August 19, 2026
Dear Faculty:
We hope you have had a restful summer! Welcome to the start of 2026 Fall terms at LSU. We would like to share some important information and a few updates from LSU Academic Technology.
Update: 2026 Summer Moodle Transition
Throughout the summer, we have been transferring our LSU Moodle sites to a new host provider. We truly appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we have worked through this maintenance period. We are happy to report that this process was completed for our LSU Moodle sites on August 12 with minimal issues. We are working on restoring all 2026 Summer courses to the LSU Moodle site. For more information on this maintenance period, including guidance for managing incomplete grades and when summer courses will appear in Moodle, see our Faculty Resources & Support page (opens in new tab) .
Reminder: Moodle Recycle Bin is Currently DISABLED
The recycle bin in all courses is currently disabled as we perform some necessary site updates. Please be aware that if you delete items in your course, they cannot be recovered. Double check items before deleting. If you are uncertain, hide the item from students instead. For help with hiding activities, see GROK 20547, Common Activity Settings: Visibility (opens in new tab) .
Update: Recycle Bin Has Been Reenabled
The Moodle recycle bin is has been reenabled. Deleted items remain in the course recycle bin for 8 days and can be restored if needed. After 8 days, the items are permanently deleted.
New Moodle Feature: Clear Filters on My Courses Page
Users can now clear all applied filters on the My Courses page! Clearing filters will make all your course cards visible, with hidden courses listed last. To clear the filters, simply navigate to the My Courses page and click “Clear” at the right end of the menu:
Upcoming New Moodle Feature: Accordions in TinyMCE
This fall, we are adding a tool to the TinyMCE text editor that will allow adding an accordion display to any text in your Moodle course. An accordion allows for sections of text to expand and collapse by clicking a header, to show or hide additional content. Check GROK (opens in new tab) for more information in the coming weeks!
New Free Course: AI Literacy Essentials
Faculty across LSU have created a free Moodle course in conjunction with LSU Online to educate users on the professional and ethical use of artificial intelligence, or AI. This course is currently available through self-enrollment to all LSU faculty, staff, and students in LSU Moodle, and it will soon be available to the public on our Continuing Education Moodle site. If you or your students are interested in taking this course, you can find it here: AI Literacy Essentials (opens in new tab) .
Ghost Students
As you begin the semester, please be aware that many institutions, including LSU, have seen a rise in "ghost students," individuals who use stolen or fraudulent identities to enroll in courses in an attempt to capture financial aid. LSU is implementing enhanced identity verification measures to help reduce this risk. In addition to these measures, faculty are encouraged to monitor for unusual patterns such as inconsistent participation, assignment submissions similar to other students' work, little to no response to emails or communication, or students who remain enrolled but show little authentic engagement. If you suspect that you might have a ghost student, please bring your concerns to your administration.
Correction on 10/12/2026: Please bring your ghost student concerns to the Faculty Technology Center and they will be escalated appropriately.
Reminder: Replacing Turnitin Assignment 2
If you have imported or copied the deprecated Turnitin Assignment 2 from a previous Moodle course, please note that this tool is no longer supported and that on December 31, 2027, it will no longer function. In addition, these assignments are currently experiencing intermittent connection failures in live courses. If you are importing course content that contains this assignment type, please create new Turnitin assignment activities using the Turnitin Feedback Studio LTI (GROK 20684) (opens in new tab) .
If you have already updated your activities to the Turnitin Plagiarism Plugin tool (GROK 20591) (opens in new tab) , you can continue to use it. For an explanation of the differences between the plagiarism plugin and the LTI 1.3, see Turnitin’s Feedback Studio with Moodle comparison chart (opens in new tab) (disregard columns 2 and 3).
Support From the FTC
The Faculty Technology Center (FTC) provides Moodle support, consultations, and innovative solutions to faculty and graduate teaching assistants tailored to their individual teaching. To contact the FTC, please see our Support Services page (opens in new tab) .
Thank you for the opportunity to continue serving LSU. Have a great semester!
Best,
LSU Academic Technology Team