Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System (Paperback)

by Jason Cole (Author), Helen Foster (Author)
Key Phrases: content package, view grades, payment gateway, Site Administration, Larry Learner, Blog Tags (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Using Moodle is a complete, hands-on guide for instructors learning how to use Moodle, the popular course management system (CMS) that enables remote web-based learning and supplements traditional classroom learning. Updated for the latest version, this new edition explains exactly how Moodle works by offering plenty of examples, screenshots and best practices for its many features and plug-in modules. Moodle gives teachers and trainers a powerful set of web-based tools for a flexible array of activities, including assignments, forums, journals, quizzes, surveys, chat rooms, and workshops. This book is not just a how-to manual. Every chapter includes suggestions and case studies for using Moodle effectively. By itself, Moodle won't make your course better. Only by applying effective educational practices can you truly leverage its power. With this book, you will: Get a complete overview CMS in general and Moodle in particular. Review Moodle's basic interface and learn to start a course. Learn to add Moodle tools to your course, and how different tools allow you to give quizzes and assignments, write journals, create pathed lessons, collaboratively develop documents, and record student grades. Discover some of the creative ways teachers have used Moodle. There are plenty of ideas for effectively using each tool. Effectively manage your Moodle course, such as adding and removing users, and creating user groups. Learn to use Moodle's built-in survey functions for assessing your class. Find out how to administer an entire Moodle site. A system administrator usually handles these functions, but if you're on your own, there's a lot of power behind the curtain. Using Moodle is both a guide anda reference manual for this incredibly powerful and flexible CMS. Authored by the Moodle community, this authoritative book also exposes little known but powerful hacks for more technically savvy users, and includes coverage of blogs, RSS, databases, and more. For anyone who is using, or thinking of using, this CMS, Using Moodle is required reading.

About the Author
Jason Cole is currently the academic technology manager at San Francisco State University, where he's responsible for managing a Blackboard implementation that has over 15,000 users. A member of the Moodle community, he has developed a student data integration tool for the system, and contributed to discussions regarding a document management system and object model for version 2.0. Jason earned a Ph.D. in educational technology from the University of Northern Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2 edition (November 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059652918X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596529185
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #166,493 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What can Moodle Do? Good book for context and ideas, June 2, 2008

By	Chris Collman (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent book for a teacher who would like to know a little bit more about Moodle. The teacher does not need to know much about course management software. This book gives a great overview, with examples, while not getting caught up in the technical details.

For example the Lesson module section starts off with non-Moodle classroom story told by Jason. Then the chapter gives a short overview and talks about the different features of Lesson. There are a couple of inserts on tips and examples of how a feature could be used. Plus a few screen shots.

If you are looking for examples of GIFT or XML formats, then this is not the book for you. On the other hand, after reading the Lesson and Quiz chapters, the potential teacher will know that these are a few of the question formats that can be imported into Moodle.

Moodle documentation and on-line forums are great resources but are not designed for the non-user or really new user. This book will help a teacher ask or find more information about what they want to do in their course. It is "Moodle 101 : An Introduction to teaching with Moodle."

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Start for the Uninitiated, February 28, 2008

By	Connie Neal (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I started out muddled over Moodle. I knew I wanted to do some of what this LMS could do, but fairly ignorant and hesitant to jump into the Moodle community to ask the most basic of questions. This book seems to do the job.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, January 11, 2008

By	Matthew E. Coenen "Matt" (Des Moines, IA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An excellent introduction to Moodle -- a course management system I'm teaching myself. Yes, much of the information is available online at the Moodle site, but I'm a person who would rather look through a book as opposed to clicking links online and printing what I require.