Moodle is a modular, object-oriented, dynamic learning environment. It can be used as a complete online learning system, for collaboration, or as a repository for self-study materials. Moodle allows for collaborative or independent courses and activities are at the core of learning. It was designed with social constructivist principles in mind where learning occurs through constructing artifacts for others in a collaborative community. Moodle provides customizable interfaces, authentication options, and course management tools like forums, assignments, quizzes and more to facilitate online learning.

3. Philosophy of Online Learning Activities are at the heart of a course management system. Moodle was designed by an educator and computer scientist, with “social contructionist” principles in mind. Constructionism asserts that learning is particularly effective when constructing something for others to experience. This can be anything from a spoken sentence or an internet posting, to more complex artifacts like a painting, a house or a software package. The concept of social constructivism extends the above ideas into a social group constructing things for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels. More Information is available from: Using Learning Communities to Create an Open Source Course Management System

4. Customizable interface

5. Out-of-the-box Moodle

6. Corporate Moodle

7. Training Company Moodle

8. User authentication The moodle administrator has the flexibility to choose from user self-registration, manually entering users, or user accounts can be drawn directly from the institution’s existing databases. Most major databases are supported.

9. Users can dynamically select their interface language …

10. Users can view recent changes, check their grades, search for topics in the course forums move to their choice of activities, etc., etc…

11. Moodle course: Learners’ view Participant profiles Links to activity modules arranged by category Global search of course discussions View personal grades & password Links to courses I’m registered in View announcements What’s new since my last login Breadcrumb navigation

12. Moodle course: Instructor’s view Assign learner groups Edit activity modules Add activity modules See following slide for details

13. Instructor’s ‘Administration’ menu Course specific teacher/developer discussions View or download students’ grades View learners’ activity report for all modules Change course name, details, enrolment key, participant lables, assign groups, etc. View instructors Add/remove learners Backup course or restore from a previous backup Customize grading scales (ex. Good/Fair/Poor) Manage uploaded class resource files Instructor’s manual

14. Every class forms a learning community

15. It’s all about feeling connected to your community Users establish an online identity where they can upload an image or tell a little about themselves.

16. Course Management Features Moodle has a “modular” architecture that makes adding new Activities during course creation a very simple process. The process begins when the system admin assigns a teacher/trainer course creation privileges. Course creators can select from three different formats for presenting their learning syllabus; Topic, Weekly or Social format. The magic begins when you click “Turn editing on” within the blank course template. With editing turned on, the course creator can now Add activities from an intuitive drop-down list of module plug-in features.

17. Course management features… Assignment Module Used to assign online or offline tasks; participants can submit these tasks in any file format (MS Office, PDF, image, a/v etc.) Chat Module Allows real-time synchronous communication by learners Choice Module Instructors create a question and a number of choices for students; results are posted for participants to view. Use this module to do quick surveys on subject matter. Dialogue Module Allows for one-to-one private asynchronous message exchange between instructor and student, or student to student. Dialogues are private consultation workspaces. Module property screens guide you through setup

18. Course management features… cont Forums Module Threaded discussion boards for asynchronous group exchange on shared subject matter (see user Community Forums http://moodle.org/ on various topics and disciplines) Glossary Module Instructors can create dictionaries of terms used in a course, and import or export terms for re-use in other courses. Journal Module Used to allow learners to reflect, then write and revise ideas Label Module Add descriptions with images in any area of the course homepage Glossary terms appear in highlight within all activity module resources. Moodle includes its own site search engine.

19. Course management features… cont Lesson Module Allows instructor to create and manage a set of linked "Pages". Each page can end with a question. The student either chooses one answer from a set of answers and goes forward, backward or stays in the same place in the lesson. Learner are graded upon completion. Quiz Module Create all the familiar forms of assessment including true-false, multiple choice, short answer, matching question, random questions, numerical questions, embedded answer questions with descriptive text and graphics. Moodle supports embedding audio into a quiz, enhancing language arts and other course content syllabus requirements.

20. Course management features… cont Resource Module The primary tool for bringing content into a course; may be plain text, uploaded files, links to the web, Wiki or Rich Text (Moodle has built-in editors) or a bibliography type reference. Moodle users have even linked local drive DVD courseware with online Moodle Resource activities. Survey Module This module aids an instructor in making online classes more effective by offering a variety of surveys (COLLES, ATTLS), including critical incident sampling. A Resource activity delivers syllabus content to the learner, while a course Assignment activity can require the learner to upload a completed project.

31. Site logs

32. Forum Posting Message Subject Quick navigation Name and image of poster. Message is date/time stamped When learners are subscribed to a particular discussion forum, individual postings are emailed. The emailed posting appears just as it does here.