Home EdTech Market An introduction to Moodle LMS for complete beginners

An introduction to Moodle LMS for complete beginners

Jaswinder Singh
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An introduction to Moodle LMS for complete beginners
An introduction to Moodle LMS

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.*

70 COMMENTS

  2. […] Moodle LMS is one of the most popular open source learning management system in the world. It is used by more than 333 million users across 242 countries. Recently Moodle turned out 20 years old which is a huge achievement considering the amount of efforts involved in it including development and maintaining. New Moodle users often look to get started guides to get acquainted with Moodle easily. […]

  3. […] Moodle LMS has partnered with Near Life as their new Certified Integration Partner. Near Life is an easy to use platform which let teachers create interactive videos, VR and gamified learning content easily. With the new integration, now the Moodle educators can share immersive learning experience which is more engaging, memorable and impactful. […]

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  6. […] Moodle’s goal is to be fully accessible and usable for all users regardless of ability. But due to its modularity, content created by teachers and other factors it is not always possible to make Moodle absolutely accessible. However, let’s have a look at the inbuilt accessible checker which you can use to make your online course in Moodle more accessible for your learners. […]

  10. […] Moodle is the world’s most popular open source Learning Management System which is used across 240+ countries and more than 300 million users across the world. The capability to fit into any elearning environment makes Moodle one of the most widely used open source LMS around the world. Recently, one of the educators asked about the possibility of hiding the timer in quiz in Moodle forums. […]

  12. […] Moodle – the most popular open source Learning Management system (LMS) is used across 242 countries among 340 million users. It is used across all kinds of learning environments including the primary grade students, schools, universities, corporate training etc. In this post, we will see the Popup activities course format which can be quite handy for you as a pre-primary/elementary school teacher. […]

  14. […] Moodle LMS is one of the most popular open source Learning Management System in the world. It is being used by more than 330 million users across 242 countries around the world. Moodle contains many features which are not known to many new Moodle administrators. In this post, we will discuss about Alternate Login URL setting in Moodle and how you can fix that in case you are locked out of Moodle due to improper configuration. […]

  15. […] Moodle LMS is one of the most popular open source Learning Management System in the world. Moodle plugins is one of the main reasons behind its huge success as it allows you to add additional functionality to Moodle core. There are more than 2000 plugins contributed by Moodle community members over the years. Recently a new plugin is contributed to the Moodle plugins directory which allows you to restrict course activities based on the enrolment method. […]

  16. […] Moodle – world’s most popular open source allows you to customize it to cater for all industry requirements. Moodlers around the world uses Moodle for schools, universities and corporate sector online learning platform. Similarly to teach specialized subjects Moodle is having its own tools and plugins e.g. for mathematics we have the Formulas Question type plugin. […]

  22. […] Moodle LMS is the most powerful and customizable open source Learning Management System in the world. The Moodle plugins allows you to customize the functionality in all possible areas. At present there are more than 2035 Moodle plugins in the official database contributed by the community developers. One such fantastic plugin is Masonry Course Format and in this post we will be looking at the same. […]

  23. […] Moodle is most customizable open source Learning Management System in the world. By using wide variety of Moodle Plugins you can extend the Moodle features beyond the Moodle core. There are more than 2000 plugins contributed in the Moodle Plugins directory. Recently, a new course format type Plugin – Sections Course format is added which allows you to combine the benefits of Topics course format with Social course format. […]

  24. […] Moodle LMS being one of the most popular open source Learning Management System is packed with features. There are many features which are not actively used among the Moodle users. One such feature is the ability to restore course elements which are accidently deleted by teachers. The feature known as ‘Recycle Bin’ was funded by Moodle Users Association in Moodle core. […]

  27. […] Moodle is the world’s most popular open source learning management system (LMS). One of the reason behind its popularity is the flexibility offered to customize the Moodle LMS. You can completely customise the aesthetics as well as features of Moodle to meet your learning requirements. In this post, we will discuss about the Featured Courses Block Moodle plugin and how you can use it. […]

  30. […] Moodle LMS is the most popular open source learning management system in the world. Initially designed to encourage distance learning, it has grown into market leader with application in all industries. The addition of Moodle Plugins to any Moodle LMS portal can help customize it to any extent. One such beautiful plugin is – Real Time Quiz which can be used to organize face to face quizzes in Moodle. […]

  32. […] Moodle LMS is the most popular open source learning management system in the world. It offers a lot of exciting features with a lot of customization possibilities. Many times Moodle teachers need some specific users to access their course on temporary basis without being actually enrolled in them. In this post, we will have a look at “Temporary access” enrolment plugin. […]

  36. […] Moodle is one of the most popular open source Learning management System in the world. With so many contributed Moodle plugins, it is easier for anyone to extend Moodle’s functionality in all areas. Moodle LMS offers more than 52 different types of plugins and at present there are more than 2050 plugins in the official directory. In this article, I will show you how you can add a contact form by using the Contact Form plugin. […]

  46. […] Moodle LMS offers you to create complete online learning portals easily. With more than 2060 plugins contributed by the community developers it is easy to extend Moodle’s functionality to meet your organizational requirements. In this post, we will see Custom Certificate plugin which allows you to dynamically create certificates with user data. […]

  47. […] Moodle LMS is one of the most popular open source Learning management System (LMS) in the world. Moodle Plugins are one of the most easiest way to extend Moodle features. With more than 2060 plugins in the official plugins directory it is easier to extend Moodle features. In this post, I will share about Multiblock plugin which can help you to combine multiple blocks in a single area. […]

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  49. […] Moodle is one of the most versatile and flexible open source LMS in the world. You can extend its functionality in all areas to meet your institutions requirements. In this article, I will show you how you can enrol users into a course after they have completed another course. This may be helpful for Moodlers who are looking to let their students completes first level before they can access second level course. […]

  51. […] Moodle LMS is one of the most wonderful and easily customizable learning management system in the world. The use of Moodle plugins allows you to extend the features in many areas from themes, blocks, course formats, authentication, enrollment etc. In this post we will see about the Course Creator Moodle plugin which allows you to create new courses based on the previous courses or templates. […]

  53. […] Moodle LMS allows you to easily customize and extend the features for all areas. You can add new type of activity, blocks, authentication, enrollment, themes and various other types of plugins. There are more than 2050 plugins contributed by the community developers in the official repository. In this post, I will share my ideas about Format Timeline course format plugin which can be used to create a real social network in Moodle. […]

  55. […] Moodle LMS is used by more than 350 million users in more than 238 countries. In more than last 20 years Moodle LMS has been one of the most popular open source Learning management system in the world. With more than 2085 plugins in the official plugins repository, customising Moodle is pretty easy. In this post, I will share about the Course Archives plugin which allows you to archive and remove past courses easily. […]

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