It hasn’t escaped many Moodlers attention that for the second year running the members of the eLearning Guild have ranked Moodle as the Number 1 LMS.

If reports are to be believed Blackboard’s market share is dropping while Moodle’s is doing the opposite, and social networkers are airing where their preference lies.  It is clear the educational world is increasingly coming round to the seductions of Moodle.  But why?

In 2009 the University of North Carolina (USA) conducted a comprehensive study comparing Moodle and Blackboard Vista, to determine which system they should implement across the Institution.

For your information I have listed a few interesting points made in their report explaining their decision to go with Moodle;

With regards the Usability of Moodle:

The faculty and students involved rated Moodle very highly on key factors of ease of use, flexibility, facilitation of teaching/learning goals, and correspondence to one’s teaching/learning style. Tools and functions crucial for designing and implementing Moodle courses (Assignments, Discussions, Learning Modules, Assessments, etc.) were rated as being preferable to those available in BbV by both faculty and students.

On all tools and functions evaluated, a large majority of faculty expressed a preference (either pro-Moodle or pro-BbV), and as in the Fall, these preferences consistently favored Moodle by wide margins. Once again, ease of use and learning, adaptability, and sufficiency of Moodle tools were important factors for these faculties.

With regards the cost of Moodle:

…the University would realize a cost savings of 52% in year 2011-2012 by switching to Moodle as the standard University Learning Management System.

With regards the Moodle Community:

One attractive feature of Moodle is its open source architecture, which promises flexibility and adaptability to our faculty and student needs. This feature also encourages participation in a nationwide, indeed international, community of teachers and course designers who constantly explore and implement new features within the Moodle LMS.

Conclusion:

The evidence gathered by this committee strongly favors a transition to Moodle on both pedagogical and financial grounds. Moodle provides better or comparable functionality with the benefit of increased relevance and control for what in the long run will be lower cost.

It is worth reading the University of North Carolina’s full report for a full understanding of what is involved in a transition from Blackboard to Moodle.

http://lmseval.uncc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=9

For more information on Synergy Learning’s Moodle Services email info@synergy-learning.com