Moodle™ LMS is one of the most widely used Learning Management System in the world. As per the official statistics on Moodle.org, it is being used in more than 240 countries and with more than 325 million users. What makes Moodle so special and why it is loved by so many people across the globe, let’s have a look.
Moodle LMS was initially started by Dr. Martin Dougiamas as an alternative method of teaching in place of WebCT in 1999. The first Moodle version 1.0 was released in 2002 and with that the LMS went popular with a strong community backing.
What makes Moodle so special as an LMS?
Here are some features which makes Moodle LMS so special:
Moodle is Completely Open Source
So, what is the big fuss about open source? There are a lot of other software available which are also Open Source.
The Answer is: Moodle is free to use for everyone and you needn’t pay even a single penny for using Moodle on your servers. No one can take it away from you, increase the license cost, or make you pay for upgrades. No one can force you to upgrade, adopt features you don’t want, or tell you how many users you can have. They can’t take the source code back from users, and if Martin Dougiamas decides to stop developing Moodle, there is a dedicated community of developers who will keep the project going. So, it is always going to be an ongoing project.
Moodle is based around Sound Educational Philosophy
Martin’s background in education led him to adopt social constructionism as a core theory behind Moodle. This is revolutionary, as most LMS systems have been built around tool sets, not pedagogy. Most commercial LMS systems are tool-centered, whereas Moodle is learning-centered.
While tool-centric LMSs give you a list of tools as the interface, Moodle builds the tools into an interface that makes the learning task central. You can organize your Moodle course by week, topic, or social arrangement. Additionally, while other LMSs support a content model that encourages instructors to upload a lot of static content, Moodle focuses on tools for discussion and sharing artifacts. The focus isn’t on delivering information; it’s on sharing ideas and engaging in the construction of knowledge.
Moodle’s design philosophy makes this a uniquely teacher-friendly package that represents the first generation of educational tools that are truly useful.
Strong Community Support
Moodle has the biggest community of developers, teachers, and designers working all around the globe for making improvements to the product named Moodle. They are more than willing to keep on adding new features, enhancing the existing ones, helping you to troubleshoot problems and the most basic in starting Using Moodle.
The Moodle community has been indispensable to the success of the system. With so many global users, there is always someone who can answer a question or give advice. At the same time, the Moodle developers and users work together to ensure quality, add new modules and features, and suggest new ideas for development. Martin and his core team are responsible for deciding what features are mature enough for official releases and where to go next. Because users are free to experiment, many people use and test new features, acting as a large quality control department.
Robust Documentation
One of the basic things missing in most of the other open source LMS’s is the lack of appropriate documentation whereas Moodle is the winner in terms of the documentation also. There are separate document repositories created for each Moodle version.
You will find tones of documents on each and every topic related to Moodle and if by chance you are not able to find any relevant topic then you can ask the community members to help you out through Moodle forums.
Completely modular with great collection of plugins
Moodle has got a large database of Plugins to enhance the learning requirements of each individual. You can find modules for changing the Course formats, Add different activities, Blocks, themes etc. There are more than 2000 plugins contributed by the Moodle community over the years.
Language Translation
Moodle community has contributed to make Moodle available in all of the popular languages so that you can teach students in your own language. Even you can also contribute to translate the Moodle into your own language. http://lang.moodle.org/.
Mobile Learning Support
Moodle offers a completely responsive design and mobile learning support. You can have your own branded Moodle mobile app customized as per your institutions design & styling requirements.
Questions about Moodle LMS
Here we will answer the most frequently asked questions about Moodle LMS.
What is Moodle used for?
Moodle is an online learning management system which is used for teaching, coaching, online exams etc.
What Moodle Means?
Moodle means Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.
What is a Moodle course?
Moodle course is the area for a single teacher to add his/her activities/resource to teach a specific group of students. As a teacher you can add simple PDF files or audio/videos for students to go through or else you can add online assignments, quizzes, lesson etc.
Is Moodle free of cost?
Moodle LMS is available as free of cost since it is released under GLP V3 license. You can download the copy of Moodle from the official website here. However, to run the Moodle you will need a server and have a good understanding of Moodle administration part.
If you are looking for an expert service provider to handle your Moodle administration, you can connect with us here.
How do you use Moodle LMS?
In simple terms, Moodle is used as online learning portal. You have Moodle running on a domain where the teachers can login to their specific courses and add their teaching materials. Students access the domain and participate in course activities for which the teacher will get the reports.
Is Moodle a good LMS?
Moodle is a very good LMS and is being used by many world renowned educational universities like Open University, University of California, Iowa State University, MIT Teacher Education Program etc.
If you have more questions about Moodle LMS and its use, please feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
*Moodle is a registered trademark of Moodle HQ and we are not linked to it through any means.*
