Versions and Features

Brandeis University uses Moodle as the core of its online learning environment, LATTE.  

LATTE is regularly improved with features specifically created for LATTE that enhance instructors’ and students’ teaching and learning.

LATTE 1.11 January Intersession, 2011
LATTE 1.10 Mid-August 2010
LATTE 1.9 May 18, 2010
LATTE 1.8 January Intersession, 2010
LATTE 1.7 Mid-August 2009
LATTE 1.6 May 27, 2009
LATTE 1.5 January Intersession, 2009
LATTE 1.4 Mid-August 2008
LATTE 1.3 May 12, 2008
LATTE 1.2 January Intersession, 2008
LATTE 1.1 Oct. 1, 2007
LATTE 1.0 Aug. 1, 2007

LATTE 1.11 (using Moodle 1.9.9)

Changes anticipated for January Intersession, 2011
  • Guest students and participants to show in photo roster. Instructors can see all students in the photo roster, regardless of it being a manually created with "guest students" or a for-credit course populated with Registrar data.
  • Quiz results exported into Excel format will separate first names and last names.
  • Change default in Gradebook of hiding course totals if a gradebook category is hidden to "Show totals excluding hidden items". By changing this setting, users will no longer be confused about why they can’t see their grades even though the instructor has made their gradebook open to students.
  • Fix to bug where instructors do not get an email notification when student completes a Questionnaire

 

LATTE 1.10 (using Moodle 1.9.9)

Mid-August 2010
  • Edits to the "City/Town" and "Country" in user profiles will no longer be overwritten by the default settings of "Waltham" and "United States"; this allows users to indicate their home town and country.

LATTE 1.9 (using Moodle 1.9.8)

May 18, 2010
  • New custom MyLATTE page will offer better organization of course listings
  • Course assistants will now be able to use Quickmail to contact course participants
  • Images attached in forum posts will no longer be repeated in later posts displayed in Sort/Filter forum tool
  • Emoticons removed from LATTE editor that conflict with certain mathematical equations

 

LATTE 1.8 (using Moodle 1.9.6)

January Intersession, 2010
  • Gradebook weighting in decimals will display correctly
  • Blocks on the MyLATTE page will no longer disappear when added and moved
  • LATTE will recognize .mp4 and .m4v media files

 

LATTE 1.7 (using Moodle 1.9.5)

Mid-August 2009
  • Online course videos may be requested directly through LATTE with new course video interface
  • Grading TAs will be able to switch to a "student view"
  • Forum posts can be time-released
  • Gradebook interface improvements to grader report and user reports; added tabbed menu system

 

LATTE 1.6 (using Moodle 1.9.4)

May 27, 2009
  • New gradebook:
    • allows letter grades to be displayed
    • reordering and sorting of grade columns
    • allows grades to be hidden and/or time-released
    • enables uploading of pre-formatted Excel files into gradebook
  • Forums will give users the ability to manually mark individual posts as read/unread; attachments will appear in the Sort/Filter forum posts tool; forums can be time-released
  • Accessing blogs through a course will display the blogs of only the participants in the course
  • Several bug fixes to the quiz tool
  • Fix to the intermittent error with course-to-course imports that creates empty resources in the new course

 

LATTE 1.5 (using Moodle 1.8.5)

January Intersession, 2009
  • Instructor feedback on Quizzes now distinguished from the student's answer by color.
  • Quickmail now includes a CC field.
  • The course Settings in the Administration block and the "Other course settings" in the LATTE Course tools block are now identical.
  • Sorting by "All students" now available in the "Sort/Filter Forum Posts" tool.
  • Sorting by instructor's name now available in the "Sort/Filter Forum Posts" tool.
  • Instructors see alert text when viewing submitted assignments for grading, reminding them to save their comments before uploading a response file.
  • An updated version of a file that is uploaded to LATTE will now replace the older version.

 

LATTE 1.4 (using Moodle 1.8.5)

Mid-August 2008
  • Semester blocks on the MyLATTE page give the user more control over their display of courses
  • Gradebook preferences tab includes option to allow instructor to enable or disable the display of grade statistics to students
  • Instructors have a new option when completing edits to activities: "Save and Return to Course"
  • Enhancements to the highlighting of unread forum posts
  • On the course home page, the current topic or week is highlighted in blue on the left hand side
  • Improved icons make it easier to expand and collapse the side blocks on all pages
  • Chat transcripts appear after first chat
  • Security-related improvements reviewed and implemented as appropriate
  • The current LATTE version number appears in the footer as a link that opens this web page with information about the most recent changes to LATTE

 

LATTE 1.3 (using Moodle 1.8)

May 12, 2008
  • Forum posting filter tool. The Sort/Filter Forum Posts tool gives instructors the ability to filter and sort forum postings by student, forum, topic and date. Improves instructor work-flow for discussion grading and feedback. The Sort/Filter Forum Post tool may be found in the LATTE Course Tools block.
  • LATTE support staff names removed from course participants lists. LATTE support staff will no longer appear listed as active participants within a course. Support staff names will no longer be listed on the Participants page, the Submitted Assignments page,  the Groups configuration page, or in the Quickmail tool.
  • Upgrades to forums. Unread posts are displayed to user on the course home page and forums page. Also, the threaded forum view includes a blue outline, increasing the visibility of unread posts.
  • Gradebook fixes. Several fixes to bugs in Gradebook Plus.
  • User profile changes. Default preferences are set to highlight new posts to every user.

 

LATTE 1.2 (using Moodle 1.8)

Released during January Intersession, 2008
  • Simplified course settings. Instructors, academic administrators, and other assistants see only the course settings options available for them to change. These course settings are found within the “LATTE Course Tools” block under “Other course settings”.  See this LATTE Help page for more information on course settings.
  • Basic student roster. The roster feature has been upgraded from LATTE 1.1 to include an alphabetical listing of all students officially enrolled in the course on an easily-printed page.  This basic student roster is found within “LATTE Course Tools” under “View Roster: Basic | Advanced.”
  • Files (from the "Add a new resource" menu) added to the course outline will open in a new browser window by default. Previously, resources opened in the same browser window by default, replacing the LATTE interface.
  • Course meeting times and location. By the first day of class for the semester, course meeting times and location (where applicable) are displayed within the LATTE course homepage within the “Course Meeting Times” block.
  • Preferred name displayed. LATTE will display users preferred names, including middle names.
  • Primary and secondary instructor listing. Instructors are listed as primary or secondary instructors in certain LATTE course listings. Primary and secondary instructors are listed in the "Instructors" block, with the primary instructor listed above secondary instructors.

 

LATTE 1.1 (using Moodle 1.8)

Released October 1, 2007
  • Midterm assessments. Allows instructors to receive anonymous midterm evaluation information from their students.

 

LATTE 1.0 (using Moodle 1.8)

Released August 1, 2007
  • Online Syllabi. Allows instructors to upload and share their syllabi with the Brandeis community.
  • Photo Roster. Allows instructors to view the students in the course by name and photo.