Moodle

Learning Management System Changes

Over the last two years, the Office of Information Systems in collaboration with members of the Academic Technology Committee has been evaluating the LMS marketplace for the purpose of ensuring that the College is using the most suitable LMS product. The result of this evaluation is in common with the findings of many other academic institutions that face similar challenges and constraints. The LMS product of choice is Moodle (http://moodle.org). The Office of Academic Affairs has elected to move to Moodle over the course of 2010-2011 academic year.

Frequently Asked Question

1. What is Moodle?
2. Why move to Moodle Now?
3. When will I have to start using Moodle?
4. When will I lose access to Blackboard?
5. What support will be made available to help me make the switch to Moodle?
6. What will happen to all my courses that I have in Blackboard?
7. I've been trained to use Blackboard, but I've never used Moodle. What should I expect?
8. How will I benefit by switching to Moodle?
9. Will other instructional applications I use, like TurnItIn and Publisher's Course Cartridges work with Moodle?
10. What about my Organizations?
11. What other colleges and universities are using Moodle?

What is Moodle?

Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students.

Watch a brief Moodle introduction video

Back to top

Why move to Moodle now?

There are several drivers behind the decision to move to Moodle; the need for improved interoperability with College information systems, the desire to move to a more open product whose direction of development is heavily influenced by the community of users, the need for a more reliable and wider spectrum of online tools, and to ensure we're being good stewards of our financial resources.

Through our evaluation of various LMS products, Moodle demonstrated ease of use, flexibility, and scalability. 

Back to top

When will I have to start using Moodle?

You will have the opportunity to start using Moodle in the summer of 2010 - earlier if you are involved in the initial pilot of CSE's Moodle implementation. A staged migration plan for your department will be communicated through the Academic Computing Department to ensure that all courses made available online will be running on Moodle by June 30th, 2011.

Back to top

When will I lose access to Blackboard?

The Blackboard server will be taken offline on June 30th, 2011 when the software licensing contract expires. All course content still remaining in Blackboard at that time will be archived (zipped) and made available for faculty to save on their own media. No courses will be visible on Blackboard after the June 30th date.

Back to top

What support will be made available to help me make the switch to Moodle?

Academic Computing is dedicated to providing faculty with excellent support through workshops, online material and one-on-one training sessions. Training sessions will cover many common aspects of using Moodle and will include how to migrate existing course content from Blackboard.

Back to top

What will happen to all my courses that I have in Blackboard?

You will have at least one full year to migrate your course content from Blackboard to Moodle. Courses can be easily archived in Blackboard and restored into Moodle. Quizzes/exams can be imported from Blackboard and restored into Moodle. Academic Computing will assist you in the process by providing instruction and walking you through the migration process.

Back to top

I've been trained to use Blackboard, but I've never used Moodle. What should I expect?

Most Learning Management Systems are similar in function. Many of the skills and concepts learned while using Blackboard will translate to Moodle. Some adjustments will need to be made, however, ample training and support will be made available through Academic Computing.

Back to top

How will I benefit by switching to Moodle?

There are many benefits in moving to Moodle. Some benefits include:

• Your courses will be created automatically every semester and automatically populated with students as they register.
• You and your students will have easier access to course content. The user interface is less cumbersome and promotes accessibility.
• Moodle offers more effective collaboration tools that are easy to use for students from various levels of technical knowledge. It will further enhance online classroom experience for everyone.
• Ease of use: Unlike Blackboard's Control Panel, Moodle's controls and customization tools are represented on the main page of your course. Instructors can easily toggle between instructor/student view, add assignments, create quizzes, glossary etc. as they design the course without moving away from the main course page.
• Moodle allows flexibility in displaying your course. Some of the choices are:
  • Topics format (Similar to Blackboard)
  • Weekly format. (The course is organized week by week, with a clear start date and a finish date. Moodle will create a section for each week of your course. You can add content, forums, quizzes, and so on in the section for each week.)
  • Social Format: Course is oriented around one main discussion forum.
  • LAMS course format: The Learning Activity Management System is an open source learning management system which allows teachers to use a flash based autoring environment for developing learning sequences.
  • Sharable Content Reference Model (SCORM) format: a content packaging standard. SCORM packages are self-contained bundles of content and JavaScript activities, which can send data to Moodle about the students score and current location.
• Extensive and up-to-date documentation: Because it is open source software, the Moodle community has helped in updating manuals, creating YouTube instructional videos, and writing useful FAQs that are publicly available on the internet. Links to these materials are placed in every tool/page/site in Moodle. Therefore, you are always only click away to documentation for specific functionality.

Back to top

Will other instructional applications I use, like TurnItIn and Course Cartridges work with Moodle?

Yes. The TurnItIn module has already been installed and tested in Moodle. The functionality is similar to what is currently in Blackboard. We have contacted publishers like Pearson, McGraw Hill and Prentice-Hall. Most publishers already have course cartridges for Moodle or planning to create them. For those without compatible cartridges, they have provided hosting services for free.

In addition, moodle is compatible with  Scorm 1.2, LAMS, SecondLife and elgg.

Back to top

What about my Organizations?

Google Sites will provide the College with a suitable platform for hosting organizational sites in lieu of the Blackboard application. Academic Computing will create Google sites for each existing Blackboard organization. Owners of each organization will be responsible for copying their documents and data to the new Google site. Academic Computing is available to support organization owners in this activity.

Back to top

What other colleges and universities are using Moodle?

Currently there are more than 500 institutions using Moodle as their Learning Management System in the United States and many more worldwide. For example, Drew University and New Jersey Institute of Technology are both using Moodle.

Back to top