I would really like to use Moodle as a back up to my face to face courses, but there are far too many hoops to jump through for my students to be able to figure out how to use it.
For one thing, there is no: "Get Started Here" link.
There is no help outside of these forums, and my students would have difficulty going here.
Can anyone suggest an easier, more user friendly open source course management system?
Thanks
Dan
What age are your students? I have used Moodle with ages 7 up to 16 and they have taken hardly any time figuring it out for themselves - a ten minute explanation how to log in (which you could make as a webpage with instructions if you were not there in person) and they are away - in fact - sometimes finding the stuff you dont' want them to find (like how to instant message each other ) . It is the teachers, not the students who have difficulty learning how to use it 
Are your students very young (or old) or disadvantaged?
Are your students very young (or old) or disadvantaged?
In reply to Mary Cooch
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While I still see some problems with moodle, I have to agree with the respondents here. I set up four Latin courses and unleashed 135 high school students on them with one common session where I walked around the library and helped the strugglers. The students who like to look for excuses not to do something did that, but no one has had any real problems except our internal authorization getting held up (parents have to sign a release/contract).
Sal, you can't agree with Mary. That's my job. Despite my suspicions that this is a troll, I'll reply.
We opened courses for 2nd and 3rd graders in April 2008. We provided no instruction in how to get from the login page to the instructions in the topic sections, and very little instruction in how to upload files or reply to forum posts. We have had no complaints that Moodle is too difficult to use.
We opened courses for 2nd and 3rd graders in April 2008. We provided no instruction in how to get from the login page to the instructions in the topic sections, and very little instruction in how to upload files or reply to forum posts. We have had no complaints that Moodle is too difficult to use.
One of the reasons I was forced into using Moodle was in desperation. I had a group of students with a variety of learning difficulties, who had behavioural issues and few literacy skills. They all wanted to use computers and Moodle was recommended to me, but I did not know anything about it. It took me a while to understand it, but then it only took the kids about 15 minutes of trying to get them logged in and they took to it like a duck to water. While I am no longer at that school, I have learned a little more about Moodle and am seriously impressed with its value as a learning tool. Do not think for one moment it is the be all and end all of LMS', because it is not, it is still in development, but it is good. Damned frustrating sometimes, for beginners, which is why I started the Beginning Administrators FAQs. It is an excellent tool for use as an adjunct to a class, and it is now being used as the basic tool for an entire course in my current school.
I have looked at a lot of different tools, and the only serious rival I have found is Blackboard, but that has become bloatware. I really suspect the indigestion caused by taking over WebCT is going to become terminal. It is awfully expensive and prone to breaking far too often for comfort. Whereas, once you set up Moodle, and leave it alone of course, you can do pretty much what you want inside it. The best part, it is the right price for me and the misers that are paying me. So I have found no other tool that can offer the same flexibility or ease of use.
What is striking me more and more is the essential flexibility of Moodle, it is a CMS, a LMS, a VLE, a forum, a wiki and other things besides. As well it can also be a tool you can use to create a reasonably secure public/private web site if you want one - even if you do not want to take advantage of the content management side of things. It provides everything so what you are suggesting here is to me at least, a nonsense.
Having said that, thank you for the opportunity to analyse and express my own perceptions of Moodle.
I have looked at a lot of different tools, and the only serious rival I have found is Blackboard, but that has become bloatware. I really suspect the indigestion caused by taking over WebCT is going to become terminal. It is awfully expensive and prone to breaking far too often for comfort. Whereas, once you set up Moodle, and leave it alone of course, you can do pretty much what you want inside it. The best part, it is the right price for me and the misers that are paying me. So I have found no other tool that can offer the same flexibility or ease of use.
What is striking me more and more is the essential flexibility of Moodle, it is a CMS, a LMS, a VLE, a forum, a wiki and other things besides. As well it can also be a tool you can use to create a reasonably secure public/private web site if you want one - even if you do not want to take advantage of the content management side of things. It provides everything so what you are suggesting here is to me at least, a nonsense.
Having said that, thank you for the opportunity to analyse and express my own perceptions of Moodle.
Hi, Dan,
I really want to encourage you as you explore Moodle as an option. My students are really enjoying it and finding leadership as they help one another. I am just getting started but you can see what I am working on for The Weekly Writer Club at www.weeklywriter.org/info . This page is built only in Moodle to show that you can have a lot of fun with the basic layout. The kids (Grades 2-8) are using similar Moodle courses behind a password protected login page.
Plus, these are kids I only see in the online Moodle clubsite....I don't even have them in a face-to-face class. You'll be able to give tips even more easily and demonstrate in class as well!
Be encouraged!
Judy