Moodle


 * What is Moodle?

Reference.com information: **Moodle**** is a [|free and open source] [|e-learning] [|software] platform //(also known as a Course Management System (CMS), or Learning Management Systems ([|LMS]), or Virtual Learning Environment ([|VLE]))//. It has a significant user base with 38,896 registered sites with 16,927,590 users in 1,713,438 courses (as of January, 2008)
 * Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design means that people can develop additional functionality. Development is undertaken by a globally diffused network of commercial and non-commercial users, streamlined by the Moodle company based in** [|**Perth, Western Australia**] **.**

Moodle features
**Moodle has many features expected from an e-learning platform, plus some original innovations (e.g. its filtering system).**

Origins
Moodle was created by [|Martin Dougiamas], a [|WebCT] administrator at [|Curtin University] , [|Australia], who has graduate degrees in [|Computer Science] and [|Education]. His [|Ph.D.] examined "The use of [|Open Source software] to support a social constructionist [|epistemology] of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry". This research has strongly influenced the design of Moodle, providing [|pedagogical] aspects missing from many other e-learning platforms.

Pedagogical approach
The stated philosophy of Moodle   includes a [|constructivist] and [|social constructionist] approach to education, emphasizing that learners (and not just teachers) can contribute to the educational experience in many ways. Moodle's features reflect this in various design aspects, such as making it possible for students to comment on entries in a database (or even to contribute entries themselves), or to work collaboratively in a [|wiki]. Having said this, Moodle is flexible enough to allow for a full range of modes of teaching. It can be used for both introductory and advanced delivery of content (e.g. [|HTML] pages) or assessment, and does not necessitate a constructivist teaching approach. Constructivism is sometimes seen as at odds with accountability-focused ideas about education, such as the No Child Left Behind Act ( [|NCLB] ) in the [|United States]. Accountability stresses tested outcomes, not teaching techniques, or [|pedagogy], but Moodle is also useful in an outcomes-oriented classroom environment because of its flexibility.

Origin of the name
The word //Moodle// is actually an acronym for //Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment//, although originally the M stood for "Martin's", named after [|Martin Dougiamas], the original developer. Moodle can also be considered a verb, which describes the improvisational process of doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course.

Deployment and development
Moodle has been evolving since 1999 (since 2001 with the current architecture). The current version is 1.9, which was released in March 2008. It has been translated into 61 different [|languages]. Major improvements in [|accessibility] and display flexibility were developed in 1.5. As of March 2008, the Moodle user community with over 400,000 registered users on their site alone. As there are no license fees or limits to growth, an institution can add as many Moodle servers as needed. The largest single site has reported over 19,000 courses and over 41,000 students, and the [|Open University] of the UK [|is building a Moodle installation] for their 200,000 users. The development of Moodle continues as a free software project supported by a team of programmers and an international user community, drawing upon contributions posted to an online [|Moodle Community] that encourages debate and invites criticism.

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