IMPORTANT DATES
- 14th July 2020 – QMplus will be upgraded between 7-11am (possibly into the early afternoon, but we will keep the disruption to a minimum)
- Week of 14th July 2020 – QMplus 2019/20 archive released – access here.
- Week of 14th July 2020 – Rollover available to administrators (after archive release)
- Early September (TBC) – QMplus release (issues log)
QMPLUS UPGRADE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. When will QMplus be upgraded?
A. QMplus will be upgraded the week of 14th July 2020.
Q. Why is QMplus being upgraded again?
A. In order to keep an up-to-date system and to enhance functionality within the learning environment, we must regularly maintain and upgrade QMplus. Currently QMplus is using Moodle version 3.6 technology, version 3.8 is now available with richer features, more reliability and a better user experience.
Q. What new features will be available after the upgrade?
A. There are new features that have become available as part of Moodle 3.7 as well as part of Moodle 3.8 as well as we have made updates to internal development – you can read about these features on the summer upgrade webpage.
Q. What about my course content – will that still be available after the upgrade?
A. Yes. We will copy across all content from the old version of QMplus to the new version, and this will be available once we release the new environment. It is advisable to check that everything is there after the upgrade.
QMPLUS ROLLOVER QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. When should I rollover my QMplus course for next years in-take of students?
A. If you follow the standard QM academic year, then you should wait until after the upgrade before you schedule your course area to be rolled over. This will allow your current area to be captured in the QMplus snapshot that will become the 2019/20 archive. You can request that your course area be rolled over via your school administrator. If unsure please contact the E-Learning Support Team via the IT Helpdesk – email its-helpdesk@qmul.ac.uk with the details of the course area. You will need to be a teacher on the course area in question.
More information on the rollover process is here: https://elearning.qmul.ac.uk/guide/the-rollover-process/
Q. My course does not follow the standard academic year… My course runs through the upgrade, what should I do about rolling over my course area?
A. You can still schedule your course to be rolled over for a date in the future. Administrators will be able to do this for you, or you can raise a request via the IT Helpdesk – email its-helpdesk@qmul.ac.uk with the details of the course area. However, you should ensure that you download student generated contented to an external drive BEFORE scheduling for your course area to be rolled over, as all student content will be removed when the course area is rolled over and this content may not have been captured on the QMplus archive.
Alternatively, you can also request for a duplicate course to be created. This will allow you to keep the old course area and create a copy of this course area which can be rolled over.
More information on the rollover process is here: https://elearning.qmul.ac.uk/guide/the-rollover-process/
Q. What happens to the course content after a rollover?
A. Generally, staff generated content and activities will be kept and student generated content and data will be removed. Activities such as Turnitin assignments will be removed, and other activities can be optionally removed, such as forums, glossaries and wikis.
Q. What should I do about my students coursework in QMplus?
A. QMplus is intended for live teaching activities. Old student coursework should be downloaded from QMplus and stored offline, for example on an external hard drive. Please contact your school administrators for advice on this. Although the QMplus archives can allow access to old student content, we cannot guarantee that this will always be available, especially as some activities within QMplus link to external sites which may have their own archive processes.
QMPLUS ARCHIVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. What is the archive?
A. The archive is a snapshot of the current QMplus environment at a given time. It is not a dynamic site is is automatically updated, as it is only done once. The archive will happen once QMplus gets upgraded in July – at this point the old version of QMplus will become the archive.
Q. How can I get to the archive?
A. Staff and students can get to the archive by navigating to it from https://archive.qmplus.qmul.ac.uk
Q. What gets put on the archive?
A. The archive will be a snapshot of the current QMplus environment as at the time of the July upgrade. Anything that is available in QMplus at that point will be available on the archive. Teaching staff will have a grace period within which they can hide and remove items from the archive, and if they choose to do this, then that content will not be available or viewable on the archive.
Q. What about my resit students?
A. Resit students can either be given instructions to access content from the archive – although they will only be able to view content there. If you need your resit students to be able to submit coursework, then they will need to be given access to the upgraded environment, and an assignment will need to be available for them to submit to from there. This assignment can be set up before the upgrade, as it will be transferred to the upgraded environment, however, it is advisable that you check it after the upgrade.
Q. My question is not answered here, who should I contact?
A. Please email us at elearning@qmul.ac.uk if we have not answered your question about the upgrade, archive or rollover process. Alternatively, please raise a ticket via the IT Services Helpdesk by emailing its-helpdesk@qmul.ac.uk or by logging in at helpdesk@qmul.ac.uk
