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. Any faculty
member who wishes to participate in the pilot may do so by requesting a course.
http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/aa/moodle/request
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/ess/elps/elpsmoodle_training_faculty.php
Faculty 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.