Update on the cuLearn upgrade
On September 3, the EDC and CCS updated cuLearn from Moodle version 2.8.7 to version 3.1.1. cuLearn is powered by Moodle, the most popular and powerful open source Learning Management System in the world. These annual upgrades help keep our cuLearn system current so that we are able to obtain support from the Moodle community. The upgrades also provide some enhanced performance and feature improvements.
Before this upgrade, we conducted extensive testing to ensure that there would be minimal disruption to instructors and students. While most of the upgrade went very well, with the help of several instructors we have identified three issues of some significance:
- Grading assignments – slow page loads: When an instructor attempts to open a student assignment from the gradebook, the assignment page takes a long time to load. A workaround for this is to download student assignments as a zip file and edit/grade offline.
- Restricting access permissions – cannot be modified or deleted: Restrict Access Permissions are conditions set up in a course that permit students to progress through a course based on achieving a particular benchmark. If instructors attempt to change or remove a condition, they receive an error message indicating that they are not able to complete the change. If you experience this, contact the EDC at edc@carleton.ca.
- Uploading multiple feedback files – produces an empty field: When instructors attempt to upload multiple assignments with feedback to students from a zip file, the zip file appears to upload, but is in fact empty. The current workaround is to upload the edited files one at a time.
Currently, we are aware that these issues are impacting several instructors, but we wanted to keep you apprised of our efforts to resolve them. Our team is working diligently with external partners and our Moodle developer community to implement permanent fixes before these issues amplify.
If these issues or others are causing you or your students concern, we encourage you to contact the CCS Service Desk so that we can be made aware of all outstanding issues with cuLearn.
Thank you for your patience and support during this time.