Discover the Top New Features in Moodle 5.0

The release of Moodle LMS 5.0 represents one of the most impactful upgrades to the platform in recent years. Designed to support educators, learners, and administrators with smarter tools, better workflows, and greater accessibility.

Core Advancements Defining the Moodle 5 Experience

From a streamlined view of course activities to intelligent AI integrations and powerful new assessment tools, Moodle 5.0 redefines what a modern, open-source learning environment can be.

Whether you’re a teacher focused on learner motivation, an IT team optimizing infrastructure, or a client scaling operations, Moodle 5.0 brings a host of advancements designed to support better outcomes across the education spectrum.

Gamification Meets AI: Empowering Learning Through Engagement

As AI becomes an increasingly valuable tool in online education, Moodle 5.0 introduces a set of AI-enhanced learning tools that support both learner motivation and content comprehension. The newly introduced “Explain” feature works alongside the “Summarise” tool to help students unpack complex course material directly within the LMS interface.

Administrators can now manage multiple AI providers and configure individual settings for services such as OpenAI, Azure, and Alarm. With the addition of a new AI usage report, site managers gain visibility into how AI is being used across their platform an essential step for ethical deployment and informed decision-making in education technology.

In addition, Moodle continues to enable gamification strategies by supporting interactive content via improved H5P integration, especially in the Moodle mobile app, which now supports autoplay. This keeps learners engaged, especially in mobile-first environments where internet access may be intermittent but engagement needs remain constant..

Simplifying Complexity: A New Approach to Usability

One of the most appreciated changes in Moodle 5.0 is the introduction of a dedicated Activities page, a usability-focused update that gives learners and educators a clear, centralized view of course elements. This change enables faster access to assignments, quizzes, forums, and submissions—reducing the cognitive load and improving learning outcomes through better organization and fewer distractions.

This interface isn’t just a visual update; it reflects the core of Moodle’s user-centered philosophy. By improving how users navigate course directories and track their own progress, Moodle 5.0 enhances the overall learning experience while enabling educators to spend less time on administrative clicks and more on strategic pedagogy.

Built-In Accessibility Improvements

Moodle’s commitment to accessibility continues with meaningful improvements across the platform. Educators can now add long image descriptions, enhancing content for users who rely on screen readers. The TinyMCE text editor has received an upgraded accessibility checker, making it easier to identify and fix potential issues before publishing content. Navigation and glossary elements are also more inclusive, supporting smoother experiences for learners using assistive technologies.

Smarter, More Efficient Assessment Management

Moodle 5.0 also brings a suite of enhancements designed to make assessment creation and management faster and less repetitive. One of the most requested features shared question banks is finally here, allowing educators to reuse content across multiple courses without duplication. Improved filters make it easier to find questions by type, creation date, or status, speeding up quiz creation even in complex course setups.

For sites with high volumes of learners, technical upgrades such as pre-created quiz attempts and background regrading improve performance and stability. These changes, though invisible to the end user, dramatically reduce the load on course editors and administrators. Also worth noting is the addition of site-wide rules for late submission penalties, which can now be applied automatically and consistently across courses.

In short, Moodle 5.0 delivers a more coherent and scalable framework for managing assessments, saving time for educators and reducing the risk of errors in grading or quiz configuration.

Refined Quiz and Assignment Functionality

Assessment workflows receive a major upgrade in Moodle 5.0. Educators can now create shared question banks across multiple courses, removing barriers to collaboration and reducing content duplication. Filters make it easier to locate questions by type, status, or date, saving time during test construction.

New site-wide rules allow for the automatic application of late submission penalties, promoting accountability and consistency across grading practices.

To address the demands of large-scale course delivery, Moodle now supports pre-created quiz attempts and asynchronous background regrading, significantly improving system performance during high-traffic periods like exams or deadlines.

Reporting That Works Smarter, Not Harder

Administrators can now duplicate existing custom reports, preserving filters, selected fields, and scheduling settings. This makes it much easier to build variations of standard reports without starting from scratch.

With improved filtering and tracking options, Moodle also supports more accurate course analytics, giving institutions better visibility into learner progress and course performance.

