Moodle The Whole Kit and Caboodle

1. MoodleThe Whole Kit and Caboodle Evelyn Harris & Kathy Wolford Vance-Granville Community College

2. Agenda • Introduce Moodle • Share our migration experiences • Highlight some of our favorite features of Moodle

3. What’s in a name? • 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

4. Moodle Mythbusters

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

6. About Moodle • 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

7. Martin Dougiamas • 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

8. Moodle Architecture • 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

9. Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under license. If it were any good, they’d already be charging for it. • BUSTED • CONFIRMED

10. Is it really free? • 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

11. Open Source • 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

12. There’s no documentation, training or technical support available for Moodle – you’re on your own • BUSTED • CONFIRMED

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

14. VGCC Background Info • 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

15. Students find Moodle very user friendly. • BUSTED • CONFIRMED

16. Student Feedback • Student feedback at other schools has been very positive • Students just “get it”

17. Faculty Feedback From Other Schools • 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

18. Moodle: Layout List of Blocks 

19. Here are some of our favorite Moodle features!

20. Moodle: Participants Participants Screen  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.

21. Moodle: Resources & Activities Moodle Activities  Moodle Resources 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.

22. Moodle: Grading

23. Moodle: Reports Reports screen WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Can see details about every click made. Can sort, filter and view in greater detail.

24. Moodle: Message Incoming 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. Web Links • Moodle.org • Moodle’s user community site • VGCC’s Internal Site • Will soon have a collection of Moodle documentation posted.