The Whole Kit and Caboodle on Moodle

1
The Whole Kit and Caboodle on Moodle

• Jonathon Sweetin
• Tina Farmer
• Pitt Community College

2
Agenda

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

3
Which best represents your Blackboard experience?

• Advanced BB User
• Beginning BB User
• Ive heard of BB
• Never used BB

4
Which best represents your Moodle experience?

• Moodleolhalic
• Moodler
• Moodle Aware
• Moodle Whoodle?

5
Whats 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

6
Moodle Mythbusters
7
Moodle might be fine for small schools, but its
not powerful enough for an institution as large
as mine.

• BUSTED
• CONFIRMED

8
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 sitesin 199 countries
• 1,985,661 Courses
• 20,535,286 Users
• 1,912,476 Teachers

9
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

10
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

11
Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under
license. If it were any good, theyd already be
charging for it.

• BUSTED
• CONFIRMED

12
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

13
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, its also supported by a
  huge online community of enthusiasts Moodle.org

14
Theres no documentation, training or technical
support available for Moodle youre on your own

• BUSTED
• CONFIRMED

15
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

16
PCC Background Info

• PCC adopted Blackboard in 1999
• Currently, 550 active Blackboard courses with
  5000 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

17
Students find Moodle very user friendly.

• BUSTED
• CONFIRMED

18
Student Feedback

• Student feedback has been very positive
• Students just get it

19
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

20
Moodle Layout
List of Blocks ?
21

• Here are some of our favorite Moodle features!

22
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 students profile blogs.
• Can quickly send messages to selected students
  from this screen.

Participants Screen ?
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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 Activities ?
Moodle Resources
24
Moodle Grading
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Moodle Reports

• WOW, WOW, WOW!!!
• Can see details about every click made.
• Can sort, filter and view in greater detail.

Reports screen
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Moodle Message

• A hybrid between instant messaging and email
• 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 email 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
27
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.

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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.

29
Based on what you have heard, are you considering
making the move to Moodle?

• Not Happening!
• Maybe, but I need more experience.
• Yes, I am ready to MOOOVE!

30
Web Links

• Moodle.org
• Moodles user community site
• jsweetin.wordpress.com
• NC Moodle Users Group Blog, download our
  presentations handouts
• http//www.pittcc.edu/distance-learning/faculty-re
  sources/
• Pitts DL Faculty Resources page. Will soon have
  a collection of Moodle documentation posted.