Moodle is an online platform for distance learning, a learning management system. In it, it is possible to provide courses, classes and all kinds of online training. MOODLE is the acronym for “Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment” object-oriented modular learning environment.

Technology has allowed advancement in many areas of our lives. Online, you can access basically every type of service.

Food, transport, virtual stores… education has also found its space in the virtual environment. Today, Moodle is the main platform for online teaching . It is used by educational institutions, large companies and even NGOs.

However, there are still some doubts about this platform: what is Moodle and how does it work? What are its features, modules and how to host?

These are questions that we will address from now on.

Good reading!

What is Moodle?

Moodle, an online platform, is a software package aimed at producing courses and websites on the internet.

It is free software that can be used, configured and customized according to the characteristics of the courses and to your needs or those of your school or educational institution.

The word Moodle, incidentally, has become a verb. The term describes “the process of going through something smoothly”.

Which makes a lot of sense, taking into account the tools that the platform has.

Moodle can be implemented on any type of server, as long as it can run PHP and support a SQL-like database.

It is such a versatile EaD platform  that it can run on operating systems and learning management system such as MacOS and Windows, in addition to having many Linux distributions.

Within a platform like this, there are many resources that support teaching. There you can:

• make teaching materials available;
• carry out assessments;
• propose debates;
• have interaction between students, etc.

All this in a friendly online learning environment ( AVA ) with easy access for teachers and students. It is intuitive for those who teach and for those who learn.

What are the features and modules of Moodle?

Moodle’s mission is to promote a social-constructive pedagogy. And this happens 100% online through collaboration, critical reflection on activities, debates, etc.

Due to its simple, efficient and lightweight interface, it is easy to install on any platform that supports PHP.

At the same time, it is secure, as the forms are all checked, the cookies encoded and the data validated.

There are more features, tools and modules that make Moodle a truly complete distance learning platform. Check out:

website administration

The site is managed by an admin user that is defined during Moodle installation.

There are several options for plug-ins that allow customization , to meet the preferences and needs of each one.

User administration

The goal is to reduce administrator involvement to a minimum. And at the same time ensure high security.

In addition to supporting, through plug-ins, a series of authentication mechanisms, it also has:

• Standard email method – students can create their login accounts;
• LDAP method – access to these accounts is checked through an LDAP server;
• External Database – Any external database with at least 2 fields is for authentication, etc.

For example, in this module teachers can manually add and delete users if they wish.

Security is total for the educational institution, teachers and students. Moodle is fully adjustable to the needs of whoever is using it.

In addition, it is possible to choose the language to be used in the interface. Portuguese is one of those languages.

course administration

In this Moodle module, a full teacher has full control over course parameters. And it can even, if it makes sense, restrict other teachers.

You can choose course formats simply: weekly, by topic, social format, etc.

There is also a flexible composition of the course activities. Forums, newspapers, questionnaires, opinion polls, chats, tasks, among many others. All within a sense of community.

Another 3 important points are worth mentioning:

• User tracking and tracking – activity reports for each student and a detailed history of their engagement;
• Mail integration – receive copy of forum posts. These can, for example, be posted in either HTML or plain text;
• Custom Scales – Teachers define their own scales that will be used to grade students.

task module

A good EaD platform management needs a simple and, at the same time, complete task module.

Within Moodle, tasks can be marked with due date and maximum grade.

To make the teacher’s life easier, for each task, a single form is enough to evaluate the entire class.

Teacher feedback is attached to each student’s assignment page. And, to speed up and facilitate everyone’s work, an email notification is sent.

It is worth mentioning that late tasks can be accepted. But the amount of delay is shown to the teacher clearly.

chat module

Here, interaction via text is allowed. You can include pictures, emojis, URLs, images, etc.

That is, everything we are used to sending in normal conversations via the messaging app.

In Moodle, sessions are always documented for later verification. And, if the teacher finds it valid, he can leave them for the students to access.

Opinion Survey Module

It’s a lot like an election. Here you can either vote for something or get feedback from each student.

The teacher receives the results through a very intuitive and didactic table. He sees who chose which option.

Students can, if allowed, receive a graph with the updated results.

Forum Module

There are different types of forums available:

• reserved for teachers;
• news;
• for general use, etc.

It is worth noting here that all posts made have the photo of the person who made it attached. And images sent in conversations are shown in the message body.

The teacher is free to customize these forums as they wish.

• It is possible to prohibit replicas;
• Determine everyone to subscribe to a specific forum;
• Remove discussion threads if necessary;
• Restrict to a limited period.

