Read about the latest upgrade!

January 2016 Upgrade to Learn@Illinois

On January 6, 2015 Learn@Illinois will underwent a small upgrade. We remain on Moodle 2.8, but and the upgrade brings a number of enhancements to functionality as well as security and bug fixes.

Additions and Improvements

  • UI Group Viewer: Because different groupings are used for different purposes, we added the ability to limit a group viewer block to only show groups from the selected grouping. In addition to this change, you can now include multiple instances of the block in a course with each instance tied to a different grouping and possibly a different label.
  • When adding a student back into a course, the setting to restore grades is checked as a default.
  • The Quick Quiz Entry tool allows you to write simple text input to create a quiz and it’s questions in one quick step.  In addition to the text box, you can now upload plain text files to create the quizzes.  We also updated documentation on this tool.
  • Subscribing to individual forum threads has an improved interface
  • Gradebook now shows always visible averages and column headings at the bottom of the table
  • Multiple plugins to ATTO, an alternative editor, in order to match functionality of standard Tiny MCE editor
  • Dragging and dropping text to a course page will now create a label
  • “Convert URLs into links and images” filter is defaulted to “on” in new course sites. This filter will automatically change URLs into links, and when the link is to an image, it will embed the image.  We recommended this setting, but can change it by going to your administration block > filters > and changing the “Convert URLs into links and images” setting.

Module Updates

The following modules will be updated to a new, improved version!

  • Turnitin plagiarism detection activity
  • Pearson My Lab Mastering integration
  • Illinois Media Space (Kaltura) integration

Bug Fixes

The following tools were experiencing one or more bugs which have been resolved. These tools should function as expected.

  • NetID login
  • My Moodle drop-down menu
  • Dates report
  • UI Fast Grader
  • Quick Grading
  • Theme and formatting changes to reduce crowding and overlap of text/objects.

Disappearing Button for Dragging Blocks

If your course is not in weekly format, you may have noticed that the button for dragging section blocks has disappeared. We’re working on a long-term solution to this problem, but for the time being you can switch your course into weekly format, move your blocks, and then switch back into your format of choice.

1) From the course main page, go to your settings block > course administration > edit settings.

2) Under formats, click weekly.

3) Arrange your course.

4) Return to the edit settings page and return to your normal format.

Course total not displaying?

If your course total is not displaying, you may try the following workaround:

1) Go to your grade book.

2) Choose “simple view” from the pull-down menu.

3) Scroll to the bottom of the page and add a category.

4) Name the category “course total” and set it to have the same calculation method as the actual course total.

5) Place all of the other categories/grade items into this new “course total”.

6) Hide the actual course total column.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at atlas-tlt@illinois.edu if you have any questions.

Load Your Grade Book Faster!

Instructors – If it takes a long time to load your grade book, try setting “Show column averages” and “Show user profile images” to No.

  1. Under “Settings” select “Grades”
  2. Click “My report preferences” then “Grader report”
  3. Set “Show column averages” and “Show user profile images” to No
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and save changes

Changing this setting can cut your load time in half!