I was having a chat with my brother-in-law (a teacher) about elearning at secondary level education and was pleased to hear he frequently took advantage of the benefits his school’s virtual learning environment offered.
He was interested to know what Moodle had over the software currently being used at his school. “Well,” said I, “where to start!”
As technology developed educational institutions recognised there would be growing expectations by the new tech savvy generation for resources to be readily available on the Internet. Moodle has emerged as one of the front-running virtual learning environments.
- Moodle is an Open Source Software – free software that you have permission to modify to suit your requirements. As such it is designed to be easily updated and highly customisable. Organisations using Moodle include schools, universities, government agencies etc. and by adding their own style, colours and logos each has created a website to suit their organisation and audience.
- Moodle was designed to be a learning tool. Although it is an impressive piece of technology, it was designed with pedagogy in mind and that had been the main focus ever since. As it has been updated over the years, Moodle has evolved as a highly interactive elearning programme. Students and teachers both benefit from the forums, chatrooms, blogs etc. that are available as additions to their courses.
- Teachers can easily structure course content so their students can navigate through the resources and activities in the correct order, getting the most from the learning process.
- As Moodle grows in popularity (and it is fast becoming the VLE of choice for elearning) it is a program that your students will come across as they progress through tertiary education and on into the work place. They will benefit from an introduction to Moodle at an early stage in their career.
- What happens if you are struggling with your Moodle? Never worry…there is a whole community of Moodle users online ready to help you out every step of the way. Moodle is all about community. Teachers and learners give feedback for developers to understand how it can be improved. Technicians advise on Moodle best practice. Teachers help teachers, technicians help technicians, experts help novices and the list goes on.
On top of that Moodle has authorised Synergy Learning to be Moodle Partner and offer a full range of services (hosting, training, support etc.) to help you get the most from your Moodle. Moodle Partners contribute directly to the ongoing development of Moodle software so by choosing to work with a Moodle Partner you are ensuring Moodle will continue to break new ground in education technology.
I’m sure I haven’t covered half the reasons you should choose Moodle, and the passionate Moodle community will have a whole list of other benefits but that should keep you going for now!
Moodle 2.0 is due for release in July 2010 and with it come a whole host of new features (click here for ‘What’s new in Moodle 2.0?’).