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Open Source CMS based on Social Constructionist Pedagogy

by Sloan-C
Author Information
Author(s):
Janet Moore, The Sloan Consortium
Institution(s) or Organization(s) Where EP Occured:
Moodle
Effective Practice Abstract/Summary
Abstract/Summary of Effective Practice:

Moodle is an open-course course management system (CMS) designed to help educators create quality online courses with emphasis on social constructivist pedagogy.

Supporting Information for this Effective Practice
Evidence of Effectiveness:

The software is used all over the world by universities, schools, companies and independent teachers. A testimonial says:"Moodle does literally everything we need, and is so well designed and straightforward that it's almost breathtaking! You have created a treasure! And it's free! I am almost speechless with delight. And I know the students and faculty will love it."

Features detailed at moodle.org include:

  • Overall design
  • Site management
  • User management
  • Course management
  • Assignment Module
  • Chat Module
  • Choice Module
  • Forum Module
  • Journal Module
  • Quiz Module
  • Resource Module
  • Survey Module
How this practice improves pillar(s):

learning effectiveness:
Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a software package designed to help educators create quality online courses. Such e-learning systems are sometimes also called Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). One of the main advantages of Moodle over other systems is a strong grounding in social constructionist pedagogy.

Moodle is Open Source software, which means you are free to download it, use it, modify it and even distribute it (under the terms of the GNU General Public License). Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Netware and any other system that supports PHP, including most webhost providers. Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL are best supported, but it can also be used with Oracle, Access, Interbase, ODBC and others.

Moodle is available in 34 languages, including: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and US versions), Finnish, French (France and Canada versions), German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Caribbean versions), Swedish, Thai and Turkish.

To find out more, read the features list, try the demonstration courses on the site, or see the growing number of Moodle sites around the world. To meet other Moodle users, join the Using Moodle course.

Estimate the probable costs associated with this practice:

Moodle is open source and completely free to use.

For support, a contract via Moodle.com is available for $1000.00 for six months; and a server contract is available for $1000.00 for a year.

Relation to other Pillars:

Because it is free, Moodle is cost effective. Because it is designed for social constructivism, it enhances student and faculty satisfaction. Because it is a collaborative work-in-progress with multiple perspectives, it enhances access.

References, supporting documents:
Other Comments:
Martin Dougiamas says: "My main mission in life now is Moodle. I started it in 1999 out of frustration with the existing commercial software at the time. Since then the project has been growing exponentially in terms of size and activity. I work from home each day with many different people from around the world on a wide variety of things. It's exciting and certainly gives me good reason to jump out of bed in the mornings!"
Contact for this Effective Practice
Effective Practice Contact:
Martin Dougiamas
Email this contact:
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Comments

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