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CLAMP releases new LAE releases for April 2024

CLAMP releases new LAE releases for April 2024
CLAMP releases new LAE releases for April 2024

CLAMP project has released three new LAE releases for April 2024. The new Moodle: Liberal Arts Edition releases are maintenance releases only without any new features.

The new LAE releases are based on the supported Moodle versions which includes Moodle 4.1, 4.2 & 4.3. The next stable LAE releases are scheduled for June 2024 which will includes the LAE version based on Moodle 4.4 version. You can download the latest LAE releases from the official CLAMP code release archive.

Here are the release notes for the LAE releases:

The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project is a group of colleges and universities who collaborate to develop and support Moodle, with an eye toward the issues unique to a liberal arts environment.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

NextWork Raises $2.3M in Pre-Seed Funding

NextWork, a Wellington-based online education startup offering to train 1000 students in the entry-level AWS certification for free, has recently raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Kiwi VC GD1 and included Blackbird, Icehouse, Phase One Ventures, and the founders of Eucalyptus.

Founded by Amber Joseph, NextWork has embarked on a mission of global significance-to upskill workers with tech talents. Offering its platform worldwide, NextWork is a personalized learning platform that empowers users to control the pace and style of their learning. The initial focus is on an entry-level AWS certification course, designed to cater to individuals with ‘zero experience’ in tech. Joseph acknowledges the challenges faced by adult learners, who often juggle their learning with existing jobs and family responsibilities.

Amber Joseph said about the company and its mission:

At best, online learning isn’t working; at worst, it’s stalling our progress as the gap between technology and how well prepared we are to use it is widening. This type of education has been essential, but there is a lot of ‘noise’ out there, and it’s hard for learners to determine which institutions and classes are credible. We aim to recruit 1000 participants into tech as soon as possible and prove that our approach is the best way to implement learning journeys for non-technical candidates at scale.

The company believes every individual should work at a job they enjoy and should be able to choose any talent that will succeed.

GD1 co-managing partner John Kells, a firm believer in the rapid shift of education to online platforms, stated:

Many platforms claim to offer personalisation or ‘self-paced’ learning, but their content remains static, leaving the user to ‘go slower’. NextWork, however, stands out by delivering on the promise of a truly unique learning experience. The platform’s success is evident in the positive response from users, and GD1 is excited to witness the growth of this world-class offering.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Join MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 from 2-4 July, 2024

Join MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 from 2-4 July, 2024
Join MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 from 2-4 July, 2024

The MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 will take place from 2-4 July 2024 in Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France. This will be the 19th edition of the French community hosting the MoodleMoot Francophone 2024.

The registrations for MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 will open from April 15 to May 1 2024 only with a limit of maximum participants to 500. The ticket pricing varies from € 100 to €  350 per person.

The 3 days edtech conference will includes practical workshops, conferences, round table and discussions across various edtech topics. During the edtech conference, the teachers, trainers, pedagogical engineers, developers, administrators will exchange, share and enrich each other.

The theme for MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 is – Personalization, evaluations, interactions.

Check out the official website for more details about joining, participating and presenting in the MoodleMoot Francophone 2024 here.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Anthology Raises $250M to Invest in Its Strategic Initiatives

Anthology, a global platform that supports learners and institutions with the largest EdTech ecosystem, has recently announced a significant milestone. It has secured $250 million in funding from its investors to fuel its primary EdTech solutions and strategic initiatives. This transaction, which closed on April 19, is a testament to its shared commitment to leading the industry forward and helping higher education institutions worldwide meet their goals in a rapidly changing landscape.

With a user base of over 150 million across 80 countries, Anthology is on a mission to empower the global education community. Its dynamic, data-driven experiences through Anthology Intelligent Experiences™ are revolutionizing learning. Offering more than 60 SaaS products and services aimed at advancing learning, the platform is a powerful tool for educators, leaders, and learners, helping them reach their goals and shape the future of education.

Commenting on the investment, Bruce Dahlgren, CEO of Anthology, said:

We are excited about the support from our investors and our journey to help customers realize the benefits of the “best of” education and technology coming together. Investment in education technology continues to be critical as institutions strive to evolve in today’s market and meet student needs. Anthology is a champion of progress, with a market-leading offer that will deliver long-term success for our customers and partners.

