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Comparison of WebCT &Moodle Course Management
Systems (CMS)Presentation to M.Ed. Program
Helen Mongan-Rallis & Shelly McCauleyJugovich
March 22, 2007
Agenda• Background: what is a Course Management
System (CMS)?• Rationale to move to a CMS for M.Ed.• Factors that must be considered in the
decision• Reason for making decision now• Comparison of Moodle & WebCT:
– Similarities– Differences– Screen shots of some key features
• Input and vote
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Initial poll
• Who has used Moodle? WebCT?• Based on what you already know, if you make
a pre-assessment: which would you chooseright now for next year:– Stay same: Use WebX and Contribute– WebCT– Moodle
• What do you need to know to be able to makea choice by the end of this session today?
What is a CMS?
• Internet-based software for development,support & delivery of online courses
• A structured system or managing a collectionof online tools within one place (comparedwith UMD FacultETools, which is a suite ofseparate tools)
• Purpose is to facilitate online teaching &learning.
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Why Move to CMS for M.Ed.?• Outgrown what we have: WebX, Contribute
not designed to be CMS. So much more toonline teaching than can easily be done withthese & UMD suite of FacultETools.
• As faculty expand online teaching methods, &as we draw in new faculty:– Limited by current tools– Different faculty using different tools, in different
ways (confusing to students)• Need training on each tool (sometimes involves different
people to teach each)
• Schools & corporations are using CMS: needto prepare students in these (model)
Factors Influencing Decision• Must be something that ITSS & CEHSP Tech
can support (training, support of students &faculty)
• Must be appropriate for our methods ofteaching adults in using a model of criticalreflection within a learning community
• Must be easy for faculty & students to learnhow to use
• Must be accessible• Connection possible dial-up modem
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2 Choices: Moodle & WebCTMoodle• Social constructionist
design
• Moodle tools focus on:group work, collaboration,communication, sharing,activities, and criticalreflection, .. collaborativetype of learning.”
• Open Source
WebCT• Designed for teacher
directed/centereddelivery of content
• Especially geared forlower level courses,large classes
• Proprietary, vast userbase
• ePacks by textbooksdesigned for WebCT
Similarities: Both WebCT & Moodle• Supported by UMD• Student enrollment in
courses• Restricted access• Customization• Uploading files (e.g.
Word docs, PowerPoint,audio files)
• Linking to external websites (e.g. syllabus onfaculty member’s site;UMD library)
• Zip course & provide onCD to students
• Discussion forum• Synchronous chat
Quizzes, tests• Drop box• Course calendar• Grades• Monitoring student
participation• Copy course over from
semester• Customized template
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Differences in Key Features
Bandwidth hog: slow toload, times out
All features work ondial-up
Bandwidth
Costly to UM (not educ)FreeCost
Whiteboard & handsraised in chat; Wimba foraudio discussion; one-on-one in group
Blog, wiki, journal,glossary, workshop(Wimba coming soon),RSS feed
Tools
See posts one at time;not nested
Photos, nested threadsDiscussion
Not as intuitive becausemany components; needto configure initially
Can use w/o manual ortraining; noconfiguration
Learning curve
WebCTMoodleFeature
Differences (continued)
Many textbookcompanies provide forWebCT
Relatively new, but notcommon
E-Packs
Quizzes & tests; canbuild in tests using othertools (e.g. UM trainings)
Quizzes & tests; Voteoption; tests built intolesson
Quizzes
Time student spent oneach page
Chart comparingstudents; # visits perpage
User Statistics
Need to request changefrom WebCT (may nothappen or happenquickly)
Open source (so canchange locally (TwinCities) on demand by ITprogrammer)
Customization
WebCTMoodleFeatures
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Initial Interface
Moodle WebCT
The initial interface can be customizeddifferently in each system, but the above isthe standard type of layout
Moodle Interface: Student ViewCalendar w/ courseevents highlighted
Grades, Edit Profile
Interface set up in form ofcourse schedule so that thereis one “block” per class: withinthis instructor has createdlinks to different activities &assignments
First block includes links tocourse resource pages e.g.syllabus, instructor homepage.
Links to groups ofactivities (e.g. linkto assignmentsshows all on onepage)
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Web CT Interface: Student view
WebCT Training course
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Discussion forum
Q & A forum: can setso that in order tosee others’responses, you mustfirst post your answer
Moodle WebCT
Moodle
WebCT Discussion forumAlthough the list ofposts is shown,only one post canbe seen at a time(so you can’t seethe content of theoriginal post).
A way around this is to clickon the button to displaycomplete thread, but then the“threads” are lost (unlikeindents in Moodle)
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Moodle discussion forumVery similar toWebX:
• photo (or avatar)of participant nextto post
•Entire discussioncan be read (allposts visible), withindents to showthreads/nestedview
Settings for Moodle Forum
Many options forforum settingsincluding:
•RSS feed
•Subscribing
•Rating of postsby everyone orjust instructor
•groups
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Email Digest of MoodleDiscussion Forum
• As can be done in WebX,Moodle users can subscribeto forums --> these are sentto you as email.
• You can read the posts inyour email without having togo to Moodle
• If you wish to reply, clickingon the Moodle “reply” linkwill take you to that exactpost within the Moodleforum.
Chat (synchronous)
Moodle chat has basic text chatfunctions, plus photos/avatars;also can save chat transcript forlater viewing
WebCT chat hasbasics plus: whiteboard, raise hand,view & print chatlog.
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Moodle Choices (like onlineclickers)
Moodle Glossaries• Students participate in a course by
researching ideas and defining them ina common glossary
• Glossary items can be grouped incategories.
• Participants can comment on glossaryentries.
• Entries can be rated using teacher-defined scales.
• Glossaries can be easily exported andimported via xml.
• Student entries can be previewed byinstructors before publishing.
• Glossaries can be fully searched.• Glossaries can be viewed with different
display formats.
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GradesBoth have built-in gradebooks (this isMoodle’s)
Moodle Online Reports
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Resources
• Moodle:– UMD Faculty information:
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/etrg/moodle/FacultyInformation.html
• WebCT:– http://webct.umn.edu/