Moodle
Moodle is a free software e-learning platform (also known as a Course Management System (CMS), or Learning Management Systems (LMS), or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)). It has a significant user base with 38,896 registered sites with 16,927,590 users in 1,713,438 courses (as of January, 2008) [1].
Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design means that people can develop additional functionality. Development is undertaken by a globally diffused network of commercial and non-commercial users, spearheaded by the Moodle company based in Perth, Western Australia.
Moodle features
Moodle has many features expected from an e-learning platform. However newer developments have brought in new features.
Moodle is modular in construction and can readily be extended by creating plugins for specific new functionality. Moodle's infrastructure supports many types of plugin:
- Activities
- Resource types
- Question types
- Data field types (for the database activity)
- Graphical themes
- Authentication methods
- Enrollment methods
- Content Filters
Many third-party Moodle plugins are freely available making use of this infrastructure [2].
PHP can be used to author and contribute new modules. Moodle's development has been assisted by the work of open source programmers [3]. This has contributed towards its rapid development and rapid bug fixes.
Specification
Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare and any other systems that support PHP, including most webhost providers.
Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL were the only feasible options in Moodle 1.6. Version 1.7, released November 2006, makes full use of database abstraction so that other databases can be used just as easily (Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are two specific target DBMSes). The current version of Moodle (1.9), was released in March 2008.
Background
Origins
Moodle was created by Martin Dougiamas, a WebCT administrator at Curtin University, Australia, who has graduate degrees in Computer Science and Education. His Ph.D. examined "The use of Open Source software to support a social constructionist epistemology of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry". This research has strongly influenced the design of Moodle, providing pedagogical aspects missing from many other e-learning platforms.
Pedagogical approach
The stated philosophy of Moodle [4] includes a constructivist and social constructionist approach to education, emphasizing that learners (and not just teachers) can contribute to the educational experience in many ways. Moodle's features reflect this in various design aspects, such as making it possible for students to comment on entries in a database (or even to contribute entries themselves), or to work collaboratively in a wiki.
Having said this, Moodle is flexible enough to allow for a full range of modes of teaching. It can be used for both introductory and advanced delivery of content (e.g. HTML pages) or assessment, and does not necessitate a constructivist teaching approach.
Constructivism is sometimes seen as at odds with accountability-focused ideas about education, such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in the United States. Accountability stresses tested outcomes, not teaching techniques, or pedagogy, but Moodle is also useful in an outcomes-oriented classroom environment because of its flexibility.
Origin of the name
The word Moodle is actually an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, although originally the M stood for "Martin", named after Martin Dougiamas, the original developer. [5]
Moodle can also be considered a verb, which describes the improvisational process of doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course.
- Moodle has a significant user base with over 36,000 registered sites with 14 million users in 1.4 million courses (as of December 22, 2007). More than 70 languages are supported. The Current Moodle Statistics can also be seen online.
- There are 74 registered Moodle sites with more than 20,000 users. The site with the most users is moodle.org with 43 courses and 322,176 users. The site with the most courses is E-learning na VUT v Brně with 19,223 courses and 41,305 users (as of October 21, 2007).
- Moodle market share according to Alexa Web Traffic for LMS Suppliers: Moodle only below Blackboard, above all other VLE, including WebCT.
Interoperability
There are many dimensions to interoperability for e-learning systems. Moodle's interoperability features include:
- Authentication, using LDAP, Shibboleth, or various other standard methods (e.g. IMAP)
- Enrollment, using IMS Enterprise among other standard methods, or by direct interaction with an external database
- Quizzes and quiz questions, allowing import/export in a number of formats: GIFT (moodle's own format), IMS QTI, XML and XHTML (NB although export works very well, import is currently not complete)
- Resources, using IMS Content Packaging, SCORM, AICC (CBT), LAMS
- Integration with other Content Management Systems such as Postnuke (via third-party extensions)
- Syndication using RSS or Atom newsfeeds - external newsfeeds can be displayed in a course, and forums, blogs, and other features can be made available to others as newsfeeds.
Moodle also has import features for use with other specific systems, such as importing quizzes or entire courses from Blackboard or WebCT.
Deployment and development
Moodle has been evolving since 1999 (since 2001 with the current architecture). The current version is 1.9, which was released in March of 2008. It has been translated into 61 different languages. Major improvements in accessibility and display flexibility were developed in 1.5.
As of November 2007, the Moodle user community with over 330,000 registered users on their site alone. As there are no license fees or limits to growth, an institution can add as many Moodle servers as needed. The largest single site has reported over 6,000 courses and over 45,000 students, and the Open University of the UK is building a Moodle installation for their 200,000 users.
The development of Moodle continues as a free software project supported by a team of programmers and an international user community, drawing upon contributions posted to an online Moodle Community that encourages debate and invites criticism.
There are some auto install packages to facilitate the installation including Fantastico and the Moodle package for Debian GNU/Linux. Users are free to distribute and modify the software under the terms of the GNU General Public License).
See also
External links
Official Moodle resources
- Moodle.org - Original developer's Moodle site, communities, courses and software
- Moodle Partners a group of competent professionals who are serious about providing quality services to users of Moodle software, ranging from basic support to the development and implementation of complete ICT solutions
Reports/articles
- Article explaining Moodle for beginning users. Published on techsoup.org
- Blackboard vs. Moodle. A Comparison of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning Tools
- Blackboard Online System to be Replaced -New System Moodle More Effective
- Bob McDonald "E-Learning at Cranbrook: Up Close and Personal" (2004) Cranbrook Schools
- Graf S., List, B. (2005) An Evaluation of Open Source E-Learning Platforms Stressing Adaptation Issues - an evaluation of 9 open source E-Learning Platforms.
Other
Moodle at Aiken High School - Screen captures and captions illustrating how Moodle is used at a medium sized public high school in South Carolina, USA: http://aiken.moodlerooms.com/wb/pages/academics/moodle/moodle-at-aiken-high-school--introduction.php