moodle venture analysis

Venture Analysis

MET ETEC 522 Catherine Ranson

Open-source Learning Management System(LMS)

Design

Moodle is a software package for producing internet-based courses and websites.

Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software under the General Public License – meaning it is copyrighted but the user has additional freedoms.

It is a global development project designed to support a “social constructionist” framework of

education

Founded by

Martin Dougiamas

Moodle Founder and Lead DeveloperDirector of Moodle Pty Ltd

Credentials:

Computer Science DegreeMaster in EducationPhD

TeamMostly Australian team of more than 20 developers who are directly funded by the Moodle project to work full-time on core developments.

LocationMOODLE HEADQUARTERSMoodle HQ is the name most people use for Moodle Pty Ltd – the main company behind the Moodle project

Cost There is No Cost to:

install, use or change LMSno royalties, fees or user charges

There is Cost Associated with:

A company or organization hosting the software programMaintenance, tech support and training fees/programs

Moodle Market Share

Largest and Widely Deployed LMS in the World

August 2011Moodle has a user-base of 55,110 registered sites

44,966,541 users in 4,763,446 courses in 214 countries

There are 69,134 currently active sites that have registered from 222 countries.

Growth

Sustainability

Business Model

54 Partner Companies

Use Moodle TrademarkProvide Certification, Technology Support and

Training Programs as services

Pay 10% Royalties of Gross Sales to Moodle.org

Company Development

Launched Company in 1999

First version of Moodle released August 2002

Current updated version released in December 2011 – 2.2

Translated into 82 different languages

Who uses Moodle?

• Government Departments

• Healthcare organizations

• Military organizations• Airlines• Oil companies

• Universities • High schools • Primary schools• Homeschoolers• Independent

Educators• Special Educators

CompatibilityMoodle can be installed on any computer that can run PHP, and can support an SQL type database (for example MySQL).

Certified Service Providers Worldwide to assist with implementation of Moodle.

A Moodle Partner belongs to a group of service companies guided by the core developers of Moodle. They provide a range of

optional commercial services for Moodle users, including fully-serviced Moodle hosting, remote support contracts, custom code

development and consulting.

Licensed by Moodle.org.

These companies often have their own developers and may contribute to Moodle directly by working on core code or by

creating plugins.

Moodle Partner Sites

Who is the Competition

http://www.blackboard.com/

http://www.efrontlearning.net/

http://www.designtolearn.com/

Road Map

Plans to release a new version

Community of Users, developers and Administrators are continuously providing feedback and strategies

for improvement and advancement

The company supports a sustainable business model, has proven market share and continues to grow in

revenue

New Business

Moodle MobileAs of July 11, 2012, Moodle is developing Moodle Mobile on HTML5 and Phonegap.

It is planned to be released at the end of 2012

Reflective Comments

Students will have the option of using their own personal devices, such as laptops, tablets and smart phones, all compatible with Moodle software.

Moodle supports design templates that are divided into two categories: “resources” and “activities”.

Resources are external sites where information can be uploaded to the site, such as PowerPoint, Word documents, Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary feeds (RSS feeds).

Activity pages capture student participation through assignments, quizzes, discussion forums, real time chat, wikis, e-mail, and messaging, audio, and social networking capabilities

Discussion forums and other collaborative tools offered through Moodle will replace the hard copy of reflective journals and case reports that the students currently complete. Students can use the e-portfolio tool to build a repository of skills and experiences.

Personal Experience

I recently developed a pilot project course using Moodle to be implemented into the clinical course in my program. This platform supports a collaborative learning community that promotes reflective practice, critical thinking and decision-making skills as they relate to patient care. Moodle has the capabilities to support a virtual learning community that will promote constructive learning activities; opportunities for reflective practice, collaborative learning, and social networking plug-ins.

The integration of Moodle will support principles of good teaching practice for undergraduate education; it will improve contact between students and faculty, offer active learning

techniques, and provide students with prompt feedback, emphasize timelines for completion of

work, communicate expectations around learning and respect diverse learning styles.

(Chickering & Gamson, 1987)

References Moodle.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle https://moodle.org/Moodle.org http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-100-tools/best-of-breed-tools-2012/ http://c4lpt.co.uk/ http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-100-tools-2012/ http://www.netspot.com.au/

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.