On Wednesday, July 10, 2024, the UCSF Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) will be updated from Moodle 4.1 to Moodle 4.3. The CLE will be unavailable from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT on that day (please note that this timeframe will likely be shorter but could extend longer in the unlikely event of unforeseen circumstances).   

This update is minor compared to last year's upgrade (Moodle 3.11 to Moodle 4.1) and does not change any major visual elements or structures currently in the UCSF CLE. The update to Moodle 4.3 primarily includes improvements to the Moodle structure you are already accustomed to (many of these updates address some of the top requests we’ve heard from our own UCSF campus).   

The Education IT team is reaching out to the individual UCSF programs/schools to schedule check-ins regarding the update to Moodle 4.3. These check-ins are designed, among other things, to ensure a smooth transition and address any potential concerns. As part of this process, we'll provide designated individuals in each program/school with access to our Moodle 4.3 Sandbox to preview the new and updated features and test their respective workflows.

In the meantime, here is an overview of some of the new and updated features coming in Moodle 4.3: 

Activity cards redesign 

The activity/resource cards’ icons and text are now smaller and arranged to take up less space. 

Dropdown menus 

Applicable activity/resource cards now have a dropdown menu to access activity completion conditions.     

Access restrictions streamlined 

Access restrictions for applicable activity/resource cards now show more/less dropdown. 

Streamlined course content creation 

Adding a new activity or resource anywhere in your course is now possible. Instead of scrolling down to add an activity or resource, you can now use the "+" button anywhere on the course page.  

Bulk editing in a course 

You can now bulk edit items in your course via the new "bulk edit" button. Once you click the bulk edit button, you can, for example, bulk delete, move, duplicate, hide or change visibility from the footer.  

Once you click the bulk edit button, you can, for example, bulk delete, move, duplicate, hide or change visibility from the footer. 

Gradebook enhancements 

You can now search and filter in the grade report itself.  

Sticky footers are also new in the grade report—giving you quick access to common action buttons and navigation links.   

Question bank improvements 

The Question bank now has better search and filter functionalities similar to other areas of Moodle.  

You can now also customize your view of the question bank by hiding, removing or resizing columns in the question bank.  

More improvements 

• Additional course section options: Course sections can now be duplicated and benefit from permalinks. 
• Activity/resource card names: The name of the activity/resource now only displays when edit mode is on. 
• Report builder new filters: New filter options include last, current and next hour. Additionally, reports can now be filtered on the context level.  
• Report builder new sources: Course categories are now an available report source.       
• Quiz question numbers: Instructors can now customize question numbers.  
• Quiz reopen attempts: Instructors can now reopen quiz attempts that were never submitted.  
• Assignment messaging: Instructors can now message their course participants from the assignment grading screen.   
• Group icons: A group icon displays on hover for activities allowing groups.  
  • Group mode: Click the group icon to quickly access group mode settings. 

Additional information 

For a complete list of new and updated features, please refer to the full Moodle 4.2 release notes and the full Moodle 4.3 release notes. However, please note that some of these new and updated features do not apply to our CLE's implementation.