Communication with SMS Notifications

Moodle 5.0 enhances its communication toolkit with the addition of SMS notifications. Through integration with the Modica SMS gateway, administrators can now send critical updates—like assignment reminders, system alerts, or enrolment messages via text message. This feature is especially valuable in regions where internet access is unreliable or for learners who rely on mobile-first experiences. By expanding beyond email, Moodle ensures that key communications are accessible, immediate, and inclusive.

Digital Credentialing with Open Badges 3.0

Moodle 5.0 now includes full support for Open Badges 3.0, the latest version of the widely adopted digital credentialing standard. This update enables education institutions to issue verifiable, portable micro-credentials that learners can display across platforms, from resumes to LinkedIn profiles.

Admins and instructors can now more easily manage badge creation, assign criteria, and issue badges upon course or activity completion empowering learners with motivational, skill-based recognition that reflects their progress and achievements within and beyond the classroom.

Moodle 5 Administration and Refinements

Discover improved control over your online learning environment with new administrative settings and controls, updated security protocols, efficient user management capabilities, and streamlined site performance monitoring tools. Each feature is designed to simplify your tasks, ensuring a secure and responsive system for managing your courses and digital learning content.

Administrative Enhancements and Mobile Improvements

Moodle 5.0 delivers thoughtful tools for administrators and power users. The custom report builder now supports report duplication, saving all filters, fields, and schedules greatly improving efficiency for those managing data and tracking engagement.

Additional updates include manual grading for BigBlueButton sessions, improved media playback, and autoplay support for H5P content in the Moodle mobile app, ensuring a consistent experience across devices.

More Features Behind the Scenes

In addition to the option for manual grading of BigBlueButton sessions, offering more flexibility in hybrid and video-based learning. Media playback has been improved, and new drag-and-drop quiz components provide a more intuitive experience for students and teachers alike. There are also expanded controls for enrolment messaging, giving institutions more flexibility in how they communicate with new users.

Altogether, these updates are meant to improve performance, and offer greater clarity across the platform.

Streamlined Course Formats and Theme Modernization

Moodle 5.0 also introduces important changes under the hood to reduce technical complexity and prepare for the platform’s future scalability. Several older course formats and legacy libraries have now been deprecated in favor of a streamlined, modern architecture that supports better performance and improved developer workflows.

With the upgrade to Bootstrap 5, institutions can build cleaner, faster, and more responsive custom themes, while developers are encouraged to review and update any outdated course formats. These changes enable sites to load faster, respond better on mobile devices, and offer a more consistent user experience across different course types.

Technical Foundations for the Future

Under the hood, Moodle 5.0 is built for the future. The platform now runs on Bootstrap 5, delivering a modern, responsive front end compatible with today’s mobile devices and screen readers. At the same time, older systems are being retired—developers should take note of deprecations in course formats and libraries and prepare their custom themes accordingly. Feel free to visit Moodle’s full list of the updates and release notes pertaining to Moodle 5.0

Upgraded support for PHP 8.2, MySQL 8.4, Postgres 14, and other system dependencies ensures a more secure and scalable architecture. Certain outdated features, such as the ATO plugin and chat legacy tools, have been removed to streamline performance and reduce security risks.

Markanyx plugins are Moodle 5 compatible

Whether you are using the Web Service Wizard, the E-Commcerce solution or any of our other solutions, rest assured, you can still continue to use them after you upgrade. We have tested our solution with the latest version of Moodle and it passed every test and is ready to be implemented on your platfrom, hassle-free

Get the required help navigating Moodle 5.0

With over 14 years in business, our expert team specializes in Moodle upgrades, theme modernization, plugin compatibility checks, AI enablement, and mobile optimization. We’ll ensure your transition is smooth, secure, and fully aligned with your goals.

Reach out today to explore how we can support your organization through a successful Moodle 5.0 rollout—so you can focus on what matters most: teaching, learning, and leading in a connected world.

Conclusion

Whether your goal is better reporting, faster content upload and editing, or integrating AI, this release brings meaningful improvements that reduce administrative overhead and improve learner engagement.

As Moodle continues to shape the global edtech landscape, version 5.0 empowers you to do more, with less friction, greater speed, and better tools. And whether you’re launching a new LMS instance or upgrading an existing site, the support you choose can make all the difference.