Discovering DIMDIM:
A heuristic evaluation of MOODLE's synchronous open source perspective
Petros Lalos¹, Christos Datsikas¹, Nikos Dimakopoulos², George S. Tombras¹
¹University of Athens, Physics Department
²Athens Technology Center
Abstract
Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software
package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create
effective online learning communities. Moodle [1] has been widely used with
success in many Universities. It covers all the main aspects of Asynchronous eLearning but lacks on modern Synchronous e-learning features like hosting virtual
classrooms. Dimdim[2] steps in to fill the gap between Moodle and other
commercial Learning Management Systems by providing virtual classroom
features while simultaneously remaining available as open source software.
Introduction
Today's modern learning environment with continuous learning and training
needs considers face-to-face meetings with all learning participants present in
one place as an unrealistic approach. Synchronous learning features are essential
for a successful e-learning program implementation. Dimdim is a free web
conferencing service where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate,
chat, talk & broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required to host
or attend meetings. The Dimdim Web Meeting service is available in open source,
professional & commercial enterprise editions capable of supporting theoretically
unlimited attendees.
Dimdim free is available in both onsite (unlimited open source “Liberty” releaseGPL3 [3] on Dec 08) and hosted (20 attendee free hosted edition) configurations.
Dimdim's virtual classroom solution enables the learning participants to conduct
online virtual classroom meetings over the internet easily and without cost.
Furthermore, DIMDIM provides for integration with MOODLE, one of the widely
known open source course management systems[4], allowing the utilization of
virtual classrooms sessions through the use of MOODLE's environment and
MOODLE's single sign on (SSO) feature. Dimdim’s Moodle integration module [5]
allows Dimdim classroom sessions to be started directly from within Moodle.
Instructors can use Dimdim in order to conduct classes as web conferences so
that their physical presence along with the physical presence of their students is
not necessary. Also the archived sessions can be used by students for later
reference as well by the instructor as a teaching tool. Dimdim is offered along
with integrated packages that allow the implementation of the synchronous
software into Moodle's platform. Moodle's instructor views Dimdim e-classroom as
a learning activity and controls all of Dimdim's features through Moodle's
administrating environment (Fig.1) after the implementation of the package.
Figure 1: Adding a Dimdim webmeeting activity via Moodle
Using Dimdim an Instructor, can share his presentation, applications and even his
desktop with his students or trainees or other attendees spread across different
locations (Fig.2). The learning session participants need only an internet
connection and a browser. No installation of software or configuration of firewall
or proxies is needed. They can see and talk with each other as if they are
physically sitting next to each other.
Figure 2: Dimdim Presenter’s view
Objective
This paper/poster presents a heuristic evaluation regarding Dimdim's e-classroom
features through Moodle platform. It includes a detailed description of Dimdim
features and evaluates them by contrasting them with similar features found in
modern Synchronous e-learning Systems (SABA-CENTRA) that are too expensive
and not available under GNU-GPL[3]. Finally, it draws conclusions regarding the
suitability of Dimdim as an integrated synchronous tool of Moodle platform, and
conducts an overall appraisal of this synchronous e-learning software.
Key features
The key features of Dimdim are the following:
- It is Flexible (Onsite and Hosted version available)
- It supports secure Private meetings
- It supports presenting and sharing of Powerpoint and PDF documents
- It supports Mac & PC Desktops sharing
- It supports Whiteboard sharing along with laser pointer & lock feature
- It allows audio sharing using built in VoIP microphones & conferencing features
- It allows video sharing supporting the use of live web cams
- It supports 2-Way Video Chat
- It supports the recording and playback of synchronous courses
- It supports multiple presenters by allowing the host to let others share his
features
- It supports public Chat
- It supports private Chat – one- to one with any other participant
- It supports SynchroLive Co-Browsing
- It supports annotations and mark-ups by providing the appropriate tools
- It provides for a presence indicator
- It supports instant feedback features like mood & Emoticons
- It supports Meetings to be scheduled
- It allows eMail & Calendaring by supporting Outlook integration)
- It allows localization of the features in terms of time and language
- It supports LMS integration like in our case Moodle
Methodology
In order to evaluate Moodle-Dimdim from both the presenter’s as well as the
attendee’s perspective the following actions were taken based on similar
approaches used methodologies [6]:
• 12 attendees (students 19-22 years old) with low to average PC familiarity,
with no previous synchronous tool usage experience, were called to undertake
eight (8) synchronous courses from four different presenters about four
different subjects. The four were conducted with the use of Moodle-Dimdim
and the other four, regarding respectively the same subject, with the use of
Saba-Centra. The attendees were called to submit grades (1-10) about key
features of both synchronous tools.
