Virtual Learning Environments

“Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students.”

Moodle is used for both completely online courses and blended courses (partially online, partially face-to-face). There are over 50,000 active sites on Moodle from 214 different countries. Moodle is free to download and registration is voluntary. At first, the Moodle demonstration page appears similar to a Wiki : we see basic text, links, and navigation buttons but no graphics or video. However, video and photographs can be added to the Moodle interface relatively easily. The instructor can use the Moodle ‘classroom’ to upload links, files, media content, even quizzes. The quizzes will be graded and students will receive an immediate grade after finishing, then see how this grade affects their overall grade for the course without consulting the teacher. The classroom sites in Moodle are very secure, requiring a password and, at times, teacher confirmation before allowing the student to enter and begin working.

I have taken blended and completely online courses in Moodle over the past six years or so. Currently, my continuing education classes use Moodle for my job requirements. Because all the classes are on one company’s page, I can track which courses I have completed and see/record my quiz and final grades for each class. However, there does seem to be a lack of organization when it comes to the Moodle interface. BlackBoard is in no way the ideal course management system, however if used properly, Blackboard can be very effective in organizing class contact information, grades, assignments, discussions, lecture notes, etc. in an easy to access left hand panel. This also makes the courses taken in Blackboard relatively consistent – you know where to look for the information you need. In Moodle, how the course looks is designed by each individual educator (or group of educators). This means that the course syllabus link may be in one location for one class and in a completely different location for another.

This also means that the usability of the online Moodle class is directly dependent upon the creator’s abilities. For example, I have taken a few classes where multiple elements of the page or assignments would not show or play because I was accessing the page from a Mac. In one of these cases my teacher said I needed to access the Moodle class from a PC, because it was designed by and for one. I have also been in classes where the online Quizzes were inaccurate due to an Instructor’s error when entering answers. Of course, a grading error can occur at any time by mistake. But if it happens in Moodle, an Instructor will need to review and regrade an entire class instead of one student. Overall, I have experienced Moodle classes that have been designed well, and also those that have been designed poorly. If the information is too cluttered, a student can miss assignments or other needed information. It seems you never know what you’re going to get with a Moodle course until the first time you log in.

(source: Moodle.org)

Moodle: First Impressions

Moodle has a nicely structured platform and has my vote over Blackboard.  In the Film Studies demo, I appreciated the emphasis on lesson sequence and the capacity to break each lesson/class into a separate page.  The use of modules- particularly, quizzes and surveys -also helped to streamline the discussion process.  [Note: I appreciate the freedom blogs give everyone to expound on their views and arguments, but having a limit imposed on initiating forum threads can go a long way towards focusing the class when dozens or more are participating.  The Moodle discussion topic we are currently having is a perfect example –four or five of us have started separate threads on the same topic.]  Additionally, the ability to customize language settings is also critical as the New School and others try to push beyond the American-centric classroom.  Finally, like Nag, I agree that Moodle’s ability to suit industry and government as much as academia is imperative.  In my own work environment, my boss consistently pushes our in-house online strategy team to attend digital tech and social media conferences; it would be nice if we could participate in post-conference classes with the speakers (many who are already in academia).

All these benefits aside, Moodle’s aesthetic experience proved a huge drawback.  Personally, I would rather log into an LMS with Ning-like aesthetics, profile markers, homepage videos, etc.  Hopefully, a Moodle redesign is under consideration?   Even if a redesign is not in the cards, Moodle does seem to have an impressive list of registered sites.  I noticed two well-known U.S. high schools – Culver Academy and Brooklyn Tech – are using Moodle as well as the 1st infantry division to train new troops. My old high school in New Jersey is reportedly running on StudyWiz Spark (see demo).  I’m not sure if anyone else used StudyWiz or another LMS at their respective high schools – it is a new venture for my own.  We didn’t have cell phones let alone school email accounts when I was student (10 years ago).
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To answer Katharine’s question (below) about Moodle: I would argue that if students are not appreciating the benefits of Moodle it is because Moodle like the LMSes mentioned above do not target students where they already are (i.e. established social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Twitter).  As we wrap up our analysis for the semester, I am concerned that we are creating too many platforms that compete for students’ attention.  We need to start integrating the LMS or VLE model into existing platforms so that we can give students interactions that are meaningful, personal and consistent with their daily behavior as digital natives.  As noted on its website, StudyWiz prides itself on being able to seamlessly integrate with the iPod.  My response:  so what?  iPod interoperability is old news when teens today are using all-in-one iPhones that provide seamless access to not only their favorite music but Facebook, YouTube, Tweetdeck, etc.
In his analysis, Siemens argues that the “management” aspect of LMS’ creates a problem: “The underlying assumption is that if we just expose students to the content, learning will happen.”  He goes on to write that “our real-life manner of learning is at odds with the design and implementations of most LMS’” and that “most LMS platforms are attempting to shape the future of learning to fit into the structure of their systems, even though most learning today is informal and connectionist in nature.”
Informal and connectionist are key.
A few weeks ago WIRED ran a feature on the Great Wall of Facebook (I just reposted it on del.icio.us and Twitter).  The article largely addresses Google’s approach to information sourcing and the competing vision of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  Per Wired: “Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline. In Zuckerberg’s vision, users will query this “social graph” to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire—rather than tapping the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center.”

I’m not a huge fan of Zuckerberg (Andreesen and Bianchini’s Ning has more dynamic potential), but I believe he has the right vision- and one that can be adapted for educational purposes.  When I was in high school, most of the facts and theories I learned in the classroom didn’t take on meaning until later in the day:  during conversations with peers or dinner table chatter with my siblings and parents.  I think the same goes for today’s high school students only they now have virtual social networks for feedback and analysis at their disposal.  Facebook would do its “student” members well if it launched classroom networks (much like a Ning network) where teachers could customize modules (like Moodle) and updates on assignments, readings, quizzes, etc. appeared in profile newsfeeds or sidebars.  From there, students could share materials with friends in their broader networks – and “learning” could actually go viral.

I’m being idealistic, and I can already hear the legions screaming that they don’t want to friend teachers on Facebook.  But I refuse to buy the argument that integrating a VLE into Facebook, Ning or any other social network would dumb down learning for students.  Privacy settings are available.  And if anything, such interoperability would elevate the debate and dialogue currently taking place among digital natives on those platforms.

So far in this class we have worked and read about different forms of virtual learning environments. For this section of the class we were asked to work with the online education site/application titled moodle.

After review the site several times I found it to be an up and coming server. In other words I think this site and idea is going to be big. For most of my classes at The New School I have used blackboard. I have heard from some students and teachers that blackboard is too rigid and not user friendly enough. I like blackboard and love that it lets me take online courses but I also feel competition makes better products and moodle is competition.

Pros

Easy to use navigational settings allow access to lessons, notes and tools for learning.

Fairly simple to navigate website links.

Expansive ability to teach one-10000etc.

Cons

Large download to ones own computer.

Not like a simple Google group app or similar.

I really like how expansive this program could be for educators. It really seems to give good learning modules and ways to make the program run specifically to your needs. My only concern is that in the age of blackboard, Google features, Second Life, will this succeed or be too primal in its initial setup. It’s good but it needs to advance. The site seems rigid and not graphically pleasing. In today’s age it’s not real simple to get running. Only time will tell if this site will continue to flourish and become a household name like Second Life.