Overview and History of Moodle

 

What is Moodle ?

Moodle is a free open source learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments. 

You can download software onto your own web server or ask  knowledgeable Moodle Certified Partners and Service Providers to assist you. Moodle is built by the Moodle project which is led and coordinated by Moodle HQ , which is financially supported by a network of over 80 Moodle Partners service companies worldwide.

History of Moodle

Martin Dougiamas created Moodle in the beginning with the intention of assisting academics and educators in developing online courses with an emphasis on collaboration and interactive content creation. Moodle's initial release date was August 20, 2002, and it is still being actively developed.

Features of Moodle

Advantages and Disadvantages of Moodle

Below is a short video which explains "What is Moodle?"

Users of Moodle

 

Moodle is used by millions of users worldwide

Right now, worldwide there are:

• 200 million users from 242 countries
• 425 million forum posts
• 24 million courses
• 2,396 million quiz questions

The number of registered users worldwide

Moodle is also used locally by the following agencies:

• Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training
• Erdiston Teachers’ Training College
• Barbados Community College
• Ministry of Public Service

Fun Fact: We use Moodle in our PGDEL 103 when we use Trident. Trident is Moodle rebranded. 

Ways some of the Barbadian Institutions use Moodle.

Upload Resources: Teachers are able to submit readings, multimedia content, slideshows, lecture notes, and other course materials, giving students easy access to them.

Forums and Discussions: Students can participate in online discussions, post questions, and work with classmates in Moodle's discussion boards.

Messaging: Through the integrated messaging system, educators and students can interact, encouraging communication outside of the traditional classroom setting.

Why Software should be Evaluated? Findings of Evaluation of Moodle

 

Why Software should be Evaluated?

Considering that classroom management software directly affects the teaching and learning process, it is imperative to evaluate it for a number of reasons. Software evaluation is important because it has an immediate effect on the teaching and learning process, among other reasons. The following are some important factors that should be taken into consideration when evaluating classroom software's capacity to satisfy educational goals: accessibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability, user-friendliness, compatibility and integration, engagement and interaction, and updates and technical support. By carefully analyzing classroom management software, educational institutions can make well-informed judgments, choose the solutions that best suit their needs, and improve the overall educational experience for both teachers and students.

Findings of Evaluation of Moodle

Moodle was evaluated using the Classroom Management Evaluation Rubric extracted from myeducation kit- Teaching and Learning with Techno. After receiving an overall score of 46/50, I highly recommend Moodle as a classroom management software for any institution.

Click here for the full evaluation