On 16 December FLO will get a facelift as part of the regular FLO upgrade cycle. While the software foundation will remain the same, the interface will be refreshed, bringing significant benefits to users.

Book into a roadshow over November to February to learn about the changes.

Roadshows will be held in College locations to demonstrate the changes. Staff can book into roadshows using iEnrol and can either attend in person or online.

This video provides an overview of the navigation and look and feel changes. There is another video that provides an overview of the key changes for teaching staff.

What does this mean for teaching staff?

• You will still be able to perform all the same functions you have been used to, plus some new ones – particularly improvements to forums, quizzes, assignments and gradebook (more detail below)
• After the change some functions may be found in a slightly different location, or may be performed in a slightly different (more intuitive) way
• There are many key elements that will remain the same, (eg. menus, icons) providing a level of familiarity
• At first glance your topic will appear different, but rest assured this is only the aesthetics. The content and layout of your topic modules will remain unchanged.

This video provides an overview of the key changes for teaching staff

 New features
Some of the new features include improvements to forums, quizzes, assignments and gradebook:

In forums teachers and students can:

• post and reply without opening a new page
• sort discussions by latest post, original post date or the number of replies
• star favourite posts
• subscribe to discussion threads more easily

In forums teachers can:

• reply privately to students
• use improved grading options – grade a post, an entire forum and use rubrics or marking guides
• add due and cut-off dates to a forum (and the due date will be added to the topic calendar and timeline on dashboard)
• manually lock discussions
• export forums

In quizzes students can:

• ‘clear options’ in multiple choice questions

In quizzes teachers can:

• use tags and ID numbers to better manage question banks
• manage categories and questions in an improved question bank – tabs for easy access to questions and categories, new edit menu for questions
• view logs showing additions/modifications to questions in the question bank

In assignments teachers can:

• perform anonymous grading
• present a submission statement better aligned to group assignment submissions
• give audio feedback
• provide media files as feedback

In gradebook teachers can:

• use IF, AND, OR functions in formulas

In activity chooser teachers can:

• indicate favourites with a star
• view activities in a new tab style interface
• choose from recommended activities

If you have any questions, please contact the Online Learning and Teaching team in your College or visit the FLO website.