Moodle

toc = = =Moodle Overview=

[|Moodle] is a Course Management System (CMS) much like [|Blackboard] which is what is used for EME5208. [|Moodle] is Open Source so it is free for anyone to download and use. It can be installed on multiple operating systems (OS) as long as the OS is capable of running PHP (web programing language) and can support SQL Databases. Windows Servers, Mac Servers, and most Linux Servers distributions are compatible. With [|Moodle] organizations are able to come up with custom online courses and make them available to thousands of students. This is a great CMS for organizations that are on a budget, but need to incorporate eLeaning. Below is a video from [|Moodle's] web page that will help give a better understanding of the software and let you see what a powerful learning and teaching tool [|Moodle] is media type="youtube" key="WvCIv5KCbeE" height="344" width="425"

=Examples=

There are many examples of [|Moodle] available to view on the web. One of the best place on the internet to get a feel for it is at [] This site allows free access to Open University materials and classes. Most class on this site are built using [|Moodle]. Here you can choose whatever study path you want like art, business, or technology just to name a few. These courses are much like a traditional college online course except you are learning at you own pace and grading yourself. You can also choose to work on these courses all alone or join a learning club.

Users can sample [|Moodle] by going to [] Here users can log onto Moodle as an Administrator, a Teacher, or as a Student. This will help all users to get a good understanding of [|Moodle].

=Moodle's Impact=

[|Moodle] has made a large impact on the eLearning community and within many organizations. Due to the fact that [|Moodle] is free to users many organizations have been able to put online learning into place when they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it. [|Moodle] has also given smaller universities a chance to offer online courses without the expense purchasing the more well known course management systems like Blackboard. There are also many instances where computer divisions at colleges and university have incorporated [|Moodle] in case of inclement weather, absence of a professor because of illness, accident, etc. Many of the K-12 school systems have started taking advantage of [|Moodle], because of the cost as well.

=Pros and Cons of Moodle=

A software package like [|Moodle] can offer many pros but with any software package there are always cons so below is a table to show each.

when having issues installing and configuring. || **Administration:** It takes a while to get used to all the administration configuration tools available withing [|Moodle]. || installer not need to know as much about SQL and PHP. || **Simplicity:** [|Moodle] is sometimes thought to be a little harder the say Blackboard when managing groups of students and courses. ||
 * **Pros** || **Cons** ||
 * **Backup your data:** Back up and restore is available for your data. || **Reporting:** It is hard to run a report. ||
 * **Open Source:** Free to download and can be customize. This is an advantage of using open source. || **Requires Technical Understanding:** Is a little technical to install and get configured. It may require some help from an I.T person or someone who is computer savvy. ||
 * **Large Community of Users:** Many people using [|Moodle] that are willing to help
 * **Availability:** Many companies will install and host [|Moodle] which makes the

= = =Moodle Screenshots=





=Resources=

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Wiki []