About Moodle
Moodle (abbreviation for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a A free source e-leaning software platform. also known as a course Management System, Learning Management System. or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). As of December 2011 it had a user base of 72,177 registered and verified sites. serving 57,112,669 use in 5.8 million courses Moodle is used to host online offline classes. It can also be used in various other aspects of business, besides classroom delivery platform
Example
– Hiring and Interviewing
– RoIl-out Products and Services
– Managing Compliance Training
– competency Tracking
– Create and maintain collaborated knowledge base
– Inter organization discussion forum
– web Conferencing
– Running workshop
– Getting employee feedback
Moodles modular design allows hosting venous different types of activities and resources.
Moodle supports various different learning declivity formats and can be integrated with platform both in software and application layer
In this article we shall try to give an overview of the feature and capability list of Moodle. This article can also be used as a reference)list of modules for activities. and integration aspect with other business resources. block design and reports supported by Moodle right out of the box. with a brief description of that module.
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Moodle’s overall design:
– Promotes a social constructionist pedagogy (collaboration. activities. critical reflection. etc)
– SuItable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning
– simple, lightweight. efficient, compatible, low-tech browser interface
– Easy to install on almost any platform that supports PHP Requires only one database (and can share it).
– Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database (except ror initial table dentition)
– Course listing shows descriptions for every course on the server including accessibility to guests
– Courses can be categorized and searched — one Moodie site can support thousands of courses
– Emphasis on strong security throughout. Forms are ail checked. data validated, cookies encrypted etc
– Most text entry areas (resources. forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor
Community Hub
– Anybody can set up a Community hub. which is a directory of courses for public use or for private communities The code is implemented as separate GPL plugin for Moodle
– sites can register to any Community hub (Instead of just moodle org)
– Teachers on registered sites can publish their full courses to Community hubs. for download
– Teachers on registered sites can also advertise their courses on Community hubs. for people to join
– Teachers on any site can search all public Community hubs and download courses as templates for their own courses
– Users on any Moodle site can also search Community hubs for courses (and communities of practice) to participate in. initially we are encouraging communities of teaching practice but any
sort of course can be listed
User and group management
– Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum. while retaining high security
– supports a range of user authentication mechanisms through piug.in authentication modules. allowing easy integration with existing system
– standard email method: students can create their own login accounts. Email addresses are verified by confirmation
– LDAP method: account logins can be checked against an LDAP server Admin can specify which fields to use.
– For example. IMAP POPS. NNTP: account logins are checked against a mail or news server SSIJTLS certificates are supported
– students are encouraged to build an online Edit profile including photos. description Email addresses can be protected from display if required
– Every user can specify their own timezone. and every date in Moodle is translated to that timezone (eg posting dates. assignment due dates etc)
– Every user can choose the language used for the Moodle interface (English. French. German. Spanish. Portuguese etc)
– Cohorts also known as site-wide groups’. these are site-wide collections of users that can be enrolled into courses in one action. either manually or synchronized automatically
Enrollment
– After a user has been authenticated by the site or allowed in as a guest. they can self enroll in courses
– Courses can a limit enrollment in several ways. student self enrollment can be turned off’
– An ‘enrollment key’ In a course. only allows certain students to enter These keys can be give out face-to-face or via email and can be change.
– Teachers. with permissions, can manually enroll students or unroll students in their courses
– Course completion is a course prerequisite feature of Moodle 2 0 that allows scaffolding of courses.
– Course and site settings have options for automatic removal of users
– There are many Enrollment_plugins includes LADP. IMS. PayPal. Moodle Network to name a few
– Any External database that has least two fields can be used as an external authentication source
– Flat file or CSV files can automatically authenticate and enroll students in specific courses
– Each person needs only one account for the Moodfe site, Each account can have access to different courses. and the courses resources and activities
– Meta courses get their enrollment information from 1 or more other courses
Course management
– Typically. a teacher has full control over all settings for a course.
– This can include assigning other teachers roles with less privileges
– Choice of Course formats settings such as by week. by topic or a discussion-focused social format
– An individual course theme and layout can be created for any course.
