Moodle Moot AM - Part 2

What is Moodle? The word Moodle is actually an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment

The first breakout session (11 AM - noon) that I attended was with Michael Penney – LMS Project Manager, California State University – Humboldt. The title was “The Case for Moodle as an Enterprise Level Learning Management System (LMS): Why Open Source makes sense for public institutions looking to build an online learning environment.” (prize for the longest title)

Humboldt LMS committee decided to completely drop BlackBoard. Many California schools are making the same decision. They will be Moodle-only within the next year.

Moodle has better standards/accessibility compliance:
Moodle version 1.8 = full sec. 508, WCAG 1, 2, 3
Italy is pushing Moodle because they have even stricter accessibility requirements than the US.

Scalability questions about Moodle because it is php-based: however, php is also used for Yahoo, Wikipedia, and FaceBook which are all very scaleable.

Community growth: good sign for long-term sustainability for an open source program.


Why Moodle?
  • Full course-level backup/restore
  • All content, grades, activities
    • More Web 2.0 than Ajax?
    • More Eduweb 2.0 than SecondLife?
    • Absolutely core feature for teaching institutions (IMO)
With Moodle, costs are more predictable:
  • License costs perpetually fixed at free
    • GPL means it can’t be bought, merged, or discontinued
  • Cost of new features can be shared
  • Commercial support optional, range of different service levels
Moodle Community Hub

Humboldt State: “Blackboard vs. Moodle: A Comparison of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning Tools”

He had lots of other stuff, but first I got distracted, then I got tired of taking notes.

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