• 4 presenters (instructors 30-40 years old) with average to above average PC
familiarity with no previous synchronous tool usage experience were called to
present one course each, both with Moodle-Dimdim as well as Saba-Centra.
The presenters were called to submit grades (1-10) about both synchronous
tools
The phases of the heuristic evaluation [7] were the following:
• Phase 1: Materialize 4 different synchronous sessions presented by 4 different
instructors using both Saba-Centra and Moodle/DimDim synchronous tools in total 8 synchronous learning sessions (subject Computers A’ semester,
Electronics & Labs-3, E’ semester).
• Phase 2: Conducting a heuristic evaluation of DimDim's open source edition
integrated in Moodle 1.9.4+. Contrasting Moodle/Dimdim key features with
Saba-Centra's commercial edition's respective key features from both
attendee's as well as presenter's perspective.
• Phase 3: Recording the grades and interviewing the participants, describing
the outcome - drawing conclusions
Results
The recorded results from both the attendee’s (Fig.3) as well as the presenter’s
(Fig.4) perspective are depicted bellow:
Attendee's Perspective Evaluation
Co-Browsing feature
Presence indication
Annotation - Mark up tools
Chat features
Grade (1-10)
Video performance
CENTRA
DIMDIM
Audio performance
Whiteboard sharing
PPT presentation
PPT
presentation
Whiteboard
sharing
Audio
performance
Video
Annotation Chat features
performance
Mark up tools
CENTRA
8,21
7,63
8,37
7,46
7,04
DIMDIM
7,38
8,08
7,38
6,54
8,17
Presence
indication
Co-Browsing
feature
7,63
7,42
7,38
6,88
7,88
7,63
Figure 3: Attendee’s perspective evaluation
Presenter's Perspective Evaluation
Co-Browsing feature
Presence indication
Annotation - Mark up tools
Chat features
Grade (1-10)
Video performance
CENTRA
Audio performance
DIMDIM
Whiteboard sharing
PPT presentation
0,00
1,00
2,00
3,00
PPT
Whiteboard
Audio
Video
presentatio sharing performanc performanc
4,00
Chat
features
5,00
6,00
7,00
Annotation - Presence
Mark up
indication
8,00
9,00
CoBrowsing
CENTRA
8,08
7,75
7,92
6,88
7,04
7,63
7,42
7,25
DIMDIM
7,04
7,63
7,25
6,38
8,17
6,88
7,88
7,88
Figure 4: Presenter’s perspective evaluation
Conclusions
DIMDIM is a simple to use synchronous e-learning tool. It does not require users
to install software on their computers to attend web meetings. Users can start or
join meetings with just a few clicks. It even manages to encounter widely used
commercial synchronous e-learning tools like SABA-CENTRA with minor
compromises in terms of audio and video performance.
The conclusions drawn from this evaluation are very positive although the
optimistic performance announcements (scalable from 1-1000 users) of Dimdim's
development team could not be verified by our evaluation.
After interviewing attendees and presenters the common conclusion was that
Dimdim was exceptionally easy to use and that the learning curve was lower then
Centra’s. Although, as most of the participants stated, Centra gave a more robust
“feeling”, especially in terms of audio and video performance.
But let's not forget Dimdim is available under GPL3 and can handle a class of 20
attendees easily with a performance very similar to that of costly commercial
synchronous tools.
References
[1] Moodle official site: http://www.moodle.org
[2] DimDim official site: http://www.dimdim.com/
[3] General Public License official site: http://www.gnu.org
[4] Saiid Ganjalizadeh, “Overview of open source Learning Management
Systems”, EDUCAUSE, Evolving Technologies Committee, Georgetown University,
September 2006
[5] Dimdim Moodle integration module:
http://www.dimdim.com/products/dimdim_integrations.html
[6] Carl Cook , Neville Churcher, Modelling and measuring Collaborative Software
Engineering, Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Australasian conference on
Computer Science, p.267-276, January 01, 2005, Newcastle, Australia
[7] David Pinelle , Carl Gutwin , Saul Greenberg, Task analysis for groupware
usability evaluation: Modeling shared-workspace tasks with the mechanics of
collaboration, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.10
n.4, p.281-311, December 2003