Folks, your Moodle™ website is about to get better. Get ready to upgrade to another flawless version of Edwiser RemUI. It is loaded with more awesome features to give you an even better Moodle experience.
Apart from making Moodle aesthetically pleasing, we constantly aim to provide you with a 100 percent productive learning environment. This leads us to our latest update.
Before we jump right into it, thank you to the wonderful community of Edwiser RemUI users who took out the time and effort to provide us with truly insightful feedback. Our hard work towards improving our products gets a better direction – all thanks to your views and opinions! Cheers 🙂
Let’s see what the new Edwiser RemUI has to offer. Also, just so you know, we have a star performer of the update this time. So, continue reading the article to find out more!
Get ready to make way for better things as we have incorporated some interesting new features we know, you’d love. Let’s unveil them one by one.
#1 Focus Mode
Introducing to you the star of the show, a crucial feature, which also happens to be the real highlight of the update – Focus Mode
This feature is special because it is specifically created to win the war against distractions. It addresses a major e-learning challenge, that is, to avoid getting carried away and to voluntarily avoid distractions. The Focus Mode essentially builds a Do-Not-Disturb zone in your Moodle LMS while learning where the complete focus is on your course content.
This feature gives students the option to remove all the possible distracting blocks and elements from the screen and concentrate only on the course content.
This ensures that you:
- Keep distractions at bay
- Keep going with your work or studies and stay right on track
- Get things done faster
- Stay result-oriented and goal-driven – the key to meaningful learning
- Simplify overall navigation and make it less frustrating or ambiguous
Less is More – Why Distractions Need to Be Minimized?
A Moodle theme with a focus mode is imperative for high-quality user experience – the main reason being, it minimizes distractions. It brings the key learning material in focus and makes the overall navigation simpler in order to prevent students from dropping off.
Any potentially distracting blocks and elements on your Moodle site are a major hindrance to achieving a cleaner and distraction-free learning experience – a surefire way to disappoint your learners! So, it is advisable to have minimal website elements and it’s best not to overload your screen with unnecessary interference.
What constitutes a distraction on your Moodle™ LMS?
The friction causing elements on your Moodle website is responsible for the following:
- Confusion among students about how to navigate through the site
- Difficulty to proceed to relevant learning sections and content
- A navigation burden that keeps running in the back of the mind of your learners creating that undesirable mental block – Caution: Your students might not want to come back again to your Moodle site although you have great content for them
- They break the flow and focus while learning, and take the students away from the primary learning content
- The learning process is interrupted repeatedly affecting overall student engagement and retention
Here are some of the many elements that constitute as distractions and can hamper the learning experience of your students:
- Interference causing Sidebars
- Flash banner ads
- Large navigation
- Oversized elements that take up a lot of screen space
- Overcrowding of CTAs or CTAs all over the place
- Distracting fonts and colors
With dwindling attention span of students and given that online learning cannot effectively gauge student engagement or facial expressions of frustration while learning in isolation, curbing distractions should be taken up on high priority. It would be pointless to invest in good course content if nobody sees it due to all the existing clutter on your Moodle site.
However, you can leave your worries far behind as Edwiser RemUI’s latest update has taken care of all the distractions that can come in the way of learning. It’s a feature that Moodle admins can enable from the theme setting, making the “Focus Mode” button available on the course page for the students.
Here are some key features to look at:
1. No bothersome Headers, Footers, and Sidebars
Navigation menus can occupy a lot of space and have a negative effect on UX. The header and footer can also be a huge source of distraction. We have eliminated these to give a completely decluttered layout without hampering the navigation of your Moodle site. The navigation elements are kept minimal.
Further, the focus mode also removes the sidebar clearing any unwanted access from the screen while using focus mode. This is to ensure that the students concentrate on the course material
2. Collapsible Course Navigation
Your students won’t be lost or stuck on where to go next as we have provided with the course navigation in the header, using which you can effortlessly jump to the desired course content. They can easily navigate to the required activities/topics/sections as they move throughout the course. The best part is that this navigation menu at the top is collapsible and hence won’t be a barrier to learning or an obstacle to access course content for the students, preventing distractions from getting in the way of learning
3. Minimal Buttons for Simplified Course Navigation
One of the most commonly committed mistakes that can possibly kill student engagement and learning levels, is having too many CTA buttons. Your students have a lot to grasp and learn in the course, it’s best not to overwhelm them with too many options to choose from. We have optimized and kept the number of CTAs limited to just two. The Next and the Previous activity buttons allow students to instantly move back and forth between activities easily. They are easy to find, simple to use, and have the perfect size and visibility. This feature blends flawlessly well with all the course formats supported by Edwiser RemUI.
4. Sticky Course Progress Bar
The course progress bar is a great usability feature that helps students to keep their learning objectives in sight all the time. Sticky course progress bars are great and deserve a place on your Moodle site’s focus mode as they reduce uncertainty and promote reassurance. This is another important aspect to look at when it comes to maintaining focus during e-learning. The Edwiser RemUI focus mode provides a super-sticky progress bar that will be perpetually visible within the course across all the topics/ sections or subsections as well as activities. This encourages your students to assess how far they have gone in the course or how far they are left to go. Your students can easily figure out where exactly they stand with respect to course completion. This motivates them to continue with the course and stay on track all the time.
#2 One-Click Theme Update
The theme will now provide you with an option to update your existing theme in the easiest way possible. We have worked towards achieving an optimized theme that easily updates in a single click. It is just a matter of 5 minutes and you’re good to go! With this feature, it is convenient to switch to a better performing theme free of bugs and security concerns. Moreover, you have full control over your Moodle theme as well as your entire e-learning site.
#3 Information Center for Admins
For more hands-on control and convenience, Moodle admins need to stay up-to-date on all latest developments within the product and relevant product update information. We tried to fulfill this requirement in this update by throwing in a holistic Information Center. The Information Center is added with the intention to dedicate one place within the product to access all the latest news and updates about it. In this section, you will get to know about the latest product files, upcoming product features, options to update to the latest version, etc. No more hunting for information now as you can easily access all the vital product-related information in a consolidated form.
To access the Information Center, navigate to Edwiser RemUI setting, from the left sidebar shortcut and go to the last tab ‘Information Center’. Alternatively, you could also use the following path to access the Information Center – Site administration > appearances > theme setting > RemUI and information Center.
Here’s a quick overview for you:
Conclusion
So, in a nutshell, don’t be a reason for your learners to fume and fret out of exhaustion as they struggle to make their way through your Moodle course. Be a reason for their satisfaction and happiness by giving them a visually stimulating and focus-oriented course page to work with.
If you already own an Edwiser RemUI (Edwiser RemUI 3.7 and 3.8) license then you simply have to update it in order to receive these cool new features. Follow this update guide for more details on how to go about it.
In case of any questions or queries, our support team is right here for your help.
Let us know your thoughts on the new version of Edwiser RemUI. Here’s hoping you will love the new features this product has to offer.
Buy now if you haven’t purchased the theme yet.
