Moodle course screenshot with Firefox
Developed by	Martin Dougiamas
Latest release	1.9 / 3 March 2008
OS	Cross-platform
Genre	Course Management System
License	GPL
Website	moodle.org

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Moodle is a free software e-learning platform (also known as a Course Management System (CMS), or Learning Management Systems (LMS), or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)). It has a significant user base with 38,896 registered sites with 16,927,590 users in 1,713,438 courses (as of January, 2008) [1]. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (860x714, 73 KB)Screen grab of a typical online course running on a Moodle version 1. ... For other uses, see Software developer (disambiguation). ... Martin (Born 1969, lives in Perth Australia) is a prominant educator and computer scientist with postgraduate degrees in Computer Science and Education. ... Code complete redirects here. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (common) era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... A more complete and accurate examination of this type of software can be found in the Managed Learning Environment article. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... GPL redirects here. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a term used to describe software tools designed to manage user learning interventions. ... Moodle Learning Management System with a navigation system and online community building tools. ...

Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design means that people can develop additional functionality. Development is undertaken by a globally diffused network of commercial and non-commercial users, spearheaded by the Moodle company based in Perth, Western Australia. Location of Perth within Australia This article is about the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. ...

Moodle features

Moodle has many features expected from an e-learning platform. However newer developments have brought in new features.

Moodle is modular in construction and can readily be extended by creating plugins for specific new functionality. Moodle's infrastructure supports many types of plugin: For other uses, see Plug in. ...

• Activities
• Resource types
• Question types
• Data field types (for the database activity)
• Graphical themes
• Authentication methods
• Enrollment methods
• Content Filters

Many third-party Moodle plugins are freely available making use of this infrastructure [2].

PHP can be used to author and contribute new modules. Moodle's development has been assisted by the work of open source programmers [3]. This has contributed towards its rapid development and rapid bug fixes. For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation). ...

Specification

Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare and any other systems that support PHP, including most webhost providers. Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... FreeBSD is a Unix-like free operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through the 386BSD and 4. ... Windows redirects here. ... Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... NetWare is a network operating system and the set of network protocols it uses to talk to client machines on the network. ... For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation). ...

Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL were the only feasible options in Moodle 1.6. Version 1.7, released November 2006, makes full use of database abstraction so that other databases can be used just as easily (Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are two specific target DBMSes). The current version of Moodle (1.9), was released in March 2008. MySQL (pronounced (IPA) , my S-Q-L[1]) is a multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system (DBMS)[2] which has, according to MySQL AB, more than 10 million installations. ... PostgreSQL is a free software object-relational database management system (ORDBMS), released under a BSD-style license. ... The term Oracle database may refer either to the database management system (DBMS) software released by Oracle Corporation as Oracle RDBMS, or to any of the individual databases managed by such software. ... Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) produced by Microsoft. ... A database management system (DBMS) is a computer program (or more typically, a suite of them) designed to manage a database, a large set of structured data, and run operations on the data requested by numerous users. ...

Background

Origins

Moodle was created by Martin Dougiamas, a WebCT administrator at Curtin University, Australia, who has graduate degrees in Computer Science and Education. His Ph.D. examined "The use of Open Source software to support a social constructionist epistemology of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry". This research has strongly influenced the design of Moodle, providing pedagogical aspects missing from many other e-learning platforms. Martin (Born 1969, lives in Perth Australia) is a prominant educator and computer scientist with postgraduate degrees in Computer Science and Education. ... WebCT (Course Tools), now owned by Blackboard and being phased out, is an online proprietary virtual learning environment system which is sold to colleges and other institutions and is used in many campuses for e-learning. ... Curtin University of Technology is a technology-focused university with its main campus at Bentley, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ... ... Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. ...

Pedagogical approach

The stated philosophy of Moodle [4] includes a constructivist and social constructionist approach to education, emphasizing that learners (and not just teachers) can contribute to the educational experience in many ways. Moodle's features reflect this in various design aspects, such as making it possible for students to comment on entries in a database (or even to contribute entries themselves), or to work collaboratively in a wiki. Constructivism, an area of learning theory, is an approach to teaching, which values developmentally appropriate practices where the learning is child-initiated, child-directed and where the teacher plays a supporting role in the learning. ... For the learning theory, see Social Constructivism (Learning Theory). ... Look up Wiki in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Having said this, Moodle is flexible enough to allow for a full range of modes of teaching. It can be used for both introductory and advanced delivery of content (e.g. HTML pages) or assessment, and does not necessitate a constructivist teaching approach. HTML, an initialism of Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ...

Constructivism is sometimes seen as at odds with accountability-focused ideas about education, such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in the United States. Accountability stresses tested outcomes, not teaching techniques, or pedagogy, but Moodle is also useful in an outcomes-oriented classroom environment because of its flexibility. Signing ceremony at Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Ohio. ... Pedagogy (IPA: ) , the art or science of being a teacher, generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction[1]. The word comes from the Ancient Greek (paidagōgeō; from (child) and (lead)): literally, to lead the child”. In Ancient Greece, was (usually) a slave who supervised the...

Origin of the name

The word Moodle is actually an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, although originally the M stood for "Martin", named after Martin Dougiamas, the original developer. [5] Martin (Born 1969, lives in Perth Australia) is a prominant educator and computer scientist with postgraduate degrees in Computer Science and Education. ...

Moodle can also be considered a verb, which describes the improvisational process of doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course.

