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Technical sheet: Moodle 1.4.1
In this sheet the results of the evaluation are presented in a table format.
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| Functional features | ||||
| Didactics/Learning flow management | The system offers some basic pre-structured
course skeleton. Tutors cannot define conditional or alternative
learning paths. The system doesn't support learning plans. The system
partially supports learner portfolios (following up of all activities
of the learner within one course is possible, but the concept of total
supra-course portfolio of the learner does not exist). The learner
receives feedback via different means depending on the type of activity
he/she is achieving. At any time he/she can see the state of his/her
work and in most activities and the system sends email warnings to the
learner to inform about main issues. |
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| Tests and assesment | The system offers web authoring functionality
for the generation and modification of tests. Tests can be imported as
well from a large number of formats. Several type of questions can be
employed for testing: multiple choice, single choice, terms/pictures
matching and cloze tests, among others. There is no functionality
offering learners skills (needs) management. The system cannot generate
certificates after finishing a workload but a certificate module is
being developed. |
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| Media formats/Authoring | Content can be created within the system. Any
web content is supported and can be imported. Moodle courses or SCORM
1.2. packages can be imported. Moodle courses can also be exported
(in a propietary format) with associated (propietary) metadata. User
data can be imported from Moodle propietary format (XML) or from text
files, DB, LDAP. All user data can also be exported. |
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| Course monitoring | Online/offlline times of courses can be
sheduled in the system (registration period and blocking of course).
Learners can enroll for a course and instructor approves enrollment.
There is a functionality for user tracking: data is presented in tables
and can be exported. The kind of data that can be tracked is: hit rates
of particular objects, tests results of particular learners and objects
accessed by a particular learner. |
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| Communication | Synchronous communication is supported by chat
as well as 3-parties tools such as icq and skipe. Asynchronous
communication is supported by e-mail and forum. External tools for
communication (blackboards, chat rooms) can be integrated to the
system as external programs. The system supports RSS/blogging. |
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| General look and feel of the system | The layout of the system can be
customized in only little things. Users cannot personalize the
system layout. It is possible to customize the login page. |
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| Permissions handling | Permissions are handled very simply via role
based access control. Users are structured in: administrators, course
authors, tutors, learners and guests. Users can be organised
into groups very easily. |
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| Other features | The system uses encryption in the login
phase. There is no funcionality to handle payment but the system
supports Paypal system. Users can anotate to the learning content but
cannot share annotations with other users. More than forty languages
are supported. The system is LDAP capable. |
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| Maintainability | ||||
| Quality of technical documentation | There is documentation for developers in more
than forty languages. The quality of documentation is OK but could be
more explicit. Work going on documenting the code with phpdoc. |
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| Scalability | The maximum number of active users of one
known installation is more than 5.000 users. The maximum number
of courses within one known installation is more than 150
courses. It is not possible to administrate different clients in one
installation. The system can grow horizontally (clustering of
webservers with sessions stored in database). The system is very
reliable (if the machine supports it, the platform does not break down
unless failing of the DB or other system problem). |
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| Extensibility | There are documented mechanisms for the
extension of features in the development process. There is a plug-in
concept. A defined API is partially available. The system is (in parts)
developed according to an object-oriented approach. Developers stick to
coding conventions defined for the LMS. The quality of the source code
of the project is good. There is no methodology for managing user
requirements. There is a bug reporting system employed by the developer
team. A Version Control System is being used. The system has had 6
major releases and 15 minor bugfix releases aprox. |
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| Adaptability/standard compliance | The system is modularized in parts. It is
compliant to SCORM 1.2 (reproduction of packages) and to IMS-QTI
(importation). |
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| Usability | ||||
| User documentation | There is online help delivered with the system.
There is multilingual (more than 40 languages), fare quality
documentation for users, authors and system administrators. |
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| Generating content | Learning content can be generated and modified
using the authoring functionality but it takes some time. Tests can be
generated and modified easily within the system. |
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| Level of expertise needed | Little expertise required for using the program
as a tutor or as an user. For administrators and authors more expertise
is needed, as the system is complex and rich in features. |
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| Other | Some training material besides the normal help
can be obtained for free from http://www.moodle.org . The system is
easy to navigate. The layout of the system can be customized for any
organisation look and feel (the new template system under development
will improve this aspect). The permission system is simple and very
easy to understand. Grading can be done very easily online. There is a
reporting functionality. The system is not compliant with any
accessibility specification. |
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| Support quality | ||||
| Note | Operating institution can buy some commercial
support from Moodle Partners at http://www.moodle.com on the basis of a
contract and warranty. The Moodle Partners are a group of service
companies guided by the core developers of Moodle. They provide a range
of optional commercial services for Moodle users, including
fully-serviced Moodle hosting, remote support contracts, custom code
development and consulting. Moodle core team support is responsive. An answer to a request in a forum takes a few hours. |
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| Total cost of ownership | ||||
| Type of users | Predominant type of user are Schools (25%),
Small and Medium Enterprises (25%), Universities (15%) and Industry
(15%). There are currently more than 2000 registered sites using Moodle
(many more not actually registered). Many important and prestigious
customers among them. See http://www.moodle.org/sites |
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| Financial stability | The project began in 1999 with Matin Dougiamas
development. Currently the development team has nearly a hundred
members (developers, translators, beta, testers …). The development has
no funding even if some developments are contracted via moodle.com and
distributed to the development team. |
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| One time cost | Memory/disk needs depend on the number of
users, on their concurrence level on the system and, mainly, on the
characteristic of the courses. Software requirements are a WebServer,
a Database (MySQL mainly) and PHP with some compiled opensource
libraries that are included in Moodle's distribution. The system also
needs additional hardware and software for security copies,
conectivity, etc. Moodle can be up and running in less tan 30 minutes.
Depending on the links to external systems (LDAP, other DB …), if
backup policies have to be defined, if a cluster charge has to be
balance, in less than a month the most complex Moodle installation
should be operational without problems. |
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| Recurring costs | Advised hours of training for an administrator:
20-30 h. Advised hours of training for an author: 50-100 h. Advised hours of training for an tutor: 20-30 h. Advised hours of training for an user: 5-10 h. Estimated monthly time of administration needed to run Moodle: |
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Last modified
2005-01-24 03:01 PM
