Over the 2016 Summer Term, Moodle will be updated by our host provider from Moodlerooms 2.9 to Moodlerooms 3.0. This update is mostly minor changes and a few additions.
When will this update be applied?
The update will occur during Week 3 of 2016 Summer term (Tuesday/Wednesday). Moodle will be down and unavailable from 11PM July 5 – 5AM July 6, so please plan your assignments accordingly. NOTE: The time and date are predetermined by our Host provider (Moodlerooms) and we apologize for the inconvenience.
Brief Overview of Changes
- Lots of improvements to Atto (Moodle’s built-in HTML text editor)
- More font colors, hot-keys, and table colors/borders
- Section Headings now have an Edit menu
- Now headers work like every other part of the Weekly view of a course
- Controls for section headers are now more clearly labeled
- Quick access to Gradebook Setup via Administration Block
- Link added below grades link that takes you directly to Gradebook Setup > Categories and Items
- File Resources can now display:
- File size
- Date updated/added
- File type
- Accessibility Improvements
- Improved screen-reader…
- Navigation (aria tags added to expanding menus)
- Rubrics – no longer tables
- Color-blind unambiguous text colors added to Atto HTML text editor
- Improved screen-reader…
Changes to Editing Content (Atto HTML text editor)
Atto has a range of improvements, e.g. mostly on how to spruce up content and increase efficiency when doing so.
Create Link Keyboard Interaction (Ctrl+k)
If you use hotkeys to quickly edit content creating links now has a hot-key too!
A list of Keyboard Interactions/Hotkeys that work in Atto:
Format text
- Bold text:
Highlight text, hit Ctrl+b on keyboard.
- Italicize text
Highlight text, hit Ctrl+i on keyboard.
- Link text
Highlight text, hit Ctrl+k on keyboard, enter URL you wish text to link to.
- Underline text
Highlight text, hit Ctrl+u on keyboard.
While underline text is supported, we do not recommend you use it as it can be easily confused with a link; we also do not suggest that you make normal text blue in color for this reason.
Move or Duplicate text
- Copy text (to computer memory)
Highlight text, hit Ctrl+c on keyboard.
- Cut text (Remove from document, copy to computer memory)
Highlight text, hit Ctrl+x on keyboard.
- Paste text (already copied to computer memory)
Click location desired, hit Ctrl+v on keyboard.
- Paste text (already copied to computer memory) without formatting
Click location desired, hit Ctrl+Shift+v on keyboard.
Table Customization
Tables can now have colors and borders added to them from Atto.
How do I apply a colored border to a table?
You can apply colors to a new table as you create it or to an existing table by editing the containing resource or activity.
Create or edit the activity/resource you want to have in a colored table.
IF YOU ARE EDITING AN EXISTING TABLE click anywhere inside the table.
OR
IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A NEW TABLE click the location you would like your table.
IF YOU ARE EDITING AN EXISTING TABLE select the Edit Table option from the bottom of the drop-down.
Choose a Borders value to indicate if you want:
- Theme Default: to let your course’s theme decide. (You will NOT get to choose any further options except for background color and a width of the table.)
- Around Table: a single border around your entire table.
- Around Each Cell: a border for each cell of your table.
IF YOU SELECTED Around Table or Around Each Cell you can set the following:
- Style of Borders:
Solid Dashed Dotted
- Size of Borders (You can choose any size, but here are some common examples.)
- 1px solid dashed dotted
- 2px solid dashed dotted
- 3px solid dashed dotted
- 5px solid dashed dotted
- Border Color:
transparent (default)white red yellow green blue dark grey
REGARDLESS OF YOUR CHOICE you can also set the following:
- Background color:
transparent (default) white red yellow green blue dark grey
- Table width (in %): Any value between 0 and 100
- If left blank the table will take up as little horizontal space as possible and will NOT resize depending on screen size.
left blank - 50 (%) will take up exactly half of the screen and will resize if you resize your window (for example).
set to 50% - We generally suggest 90 to 99 % to ensure your table spans close to the entire space and allows the most space possible for your content without going off the sides.
set to 95%
- If left blank the table will take up as little horizontal space as possible and will NOT resize depending on screen size.
Click the Create table or Update table button to preview your changes.
Review your table and edit it as needed.
Save your changes to the activity or resource when done.
More Font Colors
Background colors are still restricted to the classic five colors of the Atto HTML Text Editor.
If you do not like these restrictions, you are still welcome to change your default text editor.
With the update to Moodle 3.0, we are able to replace the font color default with a customizable color pallet (site wide).
Why did we choose these colors?
The first row are our Brand colors.
The second row are colors available in the Atto HMTL Text Editor’s previous version. However, we don’t want you to have to re-do the application of all previous colors you’ve used, so you still have access to them.
The third through fifth rows are all colors that read clearly to colorblind individuals.
