.

Some of the new features and improvements in Moodle 2.0.3 include:

• Q and A  forum posts only visible after editing time has expired
• Description field in user profile is no longer a required field
• Multiple multimedia plugin filter fixes and improvements
• There is now a link to send messages on basic profile pages
• Duplicate files uploaded through the file picker are now handled
• New capability mod/workshop:viewauthorpublished for controlling visibility of workshop published submission authors
• Fixes to themes for IE

The latst versions of Moodle can be found at Moodle.org's download page.

Selecting and organizing the material

If you're like most instructors, you love your subject and the idea of sharing information gives you great satisfaction. However, you have probably noticed that it's easy to overload your students, or to give them materials in a way that tends to confuse them. How can you avoid overloading and confusing your students?

One of the most effective ways to do so is to make sure that you base your selections of instructional materials on course outcomes and on the learning objectives for each unit. Keep in mind what you'd like your students to be able to do after they complete the course. What is the basic, enduring knowledge they will take with them after the course is over? What kind of fundamental change do you want to occur in terms of the student's abilities? What kind of new skills will they be able to perform?

Once you answer these questions, you will have a list of learning outcomes. Keep them in mind as you select the instructional material you wish to use in your course.

It is often convenient to develop a map or a diagram that connects your learning outcomes with the course materials and the assessments you will use. Consider what you want your students to learn, and how you'd like them to perform. Also, you shape the sequence you will build and how you'll present the materials.

It is often convenient to develop a map or a diagram that connects your learning outcomes with the course materials and the assessments you will use. Consider what you want your students to learn, and how you'd like them to perform. Also, you shape the sequence you will build and how you'll present the materials.

Using forums to present your material

We'll start with an approach that is very easy to implement, which is ideal if you're just getting started and need a solution that would be good for all kinds of e-learning, including mobile learning and guided independent study.

Wilmington NC.  Tynken Interactive announces the successful development of a content management system that takes communication at educational institutions to a new level.  Named  Frequency , the new platform has been years in development , and comes out of the gate looking vastly different from other CMS.  “The last revolutionary development in user interface was 5 or more years ago with tabbed navigation.  We knew there was a better way for users to get things done.  Our interface is so intuitive, you won’t believe how easy it is to put information on the web” says Roger Wyatt, President and CEO of Tynken Interactive.  “Tabs are now very old-school, and it is about time”.

Incorporated into Frequency is Wavelength, a platform for teachers, parents and students to share information and gauge learning progress.  The tools available include class notes, homework assignments, class library, digital lockers, electronic homework submission, personal student calendars, sticky-note messaging, discussion boards and chat sessions.  “Knowledge is power, for sure, and communication is the key to obtaining and retaining that knowledge” says Wyatt. “We wanted to develop a web platform that is so easy to use that the focus is on what is being communicated, not how”.

The UNGweb project, described previously on ez.no, has financially benefited a Norwegian county enormously. Based on open standards and eZ Publish, UNGweb changed more & Romsdal's IT-based student service offerings to a purely web-based model.

Two years ago, the challenge was to achieve an IT infrastructure that could handle the large volume of laptops used in More & Romsdal's schools. Given the existing structure, it would have required several millions of dollars in added resources. Instead, the county decided to aim for a simpler structure, by moving all of the IT-based student service offerings to a clean Web platform, providing as many tools as possible over the Internet. The result is a structure providing a portal that each student can customize for their specific needs. This saves schools from having to maintain and invest in on-site servers, file and printer solutions, and distributed login and user management.

UNGweb also includes social tools, such as discussion forums, comments, surveys and user-generated content, which engage youth in discussing subjects that are often related to history, social studies, and ethics. Additionally, UNGweb offers video streaming and podcasts, all from the same portal.

The county's IT department is pleased that there are few local servers remaining in schools. The new structure has no major licensing costs, only consultant costs.

More & Romsdal county has used eZ Publish for several years for many of its schools' websites, so it was only natural to use eZ Publish as part of the UNGweb platform. eZ Publish has built-in Web 2.0 support and good stability.

Source: www.ez.no & Digi.no