eLearning Platform acclaim
Moodle makes it to the top. The Open University, that bastion of distance learning, has decided to use Moodle as its online presence. Read the press release.
This is a great move for the OU, and a highly prestigious one for Moodle. Having used the OU’s “First Class” system I know what a difficult pig it was. For me it was little more than a document repository with a few forums and discussions, but had little else to commend it. It is likely OU is going to see a great advance in the quality and usability of their online courses.
What I really like is that this is the same Moodle that I used to use in school four years ago. The same tools built on educationally-sound principles of social constructivism can be applied to university-level education as much as they can to secondary school, or wherever. It is my opinion that the majority of pupils will respond well to any learning situation that they can take ownership of, that they can participate in at their own llevel yet extend themselves through collaboration with their tutors and their peers. The use of a good learning / teaching tool like Moodle is only part of the mix, but a part that has not been available in traditional education and now appeals to the “Fast twitch” generation particularly because of the rich and varied means of content delivery.