Moodle: From Politics To Policies - Web.ccsu.edu

Moodle: from Politics to PoliciesnnnnnnnMy hope:(i) use CMS to augment between-class activities (such asdiscussion boards, group projects);(ii) use CMS to organize course materials (eg warehousecourse handouts) and provide for on-line quiz capabilities, etc.(iii) on that basis move to 4 credit courses both as an incentiveto use the CMS and to solve the 4-4 teaching load problem.System view:(i) They felt obliged to move to what is now Vista from WebCT –CE (campus edition) because WebCT would desupport;(ii) Main Vista selling point was the reuse of modules, whichfaculty would supposedly use (no survey ever done).

What I hoped for

Sponsors Executive CommittteennnCSU consists of four constituent universities, of which CCSU isone of the two largest, along with a system office, which hasgrown from 10 to over 100 staff since it moved off campus todowntown Hartford, mainly through increase in IT staff (more atthe system office at the time than at CCSU).The SEC consisted of the Vice-chancellor of the system aschair, a dean from one campus as vice -chair, tworepresentatives from each university (one faculty, one admin),and system office staff (acting CIO, exec. officer for IT, programdirector, assoc. exec. officer for PM, and a project managerspecifically for this project), for a total of at least a dozenpersons at each meeting, supplemented by system IT staff forpresentations, leading to meetings of 15 or more.This committee met for almost two years, first to determine aprovider (ultimately CCSU), then to supervise implementation.

Positions (1)nnSystem OfficenCentralization of IT for supposed economies of scalenSafety blanket of enterprise softwarenSecurity, scaling, support for productnShareable Modules, reusable contentnFollow the vendor and take no risksSome other faculty and campus administratorsnn“Hybrid courses” - online replaces some/many/most of onground classesSupport for only one CMS package.

Motivations and Critiques (2)nnYours TrulynWeb-enhancement of on-ground courses as prioritynWarehousing of material, ease of navigation, overviewnBetween class activities – discussion groups, projectsnPilot project only for hybrid/blended coursesnExtra credit for faculty and students for web-enhancementOther Critiquesn“Wrong software” - need portfolio packagenImposes arbitrary costs on campusesnNot fully thought out in terms of academic usesnTechnology in control of pedagogy

Different Types of Courses

CostsnnnOverall cost of the project, when finally budgetfigures were made available at my insistence,was about 3.7 million, exclusive of services ofconscripted staff at CCSU.The SO hired 5 staff (DBAs, networkadministrators) to manage what ultimatelybecame Vista, at cost (estimated) of 500,000per year.Vista contract is “in perpetuity” but requiresyearly maintenance fee (AKA, annual fee).

From Dissatisfaction to CritiquesnnnnOver the course of the two year SEC I wrote four critiques,arguing against the notion that centralisation of IT would lead, inthis case of academic software, to economies of scale, andcriticizing the automatic adoption of whatever Vista, andultimately Blackboard offered.Critique of Blackboard as monopolistic, predatory company,serving profits not people.Needless to say, I was in a minority, but I remained on thecommittee with a couple of allies to continue a rearguard action,hoping for a better day.This arrived, in part, when the Chancellor retired and wasreplaced by a university-level president opposed tocentralisation of IT, but this was independent of any critiques atSEC.

Enter MoodlennnDisatisfied with the SEC implementation, disgusted byBlackBoard's behavior, I did a simple google search for CourseManagement Software, and immediately found Moodle andSakai.With the aid of a colleague (for folder permissions), and somefussing until I found an OS-X package for Mysql (MarcLiyanage's was the only one several years ago), I set upMoodle on my Mac Powerbook. It worked! and had pretty welleverything that Vista had, if not more, with an easierimplementation (including backup), user-control, plus it wasfree!Mysql and php as we now know, is a dynamite combination foropen-source software – eg Drupal, Wordpress, MediaWiki, etc.

