Moodle Version 2.5 Features New and Improved Capabilities for Educators

Open source learning platform Moodle recently released a new version of its course management system that provides many new and enhanced features for the educational market.

Some attributes in Moodle 2.5 include the ability to encourage learning through badges, mobile device compatibility, easier maintenance and improved usability. Teachers can award students for their skills and effort on a variety of criteria with the new Badges feature that is fully compatible with the Mozilla (News - Alert) Open Badges standard, thus enabling the badges to be exported to external repositories or included within portfolios or CVSs.

In an effort to increase the availability of its learning system, Moodle now performs with the same amount of efficiently whether it is being used on a desktop or mobile device through its implementation of the bootstrap framework popularized by Twitter (News - Alert). Through its support of the Moodle mobile app for iOS and Android devices, users have offline access to Moodle content and the ability to easily upload photos and videos from their devices.

Moodle has also simplified the management and usability of its product. Users can now easily install and upgrade add-ons directly from the Web interface by either using the official Moodle Plugins repository on Moodle's official website or by uploading them as a zip file into the administration page. When looking further into its actual usability, forms are simple  to use and come complete with the option of advanced settings. Users can drag and drop images and text directly into a course page from the desktop or another browser window, display course folders directly on the course page and even switch between course sections.

The latest version of Moodle is available now as a free download from its official website.