Moodle and Sakai

Moodle and Sakai

by David Scotson -
Number of replies: 11

I stumbled across a page about Moodle and Sakai on the Sakaipedia (a wikipedia style documentation project for the Sakai project). As far as I am aware, a few of the facts (and opinions) presented about Moodle are a bit iffy so perhaps someone (Martin?) should point them in the right direction.

The page as it currently stands reinforces the impression (discussed at length in the other current Sakai discusison) that the Sakai project is Open Source in name only, and that their selling points are Java(!) and brand name University backing.

For example, using a proprietary, J2EE wiki just rubs me the wrong way for all sorts of reasons, and the pedant in me is thoroughly annoyed by the near mantra like repetition of "open source and commercial" in this joint WebCT and Sakai PR announcement as if the two things were somehow antithetical and never to be mixed.

(Edited by Martin Dougiamas - Monday, 16 May 2005, 08:25 PM)

Average of ratings: -
In reply to David Scotson

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Zbigniew Fiedorowicz -
Since your link is garbled and the entry is short enough, I thought I'd just post the article here. The article is in response to a question asking for comment on the CSU BlackBoard versus Moodle study.

Well, it's not quite a conclusive study, if you ask me. In this analysis, Moodle does somethings better than BlackBoard, there are more tools, and the students perfer it slightly.

I had a close look at Moodle about a year and a half ago. I am sure that Moodle has progressed considerably since then, so be aware that I am basing my opinions on dated information.

Moodle was intended from the begining to be a learning management system that supported various approaches to pedagogy. The original designer (and chief architect) Martin Dougiamas created Moodle on the basis of his PhD thesis in Instructional Design. Moodle was originally aimed at K12 (primary and secondary schools).

Blackboard, WebCT, and Sakai were originally intended to be a Course Management System that supported classroom based experiences in a university setting. Blackboard grew out of their early involvement in the IMS specification development effort, which again was aimed at higher education. Sakai is the successor to CHEF, OnCourse, and Stellar, all course management systems developed by R1 universities in the US.

As such, one way to express these various systems is:
  • BlackBoard (and Sakai) is a course management system with some support for learning delivery.
  • Moodle is a learning management system with some support for course (class) management.

The Moodle community is growing rapidly and has been gaining increased involvement from universities. As such, more course management support is being added (or has been added). While I cannot speak for BlackBoard's plans, Sakai is actively discussing plans to seriously expand it support for learning delivery and management.

One final note that shouldn't make a different, but often does is development approach. Moodle is written in PHP. Sakai is written in Java. BlackBoard is written in C# and .Net.

Note: I think the last statement is incorrect. I believe BB is Java based too. This perhaps indicates something about how well-informed the author is.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Zbigniew Fiedorowicz

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Vu Hung -

Hi Zbigniew,

If I don't mistake, the first versions of BlackBoard used Java+Perl. But now, BlackBoard is migrating some parts of their systems to .NET.

Let's see a recent event from the website of BlackBoard:

Develop Building Blocks using the .NET framework

Blackboard is proud to announce the availability of the SDK for Building Blocks for the Microsoft .NET Platform. Now developers have the choice of creating Building Blocks using Java or the .NET Framework!

Building Blocks for the Microsoft .NET Platform enables developers to create Building Blocks using any of the dozens of languages supported by the .NET Framework. These Building Blocks can be used to integrate with other applications running on the .NET Framework. These include Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Office, SQL Server, and Exchange.

  • Building Blocks enables applications running on the .NET Framework to:
  • Access Blackboard Learning System database and file structures
  • Share data among applications reducing errors and the need for manual entry.
  • Create user interface components with the Blackboard look and feel.
  • Integrate with system controls for importing, exporting, and managing

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Zbigniew Fiedorowicz -
Building Blocks are code modules external to BlackBoard itself, but which are interfaced with BlackBoard.  [Something similar happens in the Moodle TeX filter, which calls on the mimetex executable, which is written in C.]  So I don't see any indication in this announcement that  major portions of BB are being rewritten in C#/.Net.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Zbigniew Fiedorowicz

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by David Scotson -

I believe Microsoft have had a strategic partnership with Blackboard for a long time now.

You can read a press release from those days here. Bear in mind that was written in 2001 when everything that Microsoft was working on was branded as .NET. Nowadays it's settled down to only refer to the Java-like runtime but then it meant Microsoft Passport and a variety of other things too.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Vu Hung

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
And here's an interesting tidbit I heard from a developer in NZ who had signed up to their developer program... you can't create brand new modules using Building Blocks ... you can only create things that manipulate the existing tables and essentially extend the existing functions with new interfaces! Amazing ...
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Dirk Herr-Hoyman -
And if I'm not mistaken, you can only run something built this was against
Blackboard, this is a licensing restriction of using Building Blocks...
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Zbigniew Fiedorowicz

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
What?

Moodle was developed for Universities FIRST.

Moodle ALWAYS did course management from the start, it's its primary function.

I'll tackle the wiki.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Goodness, someone's updated the Wiki already.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by David Scotson -
I note there is now a comment (from John Norman at Cambridge) suggesting that Sakai 2 will enable interoperation with PHP-based tools (such as Moodle, obviously) and that Moodle may wish to engage with the IMS Tools & Interoperability group.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to David Scotson

Moodle/PHP and Sakai

by Charles Severance -
Sakai 2.0 will ship with some basic web services built in. My test harness for the web services is php-based.

This is a start and an opening to make sure that Sakai APIs are available to PHP and Moodle apps.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to David Scotson

Re: Moodle and Sakai

by Scott Krajewski -
I don't think I've seen this already noted here.  But for small- to mid-sized institutions like mine, we have much experience with LAMP applications.  But we have no Java expertise.  This keeps Sakai out of reach for us.

--S
Average of ratings: -