Questionnaire Module

In Moodle, the quiz module allows teachers to define a database of questions that can be replicated in other quizzes.

To facilitate access, they can be archived in categories, for example. Then they can be automatically evaluated and re-evaluated.

There are limited-term questionnaires that, after a while, become unavailable. They can also be answered multiple times.

Versatility is great. There are issues of:

• brief answers;
• true or false;
• Association;
• random;
• numerical (with permissible scales);
• with built-in response, etc.

Resources module

This module supports access to all types of electronic content, such as:

• Power point;
• Video;
• Word;
• Audio, etc.

These files can be uploaded and also managed on the server. Or, created internally through a web form – HTML or text.

Research and Evaluation Module

Moodle has a research and evaluation module that serves as a tool for analyzing classes in courses offered online.

These reports are always available to teachers with a variety of graphics that are extremely visual. Data can be downloaded via CSV or Excel file.

In addition, the interface of this module prevents that surveys answered only partially from being computed.

And the feedback on the student’s results is shown comparing to the average results of the class.

Evaluation Laboratory Module

Last but not least, the evaluation laboratory module.

Here, documents can be evaluated by partners. And it is up to the teacher to administer and also assign grades to the assessment that the students have made.

It is one of the many modules of Moodle that is flexible and adaptable. After all, the platform allows for a wide variety of evaluation criteria.

Gamification in Moodle… is this possible?

Gamification, by definition, is the use of game dynamics and mechanics to engage people.

The goal is for them to feel constantly stimulated to solve problems and improve learning, motivating actions and behaviors in environments that are not part of the context of games.

But, does this combine an EaD platform? Yup. Is enough.

Although the tool was not designed for a gamified learning system, it is possible to apply this concept in activities or even in a complete course.

As?

• Complete activity – by completing a task in the stipulated time, a student can have access to exclusive content, or any other type of benefit;
• Date – do not allow student access before or after a certain date. Restricted access can be made between different dates, a start date and an end date;
• Grade – put a cut-off mark at the end of a semester to, for example, allow access to some complementary content.

Because it is customizable, Moodle allows you to define the terms for a given task to be completed.

A practical example of this is to determine that a task will only be done when a specific eBook is downloaded. Thus, a complementary survey can be released to those who downloaded the file.

Why gamify a course in Moodle?

It is possible to go further and think long term, in the whole course. As the requirements are met, the following may be available:

• Medals;
• Punctuation;
• Course progress bar, etc.

There are many possibilities within Moodle to encourage participation in learning within the EaD platform.

Gamification helps to overcome one of the biggest challenges of distance learning: the lack of student engagement.

It is also a valid strategy to overcome the lack of meeting deadlines and even increase the online presence in the virtual learning environment.

Gamifying a class or course can be seen as an integrated way to apply various game concepts in active learning.

It is worth mentioning that it is also beneficial in the areas of teaching in conditions of specific needs. It’s inclusive.

Although Moodle was not created to implement this concept, it is possible to configure a course so that it is fully gameified.

And this is only possible within a truly flexible and customizable distance learning platform like this one.

How to install Moodle and enjoy all its features?

Installing Moodle requires some basic requirements to be met. For it to run fully, you need:

• a working web server;
• a database;
• PHP configured.

Moodle needs some PHP extensions. But, as it is an intuitive and easy-to-understand tool, this is already checked at the beginning of the installation.

The problem can be fixed and the script is restarted so that the installation can actually take place.

Oh! If you want Moodle to send emails, you will need a working Sendmail. Or, access to an SMTP server.

Then it takes a few more steps to get Moodle ready to run:

• Create a database;
• Create a data directory;
• Install Moodle code;
• Configure Moodle;
• Run the command-line version;
• configure cron

Does all this seem complicated for you who want to host an online course ?

Moodle platform in a simple and intuitive way

Criativa EaD offers the solution for those who want to configure this EaD platform quickly, easily and with all the necessary support.

We:

• We host and help you scale your EaD platform;
• We carry out the complete installation and configuration process;
• We leave the platform with your face, customized and personalized for your needs;
• We offer a complete consultancy so that you can clarify doubts and start your planning in the right way;
• We have customized training for you to get the most out of your Moodle platform;
• We host, support and develop Big Blue Button servers;
• We provide complete and continuous technical and pedagogical support for you;
• We integrate several tools that make your routine much more agile and productive;
• We have custom plugins that increase the functionality of your LMS .