Moodle is an open source learning management system with hundreds of millions of users around the globe and translated into over 100 languages, used by organizations to support their education and training needs.
N/A
Pricing
Google Classroom
Moodle
Editions & Modules
Education Fundamentals
$0
per license/per month
Google Workspace for Education Standard
$3
per student/per year
Teaching and Learning Upgrade
$4
per license/per month
Google Workspace for Education Plus
$5
per student/per year
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Classroom
Moodle
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Optional
Additional Details
Education Fundamentals Version - 30-day free trial for qualifying institutions.
Google Classroom was chosen unilaterally for one of my places of work, although I had checked Google Classroom when it was first released and decided against it for my own company owing to its poor reporting and other controls. Provided one has the servers to use it and an …
Verified User
Representative
Chose Google Classroom
I selected Google Classroom because it is a great website for managing and organizing learning. It is simple to use for interface; interacts with a wide range of apps and websites; effortlessly shares, collects, and grades Google Workspace documents. It is also free , …
Google Classroom ties to the Google G Suite for EDU which has very good support and documentation as needed, at no additional cost, which is a big deal for setting it up. The integration with Chromebooks, Active Directory, Clever and other common platforms make it very …
Google does a great job of doing the obvious: integrating Google's Drive system as schoolwork. It does a great job of scheduling assignments and sending reminders to students.
Google Classroom is free and easy for all. It's also easy to integrate other Google platforms with. It helps transfer grades from one place in Google to another. I currently use PowerSchools for grade recording, and have used Infinite Campus in the past. These are great for …
Of course Google Classroom has more "built-in resources, but it can still be complicated for a teacher to build a class site, but on the K-12 level there's not another LMS prep that's better.
Director Of Information Technology and HIPAA Privacy Officer
Chose Moodle
Moodle, being open source, is the foundation a lot of other tools like it are based on. It provides almost all of the same functionality and feature set as Google Classtoom, Canvas, etc., although those products are a bit more polished. All can do content delivery, progress …
For me, Moodle is more user-friendly because it has simpler graphical user interface and it provides the functionalities that my students and I enjoyed using. Moodle is more interactive as well and it provides efficiency in uploading, downloading, restoring and backing up …
Edmodo provides a simple platform but does not provide the depth of assignments that Moodle does. Moodle provides more assignment types, grading, deadlines, and shifting of assignments from one week to the next. Moodle is significantly more advanced in terms of what it can do …
Google Classroom and Moodle are online class assignment and learning management tools primarily used in academic environments, in k-12 primarily, but also higher education. They facilitate assessments, content management, and online discussions. Google Classroom is available for users of Google Workspace for Education, or it can be used for free with a Google account for some use cases. It is commonly deployed across institutions of all sizes where Google’s office apps are also used. Moodle is open source and free under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and like Google Classroom is widely adopted by institutions of all sizes.
Features
Google Classroom and Moodle offer very similar capabilities, but are chosen for different reasons.
Google Classroom is natively integrated in Google Workspace, and so it works seamlessly with apps like Gmail and Google Meet. It also includes chat features in Classroom itself, facilitating communication between students and teachers when video is not needed. It’s integration with Google Drive makes document management, including assignment creation and management, an easy and familiar task, given the ubiquity of Google app adoption for personal use. Google Classroom may seem a no brainer for easy adoption for schools that have already onboarded Google Workspace for Education in some capacity, and if an institution is already using Google then there exists little reason to avoid Google Classroom.
Moodle’s advantages flow from its open-source design, community, and the expanse of plugins and extenders available for it, at no cost. Since Moodle is open-source and freely downloadable, LMS costs are primarily around IT implementation and management (you may need a resident Moodle development expert), rather than an annual subscription for software updates. Moodle boasts excellent content creation and course administration features, chat, and integration with neighboring systems (e.g. student management systems).
Limitations
There are also some limitations to Google Classroom and Moodle in terms of capabilities and packaging worth considering.
