Moodle Point Update Tackles Security Vulnerabilities

• By David Nagel
• 02/05/09

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Moodle has released updates to four of its most recent branches. The latest point update, 1.9.4, addresses security vulnerabilities and includes a number of minor fixes and enhancements to the open source learning management system. This round of upgrades also marks the end of development for the 1.6.x and 1.7.x branches, according to information posted by Moodle's Martin Dougiamas Wednesday.

Among the changes in the 1.9.4 release are several security enhancements. Moodle has introduced a new tool that provides a security overview report, which will be available in 1.9.4 onward. Information about it can be found here. It also includes new options that "allow Moodle to be configured to comply with European and US privacy regulations, like FERPA," according to documentation published last week. These include new site policy and internal enrollment settings.

Some other new features include:

• Randomization of essay questions;
• A new ability for students to review what they've done in the past without being able to modify their older work;
• The ability to delete SCORM attempts;
• Course request notifications; and
• Various bug fixes.

A complete list of issues and enhancements addressed in the new version can be found here. A summary of 1.9.4 resolved issues can be found here.

Moodle is regarded as one of the most popular learning management systems available, and possibly the most popular, although other learning management system providers do not make available regular updates on their usage statistics. As of this writing, Moodle has about 28 million users (616,423 registered) participating in about 2.6 million courses at 48,820 registered sites, according to Moodle's continuously updated statistics.

Further information and downloads can be found here.