– Flexible array of court activities — Forums. Quizzes, Glossaries. Resources. Choices. surveys, Assignments Chats, Workshops
– Groups — teacher(s) and students can be placed in one or more groups
– Recent changes to the course since the fast login can be displayed on the course home page — helps give sense of community
– Content areas (things seen by students) have an HTML editor tool bar with many standard editing functions. including an html code view
– Mail integration — copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed In HTML or plain text. Users can set a preference for daily emails in their profile.
– Custom scales — teachers can define their own scales to be used for grading forums and assignments
– Courses can be packaged as a single zip tIe using the Backup function These can be restored on any Moodle server
– specific course activities and resources can be imported from another existing course
– Conditional activities In Moodle 2.0 allow the teacher to set completion standards and conditions for entry into any specific activity, based upon several criterions.
– Teachers can now specify a Course completion condition standard for all students Conditions include activity completion, but could also be by grade, date or a number of other criteria
– Teachers can use the above standard as a prerequisite to other courses that allows ordered progression and scaffolding.
– Teachers and students can see reports that show the progress within a course. or through a series of courses.
– Access to activities can be restricted based on certain criteria, such as dates, grade obtained. or the completion of another activity
– These can be chained together to enable progressive disclosure of the course content. if that is desired.
– Teachers can now specify conditions that define when any activity is seen as completed by a student. For example. when a certain number of posts have been made. or a grade has been reached, or a choice has been made
Course reports and grading
– All grades for many kinds of activities can be viewed on one page (and downloaded in several formats).
– Graded activities can be further calculated or manually entered In the Grade book that is separated from the Initial activity calculation Additionally categories of graded activities and display functions allow for custom reports
– Full user logging and tracking activity reports for each student are available with graphs and details about each module (last access. number of times read) as well as a detailed‘story’ of each students involvement including postings etc on one page.
– Rubrics are actually the first plugin of a new Advanced Grading plugin type. because we expect users to come up with all kinds of similar advanced grading interfaces and Integrations. It currently only works for Assignments but will be extended soon across all modules Moodle HO developed this feature. though it was inspired by the Rubrics work done by Moodle rooms.
Repository support
– File management has undergone a major change in both the interface and function
– The File picker presents a standard way to access the new File bank repository system
– This allows Moodie to integrate with external repositories of content. making It really simple to bring documents and media Into Moodie via an AJAX interface that looks like a standard Open dialogue in desktop applications.
– initial plugins in 2.0 include Alfresco. Amazon 53. Box net. File system on server, Flickr. Google Doca, MERLOT. Pi-casa, Recent Files, Web QAV servers. Wikimedia. ‘it youtube These are simple to develop. so many more are expected
– you can also import files from your desktop or by specifying a URL
– There are more attributes that can be added to a file. such as license and author
Portfolio support
– Modules can now export their data to external systems, particularly useful for pom oles where snapshots of forums, assignments and other things in Moodle are useful to record in a journal or a portfolio of evidence
– Different formats are supported (currently LEAP. HTML. Images and Text. but others like PDF can be added)
– initial plugins In 2.0 Include Box.net. Flickr Google Doca. Mahara and Pi casa.
Web services support
– support for standards-based web services across the entire Moodle code base, allowing the admin to expose particular functions of Moodle for use by:
– Administrative systems such as HR or 515 applications
– Mobile clients.
– Framework contains a very high-level of security with a detailed token system and complete control over the range of functions exposed
– All defined functions are automatically available via
– XML-RPC
– AMF (Flash)
– REST
– SOAP (PHP)
Language Support
Over 90 language packs are available for an administrator to install on your Moodle site
Highlighted modules
In Moodle. modules are codes that can be installed in Moodle to provide functionalities to perform some predefined tasks or activities it can also be used to host or create resources or
display certain type of blocks or generate reports Following are some of the commonly used modules used in Moodle to make a compote LMS/e.Learning platform out of it.
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Lesson Module
– A lesson s a single activity where a series of pages are presented to the student. usually based upon a student’s choice.
– Content seen by the student is created with Moodie’s HTML editor tool.
– students make choices by their answers to questions or by selecting a button with a description. Their choices are linked to other pages in the lesson.
– This allows for a simple slide show type of presentation. with content and questions.
– It allow’s for a branching, adaptive presentation based upon a student’s specific choice,
– Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex. logical or random.
