10 September 2010, 9:18

So we took the plunge and have 1.3 on our live server only a few hours after release - having already tested 1.3rc1 so were fairly confident.

I did have a fun job of completing a test upgrade on the live server from 1.1.6 to 1.3rc1 via my iPhone after my web connection fell over at home. It worked. Mobile learning? Mobile admin. cool!

So got to work and pushed 1.3.0 to the live server at approx midday (UK - BST), sent an email alert out to all users and within two hours had this response from a student:

"Perfect. Thank you very much for your help.
I really like the new layout, it makes the profile look much more professional."

So far so good :-)

My colleague (Sam - you all know Sam!) is showcasing at a staff event next wednesday and we're off an running with a new academic year. Had already bounced off the cut-off date to run with 1.2.x for this academic year, but then 1.3 looks so good! Last minute is always a good time to do things - who needs dithering!

BTW - New video animation with student experiences coming your way soon.

Thank you Mahara community.
Roger and all at Solent.

12 September 2010, 16:42

Hello Roger,

Great that you could install 1.3 and start working with it instead of having 1.2 for the academic year.

Congrats also on becoming a mobile admin.

Hoping to hear more from you, Sam, your students and teachers about what you think about 1.3.

Cheers

Kristina

17 September 2010, 5:14

Well one week on production site for full university adoption this coming academic year (next week!) and no major issues to report with 1.3 and lots of interest.

Here's a quick screen capture of our theme - very basic reworking of standard.

http://mahara.org/artefact/file/download.php?file=88949

or have a look here:

http://mahara.solent.ac.uk  (sorry no guest logins)

However, have gone for fixed width. This prevents users with hi-res 24inch monitors producing gorgeously layed out pages, only to find they don't quite look the same on the 15inch monitor belonging to the tutor or employer.

Already had a request from computing gaming dept for student file space to be increased to 1gb per student....errr, hmmm might burst the server!

17 September 2010, 19:33

Hi Roger,

That theme looks great. The site took a bit to load from my end, but that may just be because of the almost 19,000 km distance. Your fixed width argument is a good one, in particular when students use images or videos to display and then have to scroll horizontally on a smaller screen (just think of netbooks ).

Good luck with the start of the semester and having enough disk space for those gaming students. The new site statistics should help you to see whether they actually use that much space.

Cheers

Kristina