Moodle Soup: Many Uses for Many Tastes

Clark Shah-Nelson,

Coordinator of Online EducationSUNY Delhi College of Technology

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike: Clark Shah-Nelson, 2008.

Appetizer: Something Fried

First found Moodle:

Some accidental stumble upon After years of using a commercial LMS and

having NONE of my requested enhancements come to fruition…

Hey! An LMS that I can install on my own computer?

Hey! An LMS that I can install multiple instances of very easily on a $5.00 a month shared hosting site???

Hey! Second Appetizer:

Escargots An LMS user community that I can

share with, learn from, and grow and develop with?

I can report bugs, suggest changes, vote on enhancements, and even edit the code to suit my needs?

Salad: Tabouli

Design/Layout Customizable themes? Easy to follow chronological sequence

through learning events 3rd party blocks for added functionality

- browse, download and install from moodle.org

AJAX for moving and dragging items

Soup: Gaspacho Features

Types of resources and activities Number and type of blocks for

funtionality High level of customizability in

administration Easily embed media from other sites

and incorporate other sites into courses

Main Course

Uses: Test, demo site for prospective students,

committees, discussion groups, faculty exchange, replace email lists with courses that go beyond email lists

TCO or TAC - bottom line: least expensive, most feature-rich, easy-to-use LMS

Dessert: Mousse Open vs. Enterprise

Rich community of user forums, tutorials, resources, bug tracker

Less Cost - at all levels Luminis Message Broker Digester - $0 WebCTimport tool - $0 Just as stable and more feature-rich

More social networking capability, Web 2.0

Quicker to gain new features More customizable Did I mention cost?

Aperitif:Faculty Members

Concerned about training: Took much less time than WebCT to learn Easier to use More features Exciting new possibilities iPod training program

Concerned about converting courses: We do that for them Webctimport plugin from moodle.org

Turkish Coffee:Students

Love the new system:

Easier to navigate than WebCT Like having images of fellow students Easier to follow discussions

Nap Time:Coordinator

Faculty are more self-sufficient More fun to administer More focus on training Hosted in expert environment High level of customization More funds for faculty development

Rapid Eye Movement:Staff

More interested in using the LMS for training and staff development

See LMS as a way to reach students Involved with Moodle Orientation for

students No noticable difference for registration,

enrollments, etc.

Sweet Dreams:Administration

Left research and decision in our hands Appreciate “international-ness” Bottom line:

Furthering educational mission

$$$: The Pot of Gold

The End

Questions? Clark Shah-Nelson nelsoncs@delhi.edu www.delhi.edu/online