Before the start of the fall 2023 term, LITS needs to upgrade Moodle from its current version (3.11.11) to version 4.1.
This upgrade will require significant downtime for Moodle, but we are developing an upgrade process that we hope will be minimally disruptive as possible:
- Moodle will be completely unavailable on August 14, 2023 while we perform the final part of this upgrade.
- We have worked with departments hosting summer programs and orientations to identify this as the least disruptive date.
- Departments should plan for full-day outage, but we will try to shorten that if possible.
- Unlike in past major upgrades, we will not need to have two sites running simultaneously. This means:
- The Moodle URL (moodle.brynmawr.edu) will not change.
- We will not need to copy content from one site to another. Everything that is on Moodle on Aug 13 (including fall 2023 academic courses) will still be there on August 15.
- Access to Moodle Archive (https://moodlearchive.brynmawr.edu/) will end on August 14.
- LITS will save backups of fall 2017-summer 2020 academic courses.
- Instructors use the request course copy service to have these backups restored into new Moodle courses if needed.
- Faculty and staff can also create personal backups of their Moodle Archive courses prior to August 14 to store on a hard drive, network drive or in cloud storage (e.g., OneDrive)
Most changes to Moodle 4.1 are interface changes designed to make the site easier to use or incorporate add-on features (such as the collapsible topics course format) into the core software. We will post additional details in the coming months and provide advance demos and faculty and staff support options in August-September to make the transition as smooth as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440) or schedule a meeting with a member of the Moodle support team.