Moodle

On AllWords.com there were three definitions for Moodle or Moodling -- 1) to dawdle aimlessly, to idle time away, 2) the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs, and 3) an enjoyable tinkering that may lead to insight and creativity.  This past week I experienced the third with the learning management system called Moodle!  The acronym Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.  Moodle is a learning management system or virtual learning environment that provides a flexible setting for many different learning communities.

Earlier in the year I took a course with a colleague entitled Moodle – Becoming an Online Educator.  This colleague will be writing her chemistry textbook this summer using iBook Author.  She will also be using Moodle as a platform to maintain all the different components of the course.  I took the Moodle course to support her and to be able to maintain the Moodle system for my school district.

I knew that I needed to work with Moodle this summer if I was going to be the admin supporting it for my district.  I decided to set up one of my courses – Computer Science – since I will be using a new online text for next fall.  I really like the versatility of the Moodle platform.  The options and activities that can be used with Moodle are almost limitless.  I really like the fact that all our Google Apps for Education products work seamlessly with Moodle.  Over the past week I have created an online syllabus and weekly assignment log, quizzes, videos, reading assignments, Google Apps assignments, programming problems, etc.  All of this while utilizing a flexible online format that students will be drawn to.

Moodle is in its 10th year.  With over 58 million users, 1 million teachers and 6 million courses – it is a tool that has found its niche.  I am excited to expose more teachers in my district to this multipurpose learning and teaching tool!