Author: Sue Harrison

KEATS will be upgraded to Moodle 4.4.1 on Tuesday 16 July 2024. As part of this upgrade KEATS will be placed into Maintenance Mode and unavailable to staff and students between 06:00-16:00 (UK Time).

This upgrade introduces several enhancements focused on refining the user interface and making it easier to edit your KEATS pages.

Check back on the blog after upgrade for a video highlighting upgraded features.

Enhancements include:

• Activity icons have been updated with an accessible colour palette.
• You can now quickly create content by clicking on a plus icon anywhere on your main KEATS page.
• Text and media areas now include a ‘name’ field, which appear in the course index on the left of your page.
• When using the grader report, you can now search, collapse columns and view feedback directly on the grader report page.
• For those using group forums, you can now easily post to all groups with the ‘Post a copy to all groups’ option available directly underneath your forum post.
• The Tiny MCE editor has been improved and is now the default editor, featuring a full-screen button for an enhanced editing experience.
• Bulk actions such as deleting, moving, duplicating, hiding, or changing visibility can now be performed directly from the footer.
• The edit menu now allows you to easily change availability options and group modes.
• Lastly, you can now copy H5P activities in the content bank to adapt them, making content creation more flexible.

Please note, faculties and departments use KEATS in different ways and may have different templates and approaches for you to be aware of. If you are in the middle of teaching during this upgrade and are experiencing unexpected changes, please do contact your Programme Team in the first instance.

On 18 July 2023 KEATS (Moodle) will be upgraded, with KEATS being unavailable for all staff and students from 6am and for most of upgrade day.

As part of this upgrade KEATS is getting a makeover and as such will look different for students logging back in after 18 July. The resources and teaching materials available via KEATS will remain the same, but the look of your courses will be different as improvements to the user interface and navigation are introduced.

New look KEATS will include:

Improved Dashboard & Separate My Course Page

When you login to KEATS your Dashboard will allow easy access to courses you have recently accessed and provide you with a timeline highlighting activities which have tasks and deadlines upcoming. A separate ‘My Courses’ page is also available allowing you search, access and highlight important courses for you.

Navigable Table of Contents within Courses

When accessing a KEATS course, an Index Drawer is provided on the left of screen to allow you easy access to different sections and resources within the course. This index is collapsible/expandable to allow individuals to focus better on the main content as needed.

Collapsible Blocks & Resources

Similar to the table of contents, a series of blocks and resources are available on the right of screen via a collapsible/expandable Block Drawer. These blocks provide you with access to key resources and information, but can be minimised to declutter the screen as needed.

Improved Design for Mobile Devices

Our new version of KEATS is responsive to mobile and tablet devices allowing your courses to be better displayed and navigated.

Please note, faculties and departments use KEATS in different ways and may have different templates and approaches for you to be aware of. If you are in the middle of teaching during this upgrade and are experiencing unexpected changes, please do contact your Programme Team in the first instance.

KEATS is being upgraded on the 18 July 2023 and will be getting a make over (see our blog post New look KEATS coming in July 2023). As well as incorporating new, modern branding guidelines the interface aims to make doing the things you want to achieve in KEATS easier.  

To help you prepare for the upgrade, a read-only test environment is available to staff which has the new theme applied. You can jump straight from KEATS to the test environment from a course to see what the content looks like using the new theme. You can also log into the site directly at https://keatsuat4x.kcl.ac.uk/ (staff only).  

Linking to the test site is being enabled locally within faculties and departments, but one thing to look out for is a new block on your course page that allows you to make the jump directly to the equivalent course in the test site. This block (and the test site) is available to staff only.

You will see changes in the look-and-feel of KEATS over time as the branding is still being developed. Look out for the new primary menus that help you get to Participant lists, Grades and other Reports (your course settings will also be here, but aren’t visible in the test environment) and keep an eye out for our blog posts giving further details on the upcoming changes.  

Please note: course content in the test site is a snapshot from March 2023. Any course developments after this time won’t be available in the test site. You can also access your Dashboard and the new My Courses page to browse the site as usual.