Peaceful CoexistencennnnnSystem-wide, multi-campus enteprise software(eg SCT Banner) – admin. only, one packageonlyCommercial desk-top software, usual suspects(eg Microsoft Office, Adobe products;Special purpose desk-top commercial software (eg Filemaker Profor databases, Wordperfect)Open source, php/mysql or Java packages (egMoodle, Drupal, Sakai, OpenOffice, etc.)

Dr. Thomas R. Burkholder

Moodle at CCSUnFall 2007 Moodle TrialnOverview of Moodle UsagenIssuesnResults of Student SurveynFuture directions

Jmol Filter Example

Moodle Trial SetupnServer SpecificationsnActual Server (virtual)n3.0GHz Dual Xeonn2.33 GHz dual Xeonn4GB RAMn1GB RAMn2X160 GB SATAnn 2544.32 (DELL)nnUbuntu or Debian 64bit OSApache/MySQL/PHPSAN allocation of150 GBnCentOS 4.5 (64 bit)nApache 2.0.52nMySQL 4.1.20nPHP 4.3.9

SoftwarennMoodlenAdded Librariesn1.8.1 initiallynphp-gdn1.8.4 currentlynphp-mbstringLanguage PacksnFiltersnPolishnJmolnSpanishnAlgebra notationnFrench

Fall 2007 Summaryn36 CoursesnArtnChemistrynEnglishnHistorynModern LanguagesnHonorsnPhilosophynTechnology Educationn13 FacultynnMost in History andEnglish650 Students

Teaching with MoodlenMoodle 101nForum for Problems and ResourcesnAll Instructors enrolled in forum.nFeedback for administratorsnCommunity help

IssuesnFiltering of Registration Confirmation emailsnStudent confusion about “surname” fieldnManual enrollmentnSingle sign-onnDuplicating coursesnCourse requestsnGrade BooknQuizzes

20 Most Active CoursesFall 2007

Fall 2007 MoodleUsageMonthSep 2007Oct 2007Nov 2007Dec 2007TotalUniquevisitors16061835152315026466Number 14653594.66 GB5.82 GB3.74 GB3.97 GB18.19 GB

December 2007 MoodleHours of the Day

Survey MethodnSurvey MonkeynDepartment level information collectednExperience level assessednGeneral comparison to Vista if applicablen5 point Likert scale for features and assignmentsnWillingness to use Moodle in futurenOptional comments collected

Student Response by on

Compare Moodle to Vista ingeneral.35%30%25%20%15%10%5%0%Moodle much betterMoodle betterAbout the sameVista betterVista much betterN/A

Ratings of Moodle FeaturesAll Students80.0%70.0%60.0%Login and Registration50.0%GradesCalendar40.0%Upcoming EventsEmail updates30.0%Assignments page20.0%10.0%0.0%Very Easy toUseVery Hard toUseN/A

Ratings of Moodle Featuresby students who rated any MoodleFeatures Hard or Very Hard to Use60%50%Login and Registration40%GradesCalendar30%Upcoming EventsEmail updatesAssignments page20%10%0%Very Easy toUseVery Hard toUseN/A

Ratings of Moodle AssignmentsAll Students80.0%Online text70.0%Upload a single fileUpload multiple files60.0%Offline .0%Very Easy toUseVery Hard toUseN/A

Ratings of Moodle Assignmentsby students who rated any MoodleFeatures Hard or Very Hard to Use70.0%Online textUpload a single file60.0%Upload multiple filesOffline .0%Very Easy toUseVery Hard toUseN/A

Willingness to use Moodle in theFuture60%50%40%30%20%10%0%Very LikelyNot Likely

FuturennnnAdd different disciplinesnMath and some other sciencesnGeography, Sociology etc.nBusiness and School of EducationTie into CCSU single sign onAutomatic enrollment of students in coursesfrom registrar info.Upgrade to Moodle 1.9 for Fall 2008

Moodle: from Politics to Policies n My hope: n (i) use CMS to augment between-class activities (such as discussion boards, group projects); n (ii) use CMS to organize course materials (eg warehouse course handouts) and provide for on-line quiz capabilities, etc. n (iii) on that basis move to 4 credit courses both as an incentive t