Sapienza University of Rome, or Università di Roma "La Sapienza", is one of the largest universities in Europe, with over 147,000 students and 24 faculties.
In 2004, La Sapienza researched a number of virtual learning environments before deciding to implement Moodle as an experimental initiative.
Five years on, fuelled by the interest of students and word-of-mouth amongst professors, the university's Moodle site e-learning a "La Sapienza" con MOODLE has grown to over 50,000 users and around 1,000 courses!
Italian Moodle Partner MediaTouch 2000 srl has supported Moodle at La Sapienza by providing a range of commercial services including system design and capacity planning, set-up, load balancing, backup and consultancy. Moodle Partners contribute a percentage of their earnings to the Moodle Trust, so by making use of the services of MediaTouch 2000 srl, La Sapienza has helped support Moodle development.
In addition, La Sapienza has contributed to improving Moodle accessibility to ensure that Moodle complies with strict Italian accessibility legislation (see Moodle tracker issue MDL-7860).
According to Professor Paolo Renzi, who led the experimental initiative in 2004, "We are really pleased with Moodle. It demonstrates a strong pedagogical background as well as sound architecture, both of which are critical for wide acceptance and scalability. The smooth Moodle learning curve has also been very important in enabling teachers and students to get started and participate in courses quickly."