Higher education institutions find themselves at a critical juncture as they face challenges across enrollment, retention, and budgets, as well as a rapid shift in student needs and expectations. The Anthology is exclusively positioned to guide educational institutions through these times of change. The company remains devoted to helping customers adapt, strengthen their operations, and deliver the modern, dynamic learning experiences that today’s students demand.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Check out the top exciting features included in Moodle 4.4

Check out the top exciting features included in Moodle 4.4
Check out the top exciting features included in Moodle 4.4

Moodle 4.4 – the next major version of the Moodle LMS has been released today. Along with Moodle 4.4 there are other supported minor versions released. The new major Moodle version released is packed with a lot of exciting new features.

  • Course page improvements and activity icons: A fresher look – Course pages, the heart of Moodle’s learning experience, have received significant improvements in Moodle LMS 4.4. The navigation experience within a course has been improved to help learners focus on the material at hand; by default, clicking on the section heading in the left-hand course index or on the section title will now navigate the student to a section page displaying only the content for that particular section.
  • Streamline communication with enhanced notifications – Moodle LMS 4.4 introduces enhanced notification options to proactively inform and engage users. Students are alerted when manually enrolled in courses, ensuring they can engage with new learning opportunities right away. If students are at risk of being unenrolled due to inactivity, they can be alerted to give them the chance to re-engage and continue their learning journey.
  • Ordering Question type in Moodle core – Funded by Moodle Users Association, the ordering question type enabling educators to create dynamic assessments that require learners to sequence content accurately. This tool develops learners’ problem-solving skills and deepens their understanding of narrative coherence and metacognition. 
  • Forum Upgrades – In Moodle 4.4, there are many significant forum management enhancements such as configurable defaults for announcements to forums, paired with quick access to the “Post to all groups” option.
  • TinyMCE text editor – Now, TinyMCE text editor is the default editor for all newly installed and upgraded LMS sites.
  • Better image handling -Image handling is more streamlined, giving a better user experience.
  • Mult-Factor Authentication via SMS – Multi-factor authentication now includes the option to authenticate via an SMS code. 
  • Last Saved Quiz Attempt & Section based grading
  • Many more…

These are just a glimpse of many new exciting features included in the Moodle 4.4 version. We encourage you to setup a development Moodle portal to test out the new features included in the new version before upgrading your current version to the latest version.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

AI-Powered Job Simulation Platform Take2 AI Raises $3M

Take2 AI, a unique AI-powered job simulation platform for sales recruiting, has announced a significant milestone. The company has successfully raised $3 million in a seed round led by Reach Capital and SemperVirens, with participation from other renowned Silicon Valley-based venture funds, Techstars, and HR leaders from Visa, Disney, HP, and Google. This substantial funding will fuel the company’s expansion and development efforts, further solidifying its position in the market.

Take2 AI, co-founded by Kaushik Narasimhan and Yaniv Shimoni, aims to transform how companies find talent for high-volume sales positions, which make up 14% of all jobs in the United States. Companies need help to screen applicants and spend many hours evaluating applications thoroughly. Due to this, there is a relatively high short-term turnover rate: three times more salespeople than in any other occupation, or one in three churn annually.

Yaniv Shimoni, Co-founder of Take2 AI, said:

There has been so much buzz around skills-based hiring in recent years, yet most employers still heavily rely on resumes. In high-volume sales roles, resumes could be more helpful in predicting fit, leading to highly high short-term attrition.

The company’s two founders, Kaushik Narasimhan and Yaniv Shimoni, are highly skilled at creating and growing sales teams. They first connected at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Based on insights from Stanford University research on skills-based hiring, they founded Take2 AI.

Headquartered in New York, the firm helps companies generate tailor-made simulations of real-world sales scenarios that vet job applicants for skills, behavioural attributes, and culture fit. This enables companies to minimize their mis-hires and improve employee retention.

Esteban Sosnik, General Partner of Reach Capital, stated:

We are very bullish on skill-based hiring. Given the advancements in generative AI, Take2 AI brings a novel approach to recruiting that is scalable and timely. Putting candidates in front of real-world sales simulations results in a better assessment of candidates for companies and a more suitable fit for employees, leading to a win-win and clear ROI for both parties.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle 4.4 & other minor versions released

Moodle 4.4 & other minor versions released
Moodle 4.4 & other minor versions released

Moodle LMS has released the new major version i.e. Moodle 4.4 along with other minor version releases. The new Moodle 4.4 version is packed with a lot of exciting new features. The other minor versions are maintenance releases only with fixed issues and security fixes only.

You can get the latest Moodle version from the official Moodle downloads page or from the GitHub repository. If you are currently running a non-supported version, you are advised to update to a supported version.

Along with the Moodle 4.4 version, the other Moodle versions released today are:

All those Moodle community members who have contributed in QA testing and completed 3 or more tests have received the Moodle Tester badge. The Moodle 4.4 QA testing is 100% completed before the initial release of the LMS version. All the 476 tests are marked complete by the community members.

