Moodle
E-Learning Course Development
By: William H. Rice IV
Book Review
E-Learning Concepts
and Techniques
Timothy N. Kuhn
Moodle is a free learning
management system (LMS)
that enables users to create
powerful, resourceful, and
engaging online learning
experiences. Moodle an
acronym for Modular ObjectOriented Dynamic Learning
Environment.
Book Information:
•2006 PACKT
•ISBN: 1904811299
•250 pages
This book shows Moodlers (Moodle Users) how to use Moodle
to enhance their teaching. First this book will determine your
student’s requirements and what Moodle can do for them.
Next the book will show you how to use different features of
Moodle to meet your course objectives.
Everyone constructs knowledge through interaction with one
another and their learning materials in a social way. This
social constructionist learning ideology is key component of
Moodle.
This book will demonstrate how to add interactive activities,
static learning material, and other social features to your
courses that will help your students reach their ultimate
learning potential.
About the Author:
William H. Rice IV is a training manager, a technical writer,
and a knowledge manager. William lives and works in New
York City, and has been helping people to incorporate
technology into their work and training processes since
graduating with a technical writing degree in 1088. His
successes include developing training and documentation
for Fortune 100 clients, hospitals, small businesses, and
universities. His first book was User Training for Busy
Programmers, ISBN 1904811450.
Moodle
E-Learning Course Development
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: Learn about the Moodle Experience
“This unique book
gives you more
than just a guide to
the Moodle
Software; it uses
Moodle as a route
to better teaching,
more motivated
students, and
more successful
courses.”
All Learning Management Systems (LMS) have some sort of
approach that shapes the user experience and encourages a
certain type of behavior and/or usage. Moodle is all about
having the ultimate online learning experience. Whether is be
web pages that can be explored in any order, courses that
have live chats, forums that permit users to rate messages,
online workshops that enable students and teachers to
collaborate and evaluate one another’s work. Moodle also lets
the teacher evaluate what students think of a course’s
progress by using impromptu polls. These features and many
more are what enables Moodle to create an active learning
environment, full of diversity, and interaction.
Chapter 2: Install and Configure Moodle
In this chapter you will learn that most of the decisions you
make while installing and configuring Moodle will affect the end
result or Moodle experience. Chapter 2 covers the installation
and settings, and assists you with configuring Moodle so that it
operates the way you envision.
Chapter 3: Create the Framework for your
Learning Site
Every course belongs to a category in Moodle. In chapter 3
you will learn to create course categories and courses. You
will learn the implications of the various course settings which
will permit you to create the experience that you want for each
course. Towards the end of chapter 3 you will learn about the
usage of the various blocks and how to decide which blocks to
use for your framework.
Moodle
E-Learning Course Development
Chapter Summaries
“This book is for
anybody who wants
to get the most from
Moodle.”
“Moodle enables you to
add five kinds of static
course material.”
•A text page
•A web page
•A link to anything on the
Web
•A view into one of the
course’s directories
•A label that displays any
text or image.
Chapter 4: Add Basic Course Material
Chapter 4 covers adding course material to Moodle. In this
chapter you will learn to add web pages, plain-text pages,
links, labels, directories, and many other kinds of static course
material. And you will learn how to determine when it is
appropriate to use these different types of course material.
Chapter 5: Make Your Courses Interactive
An interactive course is one that creates interaction between
the students, teacher, and/or active web pages. Interactive
course material consists of surveys posed by the teacher,
journals written by the student and read only by the teacher,
and lessons that guide students through a defined path based
upon their answers to review questions, quizzes, and/or
games. In chapter 5 you will learn how to create these
interactions and how each benefits the online learning
experience.
Chapter 6: Make Your Course Social
Student-to-student interactions is made possible through social
course material such as chats, forums, and/or Wikis. Moodle
offers these features and a powerful workshop tool that
permits students to view and evaluate each others work. In
chapter 6 you will learn how to best use the social features that
Moodle has to offer. Implementing these social features
encourages students to contribute, share, and evaluate.
Moodle
E-Learning Course Development
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 7: Create a Welcome for New and
Existing Students
Having a public face is very important. In chapter 7 you will
learn how to create your public face on your Moodle site. You
may want to show a Login Page or maybe a Front Page of
your Moodle site? You may want to require students to be
registered or maybe you want to allow anonymous users?
Each of these options affects the kind welcome new and
existing students get when they visit your Moodle site.
Chapter 7 shows you how to customize your welcome screen
for new and existing students to ensure maximum results.
Chapter 8: Use Teacher’s Tools to Deliver and
Administer Courses
“Anyone who
uses Moodle is
a Moodler.”
To help teachers administer and deliver courses, Moodle offers
several tools. Moodle can keep detailed access logs, grading
scales, and collaborate in special forums. Chapter 8 will teach
you how to use each of these tools.
Chapter 9: Extend Moodle
Moodle is open source software, which means members of the
Moodle community are constantly developing new modules,
etc. This book covered Moodle’s core modules and
capabilities, however because Moodle is constantly evolving, it
is impossible to cover every module that is or will be available.
Chapter 9 mentions many of these modules and covers the
installation of many of them. The PayPal module is one of
these modules. This chapter covers how to use the PayPal
module for pay sites and much more.
Moodle
E-Learning Course Development
Reflections
Pros
The Moodle book is
written with a clear
explanation of the core
principles required to get a
full working understanding
of Moodle. I particularly
enjoyed the many screen
shots which made
grasping the material easy
and obvious.
Cons
The Moodle book is
specific to Moodle and not
necessarily Course
Management Systems in
general, which limits the
books value.
I first heard about Moodle in our E-Learning
Concepts and Techniques class and was intrigue
to know more. So I decided to read Moodle ELearning Course Development by William Rice IV.
After reading and applying what I read, I find that
Moodle is an easy to use and feature rich. And
the best part is Moodle is open-source software
which means Moodle is FREE and I love FREE.
I would expect anyone that wishes to get to know
the Moodle product would find this book to be of
great value.
My first impressions of the book were that it was
easy to read and was rich with screen shots, and
illustrations, making the material easy and
obvious to understand.
I find the books length of 250 pages appropriate
and thorough without being too lengthy. I like the
fact that the author, William Rice IV writes in such
a way that I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist in
order to understand and follow along.
I also liked that each chapter has a purpose that
builds on the previous chapters. Yes, I would
recommend this book to anyone who wants to
learn Moodle quickly and effectively.
Moodle
E-Learning Course Development
Application and Judgments
“
One of the benefits of
reading a book about
a tool you've only
explored and used to
meet identified
workplace needs is
that you learn things
you needed to know
but didn't know you
needed to know (e.g.
Wikis in Moodle). You
also pick up stuff you
probably wouldn't
have seen as relevant
but now do based on
the book explanation
”
This is a great book packed with practical
advice about creating a learning
experience with Moodle. I would
recommend on using the book early in
order to plan out your site
implementation. I would also use the
book in conjunction with the Moodle help
and tutorials that are available online. Be
sure to use this book to make appropriate
configuration choices for your needs
when designing your Moodle site. And
most importantly keep this book near and
refer to often. In short this book is a great
Moodle reference book with some helpful
E-Learning ideology.