Written by Jessica Ardrey
Faster than WebCT, more powerful than Blackboard, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, it’s Moodle, Harding’s newest online learning management system.
Initially developed at Curtin University in Australia, Moodle, or Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, is the latest tool for both teachers and students.
“I really love the idea that it’s developed for higher education by higher education,” Keith Cronk, Vice President for Information Systems and Technology, said.
Moodle has a 24-hour helpline for both teachers and students, a service that Blackboard did not provide. Each teacher’s “online classroom” can provide students with course material, quizzes, grades, discussion boards and due dates. It also has an option that allows teachers to record audio and video online and another that can be used by support offices to train faculty and staff.
There are several reasons why Harding decided to change from Blackboard to Moodle. One such reason is that Harding’s Blackboard license was expiring soon, and people had negative responses to the service.
“It had awful service and the responses we got from users were never good,” Cronk said.
“There was also an ethical issue with Blackboard,” Carl Walker, instructional technologist, said. “As a company, they were trying to take over everyone else and sue everyone else to get on top.We didn’t want to be associated with them as much.”
A different aspect of Moodle is that, as an “open source platform,” it is customizable. Schools share resources and programming codes for different applications and enhancements.
“Blackboard was pretty much a box, and you couldn’t make any changes without a very nice price tag attached,” Angela Sivia, instructional designer, said. It is also much more compatible with multiple browsers and platforms, such as Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox.
Cronk, Walker and Sivia all noted that Moodle’s layout is “much cleaner” than Blackboard’s. Instead of randomly placed icons, files are organized by topic and week.
“With Blackboard it was like, ‘I’ve got to learn how to think like Blackboard,'” Walker said.
The categories and tools are so precise and easy to use, you can’t help but to manage and sort all the information, Cronk said.
For an added boost of confidence in the decision, Lubbock Christian University also made the switch from Blackboard to Moodle. According to Sivia, Lubbock’s “faculty embraced it and love it, and everything went well for them, so we were hoping the same would happen here.”
So far that seems to be the case.According to Information Systems and Technology, faculty is already using Moodle more than they expected.
Many faculty members who never tried to use Blackboard have shown interest in the site, and the numbers are growing. More and more teachers are uploading syllabi, posting assignments and filling in calendars.
“The feedback so far has been great,” Walker said.”It’s kind of surprising us.”
Teachers are not the only ones raving about Moodle.Senior Charlstie Patterson is really pleased with the new site.
“A couple of my classes are run almost completely through Moodle,” Patterson said. “I love how everything’s organized and easy to find.It’s a lot faster, but my favorite part is the 24-hour tech support.With Blackboard, if I got stuck or needed help, I was on my own,” Patterson said.
As far as campus-wide usability is concerned, Sivia is confident in the abilities of faculty and students.
“IfyoucanFacebookandyoucanTwitter,Moodleisrightupyouralley,”shesaid.