Tips on making sure your content is legible to colorblind and low-vision individuals:
- Never rely solely on color to identify something.
- Use high contrast of colors whenever possible.
- Avoid use of thin lines/small text with lighter colors like pale blue, yellow or light green. Use darker colors or make text/lines thicker/bigger.
Good Examples
This has decent contrast, which is key and is used for focus. It also uses bold to draw focus and screen readers will be able to detect the important points too! (Screen readers cannot reliably detect color alone.)
Please pay attention to this! All of this! It has high contrast colors with italics applied to provide emphasis for a screen reader!
This is also not bad!
If you are on the Blue Team look for its background color; the other team is the Orange Team and its colors are bright and without a background color. Each team will have its tasks highlighted accordingly.
Bad Examples (Don’t do this!)
This is hard to read as it has low contrast!
This looks too much like a classic link. Try to avoid this!
This is also hard to read and is even harder for someone with some forms of colorblindness to read.
This on its own is pretty hard to read.
Known Issue – Copy/Pasting Content in Chrome
This is not a new issue, but one that’s come to our attention and is still mostly an issue with Moodle 3.0.
On copying or moving anything in the Atto HTML Text Editor from Chrome, be aware that unwanted formatting/styles will be applied to the text.
- Background colors will no longer be copied over in 3.0 and future versions of Moodle. (This was the most noticeable part of this issue.)
- Other styles/formatting, such as font family, size, indenting, and more will still be copied over to look exactly as the source which can make added content look out of place from that otherwise directly entered into the editor.
This issue is not present in Firefox.
For more information on how to clean up unintentionally formatted text or avoid pasting formating into the Atto HTML Text Editor, see our article on troubleshooting: Using The Text/HTML Editor: Atto: Weird Text Formatting in Chrome
Other Changes
These changes only affect Faculty or those assigned as Teachers in a Moodle course.
OVERVIEW:
- Editing a section has a menu
- New link direct to Gradebook Setup in the Administration Block
Sections Headings Now Have a Menu
Section Headings have caught up with the rest of Moodle’s activities and resources and controls for a section are now contained in a more clearly labeled Edit menu.
New “Select Missing Words” Quiz Question Type
This new question type is an alternative for Cloze style fill-in-the-blank questions without needing an external editor or create questions; setup is easier for single fill-in-the-blank, but can be a little tricky for multiple-part questions and does not require an external editor to create.
Create a Single-Part Select Missing Words Question
Ideal for simple fill-in-the-blank questions.
Enter the quiz where you want the new question to appear.
OR
Enter the category of your Question bank where you wish to add this question and click the Add new Question button.
Select the missing words question type from the left column—it’ll be listed near the bottom, so you MAY have to scroll down to see it.
Click the Add button to proceed.
Expand the General section if it isn’t already open.
Enter a Question name to identify the question (only you as a teacher will see this).
Enter some Question text. Replace the word you want students to pick from with [[1]].
- For example: If you want students to answer “Mostly, leaves tend to be GREEN in color.” the question would read: “Mostly, leaves tend to be [[1]] in color.“
Set a Default mark value. The default value is 1; but if this is a particularly challenging or valuable question, you can increase its value to ensure it has greater weight than other, less important or easier questions.
Provide any General feedback you can to help students understand this question and why the answer is what it is.
Expand the Choices section if it isn’t already open.
Check the Shuffle option.
Ensure that your correct answer is provided for Choice 1 and the group is set to 1 (noted in blue for the example image). This is to match your [[1]] in the question text.
You may only have a SINGLE correct answer.
- For our example Choice 1 and the CORRECT answer would be “green” and the group would be set to 1
Enter any incorrect or distraction responses in Choice 2 and onward (noted in bright orange for the example image). Also ensure the Group is set to 1.
If you need room for more incorrect or distraction responses, you can click the Blanks for 3 more choices button.
- For our example the INCORRECT options/distractions would be set to:
- Choice 2 would be “red” and the group would be set to 1.
- Choice 3 would be “purple” and the group would be set to 1.
- Choice 4 would be “cyan” and the group would be set to 1.
All other sections are optional and you may modify them if you wish.
When done, click the Save Changes button.
When done, preview your question to ensure it works the way you expect it to.
Try both correct and incorrect responses to your question to ensure you get the desired results.
- Select an answer/response from the Choose drop-down menu.
- Click the Submit and Finish button.
- Confirm things work as expected. (Correct answers are marked as correct, incorrect answers are not.)
- Repeat the process for other responses by clicking Start again button
Create a Multiple-Part Select Missing Words Question
Making a multiple-part Select Missing Words question is not ideal or recommended.
Feedback is unclear and setup is more complicated.
If you can, break up a multiple part Select Missing Words question into multiple questions clearly labeled as Part 1: question name, Part 2: Question name or something similar.
However, if your question can only be asked via a multiple-part delivery, here’s what to do:
Enter the quiz where you want the new question to appear.
