1 the free LMS- should it be yours?. 2 first…who we are Shelby Watts Multimedia Director Sharon Boller BLP president Kelly Davis Multimedia Developer.

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the free LMS- should it be

yours?

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first…who we are

Shelby WattsMultimedia Director

Sharon BollerBLP president

Kelly DavisMultimedia Developer

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Now…what about YOU?

1. Let’s start with a poll: Take the poll you see on the right-hand side of your screen so we can learn about you, your organization, and the training you do.

2. Now, use the chat to tell us: What motivated you to sign up?

3. Finally, raise your hands:1. How many of you have heard the

term “Moodle” but really didn’t know what it was?

2. How many of you currently have an LMS?

3. How many of you feel you need an LMS?

4. How many of you just like the LOL Live sessions we do and are okay with whatever we talk about

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• What Moodle is – and isn’t

• 3 stories about Moodlers

• Demo of the Moodle experience for: – Learners– Course creators– Administrator(s)

• The data you can track

• The costs (soft and hard)

• The decision: to Moodle or not?

now…an agenda

Any questions about what we’ll cover? Write them in the chat box. Shelby’s watching and jotting them

down.

What Moodle is…and isn’tStories about Moodlers

Demo of Moodle experience – learners, course creators, admins

Quick look at the data you can trackThe REAL costsTo Moodle…or not?

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What it is…and is not

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It is…

• It IS….– A top LMS tool

used by millions– Optimized for

“course management “

– Ideal for building a learning community; very learner focused

– Flexible– Free to download

Top LMS tools (marketshare)

1. Moodle (18.6%)

2. Other (16.6%)

3. Developed in-house (14.8%)

4. SumTotal (14.6%)

5. Saba (12.5)

6. Blackboard (8.9%)

7. Oracle (7.9%)

8. Plateau (7.5%)

9. Learn.com (6.7%)

10.SkillSoft (6.2%)

Organizations with MORE than 10,000

1. SumTotal (22.3%)

2. Saba (20.4%)

3. Developed in-house (16.8%)

4. Plateau (14.1%)

5. Oracle (10.9%)

6. TIE: SkillSoft and Moodle (7.9%)

8. Blackboard (7.6%)

9. SAP (4.6%)

10.Learn.com (4.3%)

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A development tool - it has no “C” as in LCMS

It is NOT…

Something you have to learn all at once…before you implement anything

A commercial product - there’s no vendor behind the scenes to install, train, and support you…unless you hire a “Moodle” partner.

Super-quick to figure out/learn – it’s not HARD, but it does take time.Completely without costsOptimized to generate

lots of system-wide data

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What it looked like at install:What it looks like today:

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Moodler stories – 3 of them

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Stories 1 and 2: Other folks

Farm Bureau•~1700 employees – lots in the field•No budget for LMS•One person in training with a technical bent•Need to verify passing and completion•Huge desire to enhance informal learning

Sleep Train• 230 stores; 4 states, 1 training person, no $$ for an LMS.• LOTS of turnover – continual new product info to share•Need to verify people “passed”

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Story 3: us!

The bottom-line (no pun intended): Moodle can – and does – work for lots of different organizations who want/need to connect learners to resources

and each other.

• 16 employees…but mostly scattered.

• Constant need to learn new techniques, tools, technologies.

• Huge need for informal learning

• Desire to offer training to external customers – and charge them for training.

• Desire to learn Moodle so we can help small organizations implement it for themselves.

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The Moodle Experience: learners, course creators, administrators

• There are six possible roles:– Student (i.e. learner) – Course creator– Editing teacher– Non-editing teacher– Administrator– Guests

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Let’s start with the “learner”

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Course Creators

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system administrators

• Responsibilities– Verifying whether Moodle

is even the right answer– Installing the site on a

server– Configuring the site– Uploading and maintaining

users– Creating courses– Supporting users (HUGE)

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installation and configuration

• Knowledge assets– PHP (installation)– CSS (graphical look, positioning, etc)– MySQL (installation)– HTML (installation)– SCORM (course configuration)– Course design/development (course creation)– Social media savvy (informal learning)

• Personality assets– Patience (installation, configuration, development)– Confidence (i.e. can’t be afraid to try stuff and see

what happens)

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moodle experience for admins

• What questions should an admin be asking before even deciding on Moodle?

– Does a resource exist who is willing to learn an open-source software application? Will my organization support open-source software?

– Will I have any IT support?– Do I have the money, time, and expertise to

host Moodle on my own internal server OR should I find an external host?

– If I decide to have an external host, should I get a dedicated server or a shared server?

– Who will be the system administrators? How will admins divide responsibility?

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Moodle Requirements

• Hardware Requirements• Minimum 150 to 200MB disk space• Network or standalone

• Software Requirements• Database – MySQL is recommended• Web server – Apache is preferred• PHP – PHP 4.30 is required to run Moodle 1.9. It is

advisable to use PHP 5.24 or higher for Moodle 2.0. • PHP Extensions

• Moodle Packages• Standard• Mac OS X - local• Windows – local

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more on configuration…

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The data you can

track

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reporting

• What reports can you get?– Site level:

• All/Individual activity logs across entire site or by course– Course level:

• All/individual participant activity logs• All participant grades• Individual participant reports

• What do these reports tell you?– Activity logs: what the user did, not how they did.– Grade and participant reports: completion, score, and

activity.

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reporting

• What if you want more? – Add-ons are available. Here are a few

we have found but not tried:•Category Activity Reports•Completion Report •Moomis

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The costs…really

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Hard costs – pretty minimal

“Soft” costs (translate to personnel to make Moodle successful) can be more than people think.

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Or not?

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is moodle for you?

• It depends ….:– What are your needs?– Why would you use it?– What tracking do you HAVE to have?– Can you get the server space you

need?– Do you have a resource to support it?

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