Moodle buzz

In recent years there has been a great deal of "buzz” about the merits of learning technologies for higher education. At Augsburg, the Hybrid Initiative for WEC courses means that many instructors have extended and intensified the use of Moodle in their courses. But does the time it takes to master an LMS (a Learning Management System such as Moodle) and design and create course content actually translate to increased student learning? Further, since numerous (free) programs on the Web (blogs, wikis, web page developers, video- and audio-sharing programs) provide functions similar to those in Moodle (and may sometimes seem easier to use), why be confined to one program? After all, shareware and social media may be more familiar and/or appealing to students. So it's understandable that an instructor might ask him/herself, "Why should I Moodle?”