If you have been browsing some of our new courses lately, you might have noticed a course called Teaching With Moodle. This begs the question, what on earth is Moodle? Glad to help! Here is a full explanation of what this new word is, how it works, and why you might be interested in learning more about it.
What is it?
Moodle is a learning platform designed for educators and learners alike, aimed at providing a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalized learning environments for users. Its purpose is to be easy-to-use software, with a simple interface and collaborative features to empower teaching and learning. It is an open-source project, which means the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. It is constantly being reviewed and updated to stay current in the industry and meet the users evolving needs.
Who thought of it?
Moodle was founded by Australian computer science major Martin Dougiama. After growing up experiencing distance-learning delivered through shortwave radio, he was inspired to find a way to bring education outside of the physical classrooms and make it available across the entire world. Back in 1999, he was experimenting with the idea of online learning while upgrading his skills by achieving a master's degree and his PhD. After struggling with other online teaching interfaces, he decided to create his own platform. He invented the word “Moodle” based on the acronym Martin’s Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, (later changed to Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Leaning Environment when it went public for others to use). Within the next 5 years, Moodle was live with its first course available online all over the world, and Martin was very active in publicizing it wherever he could. By 2007, it was established as a leading and award-winning open source LMS.
Since then, it has been upgraded through many different versions, and is continuing to stay current and relevant in today’s market. Moodle was founded with the goal of creating an online learning solution that is flexible to learners’ needs, accessible to everyone, and would provide a quality education for all. A firm believer in the notion that everyone has a right to education, Martin’s main goal has always been to break the barriers faced by millions in accessing education and free-sourcing his technology for all. Their website gives a more in-depth background story if you want to read more.
Photo Credit: The Moodle Story
Why would it interest me?
Learning about how to use Moodle is not only for people planning on using the platform for teaching. You might encounter this platform as a user too! Taking a Moodle training course provides an excellent addition to your resume, and just having an understanding of how to use it would be beneficial in case it comes up for you at some point in a workplace environment. This technology is used in institutions and organizations worldwide, with more than 213 million users around the globe. They have even received awards for being one of the top educational apps. Some of the benefits of the app include:
- Proven and trusted worldwide, and available in over 120 languages
- Designed to support teaching and learning
- Easy to use
- Free with no licensing fees
- Always up to date while staying robust, secure and private
- Highly flexible, scalable, and customizable, with an all-in-one learning platform which supports blended and online learning on any web platform
Credit: The Moodle Story
What does our Moodle course offer?
So, what are you going to actually learn in our course about this cool new educational app called Moodle? Taught by expert instructors Hassan Khaymabashi and Dr. Elias Aleman, the course is aimed at assisting teachers in building a course with Moodle from scratch, and how to effectively use it as a teaching tool. The goal is to have students understand the fundamentals of the Moodle Learning Management System, add activities, resources and assessments for students, and overcome common errors made by users of Moodle. Since it is a relatively shorter course with a total duration of 12 hours, it is an excellent and flexible option for teachers who want to learn this skill and can devote 3 hours once a week to the live webinar portion of the class.
Whether you are looking for a Moodle training for teachers' course or you are just intrigued by this forward-thinking educational platform, definitely consider checking out the Teaching with Moodle course to learn more about the benefits of this new and exciting platform.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this post is considered true and accurate as of the publication date. However, the accuracy of this information may be impacted by changes in circumstances that occur after the time of publication. Ashton College assumes no liability for any error or omissions in the information contained in this post or any other post in our blog.
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