Two things:
- in 2017 I spent 120 hours back in the classroom. Using Google Classroom. One small thing: I could set up a small activity for my class in less than a minute. I could see the pinging of the responses. Loved it. Yes, it's not like an LMS you want, but it had some good aspects. I got a lot of really good learning out of Google classroom.
- I'm now back with Moodle [after a break]. It's great (maybe) for some large enrollment, lock step delivery, delivery mode stuff. But interaction is hard. Mostly, with OOTB Moodle say with with Fordson, there are issues with deployment (lost of clicks needed, lack of responsiveness, navigation) clutter (how to simplify the hamburger menu, do basic stuff full screen) attractiveness (embedding stuff like Adapt, Evolve entities, H5P), editing (challenges with Atto and code handling, paste from word, labels). It's Complicated. Not loving Moodle so much.
My latest challenge scenario: deploy an activity consisting of a small video clip (or two) as input, have an associated file (maybe a PDF), have a small activity presented (in text) ideally on the same time as the video, have a place to enable a student to make a post on it (or upload something) - and a deployment of the various parts of this activity which looks nice, is intuitive, responsive, with simple navigation, reasonably easy to deploy and quick. This is not simple, easy or straightforward in Moodle. [Although of course there may be a solution somewhere that I have not seen]
Sure you can chuck a whole lot of these items in a Moodle section just listed down the screen (the Scroll of death). I'd really like a bit more than this. eg maybe three levels of navigation: section navigation, activity navigation and navigation between various parts of an activity.
I hope this doesn't offend some of you. I'm sort of optimistic, and I'm on the lookout to see if anyone has anything really new in the "challenge scenario" I describe above.
I hope Chad things work out for you. Lots of challenges in your post I have not addressed.
-Derek