OR
Enter the category of your Question bank where you wish to add this question and click the Add new Question button.
Select the missing words question type from the left column. It’ll be listed near the bottom, so you MAY have to scroll down to see it.
Click the Add button to proceed.
Expand the General section if it isn’t already open.
Enter a Question name to identify the question (only you as a teacher will see this).
Enter some Question text. Replace the first word you want students to pick with [[1]]. The second replace instance should be [[2]] and so on for as many options as you want.
- For example, if you want students to answer “Mostly, leaves tend to be GREEN in color. The best animals are CATS” the question would read: “Mostly, leaves tend to be [[1]] in color. The best animals are [[2]]“
Set a Default mark value. The default value is 1; but if this is a particularly challenging or valuable question, you can increase its value to ensure it has greater weight than other, less important or easier questions.
Provide any General feedback you can to help students understand this question and why the answer is what it is.
Expand the Choices section if it isn’t already open.
Check the Shuffle option.
Ensure that your correct answers are provided first and that the assigned group matches the value above for the contents of each [[number]] you are replacing (noted in blue for the example image).
- The first replace’s correct answer should be in Choice 1 and the group is set to 1. This group is to match your [[1]] in the question text.
- The second replace’s correct answer should be next in Choice 2 with the group set to 2. This group is to match your [[2]] in the question text.
Each part may only have a SINGLE correct answer and the group should be assigned to match the assigned [[number]] in the question text.
- For our example, CORRECT answers for each part come first:
- Choice 1 option would be “green” (answer to replace [[1]] ) and the group would be set to 1
- Choice 2 option would be “cats” (answer to replace [[2]] ) and the group would be set to 2
Enter any incorrect or distraction responses in the following Choice 2 and onward (noted in bright orange for the example image).
While the order of INCORRECT options is NOT important, the assigned group IS… so make sure the group matches the [[number]] in your question text.
If you need room for more incorrect or distraction responses you can click the Blanks for 3 more choices button.
- For our example the INCORRECT options/distractions would be set to:
- Part 1: [[1]] (highlighted in light orange in the example image)
- Choice 3 would be “red” and the group would be set to 1
- Choice 4 would be “purple” and the group would be set to 1
- Choice 5 would be “cyan” and the group would be set to 1
- Part 2: [[2]] (highlighted in dark orange in the example image)
- Choice 6 would be “dogs” and the group would be set to 2
- Choice 7 would be “finches” and the group would be set to 2
- Choice 8 would be “fish” and the group would be set to 2
- Part 1: [[1]] (highlighted in light orange in the example image)
All other sections are optional and you may modify them if you wish.
When done, click the Save Changes button.
When done, preview your question to ensure it works the way you expect it to.
Try both correct and incorrect responses to your question to ensure you get the desired results. (Again, multiple drop-downs don’t lead to clear feedback, so break up a question with multiple parts into multiple questions if you can!)
- Select an answer/response from the Choose drop-down menu.
ENSURE that the intended options are listed under the intended drop-down (for example, I don’t want colors and animals mixed). If they are mixed, then you didn’t order things correctly under choices. Edit the question to comply with my above notes or contact a Moodle admin for assistant (online@clackamas.edu). - Click the Submit and Finish button.
- Confirm things work as expected. (Correct answers are marked as correct, incorrect answers are not.)
- Repeat the process for other responses by clicking the Start again button.
New File Display Settings
When uploading a file to Moodle (or modifying an existing one), you can set some new things to display on your uploads:
- Upload modified date
- Type of file (PDF, DOC, etc.)
- Size of file
None of these settings are enabled by default. They can be enabled by editing a file:
Turn Editing on.
Locate the file in question.
Click the Edit menu.
Select Edit Settings.
Scroll down to the Appearance Section and expand it.
Check the desired display options you want for this file:
- Show Size
Ideal for- large files so students know they need time and/or a stable internet connection.
- Show type
Ideal for- unusual file types.
- new students unfamiliar with file icons.
- Show upload/modified date
Ideal for- files you have uploaded multiple times/versions.
- new file additions to your course.
Scroll to the bottom of your page and click the Save and Return to Course button.
Confirm your changes and edit the resource again if desired.
Accessibility Improvements
There have been a number of small changes to improve the accessibility of Moodle:
For Those who use Screen Readers
- Atto HTML Text Editor
- Supports keyboard interactions for adding links now, i.e. ctrl + k
- Course Navigation
- Open/close controls (arrows) in Navigation block now have aria tags to make them accessible to a screen reader
- Course Interaction
- Math Equations can now be read by JAWS screen-readers in Internet Explorer and FireFox
- Rubrics no longer utilize tables and should be more accessible to screen-readers
For Those with Color Blindness
Atto HTML Text Editor now has font colors that include an array of non-ambiguous colors to most forms of color-blindness.