During the Moodle 4.0 redesign, the removal of "Next" and "Previous" navigation buttons from activity pages sparked significant concern within the Moodle Community. These buttons were widely seen as essential for maintaining a smooth workflow, especially in large or complex courses. Without them, users must rely on the course index for navigation, which many find less intuitive and more cognitively demanding.

To address this gap, some users turned to third-party themes like Boost Union, which brought back similar navigation features. However, feedback suggests a strong preference for native, user-friendly navigation tools integrated into Moodle's core functionality, emphasising the need for design improvements that make navigation easier and meet the needs of all users without adding extra complexity.

With the implementation of the Course hierarchy project, sections and subsections individual pages were introduced, and it's crucial to analyse and design the workflow from a more holistic perspective to ensure we provide a solution that help users comprehend the different levels of hierarchy while navigating the course.

🗣️ Feedback from the Moodle community

Tracker issues

• MDL-75683 - Add next and previous links on activity pages Closed

• MDL-80690 - Create a Next & Prev API for seamless navigation across sections and activities Open

Community forums

• Moodle 4.0 - Navigation between activities

• Navigation for Next and Previous

• Navigation buttons 'next/previous' missing after upgrade 4.1.8

• Remove links to previous and next section in Moodle 4.3