is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

by alain madec -
Number of replies: 5

Hi all,

I am setting up a pilot-project to provide online courses to Burmese students living in Thailand .

The courses will be in english and I want to use Forums, Chat, emails so that learners communicate each other and with the trainer.

On Moodle.org many technical problems are reported, and even when Moodle is hosted by a company.

So I wonder if I really need to use a CMS (Course Management System) like Moodle (or other) ?

If my students have already the content on their computer, they will use Internet to get other resources, they will be able to Chat through Yahoo Messenger (or other), and I found a partner that can use his Website Forum place for forums…

So, Why do you think I need a formal CMS ? maybe If I want to use other CMS options (test, quizz…), If I have more students ?

I just want to focus about pedagogy and communication…

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In reply to alain madec

Re: is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

by Séverin Terrier -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi,

the benefit to use a CMS like Moodle is to have everything in one place smile

Accessible from everywhere, with just an internet connexion and a web browser (and no specific software).

There is gugs, like in ALL software, but many people and organisation use Moodle with no specific (big) problem smile

You also have a flexible product, where you can choose which activity you want to use, and how you want to organise your resources and activities smile
... and ready when you want to use more things than just a forum wink

Hope this helps
Séverin
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In reply to Séverin Terrier

Re: is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

by alain madec -

Hello Severin,

Thanks for your obvious answer, I agree it is much better to have Moodle...

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In reply to alain madec

Re: is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi alain

You touch a whole bunch of broad topics. You must be realistic, that a casual forum discussion won't answer them to any depth.

> I am setting up a pilot-project to provide online courses to Burmese students living in Thailand .

That is good news. I follow the development of Burma and Tibet for decades, the two most repressive regimes in Asia and the lives of two Saints of the caliber of Gandhi or Mandela. If the web can influence the outcome of this struggle that would be fantastic!

> The courses will be in english and I want to use Forums, Chat, emails so that learners communicate each other and with the trainer.

Moodle offers much more: Check "Using Moodle"
http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 blocks 2 and 3 ("Moodle core code" and "Moodle contributed code").

According to http://moodle.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=948 Burmese is not yet supported, may be you'll find the ressources one day.

http://docs.moodle.org/

> On Moodle.org many technical problems are reported, and even when Moodle is hosted by a company.

What do you expect? Moodle is an advanced tool, show me a tool with no reported problems.

> So I wonder if I really need to use a CMS (Course Management System) like Moodle (or other) ?

Only you can answer that. This is not the commercial world where you'll hear "We know what you need, our product of course!".

> If my students have already the content on their computer, they will use Internet to get other resources,

Good to know that the exile Burmese have Internet access in Thailand. The reports coming out of Burma are horrible.

> they will be able to Chat through Yahoo Messenger (or other), and I found a partner that can use his Website Forum place for forums…

Yes, if your "customers" are at ease in the net, they'll find those and many other services for free or almost free.

> So, Why do you think I need a formal CMS ? maybe If I want to use other CMS options (test, quizz…), If I have more students ?

Again, you should answer that question yourself. As I see it, you want to reach a community. If each go to a different chat for forum, where is the community? Or, as Séverin has pointed out, if they login to different places for different services, will they be happy?

> I just want to focus about pedagogy and communication…

The best thing then is to do a test run on Moodle!
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

by alain madec -

Hi Visvanath,

Thanks a lot for your answer, the ressources and also your concern about people I am trying to help.

I also agree that Moodle offer much more and plan to use it.

It was important to have arguments from other, especially when I will apply for grants…

Anyway, by using a Chat or a forum outside Moodle, it would be between the students and the trainer so the concept of community would be there.

Obviously, the students can access a lot of ressources on the Web, but having ones matching their abilities, needs and written in a more accessible way (simple English) is much better. And here, they already attend face-to-face trainings with professionals having already experience and materials, so the idea is to make a “online bridge” between these people …

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In reply to alain madec

Re: is it necessary to use a formal CMS ?

by Colin Matheson -
You really ask a big question, should we use an assortment of free online tools (messenger, wiki, blog, survey) that might be independently easier to use than Moodle, or should we strive for a single tool that has them all? The single tool probably has more bugs and might not be as good as each tool is independently. However, as you add more and more accounts, passwords, and urls you start to confuse the user. Also integration between various systems allows for synergy (for example, with Moodle I can message all of the students who have not completed an activity). I am tempted by the look of edublogs and pbwiki, but I don't want to have my students go all over the place (because they will miss something).

As for Moodle bugs:

I have used a cheap hosting service siteground.com for a year. They are cheap ($72/year) and the Moodle install has worked well. Sometimes it is slow, but it never breaks.
My school is now going to host Moodle and we have had problems because we don't have a lot of experience and we made some mistakes.

Finally, my thoughts are with the people of Burma and I am horrified by the oppressive regime. Keep on educating!
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