Components for Learning – Introducing variants

August 13, 2023

We are proud to introduce a major version of the Components for Learning plugin for Moodle, which brings us variants.

If the previous versions of Components for Learning were intended to simplify the educators’ creating endeavour, variants will provide them with the ability to apply visual variations to the components, like making them full-width, moving them to the left or right, adding quotes or captions, or choosing between ordered or unordered lists.

We fully refactored the plugin’s user interface to make sure those variations could be applied without leaving the editor. As you can see, we also adapted the preview display so it shows how the component will look when a variant is selected. Also, If a component allows several variants, you may as well use them together.

To make the experience of creating content easier for educators, we made the user choices persistent: once a Variant is selected, it will remain the preferred option until the user chooses to deselect it again.

This amazing feature has only been possible thanks to Marc’s invaluable contribution and enthusiastic commitment to the project. He explored new lands in the area of the recently implemented Tiny 6 editor, and he might have opened the door to new ways of asynchronously managing user preferences. For the UI and components redesign, I take the blame. 🙂

We hope you enjoy it!