Overview

Background

Moodle VLE was delivered in April 2012 in order to support an identified set of online distance based

programmes. Releases from Moodle are time-based, with releases twice a year in June and December. The project team believes it makes sense to take the last release available of Moodle.

We currently operate Moodle version 2.8 (see project TEL022), this new project will ensure that our instance is kept up to date with community supported software releases from Moodle in 2015.

Current status for Moodle 2.8:

Bug fixes for general core bugs in 2.8.x ended 09November 2015 (12 months). Bug fixes for security issues in 2.8.x will end 09 May 2016 (36 months).

Future Moodle release dates are:

Moodle 3.0.1 was released on the 21st December 2015 Moodle 3.0.2 was released on the 11th January 2016

Support dates for Moodle 2.9:

Bug fixes for general core bugs in 2.9.x will end 9 May 2016 (12 months). Bug fixes for security issues in 2.9.x will end 14 November 2016 (18 months).

Support dates for Moodle 3.0

Bug fixes for general core bugs in 3.0.x will end 14 November 2016 (12 months). Bug fixes for security issues in 3.0.x will end 08 May 2017 (18 months).

 

2. Scope

  • The scope of the project is to ensure that the current Moodle instance is kept up to date with software releases from Moodle.
  • That the enhancements contained within versions 3 are fully explored for and if applicable tested with the Moodle User Group.
  • All non-standard modules/extensions are checked for compatibility
  • That our hosting environment is fit for purpose. This will include an enhancement to the capacity of the service to provide for expansion.
  • To plan for any potential impact on support teams once LIVE.
  • To explore the capacity of the infrastructure through load testing and increase the capacity of the infrastructure as appropriate.

Links to Upgrade Notes (https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Releases): 

 

3. Objectives

  • Deliver improved user experience to teachers/learners through improved functionality.
  • Increase the ability to widen user base to new DEI programmes (and current ODL programmes) through improved functionality.
  • Maintain user community support by staying on ‘main stream’ release.
  • We will investigate the previously untested o365 module.

 

4. Deliverables

  • An upgrade of Moodle to the latest version of the 3.0 build.
  • An updated TAD.
  • An Updated BRD.
  • A Theme and Template compatibility check to ensure all new features deployed are supported and tested.
  • Updated plugins.
  • Evaluate the Office 365 plugin in the TEST environment (Mandatory).  Should the evaluation be successful deploy the plugin to production along with the upgrade. (Desirable)
  • Updated user help and guidance materials.
  • A communication plan for all Moodle users to educate them on the upgraded features.
  • Updated and tested Disaster Recovery plan.
  • Load testing for an enhanced capacity of 2k concurrent users.

 

Benefits

  • Excellence in Teaching and Learning: this upgrade will enable Moodle users to benefit from enhancements in version 3.0. It will include enhancements to Moodle that have been required for teaching. This will lead to a quality service for the students using it.
  • Quality services/infrastructure: by delivering a central upgrade service we will be able to reduce costs and improve reliability.
  • Enhancing our student experience: this project aims to deliver innovative use of technology in pursuit of quality teaching and learning. Being able to present this via a single VLE where the student can navigate around and digest what could be a disparate set of tools is critical to making this feel like a quality and coherent experience.
  • Advancing Internationalisation: online distance based courses are largely targeting students overseas, for whom physical attendance at the University is difficult. Supporting innovative use of technology will enhance the attraction of our programmes to overseas students, enriching our offerings.

 

Success Criteria

  • Current functionality (including plugins) work.
  • Themes and templates are fully compatible with the new functionality.
  • New enhancements resulting from the new version are made available to users.
  • There are no issues with maintaining current data quality.
  • There are no negative changes to the current data quality.
  • User help and guidance documents are updated.
  • Project documents can be added to the knowledge base to assist future upgrades.

 

Project Info

Not available.

Documentation

Not available.