Moodle The Whole Kit and

Caboodle

Evelyn Harris & Kathy WolfordVance-Granville Community College

Introduce Moodle Share our migration experiences Highlight some of our favorite features of

Moodle

Agenda

Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment

Also a verb that describes the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity

Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler

What’s in a name?

Moodle Mythbusters

Moodle might be fine for small schools, but it’s not powerful enough for an institution as large as mine.

1. BUSTED2. CONFIRMED

Is an active and evolving work in progress Started in the ‘90s, first released in 2002 Moodle.org user community Moodle.com company website Moodle Stats as of June 16, 2008:

◦ 45,271 registered sitesin 199 countries

◦ 1,985,661 Courses◦ 20,535,286 Users◦ 1,912,476 Teachers

About Moodle

Background in Information Technology Began developing Moodle while working as a

System Administrator for Web CT Web CT and Blackboard frustrated him “There

had to be a better way” Went on to complete a Masters and PhD in

education. Moodle was his thesis project. “It is crucial to me that this software be easy

to use - in fact it should be as intuitive as possible. “ Martin Dougiamas

Martin Dougiamas

Designed to support a social constructionist framework of education

Learning is more effective when constructing something for others to experience

Students learn from each other and the teacher

Moodle is not constrained by what will sell well, so the code that is developed is often at the cutting edge of educational thinking

Moodle Architecture

Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under license. If it were any good,

they’d already be charging for it.

1. BUSTED2. CONFIRMED

Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software

"I'm committed to continuing my work on Moodle and on keeping it Open and Free. I have a deeply-held belief in the importance of unrestricted education and empowered teaching, and Moodle is the main way I can contribute to the realization of these ideals." - Martin Dougiamas

Is it really free?

The software itself is free, but the company makes money from it in other ways◦ Server hosting◦ Customization

Users are guaranteed the right to copy, modify and redistribute the software

The software is supported and updated by the company

More importantly though, it’s also supported by a huge online community of enthusiasts – Moodle.org

Open Source

There’s no documentation, training or technical support available for Moodle – you’re on your own

1. BUSTED2. CONFIRMED

Currently over 452,000 registered users (June 08)

Averages over 500 new users each day All of these people have a vested interest

in finding and fixing errors and making improvements to Moodle.

Moodle.org

Due to community effort Open source software tends to be more secure, more stable and more quickly developed than equivalent closed source (proprietary) software

VGCC adopted Blackboard in Summer 1998 Currently, 200+ active Blackboard courses

with 2000+ students Summer 2007, VGCC joined the North

Carolina Moodle Users Group sponsored by the Community College System Office

Moodle to date, 0 courses with 0 students

VGCC Background Info

Students find Moodle very user friendly.

1. BUSTED2. CONFIRMED

Student feedback at other schools has been very positive

Students just “get it”

Student Feedback

Overall very positive Once they get started they love it Course conversion is not easy Moodle is a mind-set shift; some handle it

better than others Instructors that tend to use discussion

boards, chats and group projects seem to be the most enthusiastic

Faculty Feedback From Other Schools

Moodle: Layout

List of Blocks

Here are some of our favorite Moodle features!

Moodle: Participants

Can filter by time since last activity. Can sort by all column headings. Displays pictures, if added to profile. Gives quick access to student’s profile &

blogs. Can quickly send messages to selected

students from this screen.

Participants Screen

Moodle: Resources & Activities

Moodle gives you two types of items to add. Resources are things for students to look at or

read. Activities are things for students to do.

Moodle ResourcesMoodle Activities

Moodle: Grading

Moodle: Reports

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Can see details about every

click made. Can sort, filter and view in

greater detail.

Reports screen

Moodle: Message

A hybrid between instant messaging and email

If a student is online, when you send a message an instant message box alerts them to your message immediately

If they are not online an email is sent

You can message students in bulk from the Participants screen.

A Message History log is saved of all messages you send through Moodle.

Messages are automatically sent to student whenever you post grades.

Incoming message

Moodle: Calendar

Big WOW! Displayed prominently on the main course page. All due dates are auto-linked directly into the

calendar. Mouse over highlighted date for more info. Students absolutely love this feature. Events can be set at the school, class, group &

participant level.

Moodle: Glossary

Your students can post glossary entries or you can restrict this privilege to instructors only.

If a term in the glossary appears with-in the course, it is auto linked back to its definition.

You can turn this feature on and off.

Moodle.org◦ Moodle’s user community site

VGCC’s Internal Site◦ Will soon have a collection of Moodle

documentation posted.

Web Links