I am relatively new to Moodle. I've played with it a few times over the last couple of years, but I'm more familiar with Angel, and I am using Blackboard extensively now as part of my work as a course designer.
There are several things that I really don't like about Moodle. One is the fact that it does not allow the learner to easily move from one page of content to the next. Angel pages include NEXT and PREVIOUS buttons that lead the user naturally from one page of content to the next, making it easier to create a lesson that guides the student from one activity to the next, much like a textbook. Angel also includes an outline view like the structure in Moodle, so students can easily jump to specific content if they wish.
Another fault with Moodle is the fact that a rubric cannot be assigned to a discussion forum. Rubrics are a great tool for both the student and the instructor, because they can be used to let the student know what the expectations are and make choices about which parts of an assignment are more important than others. For instructors, it streamlines the grading process, allowing the instructor to focus on one aspect of the assignment at a time, using a more objective system to grade assignments more consistently. Moodle does support rubrics for some assignments, so it would make sense to include them with discussion boards. The workaround I found was to create an assignment that is used solely to grade the discussion boards.
One of the major drawbacks to the online platforms I am familiar with is the fact that it is hard to present content as anything other than a page of text. External content can be linked into the course, but that requires the use of tools that are not native to the LMS. Not only does this make it more difficult to create content for a course, but it also makes it harder to maintain the content over time.
I believe that in another two or three years more interactive learning tools will be incorporated into online learning systems. The goal should be to have a course that replaces a traditional textbook but which is more interactive than ebooks as they exist today. I know that publishers are trying to create tools like this that can be embedded into an LMS, and I have used a few of these tools in the past. Some of these tools are good and cannot easily be replicated by an instructor or course designer, but they increase the cost of the course to the student. Incorporating social media tools into the content would also allow students to interact with each other more spontaneously than the current discussion boards and wikis do.
My goal is to create a course that allows students to access the content easily from any device, regardless of size, something that no LMS I am familiar with has been able to achieve. While I do not think that full-sized computers will not disappear completely, I think it could be useful if a student can load up the instructional content into a handheld device, allowing them to access that content from anywhere. They can read and work with the material wherever they happen to be, including waiting in a doctor's office or carpool like, or while commuting to and from work. After going through the content, a more traditional computer can be used to complete and submit assignments.
Eventually, what we now consider online learning will be the standard method to access learning content, replacing printed books. Classrooms will become centers that allow students to discuss the material they have learned outside of the classroom, with less reliance on lectures and formal instruction. Instructors will become content specialists who act as a repository for information about the subject as well as a guide to lead students through the learning process.
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