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 2.4 (see project TEL004), this new project will ensure that our instance is kept up to date with community supported software releases from Moodle in 2014.

The previous project (TEL004) key 'Lessons Learned' were that time should be allocated within the project for teams to review the release documents (in this case for 2.5 and 2.6) and that for projects where the DEV environment has not been used for some time clarification on who has responsibility for preparing the DEV environment along with its preparation must be built into the project.

Current status for Moodle 2.4:

Bug fixes for general core bugs in 2.4.x ended December 2013 (12 months). Bug fixes for serious security issues in 2.4.x will end June 2014 (18 months).

Future Moodle release dates are: Moodle 2.6 Released 18^th of November 2013 Moodle 2.6.1 will be released 13^th January 2014 Moodle 2.7 will be released 12^th of May 2014  

Support dates for Moodle 2.6: Bug fixes for general core bugs in 2.6.x will end November 2014 (12 months). Bug fixes for serious security issues in 2.6.x will end May 2015 (18 months).

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 2.5 and 2.6 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
• To plan for any potential impact on support teams once LIVE
• To explore for any infrastructure issues and set additional load tests as appropriate.

Links to Upgrade Notes (External Site): 2.5, 2.6

Objectives

• Deliver improved user experience t 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
• It will be desirable to look at previously untested modules such as Flex Page from Blackboard should time allow.

Deliverables

• An upgrade of Moodle to the latest version of the 2.6 build.  Deployed to the LIVE environment
• An updated TAD
• An Updated BRD
• A Theme and Template compatibility check to ensure all new features deployed are supported and tested.
• Updated plugins
• Updated user help and guidance materials
• A communication plan for all Moodle users to educate them on the upgraded features.

Benefits

• Excellence in Teaching and Learning: this upgrade will enable Moodle users to benefit from enhancements in versions 2.5 and 2.6. 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 knowledgebase to assist future upgrades