moodle is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which is extensively used world wide in hundreds of schools, colleges, universities and other organisations. moodle's support hundreds of thousands of students in these institutions.

moodle's can:

• make available information to students
• categorise information
• allow work to be submitted
• set and mark tests
• allow individual and bulk emails to be sent
• allow restricted access to courses and information.

Moodle is a virtual learning environment (VLE) used by many colleges and other educational providers.  It enables course tutors to easily produce course information via the web and for students to access this information.  It provides a wide range of services and facilities such as:

• Course materials
• Students can submit files of assigments to the tutor 
• Tests in a variety of formats
• Automatic marking of some tests
• Test marks and grade tables
• Tutor and student forums for discussion
• Questionnaires
• and lots more ....

Many courses can be supported by the system simultaneously.  Courses can be protected by passwords and students can be given permission to use the course.

Alphatronica Ltd can offer services and support for moodle systems including:

• Training in course development
• moodle server rental  
• advice on setting up courses and servers

Contact us if you wish to discuss any training, development activities or server rental.   A more detailed description of the features of moodle can be found below.  Many of the descriptions are taken from the moodle help files.

What is moodle? 
  
moodle is an e-learning system that enables you to create and manage a course website for:

• posting documents (reading lists, articles, PowerPoint slides, images...);
• managing online discussions;
• running quizzes, polls, and surveys.

The format of the course and how you might choose to use these tools in your teaching is entirely up to you.  Once you have set up your moodle course(s), you tell your students to log on to the portal to view the resources and/or activities you have created for them. 

A course can be set up using the moodle system itself.  No additional editors or programs need to be used to create the course. 
Access is via the web.  That is if you can access the server you can manage the course wherever you are.  This means that no additional skills are required to be developed.  You learn moodle as you develop it.  Some of the available activities and resources in Moodle are described below.

Resources

• Files  - Each moodle course has its own file area, entire directories can be uploaded from your machine to this area to deliver any kind of file.
• Directories -  Students can given access directly to the contents of a directory in the course file area.
• Pages - Web pages can be created directly from moodle - these can be plain text or formatted.
• Links - URLs can be added to anything on the web.

Activities

• Assignments - Assignments allow the teacher to specify a task that requires students to prepare digital content (any format) and submit it by uploading it to the server.  Typical assignments include essays, projects, reports and so on.  This module includes grading facilities.  It allows single or repeated submission of assignments.  Submission times / periods can be programmed.
• Chat -  The Chat module allows participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion via the web. This is a useful way to get a different understanding of each other and the topic being discussed - the mode of using a chat room is quite different from the asynchronous forums. The Chat module contains a number of features for managing and reviewing chat discussions.
• Choice - A choice activity is very simple - the teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of multiple responses. It can be useful as a quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic; to allow the class to vote on a direction for the course; or to gather research consent.
• Forums - Forums can be structured in different ways, and can include peer rating of each posting. The postings can be viewed in a variety for  formats, and can include attachments. By subscribing to a forum, participants will receive copies of each new posting in their email. A teacher can impose subscription on everyone if they want to.
• Glossary -  This activity allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary. The entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats. The glossary also allows teachers to export entries from one glossary to another (the main one) within the same course. Finally, it is possible to automatically create links to these entries from throughout the course.
• Journal -  The teacher asks the student to reflect on a particular topic, and the student can edit and refine their answer over time. This answer is private and can only be seen by the teacher, who can offer feedback and a grade on each journal entry.
• Lesson - A lesson delivers content in an interesting and flexible way. It consists of a number of pages. Each page normally ends with a question and a number of possible answers. Depending on the student's choice of answer they either progress to the next page or are taken back to a previous page. Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex, depending largely on the structure of the material being presented.
• Quizzes - This module allows the teacher to design and set quiz tests, consisting of multiple choice, true-false, and short answer questions. These questions are kept in a categorised database, and can be re-used within courses and even between courses. Quizzes can allow multiple attempts. Each attempt is automatically marked, and the teacher can choose whether to give feedback or to show correct answers. This module includes grading facilities.
• Workshop -  A Workshop is a peer assessment activity with a huge array of options. It allows participants to assess each other's projects, as well as exemplar projects, in a number of ways. It also coordinates the collection and distribution of these assessments in a variety of ways.

How does moodle fit into my course?

moodle can be used in a variety of ways. In theory a whole course could be run where the sole medium of interaction would be moodle itself. More likely, however, you may want to use just a few of the tools moodle offers in the context of your traditional teaching.

Here are a few ideas on how you might use it:

• Gathering feedback - On a weekly, termly, or one-off basis. For example, you could try setting up a quiz to monitor the "muddiest point" from each lecture and subsequently spend 10 mins of the next lecture clarifying this point.
• Summative evaluation - Try setting up a database of past exam questions. By monitoring the usage statistics online you can devote some more time on covering topics on which students scored lowest.        
• Holding "virtual office" hours -  You might set up a chat session for your group during set times in the term where you will be available for real-time discussion. With the permission of the student(s) who ask you questions, you can also re-post these to a forum for the whole group to benefit.      
• Focus for group work - Sometimes it is useful to be able to monitor and facilitate smalls groups while they are working on a project. You might ask the group to set up a journal or a forum, therefore, which you can view when necessary.       
• Peer evaluation - You might offer a space for students to post work and receive feedback from other students. Both the work and the feedback could be evaluated or further discussed in class.      

How much time will I have to spend on my moodle?

In the early days of course websites staff had to be prepared to develop some fairly sophisticated technical skills to publish a site; using an HTML editing package they would have to manage their files and design a site from scratch. This, naturally, could take a great deal of time.

With the introduction of course management systems (such as moodle) things became very much easier: staff just need to log in to a website  using a browser, and using the available menus and forms can post sophisticated interactive content very quickly.

The simplicity is deceptive, however. Even in you master the nuts and bolts quickly - most people learn how to post and edit content within half an hour - you still need to figure out what you are going to do with these new sophisticated tools.    

You need to ask:

• What is the most effective way of using quizzes in my course?
• How will I respond to the feedback I get from surveys?
• Can I grade the work that is completed online?
• Why don't my students use the course website in the way I expected?

Just as in other aspects of teaching, the time commitment required will be split between:

• up-front time for experimentation and development;
• on-going time during the term;
• evaluation and reflection time.

If you are introducing a website to a course, therefore, you will need to manage your time and your expectations carefully. Here are a few tips to help:

• Be clear about your objectives in using a course website. How do these relate to specific learning outcomes and the course outline? 
• Have a clear vision: imagine what you want before you start trying to create it.
• Factor in "tinker time" before the course starts. This experimentation period can be anything from a couple of hours to a year.
• Don't be afraid to experiment with your students: be open and explain that this is new for you, but be sure to explain your objectives and your vision at the same time.
• Establish a contract (formal or informal) with your students that outlines your expectations from them in terms of participation along with the level of your ongoing commitment  to update resources and facilitate participation.     

Who uses moodle?

moodle is used in a large number of colleges and other academic institutions. It is developed and used by the sector.  It is an open source application.  The moodle system itself is used to maintain and monitor it.  There are active forums both for the technical and educational aspects of the system.

The Main moodle site can be used to download the software.  The Frequently asked questions site gives an idea of what moodle is about.  This site leads to the large forums on moodle.  Finally there is a moodle modules site which allows you to see what others are doing with moodle.