Los 10 mitos de Moodle

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The top 10 list started life in a post by Josie Fraser, as part of the 2005-6 HUGToB campaign.

En el momento que Moodle sea estable, pasará a ser un producto bajo licencia propietaria. Si realmente fuera bueno, ya estarían cobrando por él.

Martin Dougiamas, por aquí, asegura que Moodle siempre será software libre y su desarrollo se hará bajo licencia GPL. Incluso en el caso de desaparecer, la comunidad podría tomar el último código desarrollado bajo GPL y continuar el desarrollo a partir de este punto. Una de las principales razones que hacen de Moodle un producto muy interesante es el carácter abierto de su código, por lo que toda la comunidad puede contribuir a su mejora.

No tiene objeto ni mirar Moodle a menos que haga mucho tiempo que usa php. Necesitará mucho apoyo técnico para hacerlo funcionar

Hay muchas instituciones que utilizan Moodle sin tener ni idea de php. No es necesario saber programar si sólo se quiere utilizar Moodle. De todas formas, PHP es un lenguaje bastante fácil y el código de Moodle está muy bien documentado, con lo que si quiere ayudar en el desarrollo, es senzillo de aprender.

También es justo decir que se necesita ciertos conocimientos técnicos para implementar su propio Moodle, pero eso se soluciona con un servidor, una base de datos SQL y algunos conocimientos para integrar sus propios scripts. Si lo que quiere es implementar su propio servidor, debe saber lo suficiente para hacerlo.

No necesita hospedar Moodle en nuestros servidores, aunque será bien recibido por nuestrosSocios Moodle quienes implementaran Moodle para usted en los mejores servidores de banda ancha. Moodle trabaja en cualquier servidor comercial.

Moodle won’t be compatible with our other systems/software

Moodle will run on Linux, Windows and Mac OS-X. It's compatible with a huge range of databases through ADODB integration. There's a whole host of authentication and enrolment mechanisms, including LDAP. Moodle will allow teachers to integrate content in a range of different formats, including SCORM, Flash, MP3s and RSS feeds. On el listado con la planificación del desarrollo de Moodle for future releases is a Web API which will allow easy integration with other web-based applications.

Finally, remember that this is open source software, with a well documented data and file structure. If Moodle's not compatible with a particular application at the moment, then you can pay a developer to code up that integration, or develop it in-house.

Moodle just doesn’t have the commercial experience we’re looking for

Check out the partners. Moodle is currently used by some big name corporate clients for in-house CPD.

You can’t just use Moodle out of the box – the basic Moodle install just isn’t that sophisticated

Have a look at la lista de características, all of which comes as standard. Additional themes, blocks and activities are easy to integrate and the vast majority are free, open source code too.

There’s no documentation, training or support available – you’re on your own

There's excellent documentation online, provided by the user and developer community. The Open University's Jason Cole has written an excellent introduction to Moodle for teachers, available as a proper book from O'Reilly.

Because teachers find the interface so intuitive, there's not as much need for training as for some commercial alternatives, and many institutions will be able to run this in-house. Some of the moodle.com partners also specialize in training.

High quality, timely support is available from the user and developer community in the Using Moodle course on moodle.org, some LAs and RBCs are happy supporting Moodle in their areas, and there are also commercial support contracts available from the moodle.com partners.

The total Cost of Ownership is actually higher for Moodle than it would be with a wholly commercial platform

Stop and think for a moment. With both Moodle and commercial platforms, you'll still need to pay for hosting, support, training and content, one way or another: with Moodle, more of these costs can be brought in-house, because the code's open source and Moodle's great at providing the tools teachers need to write online activities themselves, but that doesn't mean you have to.

The difference is that with Moodle, there are no licence fees to pay. None. The money you do spend can go back into making the software better, or remain within the educational community for the common good. None of it needs to go to meet shareholder dividends or pay back the venture capitalists. Furthermore, you're not exposed to the risks of commercial suppliers unilaterally increase their licence fees, or going out of business.

It's therefore not that surprising that when they examined the Total Cost of Ownership of open-source software on desktops in UK schools, government agency Becta found significant savings compared to commercial alternatives. The savings on support costs were particularly impressive. It's likely that these savings would have been greater still had they examined web-based applications like Moodle.

Moodle is just no good for an institution as large as mine

So, that would be one larger than the UK's Open University, with 180,000 students, yes? The OU has announced that they're moving to Moodle as their institutional VLE, and there are plenty of other grandes instalaciones officially using Moodle, and a good number of others where sections are.

Moodle is just not designed to cope with my specific group of learners or customers

Moodle's being used successfully from elementary education, including early years provision, up to higher education, in all subject areas including art, languages, the humanities and mathematics. It's also established itself in the world of life-long learning, teachers' CPD and corporate training.

We have all our stuff on *******, it’s just not worth the hassle of switching to Moodle

The switch may not be that much of a hassle, as Moodle will happily import content in a wide range of standard formats, including SCORM. There are an increasing number of Further and Higher Education institutions that are making the move.

Pedagogically, there's much to be gained from moving to a VLE which puts social, collaborative learning at the centre, and acknowledges the vital role that learners have to play, as well as providing teachers with the tools that they need to build effective on-line learning communities, rather than just presenting resources and activities.

From a financial perspective, the costs involved in switching to Moodle should be quickly recouped through savings in licence fees.