Yesterday afternoon the Faculty Senate voted unanimously to approve the LMIS Committee recommendation that UPS adopt Moodle as our new Learning Management System.

New UPS Chief Technology Officer Molly Tamarkin has proposed we adopt the name “Move To Moodle” for the project of rolling out Moodle over the next year to two years. The move will be gradual. Over the summer, OIS will form a technical team to plan and manage the conversion process.

For more information please visit the Moodle page.

Instructional Technology has worked over the last two years to respond to faculty input from the LMIS Committee to evaluate our Learning Management System needs. Many thanks to all Moodle testers, faculty and students (over 350 of you), for your hard work and willingness to take the lead, to experiment, and to put up with the inevitable difficulties that come with pioneering.

It’s Official: We are Moving to Moodle

In March of 2008, the LMIS committee approved a document recommending the adoption of Moodle as our Learning Management System. A copy of the report is available here . The Faculty Senate unanimously approved this recommendation on March 24th. Find out more about Moodle here.

Will We Still Be Using Blackboard?

Yes. Blackboard will be definitely be in use for the 2008-2009 academic year, and if you are using it, you should continue to plan on using it for next year. If you have been using it for your courses in the past, please plan on continuing to use it this Fall and Spring as usual, however we will phasing it out of the next two years as we move to Moodle.

The Search for a Blackboard Replacement

There has been an ongoing evaluation other Learning Management Systems (LMS) to replace Blackboard, sponsored by the LMIS Committee since Fall of 2006.

In January of 2007, testing and evaluation of Moodle began by a select group of faculty appointed by LMIS, the technology advisory committee of the Faculty Senate, who appointed a subcommittee to do the evaluation. The original members of the subcommittee are and additional subsequent testers of Moodle were:

• Randy Bentson, Faculty
• Renee De Voursney, Student
• Diane Kelley, Faculty
• Elizabeth Knight, Library
• Pepa Lago-Grana, Faculty
• Patrick O’Neil, Faculty
• Lotus Perry, Faculty
• Dan Sherman, Faculty
• Yvonne Swinth, Faculty
• Randy Thornton, Instructional Technology
• Linda Williams, Faculty

To find out more, please feel free to contact any of the committee members or testers.

Part of the testing over the last year and a half was with actual courses, during which over 350 students used Moodle (about 10% of the student population).

What is the time frame for implementing Moodle?

Moodle will be gradually phased in over the 2008-2010 academic years. We will continue to use Blackboard still for all of the 2008-2009 academic year.

Can I get a test drive of Moodle?

Any UPS faculty or student may log into Moodle with their UPS network / email name and password and view a test course, using this link.

Test faculty have made some of their currently taught courses available to members of the Faculty Senate to view as a guest student. Contact Randy Thornton for access information, or feel free to contact any of the committee members/testers for information on their live course.

What is Moodle?

Moodle is a Learning Management System similar to Blackboard.

Moodle is free, open-source, web-based application built on standard platforms, including Linux and Windows server. It has an open modular design which allows easy integration of additional features. Moodle is supported by a world-wide community of programmers and teachers who contribute to its design and growth.

Moodle was created by Martin Dougiamas in the late 1990s. It was designed by educators for educators, and is especially influenced by the constructivist theory of pedagogy, which supports a highly interactive learning style. As a result Moodle has many tools designed for student contributions to class content.

Who Uses Moodle?

Moodle has been adopted by many Liberal Arts Colleges, such as Bryn Mawr, Carlton, DePauw, Lewis and Clark, Macalester, Reed, and Smith, as well as numerous larger schools such as U.C.L.A., San Francisco State, The University of Georgia, The University of Minnesota, and many others. Moodle doubled its growth among US community colleges last year.

In addition to its extensive use in schools in Australia and New Zealand, Moodle is widely used in Europe, especially in Spain and the U.K. The largest Moodle installation in the world is the Open University in the U.K. with over 200,000 students using Moodle.

More About Moodle

To find out more about Moodle, visit Moodle.org. Here are some other sources of information about Moodle:

• Introduction to Moodle an Open Source LMS
• Other Moodle videos on YouTube
• Moodle slideshows on Slideshare

What are we doing with Moodle?

We have been testing Moodle since Spring of 2006. We are moving to Moodle starting in Fall 2008. Visit the Move To Moodle page for updates and more information.

What is Blackboard?

Blackboard is courseware - web based software that is an on-line extension of the classroom. It can contain syllabi, readings, assignments, links and other information that your Professors may post to it. Blackboard is optional; it may or may not be used in a course. Your Professors will tell you if they use Blackboard for a particular course and what method they have set for you to enroll in the course.

Where is Blackboard?

Use a web browser and go to the URL http://blackboard.ups.edu or just use the login button above. You do not have to be on campus to use Blackboard; it can be reached from anywhere on the web.

Are We Still Using Blackboard?

Yes. We will be using Blackboard at least through 2008-2009 academic year, though we will be converting to Moodle as our LMS over the next two years.

Check the Move to Moodle page for more information.