Moodle for Distance Education

As technology continues to expand the horizons of teaching and learning, the culture within the learning environment begins to change. Rules are established for communicating via the various media (Chen, Wang, & Hung, 2009), which leads to further evolution within the fields of instructional technology and distance education (ITDE). One area that witnesses frequent transitions within ITDE includes the tools used to manage online teaching and learning. Known as learning management systems (LMS), course management systems (CMS), or virtual learning environments (VLE), these tools help teachers and administrators coordinate and direct online instruction and allow learners to participate in the learning environment. Anyone in the market for a learning management system will soon realize that there are quite a few from which to choose! Moodle is one of the various LMS available today. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits of using Moodle for distance education.

Moodle is an open-source Web application that allows the delivery of instruction online. It can be used solely for online instruction, for blended format, or simply to support traditional instruction (Perkins, & Pfaffman, 2006). The acronym Moodle represents: Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. The designer of Moodle is Martin Dougiamas, who has been working on Moodle since the 1990s, originally as part of his doctoral work at Curtin University of Technology in Australia (Dougiamas & Taylor, 2003). After more than a decade of developing and discarding prototypes, Moodle 1.0 was finally released on August 20, 2002 (Moodle, 2010a). Much of the research on Moodle has been performed by Dougiamas himself, along with Peter Taylor, associate professor of transformative education. Their aim for creating and researching Moodle is to improve their own skills in utilizing the Internet to facilitate distance education, and to “improve the pedagogical skills of other teachers” through a freely available software, and finally to “facilitate a supportive community of software contributors” (Dougiamas & Taylor, 2003, Introduction section, para. 3).

Moodle supports a social constructionist or constructivist theory. Like Piaget and Papert, Dougiamas believes that learning is a social activity and that learners construct new knowledge by interacting with their environment. Rather than just reading text online, or listening to a recording online for learning purposes, Moodle allows users to be active authors within the environment by providing a platform from which to share ideas via individual and collaborative efforts. As this social view of learning expands, so will the pedagogy of distance education (Ke & Hoadley, 2009). Thus, Dougiamas set out to create software that allows people to truly collaborate and play the role of both teacher and learner within an online lesson (Moodle, 2010c).

Moodle promotes collaboration among learners and instructors by providing activities that grant students the ability to publish, not just retrieve information from a course. And with language packs for over 70 languages (Moodle, 2010b), Moodle creates an environment that is “conducive to inquiry, conversation, and feedback” (Jensen, 2010, p. 78). Because students are allowed to take an active role in their learning, they are better able to reflect critically and truly build knowledge as they interact with the virtual environment.

The large variety of activities available in Moodle engages learners while they interact with the learning environment. The following table displays a brief overview of the activities available in Moodle based on Moodle’s features (2010b).

Perhaps one of the most appealing characteristics of Moodle is that the software is free. In these challenging economic times, schools are experiencing a “climate in which traditional funding sources have become less generous and regulatory requirements are becoming more stringent” (Williams van Rooij, 2009, p. 683). Because Moodle is open-source software (OSS), the basic functions are made freely available to the public. Users wishing to add more functions to the software can pay for these additions (Henderson, 2007). Users might also need to enlist the help of Moodle partners if they need additional assistance with the software, which will also carry a fee. It is important to note that, even with these fees, the overall costs of operating Moodle is significantly less than with other LMS.

Another quality of Moodle is that it is very flexible. Dougiamas created Moodle to be “compatible, flexible, and easy to modify” (Dougiamas & Taylor, 2003, Software design section, para. 1). It was created using the PHP language, which is “popular and powerful” (Dougiamas & Taylor, 2003, Software design section, para. 1), without requiring too much effort to run the produced software. Because the code is visible (not hidden as with commercial products), users can make adjustments to the code in order to customize the software. Plugs-ins are available to further modify the product. Changes are tracked for the purpose of improving the software, which means that the product is constantly developing. This flexibility and evolution ensures that the product will grow with future users and adjust as their needs change.

One of the biggest myths about Moodle is that, because it is free of cost and private rights, it must not have product support. This is far from the truth. Moodle has various means of support for new and veteran users. Because Moodle has built a strong community, there are hundreds of free online documents on Moodle help topics available for users to review. Additionally, fairly priced books with information about the product are available for purchase. Free demonstration courses that can guide the user in creating lessons and managing a virtual classroom are accessible through the Moodle Web site. In the true spirit of learning communities, many user forums have been established within the Moodle community to assist new and veteran users. Finally, Moodle partners are also available to provide support. Moodle partners are available across the world for a wide range of services, and are associated to service companies that are guided by the Moodle core developers (Moodle, 2010b).

Moodle is an interactive tool that aids in the delivery of instruction and learning. It supports the social constructivist theory and offers a large number of activities to encourage instructor-to-student, student-to-student, and student-to-learning environment interaction, all of which are factors that reinforce the learning process. Additionally, the absent to low cost of using the product, coupled with the flexibility of changing the programmed code to customize the product, make it an attractive option for an LMS.