A Lesson from the School of Hard Knocks Upgrading from Moodle v1.9 to v2.x Meredith Henson - Catalyst EU

1. A Lesson from the School of
Hard Knocks
Upgrading from Moodle v1.9 to v2.x
Meredith Henson

2. Introduction – Me!
Working with Moodle since 2002
The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand
NZOSVLE eCapability Development Fund
Massey University (Mahara Project)
Catalyst IT New Zealand
Catalyst Europe

3. Catalyst IT Limited
Open Source Software Specialists and
Advocates
Moodle Partners
New Zealand, Australia
Catalyst IT Europe - Brighton, UK
Moodle, Totara, Mahara, Koha, Drupal

4. Reasons to Upgrade
Bug fixes for core bugs - June 2011
Security patches by Moodle HQ - June 2012
Fixes for serious security issues - Dec 2013
Catalyst IT
Sponsored by Totara
Moodle v2.0.x out of support - June 2012

5. Reasons to Upgrade cont.
Stable and secure
Cool features!
Conditional Activities
Activity and Course Completion
Tagging
Quiz Improvements
Experienced vendors

6. Lesson 1 – System
Administration
New system requirements
Existing environment compatibility
Upgrades to host (e.g PHP 5.3.3, new PHP
extensions)
Changes to browser support
No more Internet Explorer 6
Check 'Upgrading to 2.2' Moodle docs

7. Lesson 2 – Custom Code
Contrib modules and plugins
Security and code review
Updates and fixes
Code and data migration
API changes and system integrations
Question Types and Quiz Resultss
Undocumented features

8. Lesson 3 – Content Migration
From v2.1 import from 1.9 courses
New Modules
Quiz to Feedback
Resource or File to Book
Legacy modules (Journal)
Updates to Modules
HotPot, LAMS - External Tool
SCORM options

9. Lesson 4 – Theming
Most themes can be replicated
Change to style attributes – stylesheet rewrite
Theme work depends on v2.x features used
uploading logos and colours
docking feature
Mobile and tablet themes

10. Lesson 5 – Training
Navigation Block
Contextual Settings Block
New Modules
Page, Book, Feedback
Conditional Activities
Activity and Course Completion Tracking
Administration Settings

11. Lesson 5 – Training cont.
File picker
New Wiki
Revised Quiz Module
New question types
interface changes
new settings
analysis and reporting changes

12. Lesson 6 – Change Management
IT Team engagement
Policy changes
tracking completions and criteria
content Licensing options
Repositories
Official tags
Messaging

13. Lesson 7 – Time and Cost
Implementation timing
Semesters
Budget and financial quarters/year
Difficult to cost
Unknowns and variables
Vendor bear risk

14. Lesson 8 - Recommended
Process
Review upgrade notes and release notes
Backup. Really.
Consider vanilla 2.x install
Upgrade to latest v1.9.x before 2.x
Earlier versions upgrade to 1.9 first
Allow large moodledata dir file space
Allow plenty of testing time

15. Lesson 8 - Recommended
Process
Replicated environment
3 - 4 days review and trial migration
Report
Issues and Resolutions
Outcomes and Recommendations
Time and cost estimate(s)
Documentation
Share it!

16. Thank you!
Questions?
Meredith Henson
Catalyst IT Europe
www.catalyst-eu.net
meredith@catalyst-eu.net
info@catalyst-eu.net