Moodle statistics and market share

• Moodle has a significant user base with over 36,000 registered sites with 14 million users in 1.4 million courses (as of December 22, 2007). More than 70 languages are supported. The Current Moodle Statistics can also be seen online.

• There are 74 registered Moodle sites with more than 20,000 users. The site with the most users is moodle.org with 43 courses and 322,176 users. The site with the most courses is E-learning na VUT v Brně with 19,223 courses and 41,305 users (as of October 21, 2007).

• Moodle market share according to Alexa Web Traffic for LMS Suppliers: Moodle only below Blackboard, above all other VLE, including WebCT.

is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... For the supplier of fundraising software geared towards non-profit and charity organizations, see Blackbaud. ... Moodle Learning Management System with a navigation system and online community building tools. ... WebCT (Course Tools), now owned by Blackboard and being phased out, is an online proprietary virtual learning environment system which is sold to colleges and other institutions and is used in many campuses for e-learning. ...

Interoperability

There are many dimensions to interoperability for e-learning systems. Moodle's interoperability features include:

• Authentication, using LDAP, Shibboleth, or various other standard methods (e.g. IMAP)
• Enrollment, using IMS Enterprise among other standard methods, or by direct interaction with an external database
• Quizzes and quiz questions, allowing import/export in a number of formats: GIFT (moodle's own format), IMS QTI, XML and XHTML (NB although export works very well, import is currently not complete)
• Resources, using IMS Content Packaging, SCORM, AICC (CBT), LAMS
• Integration with other Content Management Systems such as Postnuke (via third-party extensions)
• Syndication using RSS or Atom newsfeeds - external newsfeeds can be displayed in a course, and forums, blogs, and other features can be made available to others as newsfeeds.

Moodle also has import features for use with other specific systems, such as importing quizzes or entire courses from Blackboard or WebCT. The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP (IPA: ), is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP.[1] A directory is a set of objects with similar attributes organized in a logical and hierarchical manner. ... Shibboleth is an Internet2 Middleware Initiative project that has created an architecture and open-source implementation for federated identity-based authentication and authorization infrastructure based on SAML. Federated identity allows for information about users in one security domain to be provided to other organizations in a common federation. ... The Internet Message Access Protocol (commonly known as IMAP, and previously called Interactive Mail Access Protocol) is an application layer Internet protocol used for accessing email on a remote server from a local client. ... The IMS Question and Test Interoperability Specification (QTI) defines an XML language for interchanging questions and assessments between different systems. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. ... The Extensible HyperText Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... LAMS = Learning Activity Management System LAMS is an Open Source software for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. ... A Content Management System (CMS) is a software system used for content management. ... PostNuke is a free, open source content management system (a nuke) forked from PHP-Nuke, released under the GNU General Public License. ... An aggregator or news aggregator or feed reader is client software that uses a web feed to retrieve syndicated web content such as weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites, or in the case of a search aggregator, a customized set of search results. ...

Deployment and development

Moodle has been evolving since 1999 (since 2001 with the current architecture). The current version is 1.9, which was released in March of 2008. It has been translated into 61 different languages. Major improvements in accessibility and display flexibility were developed in 1.5. Website accessibility is the degree to which a website is accessible to Internet users with disabilities. ...

As of March 2008, the Moodle user community with over 400,000 registered users on their site alone. As there are no license fees or limits to growth, an institution can add as many Moodle servers as needed. The largest single site has reported over 19,000 courses and over 41,000 students, and the Open University of the UK is building a Moodle installation for their 200,000 users. Affiliations Alliance of Non-Aligned Universities, Association of Commonwealth Universities, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Website http://www. ...

The development of Moodle continues as a free software project supported by a team of programmers and an international user community, drawing upon contributions posted to an online Moodle Community that encourages debate and invites criticism.

There are some auto install packages to facilitate the installation including Fantastico and the Moodle package for Debian GNU/Linux. Users are free to distribute and modify the software under the terms of the GNU General Public License). Debian, created by the Debian Project, is a widely used distribution of free software developed through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ... GPL redirects here. ...

See also

• Learning management system
• Online learning community

Image File history File links Free_Software_Portal_Logo. ... A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a term used to describe software tools designed to manage user learning interventions. ... An online learning community is a common place on the Internet that addresses the learning needs of its members through proactive partnerships. ...

External links

Official Moodle resources

• Moodle.org - Original developer's Moodle site, communities, courses and software
• Moodle Partners a group of competent professionals who are serious about providing quality services to users of Moodle software, ranging from basic support to the development and implementation of complete ICT solutions

Reports/articles

• Article explaining Moodle for beginning users. Published on techsoup.org
• Blackboard vs. Moodle. A Comparison of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning Tools
• Blackboard Online System to be Replaced -New System Moodle More Effective
• Bob McDonald "E-Learning at Cranbrook: Up Close and Personal" (2004) Cranbrook Schools
• Graf S., List, B. (2005) An Evaluation of Open Source E-Learning Platforms Stressing Adaptation Issues - an evaluation of 9 open source E-Learning Platforms.

Other

• Moodle at Aiken High School - Screen captures and captions illustrating how Moodle is used at a medium sized public high school in South Carolina, USA: http://aiken.moodlerooms.com/wb/pages/academics/moodle/moodle-at-aiken-high-school--introduction.php
  
• MyClass.org.au - FREE Moodle Hosting for educator and non profit organisations