Moodle @ Purchase
Keith Landa
Purchase College
http://www.slideshare.net/keith.landa
Focus on teaching & learning
- Robust set of activities & resources
- Add-on modules from the community
- Moodle development pathway
Integration
- Other systems
- Web 2.0 world
Why Moodle
@ Purchase?
Flexible open architecture
Costs
- No licensing costs
- Similar support costs
Risk management
- Risks of open source
- Commercial products have different risks
Background – Purchase – 2008
Liberal Arts and Sciences
plus Arts Conservatories
~4200 FTE
ERes electronic reserves
Web enhancement of F2F courses
LMS review @ Purchase
Context: faculty dissatisfaction with Blackboard; superficial use of LMS; escalating
costs
Fall 2008: faculty task force established; faculty survey; discussion of selection criteria
(functionality, technical requirements, costs)
Spring 2009: Moodle production system established; pilot Moodle courses (~20);
student survey (key driver); ongoing communication; development of general sense
among faculty that ‘we’re going with Moodle’….
Summer 2009: summer faculty workshop series (new); course conversion and course
prep; consolidation of electronic reserves into Moodle courses
Fall 2009/Spring 2010: transition year; immediate termination of ERes; one more year
of Blackboard; faculty assisted to move courses to Moodle; ongoing Moodle
workshops; termination of Blackboard at end of year
Faculty Blackboard
uses
Course documents
Syllabus
Assignments
Announcements
Course info
Grade center
External links
Discussion board
Send email
Staff information
Course statistics
Digital dropbox
Course calendar
Test manager
Groups
Early warning system
Collaboration
Messages
Tasks
Survey manager
Safeassign
Glossary manager
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
LMS desired features
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Distribute materials
Library services
Integration with SIS
Course communications
Links to external web sites
One stop shopping for students
Discussion forum
Gradebook
New media (blogs, wikis, podcasts)
Drop boxes
Student collaboration tools
Course reports
Self-directed lessons
Online quizzing
Real-time tools (chat, etc)
Clickers
No “killer app” tying us to Blackboard
Student Survey Responses
Accessing resources
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Assignments
Moodle
Equal
Blackboard
Ease of use
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Better function
Moodle
Equal
Blackboard
Ease of use
Blackboard
Better function
Keeping track of grades
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Better function
Moodle
Equal
Blackboard
Ease of use
Schedule tracking
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Equal
Ease of use
Course communications
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Moodle
Better function
Which system preferred?
70%
60%
Moodle
50%
40%
Moodle
Equal
30%
Equal
Blackboard
20%
Blackboard
10%
Ease of use
Better function
0%
1
Implementation – course migration
• Blackboard - ~1000 courses; ERes – substantially
more
• ERes – document download, upload to Moodle
• Blackboard – Moodle can import Blackboard course
archives (zip files), but…. (problems with the Bb
archives)
• Temp services staff - ~300 hours from May to Aug
2009, primarily ERes migration
• Bb course migration on request during 2009/2010
year
Implementation – faculty development
• Spring 2009 workshops: hour long sessions,
various topics; early adopters; 28 faculty
• 2009 Summer Faculty Workshop Series: new
programming, not just Moodle; half- and fullday workshops; stipends; 36 faculty at Moodle
sessions
• Fall 2009: Moodle Kickoff workshops; Getting
Started, Gradebook, Learning Activity; 98
faculty
Implementation – server config
• Virtual servers for production and for test/dev
– More control over test environment
•
•
•
•
•
Windows Server 2008 x64
4 CPUs
4 GB RAM
30 GB C: drive; 100 GB E: drive
MS SQL and PHP
Cost comparisons
Blackboard
Moodle
Licensing
$40K
$0K
Server
VM
VM
Staff
Fraction FTE server admin
1 FTE instructional tech
Fraction FTE server admin
1 FTE instructional tech
Course migration
NA
$3K onetime (ERes, mostly)
Faculty development
??
$3.6K summer 2009
Switch to Moodle saves us over $50K each year
(Blackboard and ERes licensing costs)
Risk management: self-host vs vendor host
http://goo.gl/tQ5uX
Community contributed modules
Lightbox Gallery resource
Map activity
Community Modules and Plugins page
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6009
Bringing the cloud into the course
Open advantages
Enrollment automation
Student
Information
System
Academic
Analytics
Library
Information
Systems
Campus
Repository
Senior projects
Library integration
-Reserve requests
-Electronic resources
Focus on teaching & learning
- Robust set of activities & resources
- Add-on modules from the community
- Moodle development pathway
Integration
- Other systems
- Web 2.0 world
Why
@ Purchase?
Costs
- No licensing costs
- Similar support costs
Risk management
- Risks of open source
- Commercial products have different risks
Flexible open architecture
Campus lessons - Moodle
• LMS focus should be learning
– Faculty AND student perspectives
• Change is hard, and exhilarating
• Choose the risk you’re comfortable with
• Importance of community critical mass for
open source apps
• Clear roadmap for product development
Student
Information
System
Academic
Analytics
Library
Information
Systems
Campus
Repository
The View from 30,000 Feet
Community of Inquiry model
Student
engagement
• with content
• with instructor
• with each other
http://communitiesofinquiry.com/
7 Principles of Good Practice
1. Encourages contact between students and
faculty
2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among
students.
3. Encourages active learning.
4. Gives prompt feedback.
5. Emphasizes time on task.
6. Communicates high expectations.
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
LMS orientations
• Example Blackboard course
• Example Moodle course
– Main page sections
– Blocks
– Moodle navigation
– Course page mirrors class, integrated resources
and learning activities
– “Scroll of death”
Setting up a learning module
• Defining the module
– Using the section summary
• Module learning objectives
– Add a resource -> Compose a web page
– Name and Full text fields
– Window options
• Creating organization: use of Labels
Student engagement w/ content
• Context & student engagement w/ the content
• Files: your private staging area
–
–
–
–
Linking to specific files
Displaying a directory (folder) / image gallery
File links in Moodle text
Media filters
• Linking to web sites
• Integrating with Web 2.0 resources
– Repositories in Moodle 2.0
– YouTube, Vimeo, VoiceThread, Google Docs
Discussion forums
• Student engagement with peers & instructor
• Student-faculty contact; feedback; active
learning
• 4 forum types in Moodle (now 5 in 2.0)
– Ex: single topic format; YouTube discussion
– Q&A forum; reading reflection example
• Rating discussion forums
Student collaboration
• Reciprocity and active learning
• Wiki activity
– Configuration and use
– Pedagogical considerations: combined use of
group forum and wiki project
• Database activity
– Structured contributions; activity configuration
– Commenting and rating
– Glossary activity
Communication tools
• Course announcements (News Forum)
– Tie to Latest News block
– Forum archive and email to class members
• Moodle messaging
– IM functionality within Moodle
– Email notices
– Permanent archive
• Chat activity (eg, office hours)
• Calendar and Upcoming Events
Assignments in Moodle
• Feedback; student/faculty
engagement/contact
• Assignment types; configuration
• Student and faculty views
• Grading and providing feedback
Quizzes / Assessments
• Question bank
– Question types
– Organizing questions
– Question import
• Configuring quizzes
– Formative vs summative
– Question selection
– Feedback options
Course reports
•
•
•
•
•
Course logs
Participation reports
Activity reports
Student activity reports
Connection between reports and messaging
Questions?
Keith Landa
Purchase College SUNY
914-251-6450
keith.landa@purchase.edu