Moodle 2.0 RC1 released

Moodle 2.0 Release Candidate 1 has been released and Moodle.org has been updated to the latest version. This should spur community input and polishing of issues and help solidify a timeline for ISU to move to Moodle 2.0. You can test the latest version at the Moodle QA Testing Site. I would encourage anyone who wishes to help in Moodle development to participate in the Moodle 2.0 QA Cycle 2 process. The QA site has its code updated daily and the site is reset hourly so you will be testing the latest coded and can't permanently break anything. ISU faculty that would like to do more involved testing or course development can contact the ITRC, itrc@isu.edu, for access to the Moodle ISU 2.0 test site.

For detail on the changes in Moodle 2.0 see the release notes. Some of the changes include:

• Navigation has been redesigned and menus are now dockable to improve use of space.
• Standard "Navigation" block on every page showing contextual links, while allowing you to jump elsewhere quickly.
• Standard "Settings" blocks on every page shows contextual settings as well as settings for anything else you have permissions for.
• Numerous quiz improvements and features have been added. See the release notes for details.
  
• The Wiki has been rewritten from scratch and has interface improvements including support for Mediawiki-style syntax.
• The Workshop module has also been rewritten from scratch.
  
• Completion has been added.
  
• Teachers can now specify conditions that define when any activity is seen as completed by a student. For example, when a certain number of posts have been made, or a grade has been reached, or a choice has been made.
• Teachers can now specify conditions that define with any course is seen as completed by a student. Conditions include activity completion, but could also be by grade, date or a number of other criteria.
• Teachers and students can see reports that show the progress of any user within a course, or through a series of courses
• Conditional activities have been added.
  
• Access to activities can be restricted based on certain criteria, such as dates, grade obtained, or the completion of another activity.
• These can be chained together to enable progressive disclosure of the course content, if that is desired.
• IMS Common Cartridge format, commonly used by publishers, can now be imported.
• My Moodle page has been improved and made more customizable.