Comparisons and advocacy

Brian - Hopefully you don't mind a little friendly sarcasm ... there was a post about Moodle 1.0 being released that was bug free and completely stable; however, it was posted on April 1st and was a bit of a joke. The basic idea was that Moodle 1.0 basically did nothing, had no features, etc. and was thus free of any corruption. I think part of the challenge for LMSs (learning management systems) is that education happens in so many different ways. The software makes a few common things available but then everyone wants things customized to work they way that they think. I found Moodle 1.6 to be pretty stable and even Moodle 1.8 has been pretty solid (IMHO). Now with 1.8 there is more power with roles which of course was a major new feature and thus a lot of questions in the forums and obviously some bugs. I also think that part of open source is having the freedom to customize (and thus introduce your own bugs into the system). I think by and large folks understand Moodle more deeply, are more aware of its capabilities and limitations, and thus get into more issues. My experience with non-open source products is that you just have to learn to live and adapt to its limitations and bugs and find workarounds. So there has been some discussion recently on the Moodle forums about stability. A lot of energy has gone in to developing and implementing new features and improving things. Adding new code and features increases the complexity of the program and the likelihood of more bugs and thus less stability. I for one have been pleased to see the development; however, I think that enough folks are starting to ask "is it worth it?". There is a sense that folks just want it to work even if they can do less with it. It is a constant balancing act and I believe that Moodle has been leaning toward new features and product development without overly sacrificing stability. I know that some institutions install Moodle and do not update it at all during the academic year. If a user has a problem, they search the forums and find out what is happening. In my opinion it beats waiting on hold for a tech person who reads from a list of canned responses that I could have found out online anyway. So I think some instability is to be expected whenever one relies on technology - even Moodle. Peace - Anthony

Many problems are caused by webhosts that aren't set up specifically for hosting Moodle (or other dynamic database based web applications). Most webhosting firms are set up for hosting static web sites (HTML), few of them are configured for hosting dynamic "Web2.0" applications such as Moodle, Drupal, Postnuke, etc. Often these hosts provide tools that are not designed for working with large applications (for instance ftp interfaces that work fine for a few KB of uploaded HTML but fall apart when one tries to upload multiple MB applications. Folks also often try to manage their dynamic web application using consumer grade cable and DSL connections that are "broadband", but not really designed for transferring large amounts of files or large files.

OTOH, the commercial systems I'm familiar with (Blackboard, WebCT, eCollege,etc) won't allow themselves to be set up on webservers that are not specifically configured for them (or the installers configure the webserver). As you pay 10s of thousands of dollars just to try these systems out, that they are frequently as buggy as a free application you loaded on a $5/month webhost speaks volumes about where the money goes.

Another issue that causes problems in both the commercial and open source systems is that it is far easier to get resources to build new features than it is to get resources for testing and bug-fixing--meanwhile testing and bug fixing often take more time than developing new code. New features are exciting, but testing, fixing, refactoring, is not. An interesting read related to this subject is Inside MySpace it talks about the race between features and stability in Web 2.0 application development. (http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2082925,00.asp)

This is all complicated by the fact that the Internet was designed for displaying static text files reliably, it wasn't designed for the read/write web, immediate UI feedback, nor for distribution of audio and video, these things have all been tacked on, and they do surprisingly well, all things considered.

In any event, the best bet for stability in any LMS is knowledgeable staff or (in the specific case of Moodle) hosting with a Moodle partner.

I second the comments made by both Anthony and Michael, and add my own. You mention having difficulties "when you try out a new feature", or "when you try to get an existing feature to work properly". I assume that not every existing feature has let you down, so could you be more specific and let us know which ones have worked, and which ones haven't? Also, which "new features" are you talking about? Official Moodle features, or 3rd party plugins and modules?

How much are you ready to invest into Moodle? If you're willing to spend some $ you can follow Michael's suggestion and have a Moodle partner host and maintain your Moodle installation. They will take care of those pesky issues that have prevented you from enjoying Moodle in the past. Since they're familiar with the common problems users face, they can save you "duplicated frustration" so that you can focus on the pedagogy and leave the tech side to them.