1 the free LMS- should it be yours?

2 first…who we are Shelby Watts Multimedia Director Sharon Boller BLP president Kelly Davis Multimedia Developer

3 Now…what about YOU? 1.Lets start with a poll: Take the poll you see on the right-hand side of your screen so we can learn about you, your organization, and the training you do. 2.Now, use the chat to tell us: What motivated you to sign up? 3.Finally, raise your hands: 1.How many of you have heard the term Moodle but really didnt know what it was? 2.How many of you currently have an LMS? 3.How many of you feel you need an LMS? 4.How many of you just like the LOL Live sessions we do and are okay with whatever we talk about

4 What Moodle is – and isnt 3 stories about Moodlers Demo of the Moodle experience for: –Learners –Course creators –Administrator(s) The data you can track The costs (soft and hard) The decision: to Moodle or not? now…an agenda Any questions about what well cover? Write them in the chat box. Shelbys watching and jotting them down. What Moodle is…and isnt Stories about Moodlers Demo of Moodle experience – learners, course creators, admins Quick look at the data you can track The REAL costs To Moodle…or not?

5 What it is…and is not

6 It is… It IS…. –A top LMS tool used by millions –Optimized for course management –Ideal for building a learning community; very learner focused –Flexible –Free to download Top LMS tools (marketshare) 1.Moodle (18.6%) 2.Other (16.6%) 3.Developed in-house (14.8%) 4.SumTotal (14.6%) 5.Saba (12.5) 6.Blackboard (8.9%) 7.Oracle (7.9%) 8.Plateau (7.5%) 9.Learn.com (6.7%) 10.SkillSoft (6.2%) Organizations with MORE than 10,000 1.SumTotal (22.3%) 2.Saba (20.4%) 3.Developed in-house (16.8%) 4.Plateau (14.1%) 5.Oracle (10.9%) 6.TIE: SkillSoft and Moodle (7.9%) 8.Blackboard (7.6%) 9.SAP (4.6%) 10.Learn.com (4.3%)

7 A development tool - it has no C as in LCMS It is NOT… Something you have to learn all at once…before you implement anything A commercial product - theres no vendor behind the scenes to install, train, and support you…unless you hire a Moodle partner. Super-quick to figure out/learn – its not HARD, but it does take time. Completely without costs Optimized to generate lots of system-wide data

8 What it looked like at install: What it looks like today:

9 Moodler stories – 3 of them

10 Stories 1 and 2: Other folks Farm Bureau ~1700 employees – lots in the field No budget for LMS One person in training with a technical bent Need to verify passing and completion Huge desire to enhance informal learning Sleep Train 230 stores; 4 states, 1 training person, no $$ for an LMS. LOTS of turnover – continual new product info to share Need to verify people passed

11 Story 3: us! The bottom-line (no pun intended): Moodle can – and does – work for lots of different organizations who want/need to connect learners to resources and each other. 16 employees…but mostly scattered. Constant need to learn new techniques, tools, technologies. Huge need for informal learning Desire to offer training to external customers – and charge them for training. Desire to learn Moodle so we can help small organizations implement it for themselves.

12 The Moodle Experience: learners, course creators, administrators There are six possible roles: –Student (i.e. learner) –Course creator –Editing teacher –Non-editing teacher –Administrator –Guests

13 Lets start with the learner

14 Course Creators

15 system administrators Responsibilities –Verifying whether Moodle is even the right answer –Installing the site on a server –Configuring the site –Uploading and maintaining users –Creating courses –Supporting users (HUGE)

16 installation and configuration Knowledge assets –PHP (installation) –CSS (graphical look, positioning, etc) –MySQL (installation) –HTML (installation) –SCORM (course configuration) –Course design/development (course creation) –Social media savvy (informal learning) Personality assets –Patience (installation, configuration, development) –Confidence (i.e. cant be afraid to try stuff and see what happens)

17 moodle experience for admins What questions should an admin be asking before even deciding on Moodle? –Does a resource exist who is willing to learn an open-source software application? Will my organization support open-source software? –Will I have any IT support? –Do I have the money, time, and expertise to host Moodle on my own internal server OR should I find an external host? –If I decide to have an external host, should I get a dedicated server or a shared server? –Who will be the system administrators? How will admins divide responsibility?

18 Moodle Requirements Hardware Requirements Minimum 150 to 200MB disk space Network or standalone Software Requirements Database – MySQL is recommended Web server – Apache is preferred PHP – PHP 4.30 is required to run Moodle 1.9. It is advisable to use PHP 5.24 or higher for Moodle 2.0. PHP Extensions Moodle Packages Standard Mac OS X - local Windows – local

19 more on configuration…

20 The data you can track

21 reporting What reports can you get? –Site level: All/Individual activity logs across entire site or by course –Course level: All/individual participant activity logs All participant grades Individual participant reports What do these reports tell you? –Activity logs: what the user did, not how they did. –Grade and participant reports: completion, score, and activity.

22 reporting What if you want more? –Add-ons are available. Here are a few we have found but not tried: Category Activity Reports Completion Report Moomis

23 The costs…really

24 Hard costs – pretty minimal Soft costs (translate to personnel to make Moodle successful) can be more than people think.

25 Or not?

26 is moodle for you? It depends ….: –What are your needs? –Why would you use it? –What tracking do you HAVE to have? –Can you get the server space you need? –Do you have a resource to support it?

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