1

Comparison of WebCT &Moodle Course Management

Systems (CMS)Presentation to M.Ed. Program

Helen Mongan-Rallis & Shelly McCauleyJugovich

March 22, 2007

Agenda• Background: what is a Course Management

System (CMS)?• Rationale to move to a CMS for M.Ed.• Factors that must be considered in the

decision• Reason for making decision now• Comparison of Moodle & WebCT:

– Similarities– Differences– Screen shots of some key features

• Input and vote

2

Initial poll

• Who has used Moodle? WebCT?• Based on what you already know, if you make

a pre-assessment: which would you chooseright now for next year:– Stay same: Use WebX and Contribute– WebCT– Moodle

• What do you need to know to be able to makea choice by the end of this session today?

What is a CMS?

• Internet-based software for development,support & delivery of online courses

• A structured system or managing a collectionof online tools within one place (comparedwith UMD FacultETools, which is a suite ofseparate tools)

• Purpose is to facilitate online teaching &learning.

3

Why Move to CMS for M.Ed.?• Outgrown what we have: WebX, Contribute

not designed to be CMS. So much more toonline teaching than can easily be done withthese & UMD suite of FacultETools.

• As faculty expand online teaching methods, &as we draw in new faculty:– Limited by current tools– Different faculty using different tools, in different

ways (confusing to students)• Need training on each tool (sometimes involves different

people to teach each)

• Schools & corporations are using CMS: needto prepare students in these (model)

Factors Influencing Decision• Must be something that ITSS & CEHSP Tech

can support (training, support of students &faculty)

• Must be appropriate for our methods ofteaching adults in using a model of criticalreflection within a learning community

• Must be easy for faculty & students to learnhow to use

• Must be accessible• Connection possible dial-up modem

4

2 Choices: Moodle & WebCTMoodle• Social constructionist

design

• Moodle tools focus on:group work, collaboration,communication, sharing,activities, and criticalreflection, .. collaborativetype of learning.”

• Open Source

WebCT• Designed for teacher

directed/centereddelivery of content

• Especially geared forlower level courses,large classes

• Proprietary, vast userbase

• ePacks by textbooksdesigned for WebCT

Similarities: Both WebCT & Moodle• Supported by UMD• Student enrollment in

courses• Restricted access• Customization• Uploading files (e.g.

Word docs, PowerPoint,audio files)

• Linking to external websites (e.g. syllabus onfaculty member’s site;UMD library)

• Zip course & provide onCD to students

• Discussion forum• Synchronous chat

Quizzes, tests• Drop box• Course calendar• Grades• Monitoring student

participation• Copy course over from

semester• Customized template

5

Differences in Key Features

Bandwidth hog: slow toload, times out

All features work ondial-up

Bandwidth

Costly to UM (not educ)FreeCost

Whiteboard & handsraised in chat; Wimba foraudio discussion; one-on-one in group

Blog, wiki, journal,glossary, workshop(Wimba coming soon),RSS feed

Tools

See posts one at time;not nested

Photos, nested threadsDiscussion

Not as intuitive becausemany components; needto configure initially

Can use w/o manual ortraining; noconfiguration

Learning curve

WebCTMoodleFeature

Differences (continued)

Many textbookcompanies provide forWebCT

Relatively new, but notcommon

E-Packs

Quizzes & tests; canbuild in tests using othertools (e.g. UM trainings)

Quizzes & tests; Voteoption; tests built intolesson

Quizzes

Time student spent oneach page

Chart comparingstudents; # visits perpage

User Statistics

Need to request changefrom WebCT (may nothappen or happenquickly)

Open source (so canchange locally (TwinCities) on demand by ITprogrammer)

Customization

WebCTMoodleFeatures

6

Initial Interface

Moodle WebCT

The initial interface can be customizeddifferently in each system, but the above isthe standard type of layout

Moodle Interface: Student ViewCalendar w/ courseevents highlighted

Grades, Edit Profile

Interface set up in form ofcourse schedule so that thereis one “block” per class: withinthis instructor has createdlinks to different activities &assignments

First block includes links tocourse resource pages e.g.syllabus, instructor homepage.

Links to groups ofactivities (e.g. linkto assignmentsshows all on onepage)

7

Web CT Interface: Student view

WebCT Training course

8

Discussion forum

Q & A forum: can setso that in order tosee others’responses, you mustfirst post your answer

Moodle WebCT

Moodle

WebCT Discussion forumAlthough the list ofposts is shown,only one post canbe seen at a time(so you can’t seethe content of theoriginal post).

A way around this is to clickon the button to displaycomplete thread, but then the“threads” are lost (unlikeindents in Moodle)

9

Moodle discussion forumVery similar toWebX:

• photo (or avatar)of participant nextto post

•Entire discussioncan be read (allposts visible), withindents to showthreads/nestedview

Settings for Moodle Forum

Many options forforum settingsincluding:

•RSS feed

•Subscribing

•Rating of postsby everyone orjust instructor

•groups

10

Email Digest of MoodleDiscussion Forum

• As can be done in WebX,Moodle users can subscribeto forums --> these are sentto you as email.

• You can read the posts inyour email without having togo to Moodle

• If you wish to reply, clickingon the Moodle “reply” linkwill take you to that exactpost within the Moodleforum.

Chat (synchronous)

Moodle chat has basic text chatfunctions, plus photos/avatars;also can save chat transcript forlater viewing

WebCT chat hasbasics plus: whiteboard, raise hand,view & print chatlog.

11

Moodle Choices (like onlineclickers)

Moodle Glossaries• Students participate in a course by

researching ideas and defining them ina common glossary

• Glossary items can be grouped incategories.

• Participants can comment on glossaryentries.

• Entries can be rated using teacher-defined scales.

• Glossaries can be easily exported andimported via xml.

• Student entries can be previewed byinstructors before publishing.

• Glossaries can be fully searched.• Glossaries can be viewed with different

display formats.

12

GradesBoth have built-in gradebooks (this isMoodle’s)

Moodle Online Reports

13

Resources

• Moodle:– UMD Faculty information:

http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/etrg/moodle/FacultyInformation.html

• WebCT:– http://webct.umn.edu/