Welcome to the Moodle Learning Community
New Learning Management System
California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) has elected to use Moodle, an open source Learning Management System (LMS). Moodle was selected as the best option for our teaching and learning needs at CSULA after evaluation of functionality and costs. There are now 10 CSU campuses using or migrating to Moodle. Cal State Fullerton is hosting CSULA’s Moodle to minimize infrastructure overhead.What is Moodle?
The word Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment which doesn't mean much to most people. The important thing to understand is that Moodle provides faculty and students an online presence for their courses. It is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS), that helps people to create and participate in quality online courses.
Moodle Pilot
CSULA has begun piloting Moodle 2.1 during the fall 2011 quarter. The Moodle pilot is intended to ease the transition of moving CSULA’s Learning Management System from Blackboard to Moodle during the 2011-2012 academic year.The advantages of our Moodle pilot allows:
- faculty the opportunity to begin building their courses in the new Moodle LMS to prepare for the complete implementation of Moodle during the summer quarter 2012
- the Moodle support team to determine student and faculty needs and to provide training and support
- csula to address system performance issues pertaining to Moodle before completing the pilot phase
Timeline
During the 2011-2012 academic year, CSULA will be using Blackboard and Moodle simultaneously. This overlap will allow students, faculty, staff, and administrators time to phase out Blackboard and begin rebuilding courses using Moodle. Moodle 2.1 is currently available to all faculty during the pilot phase.Please note that the last academic term for Blackboard will be spring 2012. Beginning July 1, 2012, ALL courses will be taught on the Moodle Learning Management System.
| Timeline | Blackboard | Moodle 2.1 |
| Spring 2011 | Full Blackboard Support | Moodle Pre-Pilot |
| Fall 2011 - Spring 2012 | *Phasing Out Blackboard | Moodle Pilot |
| Summer 2012 (07/01/11) | Blackboard Discontinued | Complete Moodle Implementation |
*Phasing out = No upgrades, limited support
Moodle Training
Training and development opportunities will begin fall 2011 and will increase as we approach full Moodle launch. Support options include workshops, online resources, as well as one-on-on support. All opportunities and news will be communicated through campus CETL’s website, campus emails, and CETL lab’s Moodle website http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/aa/cetl/cetlmoodle_training.phpFaculty Support to Rebuild Courses
Currently, Blackboard course material cannot be automatically migrated into Moodle. However, this will give faculty the opportunity to rebuild their courses by taking advantage of Moodle’s social features and to rethink the way course material is delivered. Changing to Moodle provides faculty the opportunity to reconstruct their courses to transform students from passive learners to active producers of knowledge by enhancing critical thinking, cooperative collaboration, and communication skills. We hope that faculty will attend future Moodle workshops to learn about Moodle’s features and how to best apply its uses in the classroom.Moodle: Quality Online Teaching and Learning (QOLT) Call for Participation
CSU Learning Management Systems Services is sponsoring a Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT) program to recognize exemplary teaching and learning efforts using Moodle Five awardees will be featured on the Moodle website and sent to CSU for a system-wide collection of exemplar online courses. The top three will be featured at a presentation at the 2012 West Coast Conference Moodle Moot in Woodland Hills, CA.
For more information, please go to the QOLT website:
http://sites.google.com/site/csulmssproject/qolt-home/call-for-participation
http://sites.google.com/site/csulmssproject/qolt-home/survey