Well, as most of you know Moodle 2 was released on Thursday 25th of November. This is one giant leap for Moodle and a day I have been looking forward to for months.
Well done to all those who made it happen in Moodle HQ, in the Moodle Partners and in the Moodle community as a whole. As Martin mentioned, most of the funding for Moodle comes directly from the Moodle Partners. This means it indirectly comes from all those thousands of organisations who choose Moodle Partners for their services. So all of those organisations need thanks too!
Moodle 2.0 is a game changer, be of no doubt about this one fact. The small changes from 1.8 to 1.9 are dwarfed by the hugely significant changes when the new Moodle 2.0 is considered. The breadth and scope of the changes in features, navigation and integration with other platforms moves Moodle forward as a major player for the Learning Management System team.
You will need to think and plan your move to Moodle 2.0. This is not a minor upgrade, its big, a project in itself. But how so?
- The user interface has changed in many areas including navigation and settings management (this is certainly mostly for the better). So teachers/trainers and students/learners alike will need time to adapt.
- Concepts like file management challenge the way you used to manage files and ask questions of you on how this will be done in the future.
- The many APIS which interface it with other systems provide so many possible use cases that you need to think through and make decisions on.
- Customisations, Community Modules, integrations, and even themes need to be adapted or even rewritten. This is going to take time planning and checking whether they are needed in the your new world of Moodle 2.
I think Moodle 2 is indicative of the future of the LMS, being the central clue between all these other services. I do however think that as with any significant project anyone thinking about the move from Moodle 1.9 to Moodle 2.0 will want to put time in for analysis, planning and porting of changes and integrations, redoing the theme, sourcing and delivering training for staff and learners to ensure the whole process goes well.
People have asked about when to go to Moodle 2 ?
With technology I am always 1 step behind the bleeding edge because I prefer to learn from other peoples pain. In computers, phones, televisions and software I wait half a year or more before I take the plunge to let any potential bugs or performance issues get ironed out. It also gives time to get my head around what I want to do with the new features.
So whilst I know that some may go early to Moodle 2, as others have said, I expect mid-summer 2011 as a date when most people will choose to go and some will wait a bit longer. That time frame certainly gives enough scope for decisions on features and training and all the techie stuff too.
So let us celebrate Moodle 2.0 arrival and lets get working on all those 600+ modules which need a helping hand to get Moodle 2.0 ready for us all who use them.