– Jumps are associated with each chore that link to other lesson pages Jumps can be to a specific page or to a random page or a page not seen by the student
– Question pages Include Multiple chore. Multi-answer, TIF. numeric, short answer and essay
– Different scoring and grading potentials
– Lessons can build upon each other through conditional dependencies upon one another
– Student attempts, time limits, minimum score and retakes can be set for each lesson
– students may see progress bars. running score. and feedback on their answers
– Password. start and end times, and other restrictions can be placed on students
– Choices that are answers to questions and can be scored and given individual feed back.
-Lesson settings offer the teacher many options such as.
– Pages can be created one at a time or imported
Wiki Module
– Wtki module Is a series of web pages that anyone can add to or edit
– It enables document pages to be authored collectively
– supports groups
– There are many teacher based editing tools
Resource Module
– Resources can display of many types of media content files by a single link on the course
page. such as:
-Word, Powerpoint. Flash, Video formats. Audio formats
– internal web pages (HTML formatted) can be created with HTML editor tool
– internal Text pages no formatting)
– Files can be stored locally or the link point to remote locations
– Files can be uploaded and managed (zipped, unzipped. renamed. moved) in the course
– Folders can be created and managed in the course and students given a link to the folder via a resource link
– File handling In Moodie 2.0 has a File picker that is associated with specific resources or activities, allowing uploads from server private. recent or on the fly. Files have attributes for author and license/copyright
-External web applications can be linked to with data passed to them
– content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course interface
Forum Module
– Different types of forums are available. such as course news. open.to-all. one-thread-per. user and question/answers types
– Forum posts can be emaited In several ways. some controlled by the student
– posts can have the authors photo attached
– Discussions can be viewed nested. flat or threaded. oldest or newest first
– Robust subscription methods for each forum
– individual forums can be subscribed to by each person
– Teacher can force subscription for all members of the course. either initially or permanently
– Groups features allow options for more entry and viewing limitations for students
– The teacher can choose not to allow replies to their posts (announcements)
– Discussion threads can be moved between forums or split by the teacher.
– Attachments can be made to posts and shown as part of message
– Forum ratings can be used These can be restricted to a range of dates and included as part of a student’s grads
Assignment Module
– Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade
– students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server — they are date- stamped.
– Late assignments are allowed. but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the teacher
– For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and comment) on one page in one form,
– Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student. and notification Is mailed out.
– The teacher can choose to allow re submission of assignments after grading (for regarding)
– Allowing re submissions can allow the teacher to progress monitor student pro(trisect assignments as they evolve.
– Advanced assignments can allow multiple files to be uploaded This could keep together re planning maps. outlines. research papers and presentations. (Not for beginners)
Quiz Module
– There are many types of standard questions formats that can be used in the Qu’iz module. Quiz offers many scoring methods and ways to present itself to students.
– Quizzes are automatically graded when a student finishes. M entire quiz or specific questions be regarded at any time, should the teacher change an answer’s score
– There are many quiz settings options, such as’
– Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available
– At the teacher’s option. quizzes can be attempted multiplier times. and can show feedback and/or correct answers
– Quiz questions and quiz answers can each be shuffled (randomized) to reduce cheating
– Quizzes can be attempted multiple times. if desired
– Attempts can be cumulative. if desired. and finished over several sessions
– Categories of questions can be arranged in the database so they can only be used r a specific quiz. or in a specific course or in any quiz on the ste.
