Comparisons and advocacy

The answer really depends on her and the students. To successfully use Moodle and any type of online course, both the student and teacher have to be committed to it. It is not a "if you build it, they will come...", rather it has to be presented as to how it will improve the overall learning experience.

As to how much effort can be saved, really depends on her current approach to the course. Do these courses focus on theory or application? Is she stickily using a text book to teach from or is she preparing her own materials.

The basic power of Moodle is being able to present information in a consistent manner, and provide testing. Of course, there is so much more it can do as well. It takes time to learn how to effectively indicate something like Moodle into a classroom environment. There are some good resources here as well as example courses to help generate ideas.

My recommendation... identify what she has to do repeatably that takes her away from being able to provide individualized teaching. Then focus on how to use Moodle to become the teacher of that material. Even if to start, it is as simple as giving out assignments and tracking the completion of them, that could save her time.

Simple quizes are another perfect opportunity as she does not have to print and distribute and then collect them. Even distributing sample code would be helpful through Moodle, as the student could easily download it and start working with it immediately. The possibilities are only as limited as the imagination.

Ron