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Volume 6, Issue 3 - Moodling
By: Kevin Johnson, Michael Lindeman, &
Virgil E. Varvel Jr.
Keywords: Moodle, Open-Source, Course
Management System, Learning Management System, Virtual Learning
Environment; Open Learning, Distance Education
What is Moodle?
Moodle <http://www.moodle.org/> (Modular
Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a course
management system (CMS) - a software package used to create
an online teaching and
learning environemtn. It
was initially designed
and written by Martin Dougiamas of Perth, Western Australia.
Mr Dougiamas has a background in technology, but is now combining his former
career
with his new one in education. As a part of this, he has developed Moodle,
based on his knowledge about the nature of learning and collaboration.
The word Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment, which is useful for programmers and education theorists. It's
also a verb
that describes the process of meandering through something, doing
things as they occur to you, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads
to insight and creativity. This process applies to the way Moodle was developed,
and the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching
an
online course.
[See Edutools for a comprehensive overview of Course Management Systems, http://www.edutools.info/course/]
[See Wikipedia entry for Moodle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle]
Moodle is Open Source software. Open
source means that one is free to download, use, modify,
and
even (under GNU General Public License) distribute it. Such modifications
are not necessary though. Many such modifications are freely available
though, and new features are constantly being added and updated on this
relatively
new system. Moodle even currently has 50 language packs.
[For a comprehensive overview of what is meant by Open Source see http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=30]
What are the philosophical underpinnings of Moodle?
Philosophically,
Moodle has been programmed under a social
constructionist philosophy. Interaction among participants is
central to its design and purpose.
[See Doolittle, P. (1999). Constructivism
and online education. Retrieved 31 March, 2005, from http://edpsychserver.ed.vt.edu/workshops/tohe1999/text/doo2.pdf]
How can I acquire and run Moodle?
The primary Moodle Website is http://www.moodle.org. On this
site, you will be able to find all of the information that you need to know
in order to download, install, and set up a Moodle server. As stated on their
Website, "Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS
X, Netware and any other system that supports PHP, including most webhost
providers. Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL are
best supported, but it can also be used with Oracle, Access, Interbase, ODBC
and others."
Using Moodle
Hopefully, the above has informed you of what Moodle is, and
perhaps how to install a version of your own although that is not necessary
for the rest of this article. We now turn to the issue at hand. How does
one use Moodle, or as one might say, go Moodling. We will also provide some
handy tips that we have learned from our experiences with Moodle.
Moodle Walkthrough
Virgil Varvel has created and updates periodically, this Moodle
Walkthrough. The logging in sections and a few points interspersed
throughout are specific to the Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality program,
but many
of the Moodle features can be learned by accessing
the menu (lower link) on the Welcome screen of this Shockwave Flash presentation.
In addition to the Moodle Walkthrough presentation, we have
several documents explaining key features within Moodle. Access these documents
from the list below to finish your exploration of Moodle.
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