| cs | de | en | es | et | fi | fr | hu | ka | lt | pl | ru | se |
|
|
MoodleMoodle is an open source learning management system that is available in several languages. It has to be installed on school's web server before it can be used. Moodle builds on socio-constructivism. There are several useful tools built into Moodle, like wiki, blog, dictionary, forums, polls etc. The available functionality, look and feel is very customiazble. Moodle uses a three column view, with a left and a right sidebar. The main content (learning material and learning activities) appear in the center area of the screen, as opposed to other learning management systems that often hide the content inside a left hand side menu and only opens each activity in the center area. For the left and right hand sides, Moodle uses a principle with boxes. A teacher can populate a room by adding, removing or rearranging boxes to the left and right areas. Boxes can contain information on the latest discussions in a forum, a randomly picked term from the dictionary, blog tags, etc. It is even possible to create boxes of HTML-code or simple text, and such it is possible to build almost any desired look and feel. It is interesting to know that many administrative routines are left to each user. Instead of having the teacher, or the school, to create user accounts and populate each class/room with the correct users, the students create their own user accounts in a few clicks. The teacher then can distribute a key to everybody in a class, for instance by regular mail, in a written welcoming letter or orally in the first lecture/class. When subscribing to a course, the students simply write the correct key, and they are then accepted and included as students of the Moodle course. It is also possible to open for free subscription to courses, or restrict so that only a teacher can add users. It is even possible to import students from a file etc, but on the Moodle.org site, teachers are encouraged to allow students to create their own accounts. One advantage of using Moodle is its large and growing collection of plugins. It is possible for everyone to program their own plugins, thus contributing to the development of Moodle. It should also be mentioned that it is possible to use Moodle as an ordinary web site or web portal, but its main purpose is to be used as a learning management system.
|
