The Whole Kit and Caboodle on Moodle Jonathon Sweetin & Tina Farmer Pitt Community College

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

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

Moodle might be fine for small schools, but it’s not powerful enough for an institution as large as mine. 1. BUSTED 2. CONFIRMED

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 sites in 199 countries – 1,985,661 Courses – 20,535,286 Users – 1,912,476 Teachers

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

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

Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under license. If it were any good, they’d already be charging for it. 1. BUSTED 2. CONFIRMED

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

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

There’s no documentation, training or technical support available for Moodle – you’re on your own 1. BUSTED 2. CONFIRMED

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

PCC Background Info PCC adopted Blackboard in 1999 Currently, 550+ active Blackboard courses with students Summer 2007, PCC joined the North Carolina Moodle Users Group sponsored by the Community College System Office Moodle to date, 27 courses with 670 students

Students find Moodle very user friendly. 1. BUSTED 2. CONFIRMED

Student Feedback Student feedback has been very positive Students just “get it”

Faculty Feedback 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

Moodle: Layout List of Blocks 

Here are some of our favorite Moodle features!

Moodle: Participants 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. Participants Screen 

Moodle: Resources & Activities 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. Moodle Resources Moodle Activities 

Moodle: Grading

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

Moodle: Message A hybrid between instant messaging and 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 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. Incoming message

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.

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.

Web Links Moodle.org – Moodle’s user community site jsweetin.wordpress.com – NC Moodle User’s Group Blog, download our presentations & handouts learning/faculty-resources/ – Pitt’s DL Faculty Resources page. Will soon have a collection of Moodle documentation posted.