<LI>The code is clearly-written PHP under a GPL license - easy to modify to
suit your needs</LI>
</UL>
<p><strong>User management</strong></p>
<UL>
<LI>Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum, while retaining high
security</LI>
<LI>Supports a range of authentication mechanisms through plug-in authentication
modules, allowing easy integration with existing systems.</LI>
<LI>Standard email method: students can create their own login accounts. Email
addresses are verified by confirmation.</LI>
<LI>LDAP method: account logins can be checked against an LDAP server. Admin
can specify which fields to use.</LI>
<LI>IMAP, POP3, NNTP: account logins are checked against a mail or news server.
SSL, certificates and TLS are supported.</LI>
<LI>External database: any database containing at least two fields can be used
as an external authentication source.</LI>
<LI>Each person requires only one account for the whole server - each account
can have different access</LI>
<LI>An admin account controls the creation of courses and creates teachers by
assigning users to courses</LI>
<LI>Security - teachers can add an "enrolment key" to their courses to keep
out non-students. They can give out this key face-to-face or via personal
email etc</LI>
<LI>Teachers can unenrol students manually if desired, otherwise they are automatically
unenrolled after a certain period of inactivity (set by the admin)</LI>
<LI>Students are encouraged to build an online profile including photos, description.
Email addresses can be protected from display if required.</LI>
<LI>Every user can specify their own timezone, and every date in Moodle is translated
to that timezone (eg posting dates, assignment due dates etc)</LI>
<LI>Every user can choose the language used for the Moodle interface (English,
French, German, Spanish, Portuguese etc)</LI>
</UL>
<p><strong>Course management</strong></p>
<UL>
<LI>Teacher has full control over all settings for a course</LI>
<LI>Choice of course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focussed
social format</LI>
<LI>Flexible array of course activities - Forums, Journals, Quizzes, Resources,
Choices, Surveys, Assignments.</LI>
<LI>Recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on the
course home page - helps give sense of community</LI>
<LI>Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings, journal entries etc) can
be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor</LI>
<LI>All grades for Forums, Journals, Quizzes and Assignments can be viewed on
one page (and downloaded as a spreadsheet file)</LI>
<LI>Full user logging and tracking - activity reports for each student are available
with graphs and details about each module (last access, number of times read)
as well as a detailed "story" of each students involvement including postings,
journal entries etc on one page.</LI>
<LI>Mail integration - copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed
in HTML or plain text.</LI>
</UL>
<B>Assignment Module</B>
<UL>
<LI>Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.</LI>
<LI>Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server -
they are date-stamped.</LI>
<LI>Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly
to the teacher</LI>
<LI>For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and
comment) on one page in one form.</LI>
<LI>Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student, and
notification is mailed out.</LI>
<LI>The teacher can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading
(for regrading)</LI>
</UL>
<P><B>Choice Module</B></P>
<UL>
<LI>Like a poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback
from every student (eg research consent)</LI>
<LI>Teacher sees intuitive table view of who chose what</LI>
</UL>
<P><B>Forum Module</B></P>
<UL>
<LI>Different types of forums are available, such as teacher-only, course news,
open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user.</LI>
<LI>All postings have the authors photo attached.</LI>
<LI>Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.</LI>
<LI>Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person so that copies are
forwarded via email, or the teacher can force subscription for all</LI>
<LI>The teacher can choose not to allow replies (eg for an announcements-only
forum)</LI>
</UL>
<B>Journal Module</B>
<UL>
<LI>Journals are private between student and teacher.</LI>
<LI>Each journal entry can be directed by an open question.</LI>
<LI>For each particular journal entry, the whole class can be assessed on one
page in one form</LI>
<LI>Teacher feedback is appended to the journal entry page, and notification
is mailed out.</LI>
</UL>
<P><B>Quiz Module</B></P>
<UL>
<LI>Teachers can define a database of questions for re-use in different quizzes</LI>
<LI>Quizzes are automatically graded, and can be re-graded if questions are
modified </LI>
<LI>Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available</LI>
<LI>At the teacher's option, quizzes can be attempted multiple times, and can
show feedback and/or correct answers</LI>
<LI>Questions allow HTML and images</LI>
<LI>Multiple-choice questions supporting single or multiple answers</LI>
<LI>Short Answer questions (words or phrases)</LI>
<LI>True-False questions </LI>
</UL>
<P><B>Resource Module</B></P>
<UL>
<LI>Supports display of any electronic content</LI>
<LI>Files can be uploaded and managed on the server, or created on the fly using
web forms (text or HTML)</LI>
<LI>External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within
the course interface.</LI>
</UL>
<B>Survey Module</B>
<UL><LI>Built-in surveys (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analysing online classes</LI><LI>Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.</LI><LI>Survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.</LI><LI>Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages</UL>
