Is Moodle an LMS?

Schools, universities, and businesses across the world use Moodle or Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It creates a centralized web space for students and businesses to access resources, courses, and tools without geographical and time restraints.

As a Learning Management System, Moodle is perfect to manage and measure online learning and training. In the world of LMS, Moodle is arguably the most recognizable platform. The truth is that the flexibility to learn, train, and deliver content through Moodle is highly effective.

Moodle is an LMS with a lot of customization options, but since there are many LMS offerings on the market, a side-by-side comparison of LMS features, pricing, and reviews is a worthwhile exercise.

For example, looking at Canvas vs. Google Classroom or Google Classroom vs. Schoology can help you understand the key distinctions between systems you may miss otherwise. There is some debate around whether Google Classroom is an LMS or not, but it's worth a comparison with traditional LMS.

Let’s dive in to learn about the mechanics and use cases of Moodle LMS.

Rise of Moodle LMS

In the past few years, Moodle has become more popular as a learning management system with many benefits. And that’s because the various types of LMS continue to work for different kinds of organizations flawlessly.

According to Moodle, they have than 50% of the market share in Latin America, Europe, and Oceania.

And when it comes to the higher education market in the US, Moodle ranks among the top three LMS along with Blackboard and Canvas. Moodle Partners with the business community to offer design, hosting, and other support services.

In short, yes. You can use Moodle LMS to build, upload, and deliver your online content to diverse learners. You can also review the content, track progress, and reward learners with achievements. In terms of features and functionality, Moodle is a top-tier Learning Management System that makes it easy and simple to deliver online content to learners.

Moodle is a free and very commonly used Learning Management System. It is the main reason Moodle LMS has become a go-to platform for online schools and private educators. In the LMS space, Moodle is also famous at VLE. Most administrators use Moodle to simplify and efficiently deliver e-Learning courses and content, which overall, tends to be the main purpose of LMS.

For starters, administrators can purchase off-the-shelf courses and content and then upload it on Moodle. On the other hand, you can also utilize the course builder feature of Moodle to build dedicated content. But despite the nature of the e-Learning content you generate, you can count on the flexibility of Moodle to handle a multitude of tasks.

Students need to think of Moodle as a self-sustainable online training platform that caters to various learning environments. The objective of students should be to opt for the best Moodle experience and LMS features. The fact of the matter is that the educational paradigm is evolving and students need to keep up with the tide. 

With Moodle LMS, students use LMS to move away from a traditional style of learning and lean towards sequential learning. Once you install Moodle, students should configure to their needs. In fact, “how” you configure Moodle is bound to impact the user experience of students.

Like creators, teachers, and administrators, students should envision the academic goals they want to achieve and then configure their Moodle LMS. The trick is to create a practical framework around “your” learning goals. For instance, you can create various course categories with specific settings.

Remember that in Moodle LMS, your course content can work as an activity and as well as a resource. You can listen, view, download, and read a resource, whereas, you interact with the activity. As a student, make sure to include basic content material first.

Whether it’s media files, websites, directories, labels, or files, focus on the interactive content material. Once you make content interactive, make sure to partake in collaborative activities. In fact, Moodle is ideal to collaborate on new content on a single course.

For instance, you can add content to the glossaries and experiment with workshop tools. Consequently, it will help you check and review others’ work.

• Simple and Scalable

For starters, there are many use cases of Moodle and while every LMS will have disadvantages, the benefits outweigh the risks and issues for most all schools and businesses. But for the most part, the open-source platform is famous because it gives complete control to learners over “how” they want to review and consume information. You can manage and evaluate content and courses in many ways.

Not to mention, you can track your learning progress in real-time. As an open-source platform, Moodle already has a competitive edge. In fact, you don’t need to spend money on vendor lock or license fees to use Moodle. The open-source platform is free and highly scalable for an LMS that is used for different types of learners.

On the flip side, the administrative use of Moodle is another reason why it has become highly successful due to its ability to use LMS to solve admin problems. The mainstream use of Moodle largely depends on its course builders and tracking functionality. You can create a robust eLearning strategy and achieve your academic or business goals at a faster pace.

• High Flexibility, Accessibility, and Compatibility

Flexibility and accessibility are key strengths of Moodle LMS. You can configure Moodle with standard functionality and available plug-ins or opt for custom functionality to meet your needs. Another reason for the continuous attraction of Moodle comes down to its compatibility. In fact, Moodle is compatible with various devices that makes online learning and training seamless.

Once you install Moodle on Windows or macOS, you need to copy all files in a separate space. After that, create a new data directory in the Moodle and secure database. Make sure to set up the backup and then start working the open-source platform as your new Learning Management System.

As an open-source LMS, Moodle is used by millions of learners throughout the world. From customization options to extended features, learning through Moodle is simple and instant. Apart from customization options and features, Moodle LMS comes with a wide range of integration options.

In fact, you can integrate it with your current academic or business software in no time. One of the reasons for numerous integration options is that Moodle learning platform is developed for many use cases. With a long list of integration choices, you can effectively solve specific issues.

Since Moodle LMS lists a lot of features, integrations, and functionalities, learners can seek community support and browse forums to learn different use cases. Moodle has network partner companies that help users understand the mechanics of Moodle. With Moodle Partners, there are more platform functionalities, improvements, and bug fixes.  

Learning Management System comes into the picture when there is a commercial use case. But for the sake of simplicity and specificity, when you use Moodle, it works as a Virtual Learning Environment rather than Learning Management System. After all, Moodle is based on an acronym, Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.

Moodle is developed and designed to cater to different learning styles. In fact, Moodle is based on the social constructionist philosophy and helps learners interact with the material in a simple yet professional manner.

Whether it’s the healthcare sector, retail, government, or educational institutions, Moodle LMS has become a vital tool across all industries. When it comes to effective and strategic e-Learning, Moodle will continue to be relevant to millions of students across the world.