Learning Management Systems (LMS) - Moodle
Learning Management Systems are software packages that imitate, online, the sorts of things that you would experience in a formal face to face learning situation. These typically include discussion areas or forums, resources for download, quizzes, journal spaces, assignments, assessment results etc. You can use all or some of the features and set them up as virtual ‘classroom’ or as a community space.
As the digital natives (people who have grown up with the internet and computer tehcnology) emerge into the workforce and the technology to accommodate their learning needs is invented (probably by them!), LMSes may well evolve into something quite different or just disappear. In the mean time if you want to use one but can’t afford the proprietary brands – try Moodle.
Moodle is an Australian software package ‘designed to help educators create quality online courses/communities’. Its design has a strong grounding in social constructionist pedagogy.
From a users' perspective it has a simple browser interface (no downloading needed), a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor and facilitator control over all settings for a course.
Features
These include forum, chat, journal, quiz, resource, survey, assignment, workshop, user logging and tracking, mail integration etc. Regular upgrades (so try not to customise too much or it makes it harder to upgrade).
Cost
Open source written in PHP under the GPL license–allows you to make modifications to suit your needs. So, no cost to download or use it. Cost comes from loading onto your server or paying your ISP to load it onto theirs and from the potential extra cost of having a more active website (Costs can increase from say $220 to $720 per year, plus a one off set up cost). The set up cost will depend on what customisation you want.
Too much? You can use I40 and just pay US $5.95 per month (US $71.40 per year) with the server in the USA rather than Australia. And, if you aren’t in a hurry and want to minimise set up costs, you could talk to your local computer training providers and see if they will do it for you as a student project.
What it's used for
Pelion’s use of it started as an experiment in Open Source, so currently it is used as the company website, to provide resources and information, as a safe space for clients to learn and/or set up their own courses and to provide staff with their own text chat room and forums.
Why it's good
Once set up it is relatively easy to change, add things, load files etc. without needing to go through an ISP or know lots of html. Also there’s a really strong community of Moodle users if you need answers. If you want to go down the LMS path this is a good way to go.
Problems/downsides
Need some knowledge of OS/code to do the download and set up to your own server (or you can just ask your ISP to do it for you).
Examples to check out (places to play are marked with an *)
Pelion Consulting* - http://www.pelion.com.au/moodle/
Marty Cielens - http://cielens.designplanet.com.au/
Alternatives
Atutor Why wasn't it selected? After a quick play it wasn't as user friendly as Moodle. It apparently has better plug-ins and it has a strong support base, but perhaps not as strong (or locally available) as Moodle.
Criteria/factors Moodle
| Criteria | Comment | |
|---|---|---|
User friendly |
Yes | Very easy to set up once loaded onto server |
Push or pull in kind |
Both | Can choose to have forum messages emailed to you |
Low or high interaction with participants/facilitators |
Both | Can be used in many ways |
Synchronous or asynchronous activity, |
Both | It contains many tools such as chat, forum and can add others |
Facilitator skills of a low or high level |
Both | Accommodates both |
Participant skills of a low or high level |
Both | Accommodates both |
Bear in mind that YOU DON’T NEED A LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO DO FLEXIBLE LEARNING.(Peter Allen) All you need is the willingness to do things differently.
