Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.
Moodle is an alternative to proprietary commercial online learning solutions, and is distributed free under open source licensing. An organization has complete access to the source code and can make changes if needed. Moodle’s modular design makes it easy to create new courses, adding content that will engage learners.
Martin Dougiamas, Creator & Lead Developer
Moodle was designed by an educator and computer scientist, with “social constructionist” principles in mind.
“Constructionism asserts that learning is particularly effective when constructing something for others to experience. This can be anything from a spoken sentence or an internet posting, to more complex artifacts like a painting, a house or a software package.
The concept of social constructivism extends the above ideas into a social group constructing things for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels.”
Learners as actively engaged in making meaning, and teaching with that approach looks for what students can analyze, investigate, collaborate, share, build and generate based on what they already know, rather than what facts, skills, and processes they can parrot.
Moodle has a “modular” design so adding the Activities that form a course is a simple process.
With editing turned on, the course creator can now Add activities from an intuitive drop-down list of module plug-in features.
AssignmentUsed to assign online or offline tasks; learners can submit tasks in any file format (e.g. MS Office, PDF, image, a/v, etc).
Allows real-time synchronous communication by learners.
Instructors create a question and a number of choices for learners; results are posted for learners to view. Use this module to do quick surveys on subject matter.
Allows for one-to-one asynchronous message exchange between instructor and learner, or learner to learner.
ForumsThreaded discussion boards for asynchronous group exchange on shared subject matter. Participation in forums can be an integral part of the learning experience, helping students define and evolve their understanding of subject matter.
GlossaryCreate a glossary of terms used in a course. Has display format options including entry list, encyclopedia, FAQ, dictionary style and more.
Learners reflect, record and revise ideas.
Add descriptions with images in any area of the course homepage.
Allows instructor to create and manage a set of linked "Pages". Each page can end with a question. The student chooses one answer from a set of answers and either goes forward, backward or stays in the same place in the lesson.
QuizCreate all the familiar forms of assessment including true-false, multiple choice, short answer, matching question, random questions, numerical questions, embedded answer questions with descriptive text and graphics.
ResourceThe primary tool for bringing content into a course; may be plain text, uploaded files, links to the web, Wiki or Rich Text (Moodle has built-in text editors) or a bibliography type reference.
This module aids an instructor in making online classes more effective by offering a variety of surveys (COLLES, ATTLS), including critical incident sampling.
An activity for peer assessment of documents (Word, PP etc.) that students submit online. Participants can assess each other’s project. Teacher makes final student assessment, and can control opening and closing periods.
GroupsAssigning learners to a group is a common practice in education and business. Moodle allows the course instructor to easily create group categories, and determine how members will interact with each other and within various activities.
AdminThe Administration control panel puts all important learner management functions a single click away. Teachers and Students can be manually enrolled or removed from a course. Configuration of course Backup and Restore is achieved on a single screen.
ScalesInstructors may define custom Scales to be used for grading Forums, Assignments and Journals. Standard scales include assigning a value from 1-100% for each submission (or no grade), and indicating whether the learner was demonstrating one of three characteristics in the activity:
GradingThe Grades feature in Moodle provides a quick view of all Forum, Assignment, Journal, Quiz, Lesson and Workshop grades. The grading scale applied to a learner’s submission is shown, along with a cumulative total, on a single page.
Viewing Assignment and Journal submissions, and adding Grades and comments, are done from a single page that displays all enrolled students.
LogsMonitor when and what course resources the learner has accessed. Moodle's Logs provide detailed learner activity.
FilesCentrally locate all course resources within the Files area of Moodle so they are available when creating new activities.
HelpAn extensive Moodle Help file is a button click away. Courses include a Teacher only forum, where colleagues can collaborate on tasks and share ideas.
LoginLearners find it easy to navigate a Moodle course homepage in their browser; intuitive “breadcrumb” links are always present. Login occurs on a familiar screen. Initial account set up may be handled by the learner or administrator.
Enrollment KeysInstructors can require an “enrollment key” to allow participation in a class. Enrollment keys are provided to learners separately from the log in process. Courses requiring an enrollment key are indicated in “Course categories” description.
24/7/365... Any Time. Anywhere. Learners can login any time, anywhere to interact with coursework, and can specify the Time Zone and Language they wish to use. Moodle has interface support for 65 languages.
Email NotificationWhen learners “subscribe” to forums they are notified by e-mail of new postings. Additionally, instructors can set e-mail notification for private Dialogues.
Over 16000 organizations in 163 countries had registered Moodle sites by September 2006 (http://moodle.org/sites). This number is growing by about 10% each month as educators and trainers learn the value of implementing open source Moodle.
Moodle is an ideal online learning solution for:
Who will help you use Moodle?Hundreds of knowledgeable open-source users have joined with Moodle developers in a community of learners. Meet a few new friends!
Why Not Try Moodle Now?If your organization is ready or needs to support an online learning population, here is an opportunity to take your research to the next level. These Moodle sites are open for you to explore either as a learner, or teacher with course creator privileges.