Moodle -Open Source Teaching Software

[ttcycle]

Hi Tech folk

Looking into using Moodle - Open Source interactive teaching software to write several online courses- as stand alone and for blended learning that compliments face to face courses.

It seems to have a chat function, forum functions, uploading, lesson formats, information stores, multiple choice questions, polls, a function where multiple people can contribute to one document and grading etc.

It seems like the perfect programme for what I need it for - my understanding is that it needs to be hosted on a database.

Anyone used it? How did you find it?

Thanks

 

[vikingcyclist]

I've only trialled it myself, but I have family who run a professional training and consultancy business who use it. I've also done a lot of work with and in schools, so have heard a variety of opinions.

The basic consensus seems to be that it is good at what it does, and is very good from an end-user perspective. As a course writer though it does take some getting used to, and setup could be made easier.

On the plus side it is free, and very customisable. Might be worth finding a free hosting provider (or a cheap one) and testing it out before committing yourself to a full implementation.

 

[ttcycle]

I've only trialled it myself, but I have family who run a professional training and consultancy business who use it. I've also done a lot of work with and in schools, so have heard a variety of opinions.

The basic consensus seems to be that it is good at what it does, and is very good from an end-user perspective. As a course writer though it does take some getting used to, and setup could be made easier.

On the plus side it is free, and very customisable. Might be worth finding a free hosting provider (or a cheap one) and testing it out before committing yourself to a full implementation.

thanks vc

it seems from what I've gathered that a lot of the writing is multiple pages which can take time to create. The interface can sometimes appear as just plain html text but I think it does what I need. Just need to suss it out. Hosting should be quite straightforward.

 

[marinyork]

Used Moodle plenty at university. The entire department was run off it. I can't tell you exactly in detail the stuff you want as I didn't help run it but I did use it for several years, also the version were using was 1.3 and 1.4 and it's changed quite a lot. It's very well respected in the CS and Maths community but didn't get popular elsewhere for quite a long time.

 

[vernon]

Hi Tech folk

Looking into using Moodle - Open Source interactive teaching software to write several online courses- as stand alone and for blended learning that compliments face to face courses.

It seems to have a chat function, forum functions, uploading, lesson formats, information stores, multiple choice questions, polls, a function where multiple people can contribute to one document and grading etc.

It seems like the perfect programme for what I need it for - my understanding is that it needs to be hosted on a database.

Anyone used it? How did you find it?

Thanks

Moodle can be regarded as a very sophisticated front end for a MySQL database. Id does everything that you've listed and more.

You can go about exploring its capabilities in two ways:

Find a hosting service that offers MySQL, PHP and Moodle - Easyspace for instance. Installation is a breeze.

Download and install WAMP or MAMP which will install Apache web server, MySQL data base and PHP a scripting language on Windows or Mac based computers respectively. Once WAMP or MAMP have been installed then download and install Moodle.

After that it's a matter of getting your hands dirty and exploring the capabilities.

Oh and there's a whole range of Moodle books available at Amazon

 

[steve30]

I tried to set Moodle up on my web server but couldn't set the database up properly. Fantastico managed to set it up for me fine though.


I didn't really use it though. I just wanted to fiddle with it to see how it looked from a teacher's point of view. I could hardly figure out anything.

I used it a bit as a student, and again, found it rather awkward, but we only used it in college because the teachers wanted an excuse to save on photocopying costs by distributing handouts over the internet and expecting us to print things out in the library or at home.

It does appear to have a lot of features, but I think it would just be a case of learning how to use it. 

 

[vernon]

I tried to set Moodle up on my web server but couldn't set the database up properly. Fantastico managed to set it up for me fine though.


I didn't really use it though. I just wanted to fiddle with it to see how it looked from a teacher's point of view. I could hardly figure out anything.

I used it a bit as a student, and again, found it rather awkward, but we only used it in college because the teachers wanted an excuse to save on photocopying costs by distributing handouts over the internet and expecting us to print things out in the library or at home.

It does appear to have a lot of features, but I think it would just be a case of learning how to use it.

Setting it up is a pain in the butt. I am a teacher and I'm not convinced about the educational merits of Moodle as a teaching too. It's great from the admin point of view where it will repay the investment of time many times over. It's also a great motivator when electronic cut off dates and times are enforced for coursework submission.

'Death by worksheet' has evolved into 'death by virtual learning environment'.

 

[ttcycle]

Setting it up is a pain in the butt. I am a teacher and I'm not convinced about the educational merits of Moodle as a teaching too. It's great from the admin point of view where it will repay the investment of time many times over. It's also a great motivator when electronic cut off dates and times are enforced for coursework submission.

'Death by worksheet' has evolved into 'death by virtual learning environment'.

Thanks for the replies- I'm going to get working on this when I get the time!