Moodle 4.0 Is Here, What’s New?

The first of the Moodle versions scheduled for this year 2022 is here. Starting this Tuesday, Moodle 4.0, the new version of this LMS platform, is available and ready for experimentation by the entire user community. 

As announced at the beginning of the year, an interface much more focused on the user experience has been worked on in this new version. Moodle gives itself a facelift and changes the appearance of its courses, in favor of a more defined and usable block structure with a more integrated and up-to-  date look.

As Moodle Partners, we want to review this new version, although always keeping in mind that it is not yet a version with long-term support. Version 4.1, scheduled for the last quarter of this year, will be LTS (long-term support), so we recommend patience. Versions 3.9 and 3.11 will continue to have security support from Moodle until November 2023, so there is plenty of room to wait for the LTS version at the end of the year. 

Having said this, we proceed, without further delay, to present you Moodle 4.0.

Boost Theme In Moodle 4.0

Through multiple community surveys and based on the information collected, the Moodle development teams have worked hard on usability and user experience as one of the main aspects to improve in this new version. Hence, one of the most striking changes are those related to the default theme of this LMS platform, the Boost visual theme , whose design has been adapted to a more intuitive and current navigation. 

Moodle 3.11 Version With This Interface:

And here the step to Moodle 4.0:

The side blocks have been refined, in favor of a sticky navigation bar at the top of the screen. Elements always present until now in this left sidebar (as was the case of Badges, Grades, etc.) become part of the fixed top bar of the course or the Personal Area (for example, the Calendar). In this way, the new left sidebar becomes directly an index of the course, making it easier to navigate through the content. A qualitative improvement at the level of user experience. 

In addition, from the administrator view, access to the course edition mode is much easier, since a switch has been included that activates or deactivates this mode from the upper fixed bar of the interface. 

Other Improvements In Moodle 4.0

Report Builder

Apart from the appearance and the user experience, the development team has improved the construction of the reports that break down the information within the Moodle environment. 

Through predefined sources, the creation of personalized reports is facilitated through a system of dragging and dropping blocks with a preview of the final result. In addition, it now allows you to configure who will receive each report and when. 

Usability improvements

This new version brings accessibility improvements to the Atto text editor, as well as improved navigation on mobile devices with the Boost theme. 

In addition, the activities and resources that we can include in our Moodle courses will now be displayed in a list with colored icons according to the type of activity and its functionality. For example, if it is an activity that displays information of any kind (theoretical content, images, links, etc.), the icon will be blue; in the case of being a communication activity it will be red and, if it is some type of evaluation, it will be pink. If it is a collaborative activity, the icon is colored green. 

Of course, these are not the only novelties presented by the most current version of this LMS, so widespread globally; These are just some of the ones that we have found most interesting and striking.

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