MoodleNet whitepaper

<< Back to MoodleNet index

---

Introduction

To ensure the aims and objectives of MoodleNet are understood by all parts of the Moodle community, we are putting together a white paper that will serve as a touchstone as the project develops.

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. (Wikipedia)

The intended audience for this white paper includes, but is not limited to: developers, educators, analysts, site administrators, and instructional designers. It will be written by Doug Belshaw, MoodleNet Lead, with input from staff at HQ as well as community members.

Access the latest version of the whitepaper on Google Docs

White paper

Overview

Project MoodleNet is described by Martin Dougiamas, Founder and CEO of Moodle as, "a new open social media platform for educators, focused on professional development and open content". It will be an integral part of the Moodle ecosystem.

To ensure the aims and objectives of Project MoodleNet are understood by all parts of the Moodle community, this white paper will serve as a touchstone as the project develops.

“A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.” (Wikipedia)

The primary audience for this white paper is the educators for whom Project MoodleNet is intended to help empower. It will also be of interest to content authors, instructional designers, learners, site administrators, analysts and developers. It is being put together by Doug Belshaw, Project MoodleNet Lead, with input from staff at HQ as well as community members.

Project MoodleNet: the what and the why

Introduction

Moodle is an award-winning international open source software project best known for a powerful online learning platform used by schools, higher education institutions and workplaces globally. The Moodle learning platform allows educators of any kind to create a private space online, filled with tools that easily creates courses and activities - all optimised for collaborative learning.

Moodle’s products are used by well-known organisations such as Cisco, The United Nations, and The Open University. They are also used in countless schools and smaller institutions who value the power and flexibility of open source software. Moodle’s products are managed by a dedicated team at Moodle HQ and international team members around the world. As an open source project it is supported by a strong global community of users and certified Partners.

Every instance of Moodle is a fully-featured, standalone learning platform. To date, the only Moodle-provided way for educators and other users to share content has been within their installation, backing up and importing activities, or by sharing entire courses. This white paper envisages ‘Project MoodleNet’, an upgrade to the latter connecting educators via a Moodle-provided open social media platform which focuses on professional development and open content.

This white paper is a non-technical introduction to Project MoodleNet, setting out the ‘why’ of the project: why it is needed, why it will be useful, and why it will be different from current systems used by educators.

Scenarios

To situate Project MoodleNet we will introduce some scenarios in which it might be used. The following personas are based on real users of Moodle and represent a variety of contexts for Project MoodleNet. We will revisit these scenarios towards the end of this white paper to demonstrate the value it may bring.

Scenario A: Teacher (K12)

Estrella is an Spanish educator living in Madrid who is new to Moodle. She’s 32, teaches at a local ESO (secondary) school, and leads a busy life. Although she has experience in using tools with more basic functionality, she needs to get up-to-speed with the wealth of options and features available in Moodle. Estrella needs to get her classes ready for the new year, and has become frustrated that she can find neither the resources she needs, nor quick answers to questions she has about setting up courses.

Scenario B: Lecturer (university)

Takeshi is a 37 year-old Japanese educator living in Kyoto who has been using Moodle for three years. During this time, he has collaborated with two other colleagues at his university to create course content. Takeshi has a strong desire to author educational content collaboratively with other members of the wider Moodle community and then share that content under an open license. This is both because he believes in the value of this to society and his profession, but also because he is looking to build his career and sees this as positive way of bringing attention to his work.

Scenario C: Trainer (workplace)

Bohdan is a naturalised Canadian trainer living in Vancouver and working for a large company who has an in-house elearning programme which makes use of Moodle. He’s 41 years of age and is new to Moodle, but experienced with other learning platforms. Bohdan seeks new innovative ways to enhance learning with Moodle tools and has found a small group of colleagues in the UK and India with whom he interacts via Twitter. Ideally, he’d like to extend and enhance this network in a way that wasn’t quite so public.

Scenario D: Learning Technologist (college)

Seung is a 26 year-old Australian who is a Learning Technologist at a college in Melbourne. She is motivated to help her colleagues use Moodle more effectively, and wants to connect with other Learning Technologists to discover promising practices in this area. Seung feels a little isolated, although she has found some contacts via the Moodle forums and LinkedIn. Ideally, she would like to have a strong network of peers who are in a similar position to her in other institutions.

Scenario E: Teaching Assistant (K12)

Lúcio is a Teaching Assistant with no technical background. He’s 21, and lives in Manaus, Brazil. Lúcio has been asked to help provide support to students on his school’s Moodle Cloud site and so needs to get up-to-speed on moderation and other features. He has scoured the Moodle discussion forums and read as much as he can, but he has only a basic grasp of English so could do with a helping hand. Lúcio’s school is poorly-funded, and he is not sure where to turn or what to do next.

Scenario F: Programme Co-ordinator (university)

Ammaarah is a 52 year-old Programme Co-ordinator living in Soweto, South Africa and working in a university. She has a deep experience of Moodle and other open source software projects. Over the years, Ammaarah has created and sustained a successful local Moodle Hub which takes up much of her time. She has a vision of connecting her localised Moodle Hub to a worldwide resource sharing network for two-way resource discovery, but never quite has the time to figure out how to do this. Ammaarah is keen to reduce the burden of administration and custom development for both herself and her team, but does not want to compromise on her vision.