The Technology that
Shapes Learning in Higher Ed
With the development of Learning Management
Systems (LMS), the traditional in-class lecture-based instruction in higher education
is being gradually superseded by web-based face-to-face, hybrid, or
fully-online delivery modes. Moodle, which was developed by Australian
programmer Martin Dougiamas in the early 2000s to improve the effectiveness of
online learning, is one existing LMS and is used in 219 countries (Moodle,
2015). My community college began using this open-source platform about ten
years ago. Since then, many instructors of our institution have started utilizing
numerous features of this product in their face-to-face, hybrid, and online
courses.
Challenges and Pitfalls
Associated with this Technology
Some users of Moodle find this product
to be very tech heavy, not intuitive or user- friendly, with a little
clunky interface (Silberman, 2013). Our instructors complain that with every
update some old convenient features disappear completely and some are changed dramatically so much that they have to relearn a lot. Thus, the users of Moodle may need very frequent
technical support, which is not free for many institutions.
I have noticed many limitations in our
current 2.7.3 version of Moodle with creating online quizzes from scratch. There
is no a convenient and quick opportunity to create multiple versions of the
same quiz with non-numeric questions. The automatic question marks do not allow
for a lot of flexibility. For example, there is an automatic question mark of
90% and 100%, but if I want to assign a score that is between these two marks,
I have to do it manually. It is not possible to grade the same question for all
students. There is no option that can make an assignment visible to an
individual student only. The Gradebook
also has some limitations.
The Societal Needs and
Benefits
Distance learning has become
widespread in higher education. As all LMSs, Moodle fulfills
the need for online teaching and learning. Many students, educators, and
businessmen benefit from using this product: there are currently 65380
registered Moodle sites (Moodle, 2015). However, Moodle has an additional
advantage: it is free, open-resource platform that is supported by several
software-developers around the world.
How Pitfalls can be Avoided
There is a plug-in software called WalkMe for Moodle that can be helpful in
learning how to use the system. It can reduce the number of complaints about
the non-intuitive structure of Moodle (Silberman, 2013). Moodle developers can
be directly contacted to improve existing features. I send them my suggestion
on a regular basis. Hopefully, they will be implemented in the next version of
Moodle.
The
Link to Moodle Site
The
Moodle main site is located at https://moodle.org/.
This site has current and previous
Moodle documents. Historical information and statistics is also available.
References
Siberman, J. (2013, August 6). Challenges of
Moodle UX and how to address them. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/challenges-of-moodle-ux-and-how-to-address-them
Moodle. (2015). History and Statistics, Retrieved from https://docs.moodle.org
Moodle. (2015). History and Statistics, Retrieved from https://docs.moodle.org
Hi Lena:
ReplyDeleteYou present a detailed analysis of the Learning Management System Moodle. Particularly interesting are the features that present many challenges that make providing instruction more time consuming. I recently read an announcement detailing the latest version on Moodle. (You can read more information at https://moodle.org). Moodle 3.0. was released last month and is touted as a "gentle release" with fewer radical changes. One of the changes I think you will be pleased to see is the quiz upgrade which includes a new question format with more question types. Hopefully this new feature will eliminate the need to make a quiz from scratch as you mentioned. It seems that the comments and suggestions user like yourself have submitted have not fallen on death ears. Good Luck with the new release.
Linette Rasheed
Hi Linette,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response. Yes, I know about Moodle 3 release, but our district is a little behind. We switch to Moodle 2.9 next semester. We will see how everything will go.
Hi Lena,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post, it was a very interesting read.
Another open platform that has received a lot of press in recent years is Coursera. MOOCs have become a very popular media. What is your view on the future of MOOCs?
Regards.
Keith Hawkes
Hi Keith,
DeleteThank you for asking. Yes, I know about Coursera. And it is true: MOOCs is a focus of many education-related discussions. I think that MOOC might be effective with highly motivated, organized, and experienced learners. Currently, in a community college setting, it is mostly used for non-credit or professional development courses.
Hi Lena:
ReplyDeleteInsightful perspective on the features and functions of Moodle as an LMS. As a district we are grappling with our disjointed attempt to cobble together Google Classroom, Aspen, which we have functioning exclusively as a student information system, and pilot attempts to look at Canvas and the open-source Schoology platform to house assessments. Not surprising, the students are now commenting that they are "the test bed guinea pigs." Although our objective is make an informed decision about an LMS with student input, the students are devoting excessive time navigating through multiple platforms and remembering how to access and submit assignments. Thanks for sharing your experience...Pat