History: Difference between revisions
Mary Cooch (talk | contribs) (just adding some text to get the page started) |
Mary Cooch (talk | contribs) (first draft - needs links adding and condensing) |
||
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
Moodle | Growing up in the Australian outback in the late 1970's Moodle's Founder and Lead Developer Martin Dougiamas took lessons from the school of the air, giving him from an early age an insight into distance learning. | ||
As an adult, he worked and later studied at Curtin University, where his experience with WebCT prompted him to investigate an alternative method of online teaching. In 1999 he started trialling early prototypes of an LMS later to be known as Moodle, the experiences of which formed the basis for his paper [https://otl.curtin.edu.au/professional_development/conferences/tlf/tlf2000/dougiamas.html Improving the Effectiveness of online Learning] and registered the word Moodle was registered as a [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/License trademark of the Moodle Trust.] | |||
Research continued: the first ever Moodle site was Peter Taylor's http://smec2001.moodle.com/ at Curtin University , with Martin making the first post on his community Moodle site in November 2001. The pair published [http://dougiamas.com/writing/herdsa2002/ An Interpretive analysis of an internet based course constructed using a new courseware tool called Moodle.] | |||
By the end of 2001, Moodle could be downloaded via CVS (Git arrived in 2010 and replaced CVS in 2013) and basic installation documentation was available. It was still very much one man's vision with Martin setting up the tracker in May 2002 "so you can see what I am working on" | |||
Moodle 1 was released in August 2002. Users were discussing Moodle on a new forum, translating Moodle into different languages and creating themes. A year later, the first contributed module (workshop) was released and [https://moodle.org/ Moodle.org] became the community arm of Moodle with [https://moodle.com Moodle.com] representing the commercial aspect. | |||
Moodle grew quickly: the first ever Moodle Moot was held in Oxford in 2004 and companies started applying to become Moodle partners . 2005 marked the move to dedicated premises with Martin and 3 others; the current HQ, at Lord Street, houses 16 with 11 working remotely. | |||
With improved documentation and new certification , Moodle had established itself by 2007 as leading and award-winning open source LMS. From 1000 registered sites in 2004 it had gone to half a million in 2008 and over a milllion in 2010, with over 50 Moodle partners. The long awaited Moodle 2.0 came out in November 2010 and now , regular releases bring enhanced features every six months. The current focus is on mobile technology; an official mobile app was released in 2013 and the latest version of Moodle 2.5 includes a customisable theme suitable for all screensizes. | |||
Yet despite the technology Moodle is still a learning tool and the inauguration of the [http://research.moodle.net/ Moodle Research conference] in 2012 reflected that. Educators everywhere are encourage to share their experiences, just as did Martin over a decade previously. | |||
Revision as of 10:39, 21 May 2013
Note: This article is a work in progress. Please use the page comments or an appropriate moodle.org forum for any recommendations/suggestions for improvement.
History
Growing up in the Australian outback in the late 1970's Moodle's Founder and Lead Developer Martin Dougiamas took lessons from the school of the air, giving him from an early age an insight into distance learning.
As an adult, he worked and later studied at Curtin University, where his experience with WebCT prompted him to investigate an alternative method of online teaching. In 1999 he started trialling early prototypes of an LMS later to be known as Moodle, the experiences of which formed the basis for his paper Improving the Effectiveness of online Learning and registered the word Moodle was registered as a trademark of the Moodle Trust.
Research continued: the first ever Moodle site was Peter Taylor's http://smec2001.moodle.com/ at Curtin University , with Martin making the first post on his community Moodle site in November 2001. The pair published An Interpretive analysis of an internet based course constructed using a new courseware tool called Moodle.
By the end of 2001, Moodle could be downloaded via CVS (Git arrived in 2010 and replaced CVS in 2013) and basic installation documentation was available. It was still very much one man's vision with Martin setting up the tracker in May 2002 "so you can see what I am working on"
Moodle 1 was released in August 2002. Users were discussing Moodle on a new forum, translating Moodle into different languages and creating themes. A year later, the first contributed module (workshop) was released and Moodle.org became the community arm of Moodle with Moodle.com representing the commercial aspect.
Moodle grew quickly: the first ever Moodle Moot was held in Oxford in 2004 and companies started applying to become Moodle partners . 2005 marked the move to dedicated premises with Martin and 3 others; the current HQ, at Lord Street, houses 16 with 11 working remotely.
With improved documentation and new certification , Moodle had established itself by 2007 as leading and award-winning open source LMS. From 1000 registered sites in 2004 it had gone to half a million in 2008 and over a milllion in 2010, with over 50 Moodle partners. The long awaited Moodle 2.0 came out in November 2010 and now , regular releases bring enhanced features every six months. The current focus is on mobile technology; an official mobile app was released in 2013 and the latest version of Moodle 2.5 includes a customisable theme suitable for all screensizes.
Yet despite the technology Moodle is still a learning tool and the inauguration of the Moodle Research conference in 2012 reflected that. Educators everywhere are encourage to share their experiences, just as did Martin over a decade previously.
