PEPNet Think Tank-2 "ONLINE MEDIA"
PEPNet Think Tank-2
2-DAY WEBCAST: "ONLINE MEDIA"
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 AND Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Products at a Glance:
Moodle
Watch the demonstration.
Transcript of the demonstration.
PowerPoint of the demonstration.
Vendor: Non-commercial product. No software cost.
http://moodle.org/
The Moodle demonstration site enables you to try out the system.
Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Moodle has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online, dynamic web sites for students. Currently there about 51,000 registered Moodle sites serving an estimated 33 million users.
Moodle must be installed on a web server, either on one of your own computers or at a web hosting company. Moodle can be used in very large or very small organizations and works in Microsoft® Windows and Apple environments. Moodle can deliver content on a schedule (so no student gets ahead of the others), or with 24-7 access so that students can move at their own pace. Any courseware in Moodle is exportable.
Moodle is a very powerful software which is continuously evolving.
Moodle has a built-in grading tool, and each student has access to his/her own course grades and grades on individual projects.
Here are some of the access features and considerations for using Moodle that were discussed at PEPNet's Think Tank-2:
- Some users consider Moodle more accessible than Blackboard.
- Not usable "out of the box." Requires technical expertise and administration to set up and maintain, such as fonts, colors, design of the general layout, accounts/users, any payment system, registrations, and levels of access.
- No vendor is available to provide support. However, users often share their experiences and issues.
- No inherent captioning function.
- Works with Braille readers, screen readers, magnification, captioning, and sign language.
- May be configured so that an individual user requires either no mouse or no keyboard.
- Accessibility is often not assured for uploaded rich media format documents and rich Internet applications, such as interactive games, video, or audio.
- Moodle is vulnerable to possible changes by users who can make it inaccessible, either unintentionally or intentionally.
- A third-party video application/player is usually needed by Moodle users.
PEPNet does not endorse any product. This article is for information only as you look for the online media solution that best meets your needs. This information is based on the product available at the time of Think Tank-2. Newer releases of this product may or may not affect access features noted during Think Tank-2.