| Moodle: An Online Teacher's Dream | | | | filling in a pre-designed form), writing assignments, |
| We have run into some challenges as more and | | | | forum posts, wikis (i.e. wikipedia.com) etc. I have |
| more universities and high schools move to | | | | yet to find something you cannot do with Moodle. |
| e-learning and more parents start home schooling. | | | | There is even a plug-in so you can build virtual |
| First, cost. The traditional e-learning platforms are | | | | chemical elements and one that you can use to |
| expensive. Secondly, usability. Other platforms I | | | | create podcasts, rss feeds and more!!! Get the |
| have used have been cumbersome, awkward, | | | | feeling I am excited… |
| and quite frankly confusing for many of my | | | | You can even have it customized for a |
| students (and I teach graduate school). | | | | reasonable price (including free if you do it |
| Additionally, many people who are currently | | | | yourself---it is not that hard) see Theme Gurus). I |
| teaching either are resistant to embracing online | | | | liked Moodle so much I even had Theme Gurus |
| learning, or have used the other platforms and | | | | design my business website---logo, paypal |
| gotten frustrated. Moodle is a "What You See Is | | | | integration and all. Himmat Singh and his associates |
| What You Get-WYSIWYG) sort of | | | | from ThemeGurus provided unparalleled customer |
| program…It is intuitive, point and click. | | | | service and personal attention (and a really |
| Last year, I started developing an online master's | | | | reasonable price) while customizing my site -see |
| program for the University of Florida's | | | | (like My Site) |
| Department of Counselor Education. After | | | | If your school district is thinking about going to |
| wrangling with other popular online teaching | | | | e-learning and you want to really make it easy for |
| programs, we came across Moodle. It was a | | | | your faculty and students, Moodle is the way to |
| dream come true (especially for my Department | | | | go. It has the three things I look for in a |
| Chair because it was free). For those of you old | | | | program---free, easy and customizable-oh, and it |
| enough to remember, going from WebCT | | | | really is stable. |
| Blackboard to Moodle was like going from using | | | | As a side note for home school parents: About a |
| DOS (remember the black screen where you had | | | | year ago we decided to start home schooling our |
| to type cd/ all the time) to Windows. I was | | | | children. My son is quite gifted in math and science |
| thrilled! | | | | and our particular district had no advanced |
| Moodle is GPL (General Public License). That | | | | programs for first graders. He was bored, |
| means you can download it for free-forever. | | | | miserable and his love for learning was getting |
| Within each lesson you can link to specific | | | | squashed like a bug. If you are home schooling |
| websites (like Online, Full Text Children's | | | | and want to really keep your kids on-track, |
| Textbooks), .pdfs or Word documents. This lets | | | | Moodle is the way to go. It has the three things I |
| your students/children go exactly where you | | | | look for in a program---free, easy and |
| want them to go. You have a built-in grade-book | | | | customizable. |
| and can add auto-scored quizzes (set them up by | | | | |