Blah... the 'nuther moodle list...

Blah... the 'nuther moodle list...

由D.I. von Briesen發表於
Number of replies: 2

Well, now that our school has moodle fully-entrenched as a solid alternative to BB, and our IT folks are refusing to add any more sections to BB (it just won't scale anymore and we've got 7 servers on it) we are going down the path of investigating "open source LMS's" - I find this humorous since we've been using moodle for 2 years, and it's now fully integrated into our registration/semester rollovers, etc... - but I'm playing the game so that we can make it official once and for all that moodle is our platform of choice.

To that end, my homework is to come up with the "pros" of moodle. I refused to do the cons, as I'll leave that to others who will have to take some abuse from me (unless the cons are legit, of course).

So in a burst of Mt. Dew induced frenzy, I spit out the following list in about 15 minutes and submitted it to the more rational member of my team in the hopes she'd tidy it up. She didn't... but I'm hoping others out there have got some sort of similar list. I know that I can find scads of info on the doc site- but I'm looking for a big list of bullet points and not much more - so if you like this and can add to it, or have a better list to point me to- I'm all ears and eyes.

So, here's what I started with (in no particular order):

  • Moodle has over 12,000 registered installations world-wide and has been adopted by the two large "open universities" in the UK and Canada.
  • Moodle is open source - which means complete access to ALL code for modifications, troubleshooting, and customization. This means we can never be "held hostage" by a vendor, or limited as to what we do or how we do it with the software.
  • Moodle's platform - PHP and mySQL running on Apache and Linux (LAMP for short- stands for Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP) is a proven, world-wide standard with a ready supply of software developers, hosting providers, and 3rd party tools to aid in customization, configuration, etc..
  • very easy for teachers to edit anything in their course.
  • very easy to fix bad test questions
  • easy to bring in external content as individual files or as zipped folder from any source
  • very easy to import test/quiz questions from a variety of formats
  • lends itself to very student-centric view of a course - profiles and activity are very accessible to teacher and students
  • faculty and student profiles are linked across all courses - update once and it applies to all locations.
  • very active, supportive and enthusiastic world-wide community at moodle.org
  • very active list of professional supporters and support organizations who will make modifications or consult as needed
  • progressive in support of ADA, section 508, IMS, SCORM and numerous other standards- no marketing baloney to suggest compliance when things are not yet perfect (BB claims ADA compliance but is not)
  • content creation is easy- so if we request it from publishers in moodle format, they'll likely oblige
  • bringing in any kind of content (from CD or website) is straighforward, and uses a graphical web-based interface
  • quizzes can be regraded to account for fixed questions - live, and on the fly.
  • questions can be edited right from the preview or review (of a student quiz) view
  • any html elements can easily be inserted into the course or a block.
  • blocks easily moved up or down, right or left
  • very flexible layout (1, 2, or 3 columns, weeks or topics, many blocks or few)
  • calendar that shows course, user, and site events, and can filter on any of the three
  • course hierarchy is flat- easy to find content without digging into folder after folder
  • course labeling and item labelling is easy
  • anything can be edited with one click to edit, and another to save changes
  • one click makes entire course editable in a variety of ways
  • versions are progressing very quickly, so that each edition addresses key items from the previous version, leading to great forward progress.
  • global product- accounting for 70+ languages, upcoming unicode support, intrinsic support for language issues
  • embedded mp3 support - play linked audio directly from browser with flash player
  • very progressive activities incorporated - blogs, wikis, journals, workshops, etc... (see full list of activities)
  • easy linking to directory (as opposed to file) for making large amounts of content quickly available (i.e. 17 presentations)

(note that this is not my example of quality list-making or moodle advocacy - but barring better info from others on these boards, it's likely sufficient for this particular task)

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In reply to D.I. von Briesen

Re: Blah... the 'nuther moodle list...

由Jim Farmer發表於
You may want to broaden your discussion. For example, the cost of content is significantly more than the learning system. Open University UK has some of the most effective learning materials that are being made available as open content, a project funded in part by the Hewlett Foundation. Expect this content to be available in a standard form. Effective in terms of increased student retention, increased course completion, and success in their program.

At the same time Open University is implementing the IMS specifications in Moodle to facilitate the sharing of assessments, learning design, and access to respositories. The talented Open University team includes Niall Schlater, one of the experts in assessment, and Jason Cole--yes the same Jason Cole who authored "Using Moodle." In fairness Blackboard and WebCT also implement IMS specifications.

With the new IMS focus on interoperability, compliance with IMS specifications will become more valuable to users. OU UK is funding this development in Moodle; Jason expects to release a "roadmap" when the discussions with the Moodle team in Perth are completed.

Also expect the publishers currently developing the "Common Cartridge" specification to also engage the open content community to seek additional implementations--another welcome IMS initiative that will benefit Moodle users.

You could also cite the recent discussions at the OSS Watch "Open Source and Sustability Conference" held last week. Moodle emerges as an open source learning system likely to achieve long-term sustainability. See www.oss-watch.ac.uk; the slides should be available next week and a summary will follow.

Discussion also focused on the Moodle community. Some observations: The strength of the Moodle community is the number of end-users--teachers, faculty, education technologists--who participate, become users, and then contribute at some level of the use of Moodle and the Moodle software. The MoodleMoots have been exceptionally productive. The Moot program focuses on use of Moodle rather than computer technology, has selected locations and costs that permit more to participate--many funding their own participation, and made Moots available in local languages. I am told that about 2,400 attended the 16 MoodleMoots last year. I credit Sean Koegh with insight into community building; recent research into open source communities confirms the decisions he made.

While some say the book "Using Moodle" may not be as current as a computer file, the impact of O'Reilly's endorsement of Moodle as a long-term, productive open source application is very important and readily understood by anyone who sees "Using Moodle" when they are having coffee at Borders.

Two learning systems were developed by educators--Martin Dougiamas and Moodle and James Dalziel. The software reflects their knowledge in education. Expect that focus to continue.

Any selection of learning systems should consider the characteristics of the students, the level and discipline of the course, and the preparation of the students. These can be significantly different at different colleges and universities. As more students become location and time constrained, the  effectiveness of on-line learning will be key to achieving institutional objectives. Frame the discussion of any learning system from this perspective.

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In reply to D.I. von Briesen

Re: Blah... the 'nuther moodle list...

由Tony Hursh發表於
Data retention and research. This is a key issue that's often overlooked.

When you use proprietary software, continued access to your data is generally dependent on your institution continuing to buy/lease/whatever. If you stop paying, your data goes away.

With Moodle (or other free software) you'll always have access to your data. Even if the open source project gets abandoned (not that that's likely with Moodle), you still have the source code, so you can always get to your data.

Ask them if they'd rent a physical filing cabinet with a proviso that if you stop paying rent, the rental company will destroy all your files. 微笑

Also, it's possible to add modifications to free software so that you can generate custom reports and analyses. While some proprietary software has a published API, it's not quite the same as being able to change ANYTHING.

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