So what is Moodle?

Moodle is a free online learning management system (LMS) which enables teachers and schools to create their own courses using either preloaded sections or custom made sections. It is currently used in over 200 countries and 100 languages.

There are different modules to control different aspects of a course and teachers are able to create a course using a variety of resource types. Audio, video, slide and other components. Teacher are also able to embed tests into the course which can be assessed by the system to cut down on teacher workload.

It is being used in a variety of ways but one that I found interesting was a report from Slovenia which showed that it increased student's engagement and all students downloaded lecture notes and homework activities (Zoran and Rozman, 2010).  There are also cost saving benefits for institutions as Moodle is both free and open source.

A recent survey found that no student felt excluded because they lacked technical knowledge to use the site. The biggest bugbear (70%) by far from the students' point of view was the organisation of material which I would suggest is possibly a fault of the educational organisation rather than Moodle. Other notable problems from the student perspective were class note distribution, testing and calendars. (All around the 25-30% mark.) Things which were noticeably positive from a student point of view were class note distribution, attendance, student participation and submission of assignments and reports.

The major technical problem appeared to be with issues relating to bandwidth (25%).

So overall it seems to be a popular platform which contributes positively to learning from both a student point of view and that of the teaching organisations.