From Blackboard to Moodle
E-Champions Meeting
3rd November 2009
What’s this meeting about?
• Sharing
– Why Moodle
– Where we’re up to
• Demonstrating
– Examples of Moodle
– Our Moodle
• Discussing
– Thoughts, concerns and ideas
– Colleagues wishing to pilot Moodle next Sem
What’s wrong with BB?
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Blackboard is slow and unintuitive
Document downloads are problematic
Java causes all sorts of problems
How do we know?
• Surveys of staff & students
• Facebook – great for finding out what students think of you!
What’s wrong with BB?
• Blackboard features are underused (survey)
– We’re paying for features many people don’t use
What’s wrong with BB?
• Blackboard features are underused (survey)
– Most people require it to deliver resources
What’s wrong with BB?
• License & hosting costs are high
– 2008/9 BB cost us £72K
– Support is sub-standard
– Response to queries is slow
– Bugs/updates & upgrades are not able to be
fixed until the next development cycle
• Product development/upgrade is slow
• Blackboard 9 is now available and is just
as big a change as moving to Moodle.
Why Moodle?
• It does everything BB can do – but better
• “FREE!” Open Source – easy to customise and
tailor to our needs
• Built around pedagogy of social constructivism by an academic! (Dougiemas,M)
• Supported and developed by a community of
academics and developers
• Tried and tested on large scale (Open Uni) with
developments re-invested into the product
(SCLATER, N. ... et al, 2006. )
• YouTube
Who’s Using Moodle?
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Open University
Coventry
Birmingham
Robert Gordon Uni
Essex University
Bath University
University of Strathclyde
University of Lampeter
– plus many, many others…
• Many Universities with Blackboard are conducting
reviews with the aim of moving to Moodle. (HELF forum
emails, 2009)
Examples
• YSJ Moodle
– http://moodle.yorksj.ac.uk
– Request a sandpit course
– Themes, activities etc
• Blayn’s Moodle course
Summary Roadmap
• Moodle installed (Sept 2009)
• Moodle familiarisation for technical teams (Sept/Oct
2009)
• Moodle availability for staff sandpits (Oct 2010)
• Preliminary moodle training for staff (Sem 2, 2010)
• Pilots (Sem 2, 2010)
• Integration with SITS (SEM 2, 2010)
• Implementation of feedback (Summer 2010)
• Wider staff development, training and support (Summer
2010)
• Moodle replaces BB (Sept 2010)
• BB switched off – (Oct 31st 2010)
Pilots
• In SEM 2, we hope to have representation from
across the university, piloting moodle with real
courses and students, to investigate:
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‘Migration’/Module development
Staff & student enrolment
Interface usability
E-Assignment submission & marking
Quizzes and tests
• To inform:
– Training requirements
– Areas for improvement
Let’s discuss
• General comments/feedback?
• Engagement over moodle within faculties
– Communication strategies (QEC’s,
newsletters, website, blog, f2f meetings,
organised sessions?)
• Best times to engage over training?
• How would you like to see things done –
suggestions/ideas?