Google Classroom is not known to fit business use cases as Moodle might. While Classroom integrates with a range of applications for in-classroom use, it is more limited in the administrative integrations it offers, such as with student information systems. Users report minor quibbles around its usability.
On the other hand, Moodle’s open source structure leaves it to academic institutions to provide their own in-house implementation, support, and security. This limits self-service customization that teachers can do without requiring developer assistance or approval from IT to enable this or that third-party plugin. Moodle’s mobile capabilities are also more limited and less user-friendly than market standards.
Pricing
While Google Classroom is free to use alone, and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals is available to qualifying institutions and some homeschoolers, many users will need the Google Workspace for Education Plus plan (formerly G Suite Enterprise for Education).
Moodle is open-source and free to download. The cost of implementation and long-term maintenance or support will vary by each academic institution or business, as it may require in-house support to build and govern the right implementation.
Features
Google Classroom
Moodle
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
- During the pandemic, the college needs a fast and easy solution to conduct Google Classroom. The integration with Google Accounts and Google Meet allows the university to run and access the Classroom on a large scale. - The teacher wants to conduct some exams in third-party software like Moodle. But we have not found any plugin for this famous open-source learning platform. The exam system in Google Classroom is so poor that it doesn't even fully screen the test when students are writing their exams.
Moodle is great for any environment where a class or other learning activity needs to be completed in an asynchronous manner. It can be used to post information, create interactive threads for discussion, issue quiz and exam work with grading, track and grade progress, and keep track of attendance. It is an overall wonderful solution for managing asynchronous learning.
Student-teacher communication - I love using Classroom for this because my students can always go back and check what was on Classroom by looking through the stream. This way they don't have to go dig through emails to find what they're looking for.
Posting to multiple classes - I can post the same announcement or assignment to multiple classes at once without having to repeat the process or send separate emails.
Streamlining grading - when students turn work in on Classroom, it all goes to one place and then when I'm grading I can open their documents directly from Classroom or my Drive folder. This way, I'm not looking through emails and Google Doc shared files for their assignment.
Although usually in the discussion with other LMS apps such as Schoology and Canvas, Google Classroom doesn't possess as in-depth of a platform. There is no ability to set individual learning paths, pace student work with completion settings, or embed other apps directly into teacher-created assignments.
The assignment creation options are limited. Teachers can only choose from creating an assignment (usually a link with directions), a material (usually a doc/slide/website, etc), a question, and a quiz.
With gamification taking on a new lens in education, there really isn't any way to use gamification elements with Google Classroom. There isn't any way to create Individual learning paths, or use badges and micro-credentials within Classroom. Outside programs would have to be used.
The interface is not very intuitive. You must know what you are looking for in order to navigate effectively.
Although installation of Moodle is easy, it is a little more difficult to configure it with your other Learning tools. As an example, LDAP synchronization is a little difficult.
The interface is a little dated, even though new releases keep coming out (which is great!) none of them really add value to the appearance of the platform.
Testing is particularly important in online learning, and Google Classroom falls far short of other learning management systems in this regard. Security is also a concern: while account control is reasonable for the account used with Google Classroom, the person controlling a particular account is often able to, for example, forward or download proprietary materials.
We use it because it is what have committed to back in 2011. Perhaps Moodle will evolve and advance in a positive way that will alleviate most of our user-based gripes? Perhaps it will not appear to be as cost effective given the need for a certain level of engineering and support staff to maintain it at a future level of sustainability? It's hard to say. As an enterprise scale critical application, we like it, but don't love it. Our instructors don't particularly like it at all.
This is only a product I would recommend to a humanities teacher. Math and science teachers cannot use this product the same way that I can as an English teacher. It is great for word process and for reading, but unable to handle the demands of math and science. Therefore, I would highly recommend this product to English or Social Studies teachers, but NOT math or science teachers
Moodle can be used on a tablet, on a mobile phone, and on a PC. It is easy to navigate for learners and figure out for administrators. The learners can easily complete tasks and the administrators can easily track completion. The last thing about Moodle that one may not realize is that it somewhat resembles Facebook in its layout. This means that users are already familiar with the interface and therefore they are more comfortable using it.
