Moodle is a free and open-source

learning management system A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. The lear ...

written in

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. ...

and distributed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

. Moodle is used for

blended learning Norm Friesen (born March 21, 1966) is Professor in Educational Technology at Boise State University. Norm Friesen studied German Literature, Secondary Education, and Communication at the Johns Hopkins University, University of Alberta and Simon Fr ...

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

flipped classroom A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning, which aims to increase student engagement and learning by having pupils complete readings at home and work on live problem-solving during class time. This pedagogic ...

and other online learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors. Moodle is used to create custom

websites A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wiki ...

with online courses and allows for community-sourced plugins.

Overview

Moodle was originally developed by Martin Dougiamas with the goal of helping educators create online courses and a focus on interaction and collaborative construction of content. The first version of Moodle was released on , and it continues to be actively developed. The Moodle Project is led and coordinated by Moodle HQ, an Australian company, that is financially supported by a network of eighty-four Moodle Partner service companies worldwide. Development is also assisted by the open-source community. Moodle is a learning platform used to augment and move existing learning environments online. As an

E-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

tool, Moodle developed a number of features now considered standard for learning management systems, such as a calendar and gradebook. Plugins, custom graphical themes, mobile responsive web design, and a Moodle

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

are available to customize each individuals experience on the platform. Moodle's mobile app is available on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

, App Store (iOS),

F-Droid F-Droid is an app store and software repository for Android, serving a similar function to the Google Play store. The main repository, hosted by the project, contains only free and open source apps. Applications can be browsed, downloaded and ...

(Android

FLOSS Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

repository), and the

Windows Phone Store Windows Phone Store (originally known as Windows Phone Marketplace) was an app store platform, developed by Microsoft corporation for Windows Phone letting users installing various apps on their device. It initially launched with Windows Phone ...

E-learning standards support

Moodle has adopted the following e-learning standards: * Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of E-learning standards and specifications that define communications between client side content and a server side learning management system, as well as how externally authored content should be packaged in order to integrate with the LMS effectively. There are two versions: SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004. Moodle is SCORM 1.2 compliant, and passes all the tests in the ADL Conformance test suite 1.2.7 for SCORM 1.2. SCORM 2004 is not supported in Moodle, however Rustici Software have a Moodle plugin which can turn any Moodle site into a fully compliant SCORM 2004 LMS. * The AICC HACP standard for CMI was developed by the Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) and is used to call externally authored content and assessment packages. AICC content packages are supported in Moodle 2.1 and later versions. * IMS Common Cartridge packages can also be imported into Moodle. In addition, Moodle Book activities can be exported as IMS Content Packages. *

Learning Tools Interoperability Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is an education technology specification developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. It specifies a method for a learning system to invoke and to communicate with external systems. In the current version ...

(LTI) is a standard way of integrating rich learning applications (often remotely hosted and provided through third-party services) with educational platforms. Moodle uses the External Tool activity to act as an 'LTI consumer' as standard, and will act as an 'LTI provider' using a plugin.

Deployment

Users can download and install Moodle on a Web server, such as Apache HTTP Server, and a number of database management systems, such as

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...

, are supported. Pre-built combinations of Moodle with a Web server and database are available for Microsoft Windows and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

. Other automated installation approaches exist, such as installing a Debian package, deploying a ready-to-use

TurnKey A turnkey, a turnkey project, or a turnkey operation (also spelled turn-key) is a type of project that is constructed so that it can be sold to any buyer as a completed product. This is contrasted with build to order, where the constructor builds ...

Moodle appliance, using the Bitnami installer, or using a "one-click install" service such as Installatron. Certified Moodle Partners provide other Moodle services, including hosting, training, customization and content development. This network of providers support development of the Moodle project through royalties.

Interoperability

Moodle runs without modification on

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, FreeBSD,

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

MacOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, NetWare and any other systems that support

and a database, including webhost providers. Moodle also has import features for use with other specific systems, such as importing quizzes or entire courses from Blackboard or WebCT. , Moodle did not import Blackboard courses, apparently due to changes in php code-releases. In March 2012 Blackboard acquired two companies based on Moodle's software including Baltimore-based Moodlerooms Inc. and NetSpot of Adelaide, Australia. In August 2015, Blackboard acquired Colombia-based Nivel7, possibly the largest Moodle services provider in Latin America. The Red Hat site, Opensource.com, reported that Moodle will always be an open-source project, with clear delineation between Blackboard and Moodle.

Background

Origins

Martin Dougiamas, who has graduate degrees in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, wrote the first version of Moodle. Dougiamas started a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

to examine "the use of

open source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...

to support a

social constructionist Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theor ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry." Although how exactly social constructivism makes Moodle different from other eLearning platforms is difficult to show, it has been cited as an important factor by Moodle adopters. Other Moodle adopters, such as the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

in the UK, have pointed out that Learning Management Systems can equally be seen as "relatively pedagogy-neutral".

Pedagogical approach

The stated philosophy of Moodle includes a constructivist and

approach to education, emphasizing that learners (and not just teachers) can contribute to the educational experience. Using these

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

principles, Moodle provides an environment for learning communities.

Origin of name

The acronym ''Moodle'' officially stands for ''modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment''. When the project was first started, the "m" instead stood for "Martin's", after original developer Martin Dougiamas. Besides being an acronym, the name was also chosen because of the dictionary definition of Moodle, with connotations such as "tinkering", "insight", and "creativity", as well as to correspond to an available domain name.

Development

Moodle has continued to evolve since 1999 (since 2001 with the current architecture). It has been translated into over 100 different languages and is accessible in many countries worldwide. Institutions can add as many Moodle servers as needed without having to pay license fees. The

of the UK currently uses a Moodle installation for their 200,000 users while the UK government uses a Moodle installation for their Civil Service Learning platform serving half a million employees.

Releases

Moodle conferences

The MoodleMoot is a conference for Moodle community members to learn about Moodle, share experiences of the learning platform, discuss research in related educational technologies and contribute ideas to future Moodle development. Held around the world, MoodleMoots are organised by universities or other large organizations using Moodle, Moodle Partners, Moodle associations or Moodle HQ. 2020 saw the #Moot move to a virtual conference.

Adoption

Moodle has over 50% of market share in Europe, Latin America, and Oceania. In the U.S. higher education market as of fall 2018, the top three learning management systems (LMS) by number of institutions were Blackboard (31%), Canvas (30%), and Moodle (18%). --- In 2013, Moodle was for a time the second largest provider with 23% market share, following Blackboard (41%). However, by 2017, Moodle had dropped to the third largest provider, due in part to increased adoption of Instructure's semi-open source Canvas platform. In March 2016, Blackboard became an official Moodle partner, although this partnership ended in 2018.

References

External links

*
Moodle and WhatsApp Integration Plugin

Cloud based, subscription model of Moodle
{{Authority control Classroom management software Cross-platform software Free content management systems Free educational software Free learning management systems Free learning support software Free software programmed in PHP Learning management systems Virtual learning environments Software using the GPL license