Features

• Supports a social constructionist pedagogy (collaboration, activities, critical reflection, etc)
• Suitable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning
• Simple, lightweight, browser-compatible interface
• Plug-in "themes" allow you to customise the colours, fonts, layout etc
• Easy to install on most platforms
• Easy administration - students can create their own accounts. Email addresses are verified.
• One account works for the whole server
• 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
• Students are encouraged to build an online profile including photos, description etc
• Every user can specify their own timezone, and every date in Moodle is translated to that timezone (eg posting dates, assignment due dates etc)
• Choice of course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focussed social format
• Flexible array of course modules - Forums, Journals, Readings, Choices, Surveys, Assignments.
• New modules can be written and plugged in to existing Moodle installations
• The code is clearly-written PHP under a GPL license - easy to modify and localise
• Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database (except for initial table definition)
• Ready for internationalisation - supports plug-in languages and locale-based date formats etc
• Mail integration - copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed in HTML or plain text.
• Recent changes to the course since the last login are displayed on the course home page
• 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.

• Different types of forums are available, such as teacher-only, course news, open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user.
• All postings have the authors photo attached.
• Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.
• Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person so that copies are forwarded via email, or the teacher can force subscription for all

• Built-in surveys (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analysing online classes
• Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.
• Survey interface prevents partly-finished surveys.
• Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages

• Supports display of any electronic content
• Files can be uploaded and managed on the server, or created on the fly using web forms (text or HTML)
• External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course interface.

• Like a poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback from every student (eg research consent)

• Journals are private between student and teacher.
• Each journal entry can be directed by an open question.
• For each particular journal entry, the whole class can be assessed on one page in one form.
• Teacher feedback is appended to the journal entry page, and notification is mailed out.

• Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.
• Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server - they are date-stamped.
• Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the teacher
• For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and comment) on one page in one form.
• Teacher feedback is appended to the assignment page for each student, and notification is mailed out.

Moodle Documentation

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