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.
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Open LMS
Score 4.1 out of 10
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Open LMS (formerly Moodlerooms) is an open source learning management system for educational institutions, formerly supported by Blackboard, and now part of the Learning Technologies Group.
Moodle is free, it is supported, and it's modular. All three of these qualities make it a better choice than the other LMSs I have used. sumtotal breaks all the time and I was on the phone with the support team at least once a week. There is also a lack of online support for …
Technology Coordinator for the Div. of Adult Learning
Chose Moodle
I have previously used Cold Fusion, Blackboard, ANGEL, and one other product that about physically did me in. Angel was a joy to work with and I had followed from before it was known as ANGEL. ANGEL was purchased by Blackboard. The price increase after being purchased by BB …
We actually used Blackboard and Moodle at the same time before being forced to use Blackboard exclusively by the higher-ups. Moodle is easier to navigate, easier to use, and more intuitive for all users from admins to instructors to students.
We switched from Blackboard to Moodle based on two criteria: cost and control. We had been hosting Blackboard through a sister institution who had a schedule of upgrades and maintenance incompatible with our course schedule. We also needed to massively reduce costs during a …
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.
I currently use, talk about and promote all educators using Moodlerooms. The functionality that Moodlerooms provides is unmatched in most software. It is well suited in all educational realms. Teachers that teach all online electronic courses could use this to post assignments online, separate the classes and post a variety of assignments, tasks, and activities. Additionally, in blended situations where some students are face to face and sometimes working at home, the Moodlerooms makes it easy to education and be a hands-on teacher and a hands-on learner. Less appropriately, I find using Moodlerooms in some of the private sector industries could be tougher. Moodlerooms provides people and content management, and to use it in advertising or marketing and accounting, it could be difficult to find an easy use and function for it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I would select Moodlerooms over many competitors as a result of what it offers in terms of functionality and control. Google classrooms has a definite place in education; however, Moodlerooms provides significantly more control for authors. As the owner and manager of the content, and as someone familiar with technology, I can incorporate a lot more functions and create different layouts with functionality boxes
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.
Moodlerooms has given classes of mine a positive ROI because it improves the educational experience for all students. It has helped all of our students, and with this, we can even help students who can not get to the classroom for some reason.
It helps to improve student scores, GPAs, and college attendance.
The positive impact can be directly correlated with the improvement of grades for students. Being able to access work in person and via Moodlerooms helps students to learn anywhere and any time. Grades have improved, and that is due to Moodlerooms.
