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What’s new in Moodle 4.5 for staff? (Summer 2025 Upgrade)

Webinar from 4th September (video with chapters): Recording for staff: What’s new in Moodle 4.5?

On Tuesday 5th August 2025, Moodle was upgraded to version 4.5. This version introduces a variety of improvements, including: a more streamlined look with new accessible activity icons, subsections, a quicker way to add content to your course, a new Moodle Board activity for Padlet-like activities and more.

The upgrade in numbers

4.5

version

11

new features

7

changes

Changes and improvements

Jump to: Highlights · Navigation · Course editing · Collaboration · Assessment · The Brookes VLE Template · More features

(click on images to enlarge)

Highlights

Streamlined look New

Click the arrows top right of the image for full screen, then drag the slider left and right to see before and after. Press Esc to exit.

Moodle 4 has a cleaner, modern look. Activities and sections are clearly defined.

  • Smaller activity icons and content arranged to take up less space.  
  • Updated activity icons use an accessible colour palette.
  • File icons will clearly display the file type, for example, DOC, PDF, PPT.

Quickly create content New

Screenshot of a Moodle course page, a magnified view highlights the pink plus button used to add new content or activities.
Click to add an activity or resource anywhere on the Course homepage.

You can now insert an activity or resource anywhere in a section, not just at the end. With editing turned on, hover your mouse between two activities to show the ‘plus’ icon.

Better section options New

Section settings dropdown menu options include 'duplicate' and 'permalink'.
Duplicate sections and benefit from useful permalinks
  1. You can now duplicate a section and all the content within it. Note: the five standard templated sections at the top of a course should never be duplicated.
  2. There is now a permalink for easy linking to an individual section.

Subsections help learners focus. New

Moodle 'Assessment' section includes two subsections, one subsection is collapsed, the other expanded.
Used sparingly, adding subsections to a section can help learners focus on specific content.

You can now add subsections within a section.

Caution: To work effectively, subsections must be used sparingly. Please read our guidance: How do I use subsections effectively?

Course index collapse/expand all New

The course index shows the kebab icon (three vertical dots) with the menu options 'Expand all' and 'Collapse all'
Expand all/collapse all options for the course index.

There is a new kebab menu beside the course title in the course index, so you can now collapse or expand all sections from the course index in just one action.

Collapsing and expanding sections in the index won’t affect section status in the course main content.

Text and Media area name New

The course index shows the name "Library virtual tour", which has been given to 'Text and media area'.
Text and media areas names now display in the the Course index.

Text and media areas (previously called Labels) can now have names which display in the Course index.

Tip: Please check the settings of existing Text and media areas and make sure they are named appropriately.

Single section page New

Course page shows Week 2 section heading. Click section heading to view section in its own page.
Focus on one section only in its own page

By default, sections will still be collapsible on the course page. However, if you choose the “one section per page” setting, the course page will display differently, allowing you to concentrate on content within a single section. To view a section in its own page:

  1. Click the section heading in the course index.
  2. Click the section heading on the course page
  3. With edit mode enabled, teachers click section settings to ‘View’ a single section.

Book navigation improvement

Moodle Book chapter showing the 'previous' and 'next' floating buttons on the left and right of the chapter.
Floating buttons enhance navigation of the Book resource.

As the reader reads and scrolls the page, floating previous/next buttons are always there to allow the user to navigate to the next page. This reduces the need to scroll to the top or bottom, providing a much better user experience.

Course editing

Enable bulk editing New

Bulk edit window showing selected items with the Availability, Duplicate, Move and Delete buttons
Bulk delete, move, duplicate, hide or change visibility from the footer.

Click the Bulk edit option available from the top-right of the Course homepage. You can then select multiple items and choose to Bulk delete, move, duplicate, hide or change visibility from the footer.

TinyMCE is the default editor

TinyMCE text editor toolbar, including the insert image, insert video\screen recording, full screen buttons.
Popular, modern and accessible, TinyMCE editor is now the default editor.
  1. Image handling is more streamlined; drag and drop to insert an image.
  2. A new option allows users to create a short screen recording.
  3. A full screen button makes editing easier.

Quick access to settings New

The course home page with a quiz showing the quick edit links to 'access restrictions', 'group settings' and 'completion criteria'
Quick edit links take you directly to activity settings.

Activities now have edit links to go directly to:

  1. Access restrictions.
  2. Group mode settings
  3. Completion criteria

Collaboration

Moodle Board New

Moodle Board showing two columns and four posts
The board activity enables students to post anonymously.

The board activity allows students to engage in discussions and thought-sharing, via a post-it board. Boards are anonymous.

Students can post text, images, URL links, or embedded YouTube videos.

Boards may be used for:

  • Anonymous Q&A
  • Introductions / icebreakers
  • Crowdsourcing content

Learn more: How do I create a Moodle Board?

Easily post to all groups

Moodle Post a discussion page shows the tick box for 'Post a copy to all groups'.
The Post a copy to all groups is now available directly on the screen when adding a forum post.

The Post a copy to all groups is easily available when adding a forum post. You no longer need to expand the Advanced options to find it.

Assessment

Coursework New

On the left Coursework screen showing student submissions. On the right the Banner screen showing transferred marks
Coursework, the all-new assessment system in Moodle.

The new Coursework tool allows for automated mark transfer to Banner, streamlined extensions, one submission dropbox for all students, Turnitin integration and more.

For more information on the benefits and to access training resources, please visit the Moodle Coursework Google Site.

Coursework webinars will take place in September. Look out for details in the Staff Updates.

Quiz improvements

The Quiz navigation block on the right showing the 'Last saved' date and time.
Students can see from Quiz navigation when their responses were last saved.

Quiz improvements

Quiz autosave reassures users that it is working by displaying “Last saved time” in the Quiz navigation.

Reopen attempts: It is now possible to get a “Never submitted” quiz attempt back to the “In progress” state.

The Question bank now has improved searching and filtering. You can hide, remove or resize columns in the Question bank, giving you flexibility to customise your own views.

Moodle 4.5 on mobile

Accessing Moodle via a mobile browser

Moodle has been developed to be mobile-friendly on devices using a browser such as Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, which means that it resizes appropriately and adapts to different screen sizes. Therefore, Moodle 4.5 works well on mobile when using a browser on iOS or Android.

A note about the Moodle mobile app

The Moodle mobile app that is available on the App Store and Google Play Store is not currently compatible with our Moodle, therefore you must visit moodle.brookes.ac.uk via a mobile browser on Android and iOS to use Moodle.

The Brookes VLE Template

What is it?

The University VLE template was introduced in 2023. All academic Moodle modules continue to use the template which provides accessibility improvements, consistency and standardises layout, number of core sections and labelling for academic Moodle courses.

Guidance for staff

We have published:

More features

If you are a recent member of staff then we recommend you also check out the features introduced in our previous upgrade: What’s new in Moodle 4 for staff? (Summer 2023 Upgrade) – Digital Education Support at Brookes

Updated on September 17, 2025
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