Yes, Moodle is always available. We are self-hosted and Moodle is always up and available. The only time that it is not available is when we are upgrading it each semester. It is then down for just a few planned hours. That is in-between semesters and we let the faculty and students know. We do it on a Friday evening and it is back up within a few hours.
Moodle is an excellent LMS in relationship to any other one that I have seen or used. The pages load quickly and the reports complete in a reasonable time frame. Moodle has taken on Respondus, StudyMate, BigBlueButton, Turning Tech, Turnitin2, Certificates, Attendance, Tegrity, Questionnaire, Virtual Programming Lab, and Badges. All of these programs work right in with Moodle and do not cause any issues. Instructors may also use Camtasia and Snagit software as well as using webcams, downloading videos from the Internet, adding into books, or any of the many other areas within Moodle. Our instructors use the grade books without many problems and really don't ask questions much anymore. We upgrade Moodle every semester and are currently on 2.9+. Our instructors have basically learned to use most of the resources and activities.
Since this platform is provided by Google, the technical support is better than any others, and we are not required to bother about the space constraints for adding the contents. If we have a good uninterrupted internet facility we can access Google Classroom without any delay or lag. They have app support in both Android and iPhone.
Moodle is open source, and must be evaluated in that context, but one also has to provide a fair comparison to competing products with commercial backing. Support varies depending on the component of Moodle. Bug reports in Moodle Core that affect security or stability are dealt with promptly. Functionality requests or features not working smoothly may or may not be addressed, depending on whether the functionality desired matches the "vision" of Moodle HQ. The user community provides excellent support for initial installation and configuration, but more complex questions may go unanswered, unless they are noticed by someone who happens to know the answer. The support forum feature at the Moodle site (the same feature used within Moodle itself) does not provide granular subscription to topic discussions, apparently by design, and Moodle HQ seems resistant to changing this feature.
It was relatively easy to implement due to the simplicity of the platform. Even our more technology challenged teachers found it easy to get started with Google Classroom.
Find a partner who will work with you during the implementation process. Be sure to provide ample training for veteran users on the changes and for newbies on the overall product.
I haven't tested or evaluated another digital classroom website or application. I feel like Google Classroom is convenient for many reasons such as compatibility to Google docs, slides, etc. I also love the ability to link to YouTube and other sites. I don't know if there would be a site that is easier to maneuver.
Blackboard has clear advantages in rubric management, and offers a content management system of its own. The largest barrier is cost for smaller or financially-disadvantaged organizations. However, as in any IT project, adequate resources must be made for even "free" software.
Well, I administer Moodle for a dozen of our divisions and there is a wide range of flexibility between offerings. I have course instructors who use every module i their course, chock full of videos, pictures, links to web tools for synchronous sessions within the asynchronous course. I also have others who are content with a syllabus, a few pdfs, links to podcast lectures and a few simple assignments. No matter if your organization is big or small, or if your requirements are strict for credentialing or non-existent (for internal know-how), Moodle can accommodate you.
While it certainly takes more time to develop an online training vs a face-to-face we can offer the same content over and over again and meet a larger audience. There's no way we could have offered these trainings face-to-face to the same size audience. Economically it's just not feasible. Moodle allows us to share multiple trainings on a variety of topics over extended periods of time in a cost effective way.
The impact on early interventionists is still being evaluated, but we do know that early interventionist now have more ways to access professional development than in the past. The ability to customize the registration page has allowed us to track which agencies in Virginia are having their staff participate and we can see which topics are favored above others.
Other LMS's were far too costly. Aside from the monthly hosting fees (less than $200 a year), and the time it took to do the initial install and setup, Moodle is free. Once it's setup the only elearning costs are related to the development and creation of each training and then the setup of training on Moodle. This allows us to devote more time and money to the development and creation of more courses vs. the management of the system.
Minimal tech support for the users is required and most requests are limited to lost/userid passwords. The course designer is able to manage tech support needs for the users because so few requests are received.
