Come Moodle with Us: The truth about the "free" LMS"

Editor's Notes

• #2: Presentation Title: Come Moodle with Us: Straight talk on the “free LMSAbstract: This presentation gives a high-level overview of what Moodle is and various ways organizations can use it. The presenters will provide a demonstration/tour of their own Moodle site, share details of what’s required to install and configure it, and also highlight what it takes to administer the site. Finally, they will share a frank assessment of the true costs of the “free” LMS. Key Words: Moodle, LMSTargetaudience: Anyone interested in using Moodle in their own organization to 1) deliver and track training for employees or customers; 2) facilitate informal learning and communication, or 3) use it as a company Intranet site.
• #6: The Moodle Experience: Our First “Wow”Our first “experiment” with Moodle centered on using it to share knowledge acquired at conferences. We routinely spend thousands of dollars to send groups of employees to national/international conferences on learning/technology.In the past, we’ve struggled to share knowledge – and to get employees who attend to be accountable for learning specific things while at the conference.We set up two conferences– Adobe Max 2009 and DevLearn 2009. as “courses” in Moodle. Both courses were set up in a “social forum” style (as opposed to a weekly or topical format, which are also options in Moodle). We then let people create discussion forums around specific topics and post entries to these topics. The employees who stayed behind could then comment on the posts. Sample topics:Aftereffects and how to use it to create learning activities using video.Mobile learning – how it is/is not being used.Gaming – what it takes to develop a game.Using Sharepoint as a podcasting site.The courses were very successful. Conference attendees gained a lot from writing about what they were learning. Employees back home got a “front row seat” to key learnings and could spark great discussions.Upon return, employees could then extend the learning by creating “poster sessions” or demo applications to illustrate how BLP could apply what was learned at the conference.
• #7: The Moodle Experience: NowSince our first “wow,” we’ve continued to expand how we use Moodle. We find it facilitates BOTH formal and informal learning. We currently use Moodle to: Help people identify experts within the company (via tagging feature available as part of setting up employee profiles.Create a sense of “fun” and “connection” via a survey “question of the week” and photo-sharing.Help people know more about each other, which is a challenge in our virtual world (via employee profiles that employees set up for themselves)Bring home learning from conferences.Communicate company news and generate discussion about “hot” topics (via site news).House/organize company resources, job aids. Employees can link to “just-in-time” tools –things they may not use all the time and, therefore, aren’t great candidates for official training – or things that can supplement official training.Structure nontraditional “courses” (a book club that employees are part of. Each member reads assigned section and then completes assignments related to reading. They physically come together 1x/month for discussions, explicitly referring to the postings made throughout the month. In 2010, we plan to:Move our NEO program to Moodle. Create online learning experience for teaching basic instructional design to multimedia associates and entry-level associates who may lack ID background..Create online learning experience for helping associate-level personnel hone their project management skillsNOTE: The info on this screen is supplemented by a tour of BLP’s Moodle site during the live SALT presentation.
• #9: Moodle Experience: A summarySo…as the stories illustrate, Moodle is intended to help build a learning community. It has many powerful features that facilitate this; you can create:BlogsDiscussion forums.Tests and surveys – and track gradesResource repositories.Glossaries and wikis.Tags that help people identify each other as resources.Groups that you can keep separate from each other.Courses in a wide array of formats.TBD – since Moodle is open-source it is constantly evolving as different users contribute to its programming.
• #12: Installation and configurationThese are two different things – and the same person doesn’t have to do each of them.Installation is the physical install of Moodle software on your server (or a external host server).Configuration is everything that happens after the install.
• #18: Maintaining Moodle is where things sometimes fall apart – or where Moodle greatness emerges. This section outlines the key tasks that are part of maintaining a site and getting the most out of it.