The next major version i.e. Moodle 4.5 will be an LTS (long term support) version.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle Admins – Allow students to create their own courses in Moodle using Sandbox plugin

Moodle Admins - Allow students to create their own courses in Moodle using Sandbox plugin
Moodle Admins - Allow students to create their own courses in Moodle using Sandbox plugin

Moodle is world’s most popular open learning management system in the world with more than 410 million users around the world. It allows the learning management system to be used for all types of learning requirements such as Blended Learning, Face to face learning, Hands On training, classroom training etc. In this post we will see how you can setup a Moodle course where the students can play around with different  types of Moodle activities and after a certain period the course will restore back to its original state.

This can be a wonderful playground for anyone who is learning Moodle LMS to play around with different Moodle activities, their settings and how they can be used. The courses will be cleaned periodically to a predefined state automatically.

The Sandbox Moodle plugin – developed by Moodle an Hochschulen e.V is one of such beautiful plugins which can be used to create your own Moodle playground so that your teachers/students can play around with it and get a hands-on learning with Moodle.

The Sandbox plugin can be used in simplifying live training courses or for letting new Moodle users explore the features of Moodle. Resetting the courses manually is a time consuming and tedious task which can be eliminated by using this plugin.

After installing the plugin, you can configure the plugin and its behaviour through Site administration -> Courses -> Sandbox. You can then configure various settings such as Execution Time, Course Backups, Restore settings and Notification settings.

You can download the Sandbox Moodle plugin from the official Plugins repository here.

What are the other useful Moodle plugins you are using, please let us know in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Reference-Checking Platform Veremark Raises $3M in Pre-Series B Round

Veremark, a UK global background screening company, has announced that it has raised $3 million in its pre-Series B round led by Samaipata and Stage 2 Capital, with participation from ACF Investors and Vulpes Investment. The startup aims to use this investment to support its screening technology’s growth and ongoing client acquisition.

Established in 2019, Veremark offers a distinctive global background screening service. It equips companies with the ability to conduct comprehensive checks on potential employees, business partners, limited partners, and founders. This unique service mitigates the risk of hiring or collaborating with individuals who may be underqualified or legally unsuitable. The platform not only verifies candidate work histories but also gathers references and checks identities and qualifications. Veremark has expanded its reach in the APAC region through the acquisition of Employrite, a background screening firm based in Australia and New Zealand.

Commenting on the investment, Founder and CEO of Veremark, Daniel Callaghan, said:

We continue our mission to make increasing trust frictionless in the hiring process and across the workplace. This additional funding will enable us to broaden our global reach, enhance our technology, and provide a significant runway to achieve our next growth round when it best suits the business, as we continue to empower businesses worldwide to make informed hiring decisions.

Veremark has recently unveiled its latest innovation, Verepass. This career passport revolutionizes the way candidates manage their verified credentials. By securely storing this information on the blockchain, Verepass eliminates the need for repetitive verification checks, thereby saving businesses valuable time and costs. Veremark’s expansion is evident with the establishment of offices in Singapore, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Jose Del Barrio, Founder and Managing Partner at Samaipata, added:

The growth trends around workplace compliance and regulations are enduring and global. Veremark has consistently proven its ability to add and retain clients across geographies and sectors regardless of market conditions. We are excited by the long-term vision to improve workplace trust and to partner with the company as it scales further.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle LMS – Check students progress easily with the Module Completion Tracker plugin

Moodle LMS - Check students progress easily with the Module Completion Tracker plugin
Moodle LMS - Check students progress easily with the Module Completion Tracker plugin

Moodle LMS is used by more than 410 million users around the world. With more than 2200+ plugins it allows the users to extend the functionality easily to cater to all learning requirements. In this post we will discuss about Module Completion Tracker Moodle plugin.

The Module Completion Tracker plugin is a report type Moodle plugin which can be used to monitor the progress of their students. This plugin is designed to track the progression of students in all of their courses for a given period. The plugin is particularly useful for teachers and other educators who need to keep track of student progress and identify areas where students may be struggling.

You can download the Module Completion Tracker plugin from the official plugins repository here. Once installed, you will have to choose which modules/activities you would like to track on your platform.

Then you can create the reports which you would like to filter out to track. You might want to follow specific students or a whole cohort or even track progression for a specific course. You can save, and duplicate your filters. You also can make a quick filter that you can save afterwards, or not.

What are the other useful plugins you are using on your Moodle site? Please share with us in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.