– Edited questions can replace the original or become new questions in the database
– Questions use HTML formatting images and have a friendly tool bar in both the question and answer areas
– Questions can be imported or exported in many file formats
– Multiple-choice questions supporting single or multiple answers
– short Mower questions (words or phrases)
– True-False questions Matching questions
– Random short answer questions
– Numerical questions (with allowable ranges)
– Embedded-answer questions (doze style) with answers within passages of text
-There are more than 10 question types, each with different scoring methods. such as
Chat module
The Chat module allows smooth. synchronous text interaction
– They can be limited to group members or roles. or be for anyone in the course
– Includes profile pictures in the chat window
– supports URLs, smiles. embedded HTML, images etc
– All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available to students
Glossary Module
– The Glossary module Is one of the modules that best Illustrates the way that Moodle can fundamentally Improve upon the experience of a traditional classroom
– When students contribute to a course in a public place like the glossary, their ideas are given weight and attention and often result in a greater pride or ownership of the assignment
– Allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary
– student entries can be previewed by Instructors before publishing
– Entries can be searched or browsed using alphabet. category. dale, and author
– A glossary of terms can be easily referenced by students
– Almost any module of Moodle can be set to hyperlink – automatically – to any word or phrase that is stored in or added to the glossary
– Glossary items can be grouped in categories
– Participants can comment on glossary entries
– Entries can be rated using teacher-defined scales
– Glossaries can be easily exported and Imported via xml
– Glossaries can be fully searched
– Glossaries can be viewed with different display formats
– Quiz questions can come from specific question in a specific category or as a random questions drawn from a category. These can be mixed and matched to suit the teacher.
Survey Module
– Suit-in surveys (COLLES. ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analyzing online classes
– Online survey reports always available. including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.
– survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.
– Feedback is provided for the student of their results compared to the class averages
Workshop Module
– Workshop module allows peer assessment of documents, and the teacher can manage and grade the assessment.
– supports a wide range of possible grading scales
– Teacher can provide sample documents for students to practice grading
– Being redone for Moodle 2.0
Feedback
The Feedback module allows you to create and conduct surveys fo collect feedback Unlike the Survey tool it allows you to write your own questions. rather than choose from a list of pre
written questions and unlike the Oulz tool, you can create non-graded questions. The Feedback activity is ideal for the likes of course or teacher evaluations.
IMS
Is a body. which helps define technical standards for various things. inctuding e-learning material The MS Content Packaging specification makes it possible to store chunks of material In a standard format which can be re-used in different systems, without having to convert the material into new formats.
The IMS content package in Moodie enables such content packages to be uploaded and included in Moodle courses. There are various options for displaying content in a pop-up window, with a navigation menu or buttons etc.
SCORM
SCORM 1 2 is supported In Moodle but SCORM 2004 is not — see supported versions In the SCORM FAO for more information.
SCORM (sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a collection of specifications that enable interchangeability. accessibility and re usability of web-based learning content. SCORM content can be delivered to /earners via any WORM-compliant Learning Management system (LMS) using the same version of SCORM
Blocks
Blocks are items. which may be added to the left. right or centre column (depending upon your theme) of any page in Moodle Any block can be made ‘sticky’ so that it appears in ail the contexts below. such as throughout a course or a particular activity — see Block settings
Available blocks Include.
Course Block
Activities. Admin bookmarks. Slog menu, Slog fags. Calendar Comments. Community finder Course completion status. Course overview. Course/site description. Courses, Flickr, HTML. Latest news. Logged In user. Login . Main menu, Men tees block. Messages. My private files. Navigation . Network servers, Online users. People . Our results. Random glossary entry, Recent activity. Recent blog entries. Remote RSS feeds, Search forums, Section links. see completion, Settings, Social activities. Tags, Upcoming events, YouTube
There are is many contributed blocks available for download from the plugins database
Main page Blocks
Block settings. Activities. Admin bookmarks. Slog menu. Slog tags. Calendar. Comments. Community finder, Course completion status, Course overview, Course/site description, Courses. Flickr. HTML, Latest news, Login, Logged in user. Main menu, Mentees, Messages. My private files, Navigation. Network servers. Online users, People. Quiz results, Random glossary entry, Recent activity, Recent blog entries, Remote RSS feeds. Search forums. Section links. self completion. settings. Social activities. Tags. Upcoming events. YouTube. Blocks FAO
Reports
Course reports. Logs . Activity report. Participation report. statistics. site-wide reports. Config changes report Shows changes made by an administrator to the site configuration , Course overview report, Question instances report Reports where particular question types are used on the site
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Reference :
http://docs.moodle org/i 9/en/Features
http://docs moodie org/22/en/Activities
http:lldocs moodle org/22/en/Resources\
http:lldocs moodle org/22/en/Blocks
http.//docs moodle org/22/en/Ouestions
http //docs moodle org/22/en/Grouping_users
http://en wikipedia.org/wikwidoodle
Xeois provides support with LMS/e-learnlng software installation, implementation. integration and training