What About Moodle

Moodle is an open source web application designed to create a collaborative online environment for students and teachers. There still are many questions that come up when considering a move to any open source product. This presentation by Floyd Saner at the December 2008 SLATE meeting will give a brief overview of Moodle and provide a first had user experience to evaluating and incorporating Moodle at the institutional level.

1. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
1
What About Moodle?
Floyd E. Saner
Director of Instructional Technology
Goshen College
Goshen, IN 46526
[email protected]

2. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
2
Goshen College
•Small private liberal
arts institution
Located in northern
Indiana
~ 1000 students
Very competent IT
dept w/ ~ $1M annual
budget

3. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
3
Goshen College
•LMS use: web enhanced and blended courses
•1998 - Started with CourseInfo Blackboard
Bb Learning System - Enterprise license
Ran on Goshen College server
•2006 – began to investigate other options (cost driven)
•2007 – focused on Moodle; began pilot projects
•2008 – decided to drop Bb and use Moodle

4. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
4
Decision Process
A c a d e m i c
T e c h n o l o g y
C o m m i t t e e
F e a s i b i l i t y R e v i e w
F l o y d S a n e r , D i r . o f I n s t r u c t i o n a l T e c h n o l o g y
P a u lO r t m a n,S y s. A d m i n . /S y s. A n a l y s t
I n s t i t u t i o n a l
T e c h n o l o g y O v e r s i g h t
C o m m i t t e e

5. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Features
5
Commercial
vs.
Open Source
Enterprise
vs.
Learning Mgmt
Outside-hosted
vs.
Self-hosted
Fixed Features
vs.
Customizable

6. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Constraints & Drivers
6
Cost
Use/
Features
Req’d
Resources
Req’d
Support
Faculty &
Student
Experience

7. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Constraints Decide Features
7
Commercial
vs.
Open Source
Enterprise
vs.
Learning Mgmt
Outside-hosted
vs.
Self-hosted
Fixed Features
vs.
Customizable
Cost
Use/
Features
Req’d
Resources
Req’d
Support
Faculty &
Student
Experience

8. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Feature Ranking
8
Learning
Mgmt
Enterprise
System
Open
Source
Commercial
Self
Hosted
Outside
Hosted
Most
Important
Least
Important
Can Be
Customized
Fixed
Features

9. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
9
Process Overview
A c a d e m i c
T e c h n o l o g y
C o m m i t t e e
F e a s i b i l i t y R e v i e w
F l o y d S a n e r , D i r . o f I n s t r u c t i o n a l T e c h n o l o g y
P a u lO r t m a n,S y s. A d m i n . /S y s. A n a l y s t
I n s t i t u t i o n a l
T e c h n o l o g y O v e r s i g h t
C o m m i t t e e
Consider:
• Moodle
• Sakai
• Jenzabar
• Haiku

10. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
10
Process Overview
A c a d e m i c
T e c h n o l o g y
C o m m i t t e e
F e a s i b i l i t y R e v i e w
F l o y d S a n e r , D i r . o f I n s t r u c t i o n a l T e c h n o l o g y
P a u lO r t m a n,S y s. A d m i n . /S y s. A n a l y s t
I n s t i t u t i o n a l
T e c h n o l o g y O v e r s i g h t
C o m m i t t e e
T e c h n i c a l I s s u e s :
O K
F u n c t i o n a l i t y :
S o m e r e s e r v a t i o n s

11. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
11
Process Overview
A c a d e m i c
T e c h n o l o g y
C o m m i t t e e
F e a s i b i l i t y R e v i e w
F l o y d S a n e r , D i r . o f I n s t r u c t i o n a l T e c h n o l o g y
P a u lO r t m a n,S y s. A d m i n . /S y s. A n a l y s t
I n s t i t u t i o n a l
T e c h n o l o g y O v e r s i g h t
C o m m i t t e e
T e c h n i c a l I s s u e s :
O K
F u n c t i o n a l i t y :
S o m e r e s e r v a t i o n s
N e e d F a c u l t y
I n p u t

12. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
12
Testing Moodle
Spring 2007: 8 faculty 12 courses
Fall 2007: 20 faculty 33 courses
Spring 2008: 24 faculty 40 courses

13. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
13
Faculty: How Do You Use Moodle?
Faculty n=14; May/October 2007 combined
Frequently
Few
Times Not At All
Upload/post course
documents 79% 21% 0%
Send email to students 79% 0% 21%
Grade book 71% 7% 21%
Assignments (other than
Turnitin) 57% 21% 21%
Link to external web
sites 50% 50% 0%
Compose text or web
page 50% 43% 7%

14. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
14
Faculty: How Do You Use Moodle?
Faculty n=14; May/October 2007 combined
Frequently
Few
Times Not At All
Discussion forums 36% 29% 36%
Quiz or Test 36% 0% 64%
Turnitin assignments 29% 0% 71%
Upload/post/link
multimedia files 7% 50% 43%
Upload/post pictures 7% 43% 50%
Survey 7% 7% 86%
Blogs 0% 7% 93%
Wikis 0% 0% 100%

15. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
15
Faculty: Satisfaction With Moodle
Faculty n=14; May/October 2007 combined
SatisfiedNeutral
Not
Satisfied N.A.
User interface/navigation 93% 0% 7% 0%
Link to external web sites 86% 7% 7% 0%
Upload/post course
documents 79% 21% 0% 0%
Send email to students 79% 0% 7% 14%
Discussion forums 50% 14% 0% 36%
Compose text or web page 43% 21% 14% 21%
Assignments(other than
Turnitin) 43% 21% 0% 36%
Upload/post/link
multimedia files 43% 14% 0% 43%

16. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
16
Faculty: Satisfaction With Moodle
Faculty n=14; May/October 2007 combined
SatisfiedNeutral
Not
Satisfied N.A.
Upload/post pictures 29% 36% 0% 36%
Grade book 14% 36% 29% 21%
Quiz or Test 14% 14% 7% 64%
Turnitin assignments 7% 0% 21% 71%
Survey 0% 7% 7% 86%
Wikis 0% 7% 0% 93%
Blogs 0% 0% 7% 93%

17. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
17
Faculty: Which Do You Prefer?
Faculty n=12; May/October 2007 combined
Moodle
Better
About
Same
Blackboard
Better N.A.
User interface/navigation 64% 27% 0% 9%
Upload/post course
documents 42% 42% 8% 8%
Link to external web sites 27% 55% 9% 9%
Compose text or web page 27% 27% 0% 45%
Discussion forums 27% 18% 9% 45%
Upload/post/link
multimedia files 18% 36% 0% 45%
Send email to students 17% 33% 25% 25%
Upload/post pictures 17% 17% 8% 58%

18. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
18
Faculty: Which Do You Prefer?
Faculty n=12; May/October 2007 combined
Moodle
Better
About
Same
Blackboard
Better N.A.
Assignments (other than
Turnitin) 9% 36% 9% 45%
Grade book 8% 17% 42% 33%
Turnitin assignments 8% 0% 33% 58%
Quiz or Test 8% 0% 17% 75%
Survey 8% 0% 8% 83%
Blogs 0% 0% 0% 100%
Wikis 0% 0% 0% 100%

19. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
19
Students: Satisfaction With Moodle
SatisfiedNeutralUnsatisfied N.A.
Access posted documents 87.3% 7.3% 3.6% 1.8%
User interface/navigation 82.7% 12.7% 2.7% 1.8%
Keep track of information 81.8% 12.7% 3.6% 1.8%
Access external web sites 50.0% 13.6% 0.0% 35.5%
Assignments(other than
Turnitin) 40.9% 14.5% 8.2% 36.4%
Discussion forums 34.5% 24.5% 1.8% 39.1%
Students n=110; October 2007

20. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
20
Students: Satisfaction With Moodle
SatisfiedNeutralUnsatisfied N.A.
Grade book 30.9% 20.9% 10.9% 37.3%
Turnitin assignments 30.0% 20.0% 8.2% 41.8%
Send email 22.7% 16.4% 4.5% 56.4%
Wikis 19.1% 22.7% 1.8% 56.4%
Survey 18.2% 20.0% 0.0% 61.8%
Quiz or Test 18.2% 19.1% 0.9% 61.8%
Blogs 12.7% 22.7% 0.0% 62.7%
Students n=110; October 2007

21. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
21
Students: Which Do You Prefer?
Moodle
Better
About
Same
Bb
Better N.A.
Keep track of information 52.8% 24.5% 20.8% 1.9%
Access posted documents 48.1% 30.6% 19.4% 1.9%
User interface/navigation 47.2% 23.1% 26.9% 2.8%
Discussion forums 29.2% 24.5% 12.3% 34.0%
Assignments(other than
Turnitin) 26.2% 24.3% 16.8% 32.7%
Access external web sites 24.3% 29.0% 16.8% 29.9%
Students n=110; October 2007

22. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
22
Students: Which Do You Prefer?
Moodle
Better
About
Same
Bb
Better N.A.
Grade book 16.7% 23.1% 28.7% 31.5%
Wikis 16.2% 20.0% 5.7% 58.1%
Turnitin assignments 15.9% 24.3% 24.3% 35.5%
Quiz or Test 15.9% 15.0% 7.5% 61.7%
Blogs 13.1% 18.7% 6.5% 61.7%
Send email 12.1% 18.7% 14.0% 55.1%
Survey 9.4% 19.8% 5.7% 65.1%
Students n=110; October 2007

23. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
23
Comments
Faculty:
•At this point, I'd choose Moodle.
•I think that Moodle is pretty good and if it saves the
institution a lot money we should consider going with it.
•I like the format of Moodle so you can look at the whole
semester and see what has been done, but the grade
book really needs rework.
•Given the overhead I think it is a good move.
•Switch to Moodle.

24. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
24
Comments
Students:
•I've found that things are much easier to find and access
on Moodle than on Blackboard. With Moodle it's all right
there … while on Blackboard things take much more time
to find.
•I have enjoyed using Blackboard. What would be the
point in switching?

25. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
25
Comments
Students:
•I would switch, Moodle is simpler and easier to use.
Blackboard is too menu driven and people often miss
things because they got confused in the menu system.
•Moodle helps much better because it actually lets you see
a schedule of what you're going to be doing for the up
coming weeks.
•Do not [switch]. I find Blackboard much more user
friendly than Moodle.

26. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
26
Comments
Students:
•I do not mind which of these programs should be used,
but I think that only ONE should be used as soon as
possible.
•I would definitely recommend changing to Moodle. I do
not enjoy using Blackboard.
•I think the interface of Moodle is much more convenient
because everything I need is readily visible, whereas
using Blackboard necessitates a lot of digging through
menus and such before finding what I want.
•Free!!!

27. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
27
Comments
Overall …
Faculty fully expressed a preference for Moodle.
Students expressed a preference for Moodle or supported
a move to Moodle (more than 2:1 margin).

28. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
28
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Long-term viability of the
product
Resolution
There is a strong user
community supporting
Moodle.
We are convinced Moodle is
here to stay, will continue to
be free open source, and will
continue to be developed.

29. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
29
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Third-party software
availability and support.
Resolution
Rapidly improving: course
packs, McGraw-Hill,
Elluminate, Turnitin, Wimba,
…
We used Respondus to
create exams for Moodle.
Moodle is SCORM
compliant.

30. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
30
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Migration of material on
Blackboard to Moodle.
Resolution
Most of our faculty develop
materials outside Blackboard
and Moodle.
We have no fully online
courses in Blackboard.
No requests for complete
course conversions.

31. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
31
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Difficulty of training faculty
and students. The Moodle
user interface is quite
different from Blackboard’s
user interface.
Resolution
Faculty and students have
adapted very quickly and
report they prefer Moodle’s
user interface.

32. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
32
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Moodle’s grade book is very
difficult to use.
Resolution
Moodle 1.9 grade book
(released after our
evaluation) has greater
capability, but still some
usability issues.
Grade book continues to be
improved, with a lot of user
input.

33. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
33
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Advanced features such as
whiteboard, live classroom,
etc.
Resolution
We currently do not use
these features, but need to
determine their importance
for us.
3
rd
party options are
available – Elluminate,
Wimba, WizIQ.

34. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
34
Issues Of Concern
Concern
Integration with our
administrative system –
especially for automatically
creating courses and
maintaining rosters.
Resolution
Essentially the same as for
Blackboard. We create
simple scripts that pull
information from our
administrative system and
load that into Moodle.

35. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Process Outcomes
•The Academic Computing Committee decided to
end our Blackboard contract June 30, 2008.
•Faculty were paid a stipend to attend Moodle
training the first week of June, 2008.
•Additional faculty training was provided in
August 2008.
35

36. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Process Outcomes
•The IT department archived all Blackboard
courses and extracted grades.
•Software that will extract course documents and
discussion board exchanges is available from
UNC – bFree http://its.unc.edu/tl/tli/bFree/
36

37. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
37
Current Moodle Configuration
•Moodle 1.9.3 (Build: 20081016)
•Running our own server
•Looking at Moodlerooms hosting this year.

38. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Moodle Has…
•Secure login and authentication via LDAP
•Course announcements and messaging
•Links to documents, websites, videos, etc.
•File directory (upload files, control student access)
•Assignments (upload, online, offline)
•Forums (discussion boards)
•Online tests, quizzes, and test generator
38

39. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Moodle Has (cont’d)
•Lessons (a form of adaptive release)
•Grade book
•Groups for class work and assignments
•Email (class, selected individuals)
•Calendar (w/ links to assignments and activities)
•Wikis
•Glossary
•Database
39

40. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Moodle Has (cont’d)
•RSS feed capture
•Course backup and restore
•Student and course activity reports
•Customizable roles
•Administrator role for system configuration and
maintenance
40

41. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Moodle Lacks…
•Virtual classroom/whiteboard
•Full enterprise integration with other institutional
software
•Live chat (Moodle has a chat tool, but it is so slow
students use other services)
41

42. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Take A Peek Inside
•Goshen College Moodle Server
42

43. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Works & Does Not Work?
43
Works Well
•Controlled release by
Martin Dougiamas (Moodle
developer)
•Development is very
responsive to user desires
•Excellent support from
competent users
Can Be Frustrating
•Interface design lacking in
some modules
•Inconsistent interface
•Sketchy documentation

44. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Works & Does Not Work?
44
Works Well
•Easy to make minor tweaks
and modifications
•If something does not work
well, users organize and
make something that works
•Many inexpensive Moodle
“Moots” – user conferences
Can Be Frustrating
•Features can ‘evolve’ –
modules are released but
may change as users give
feedback

45. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Does Moodle Scale?
•Registered Moodle Sites
•Athabasca University (fully online) 37,000
+
students
•Open University (fully online) 150,000
+
students
•Louisiana State University 30,000 students
•Humboldt State University 7,550 students
45

46. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
What Is The Real Cost?
•No license fees (GNU General Public License)
•No server or database fees – runs on Apache,
MySQL and PHP
•Our administrative costs are no more than what
we had with Bb - server support only
•We do not have any developers
•The cost is what you want it to be – if you want
to do a lot of development and customization,
then you must support that
46

47. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
3
rd
Party Options
•Alfresco – open source content/document mgmt.
http://www.alfresco.com/
•Elluminate – virtual meetings and classrooms
http://www.elluminate.com/moodle_course_management_system.jsp
•Mahara – open source ePortfolios
http://mahara.org/
•McGraw-Hill Online Learning Packages
http://onlinelearning.mhhe.com/index.php?page=course-and-program-catalog
47

48. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
3
rd
Party Options (cont’d)
•Turnitin – plagiarism detection software
http://turnitin.com/static/products.html
•Wimba – virtual classrooms, audio, etc.
http://www.wimba.com/products/moodle_integration/
•WizIQ – free virtual classroom software
http://www.wiziq.com/downloads/moodle/
48

49. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
49
Moodle Hosting
•Run your own server (free download) http://moodle.org/
•Hosting Options – Moodle Partners
ClassroomRevolution http://classroomrevolution.com/
Moodlerooms http://moodlerooms.com/
Remote-learner.net http://remote-learner.net/
Price varies but the annual hosting fee is often in the
range of $1-$5/user

50. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
ClassroomRevolution
50
Annual Cost Accounts Storage Bandwidth
$ 150 150 500 MB Unmetered
$ 800 500 10 GB Unmetered
$ 3,800 5,000 50 GB Unmetered
$ Call 15,000 Dedicated Server2,000 GB/month

51. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Moodlerooms
Annual Cost Accounts Storage Bandwidth
$ 1/student Blocks of 500 2.5 GB/block 50 GB/month
$ 3/student Blocks of 500 10 GB/block 200 GB/month
$ 5/student Blocks of 500 30 GB/block 600 GB/month
$ Call Large institutions - -
51
$3 and $5 plans include plugins for integration with Elluminate Live, Turnitin,
Wimba, WizIQ, and other programs.

52. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
Remote-Learner
Annual Cost Accounts Storage Bandwidth
$ 795 < 100 1 Gb -
$ 1,500 “several hundred” 12 GB -
$ 2,500 ~ 3,000 25 GB -
$ 4,000 ~ 4,000 40 GB -
$ 9,000 ~ 10,000 500 GB Dedicated server
“hundreds of courses”
$ 20,000 ~ 25,000 500 GB Dedicated servers
“thousands of courses”
52

53. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
53
Suggestions For
Evaluation/Selection
•Determine your needs.
•Determine your constraints and drivers.
•Focus first on early adopters and ‘evangelists’
who can help drive the process.
•Take time to ‘bring along’ administrators, faculty
and IT personnel.

54. Floyd Saner [email protected]
SLATE Meeting. Dec. 17, 2008
54
Comments/Questions?
•Floyd Saner, Ph.D.
Director of Instructional Technology
Goshen College, 1700 S. Main St., Goshen, IN 46526
[email protected]
•Paul Ortman, M.S.
LAN/Systems Analyst and Systems Administrator
Goshen College, 1700 S. Main St., Goshen, IN 46526
[email protected]
•Brent Graber, M.A.
Director of Information Technology
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 3003 Benham Ave., Elkhart, IN 46517
[email protected]