Monthly Archives: August 2024

What’s changed with Moodle’s text editor? An introduction to Tiny MCE

Moodle,

Written by Ellen Wildman, Digital Learning Facilitator (ISS)

The text editor we use to create and add content (not just text!) into Moodle has undergone a change. The new editor is called TinyMCE and is now the default editor in Moodle. Additionally, we’ve added in some useful new plugins (or additional tools) to the editor to enhance your experience when using it.  

This is what the new editor, or TinyMCE, looks like: 

View of the TinyMCE text editor in Moodle with some sample text typed out and a sample picture.

Why the change? 

  • TinyMCE has been designed with accessibility in mind, to help ensure we keep our online material available to the largest number of learners as we can. 
  • The old editor, Atto, is shortly due to be retired by Moodle so we’re getting a head start on the future change. 

How will it affect me? 

  • The layout and menu options now more closely match the editing options that you’re probably familiar with – such as in applications like Microsoft Word – with options such as Edit, View and Insert running across the top of the editor. 
  • There are some additional features added to this new editor: 

Components for Learning (C4L)

Components for Learning (C4L) icon in Moodle

This option allows you to quickly drop in useful blocks into the content, such as reminder banners for assessment or quotations. This can be a great way to add visual interest to our pages and highlight key information for the learners. 

This is an example of what an inserted ‘component’ can look like on a page: 

Example of some text in the "hint" style supported by Components for Learning

You can also make the ‘component’ wider on the page using the double headed arrow icon when you are choosing which style to add.

Sketch

Sketch (pencil) icon in Moodle

As the name might tell you, this is a tool that can allow either yourself, or your students in a quiz environment for example, to draw annotations in an online sketchbook. This can be useful for content that might be hard to produce via a keyboard. 

This is an example of what an inserted ‘sketch’ can look like on a page:

An example sketch of a triangle and some mathematical equations

Through the View option in the editor, there are some useful new features, including: 

Show block: this will add a grey block around the text and display what style you are using. This is not displayed when you save, but rather acts as a useful guide when ‘clumping’ the content you’re creating. 

This is an example of the dotted grey line you will see when you have the view option enabled: 

An example of what a 'block' looks like when revealed in the Moodle text editor. A red box has been drawn around the 'Heading' block to highlight the example.

Who can I ask for help? 

If you need help with using the new editor, or anything else Moodle-related, contact the IT Help Centre or post a message in the Digital Education Network (DEN) on Microsoft Teams.

Written by Ellen Wildman, Digital Learning Facilitator (ISS)

Moodle 4.3 – What’s changed?

Moodle, ,

As many of you will already know, we updated Moodle to version 4.3 on Tuesday 23rd July 2024. We used to be on version 4.1. so there has been a variety of changes that have occurred with this new update.

Now we have all had a bit of time to get used to it, I thought I would run through just five of the changes that will make our lives as staff easier!

  1. You can now add activities anywhere in a section.

Before, we needed to go to the bottom of a section or topic and click the “add an activity or resource” button. Once the activity had been created, we then moved it where we wanted it to go. No more! Hover between two cards and the plus icon as shown below will appear. You can use this to add an activity or resources anywhere you want to.

A plus sign now appears between two activity cards. The plus sign is in a red circle in between the cards.
The new ‘add an activity or resource’ button
  1. Bulk actions are now available

In edit mode, there is now a “Bulk actions” button at the top on the right as shown below. This enables you to select as many activities as required and move, edit, duplicate or delete at once.

A screenshot of the top of a Moodle page with the bulk actions button highlighted with a red ring around it.
The ‘bulk actions’ option at the top of a Moodle page
  1. The text editor in Moodle has changed to TinyMCE

A future post will go into the details of the changes around this text editor but for now, click the three dots to get more options as shown below. Some of the key changes include being able to open the editor in full screen mode and add components for learning (C4L), which are text boxes of a variety of colours and styles.

TinyMCE text editor in Moodle. The three dots option is highlighted in blue.
The TinyMCE text editor in Moodle.
  1. You can duplicate more easily

It is now possible to duplicate a whole course section and not just the individual activities within it. You can also bulk duplicate activities as mentioned above. This makes it much easier to keep to a similar look and feel for each topic/section.

The three dots menu on a section has been selected to show a menu with various options including 'duplicate'.
Duplicating a section from the three dots menu
  1. Quizzes & the Question Bank

There have been quite a few changes to the quiz activity and to the question bank. Staff are now given more flexibility to customise the columns shown to them in the question bank and filtering/searching for questions is easier. The quiz editing page is wider to improve usability and students can now hide the timer in a timed quiz.

Our developers in ISS, have also reintroduced the ‘back to top’ button which I know many of us are very grateful for! They have also created the brand new ‘My Feedback Plugin’ which you can find more information on in another post.

A full list of the changes and developments in Moodle version 4.2. and 4.3 are available from the links below:

Moodle 4.2 changes

Moodle 4.3 changes