2008 Woodie Awards
Moodle replaces WebCT as ISU Learning Management System
Diantha Leavitt
Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: News
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The University had to make a decision to buy the newer version of WebCT, or find a new LMS. University officials spoke with administrators from other universities throughout the United States and eventually decided on two open source systems to test out, Sakai and Moodle.
ISU tested the two systems on student and faculty focus groups in 2006. The result was most positive for Moodle.
"Moodle was more user friendly and more advanced than Sakai as far as applications and interface and just usability," said Beck.
One thing that sets open source LMS apart from their commercially based peers is the potential for participating universities to improve the system and then send the revised edition proposal to the core company. Right now ISU is working on updating Moodle's e-mail system.
However, not all evolutions of Moodle have to be accepted by the users.
"It's not 'take it or leave it' like a commercial product is," said Beck. "We can stay with an old version of Moodle if we want and we can turn on and off features if we want."
The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITCR) will be holding a workshop on the transition from WebCT to Moodle Monday, Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon in the ITRC Lab. The lab is located in room B69 of the Eli M. Oboler Library across from the new Rendezvous Complex. For more information on the workshop or questions about the new Moodle system, contact the ITRC at 282-5880, or via e-mail at itrcstaf@isu.edu.
ISU tested the two systems on student and faculty focus groups in 2006. The result was most positive for Moodle.
"Moodle was more user friendly and more advanced than Sakai as far as applications and interface and just usability," said Beck.
One thing that sets open source LMS apart from their commercially based peers is the potential for participating universities to improve the system and then send the revised edition proposal to the core company. Right now ISU is working on updating Moodle's e-mail system.
However, not all evolutions of Moodle have to be accepted by the users.
"It's not 'take it or leave it' like a commercial product is," said Beck. "We can stay with an old version of Moodle if we want and we can turn on and off features if we want."
The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITCR) will be holding a workshop on the transition from WebCT to Moodle Monday, Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to noon in the ITRC Lab. The lab is located in room B69 of the Eli M. Oboler Library across from the new Rendezvous Complex. For more information on the workshop or questions about the new Moodle system, contact the ITRC at 282-5880, or via e-mail at itrcstaf@isu.edu.
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