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Easy installation, cost effective solution for institutions with technically talented staff to implement.
Updated April 16, 2021

Easy installation, cost effective solution for institutions with technically talented staff to implement.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Moodle

We are currently using Moodle in an atypical fashion at our institution. While Moodle is a full scale Learning Management System, we are not using it for the entire set of features it entails. We have another Learning Management System for managing our courses (both online coursework and face to face) but we use Moodle for integrating with our other systems to manage the assessment work associated with program reviews and accreditation. A single department manages Moodle, however the entire teaching faculty at our institution makes use of the product since assessment touches every program.
  • Under the Open Source model of Moodle, there are countless customization options available. We only make use of the modules associated with rubrics and outcomes and that demonstrates the ability to pick and choose what you want to use of the software.
  • Moodle is very easy to install on the server and is readily available on CPanel (as well hosting control panels) for even easier installation.
  • Being that Moodle offers an Open Source model of their software, it can be very cost effective for an institution with limited resources if they are able to invest the time in setting up the system. If there is a budget allowance for an initiative involving this type of software, then Moodle does a great job of working with you to implement.
  • 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.
  • Installing Open Source Moodle has saved us money in contractual obligations and consulting fees for creating the customized solution we were looking for. The time and learning curve associated with using Open Source Moodle as compared with the SaaS, still outweighs paying for a service since we wanted so much customization.
  • One negative effect of using Moodle is the difficultly in faculty and staff buy in. While our institution was accustomed to the main Learning Management System we use, it was quite taxing trying to explain why we were using another system for the outcomes alignment and assessment.
  • Installing and using Moodle Open Source has encouraged the professional development of the staff responsible for implementation. They have had to use inquiry and perseverance in developing a setup that supports the needs of our institution best.
We didn't really entertain the idea of Canvas for long since the Open Source version didn't have nearly the reference and support material that Moodle did for guiding a successful setup. We did consider adding the assessment and outcomes module from our existing Learning Management System (Blackboard) to our package but the steep cost and inability to customize ended up steering right to Moodle.
Moodle is a Learning Management System and is best suited for just that. We didn't like the assessment piece of our full scale Learning Management System (nor did we want to purchase the entire assessment module) so we chose to use Moodle for this, and it works well. Installing this application with the intention of only using a portion of its capabilities can be successful in environments where you have technical skills and a broad understanding of integration between your systems. For institutions that lack these, you're better suited to using a full scale of an LMS with assessment inside that same application.

Moodle Feature Ratings

Learning Management
8.1
Course authoring
8
Course catalog or library
10
Player/Portal
7
Learning content
10
Mobile friendly
5
Progress tracking & certifications
8
Assignments
8
Compliance management
9
Learning administration
9
Learning reporting & analytics
8
Social learning
7

Using Moodle

150 - Assessment coaches, teaching faculty, data analysts and Institutional Effectiveness staff use Moodle. We use Moodle to facilitate the assessment efforts at our institution, from academic assessment to service area and institutional assessment.
5 - We have a development and support team of a product manager, two programmers, an instructional designer and a trouble shooter to support Moodle for assessment at our institution.
  • Academic Assessment
  • Institutional Assessment
  • Data Driven Decision Making
  • In House custom programming
  • Instead of using it just as an LMS, we have built an assessment platform out of our usage
  • We integrate other tools such as survey tools to connect artifacts with the assessments
  • We export results to Tableau for analyzing
  • Expand our delpoyment of Moodle as an Assessment platform
  • Integrate our artifact submission process to streamline the workflow
  • Automate the opening and closing archiving of assessment periods
Moodle is flexible, well documented and comes ready to go with MANY plugins, and features to make good use of the product. It is cutting edge in comparison to other platforms and has a large community of users to collaborate and troubleshoot with.