South Devon College is upgrading its learning management system from Moodle 1 to Moodle 2. It has undertaken a review of existing Moodle 1 courses and begun testing Moodle 2. From May to July, staff tested how Moodle 1 resources work in Moodle 2 and developed courses for the September 2011 term. Support is provided to help staff update courses to meet quality standards or recreate them in Moodle 2. The full upgrade will take place on August 1st after a testing period, with all upgraded and developed courses moving to the new Moodle 2 platform.

1. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Making the Move to
Moodle 2
At South Devon College

2. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Moodle at South Devon College
• Major resource for learners and staff
• Learner homepage and main student
communication tool
• Main tool used in Independent Learning
session for lesson delivery

3. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Why bother upgrading?
For the extra features it offers!!
For most people, it will do all the same things
MORE EASILY!!
AND for many staff and students it will offer some
extra benefits.

4. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Just some of the new things*
* More info at the ‘What’s new with Moodle 2’ session!
• Easier uploading and sharing of resources with other
Moodle courses
• Better activity tracking and completion tracking
• Conditional Activities
• Students can add images and media to resources and
have a site wide private files area
• Better integration with Mahara for portfolio building

5. www.southdevon.ac.uk
1: Review
Moodle 1
Test Moodle 2
Launch of
beta / test
version of
Moodle 2
Testing
courses in
Moodle 2
Updating
courses for
September
2011
Full upgrade
to Moodle 2
Process and Timescales Completed
over 200 courses
deleted
A copy of all
the courses in
current
Moodle on
11th April are
now available
on a version of
Moodle 2
Launch of
Moodle 2 on 1st
August 2011
(following 1
week
downtime)

6. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Review Moodle
1. Test Moodle
2
Launch of
beta / test
version of
Moodle 2
Testing
courses in
Moodle 2
Updating
courses for
September
2011
Full upgrade to
Moodle 2
Review Moodle 1
Testing Moodle 2
• A Moodle 1 clean-up to delete courses no
longer needed.
• Some courses assessed for Medals.
• Over 680 courses remain for upgrade.
• A version of Moodle 2 available on
development server for testing
• Theme developed
• Modules and plug-ins tested

7. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Review Moodle
1. Test Moodle
2
Launch of
beta / test
version of
Moodle 2
Testing
courses in
Moodle 2
Updating
courses for
September
2011
Full upgrade to
Moodle 2
Review Moodle 1
Testing Moodle 2
• Regular project meetings with technical
development team
• Implementation plan developed based on:
• How courses will be taken over to Moodle 2
• Tracking features to be used
• Timescales and milestones identified for
upgrade
• Presented to Senior Management Team –
including tracking features

8. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Review of
courses in
Moodle
Launch of
beta / test
version of
Moodle 2
Testing
courses in
Moodle 2
Updating
courses for
September
2011
Full upgrade to
Moodle 2
Testing and updating
Moodle courses
From May until July:
• Moodle 2 launched to College
Management Team and then all staff
• Testing how Moodle 1 resources work in
Moodle 2
• Identifying alternative solutions where
required
• Developing courses ready for September
2011

9. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Options for moving courses to
Moodle 2
• Update current course on Moodle 1 to meet at
least BRONZE medal level.
• Develop the upgraded version in Moodle 2
• Recreate your course directly in Moodle 2

10. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Upgrading Overview
LIVE: Moodle 1
Live version with learners until 22nd July 2011
Courses developed to Bronze standard or more
BETA: Moodle 2
Test version for checking courses
New courses developed for September 2011
May – July 2011 2nd August 2011 onwards
LIVE: Moodle 2
All courses in Moodle 1
with Medals will be
available.
All developed courses in
BETA Moodle 2 will be
available

11. www.southdevon.ac.uk
Support Provided
• Initial discussion with LTRS staff member on which
option to use.
• LTRS staff will assess Moodle Medal and support
development
• Moodle 2 training – from workshops to a qualification
• Step by step guidance for staff as courses are developed
• Working together with a member of the LTRS team to
develop the course (sharing the workload but ensuring
the online course meets the need of the course
programme).

12. Changes along the way…
• We are still unsure of whether we will upgrade
or have a new Moodle 2 set-up and import
the courses. Awaiting Moodle 2.1.
• We originally wanted to only start new in
Moodle 2 or upgrade from 1.9. Now staff can
develop Moodle 2 version.

13. Things to consider
• Unless going for a general upgrade – make
sure LOTS of support is in place.
• Have plenty of time! We started back in
January but still wish we had longer!! (But
practically – we couldn’t have started much
with teachers before May).

14. Questions?
Are any of you planning to upgrade to Moodle
2 this September?