I thought for sure we were headed for a showdown of Blackboard vs. Moodle. However as time progressed, even months before the RFP went out I could tell that there was a big buzz about Canvas. So much that Moodle fell right off the radar of pretty much everyone.

Source: http://blog.usu.edu/kevin/2011/11/04/getting-ready-with-canvas/

Moodle: 1990′s technology in 2011

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This is  becoming an everyday thing now. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep up with all the colleges, universities, and K12 systems that have decided to dump Moodle and move into the 21st century with their LMS, but whether I post about it or not, the move is happening.

For all you out there who are on Moodle 1.9.x now and are thinking about “upgrading” to 2.x, you should really think about making the move to an LMS that was designed for this century. Canvas is open source and is light years ahead of Moodle in about every way. Upgrading to Moodle 2.x will get you no increased functionality; you will have a much more complicated and slower system; and you will still have one of the most insecure systems on the net. If you’re happy with 1990′s technology, then stay with Moodle, but if you want an open source LMS that was designed for this century, then Canvas is the way to go.

A university in Fredericksburg, VA has begun its move to a new open source, SaaS-based learning management system. Several instructors at the University of Mary Washington have started using Instructure Canvas in place of Blackboard software for their summer courses. The campus, whose Blackboard contract ends in August 2011, will move fully to Canvas in the fall semester.

An LMS committee of faculty and students had been meeting since spring 2010 to evaluate alternatives to Blackboard. The college had been running version 8, which was initially released in early 2008. Finalists under consideration included Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodlerooms, and Instructure. In January 2011 each vendor gave a two-hour presentation, in which they were expected to enter a syllabus, upload and manage media, control course and guest access, use built-in and third-party tools, and demonstrate other aspects of the applications. Instructure was announced as the winner in February.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/06/07/u-mary-washington-begins-move-to-instructure-lms.aspx?sc_lang=en

Moodle–1990′s technology in 2011!

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I’m reminded of a line in that commercial…Lost another to Ditech, aka, Moodle lost another to _____________ you fill in the blank

A learning management systems task team composed of 20 faculty, four from each of the colleges, chose Instructure Canvas over Blackboard Learn 9.1 and 10 other systems during the summer.

“We took 12 proposals from various learning management system vendors and narrowed it down to two,” Usha Venkat, director of information and communication technologies, said Sept. 19.

Source: http://www.theranger.org/canvas-program-to-replace-blackboard-vista-1.2639275#.TooNN7K3N2J

Moodle = 1990′s technology in 2011!

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The switch to Canvas represents “a really necessary upgrade to kind of move into the 21st century,” he added.

After analyzing over 1,000 faculty and student survey responses and listening to feedback from focus groups, CIS opted for the Canvas platform. When the committee tested different systems in front of groups of students in the Sharpe Refectory last spring, the response to Canvas was overwhelmingly positive, Kagan said.

In many ways, the new system will be like “a blank canvas,” facilitating the addition of new tools as they emerge as well as having multimedia capabilities, Bergeron said.

Source: http://www.browndailyherald.com/canvas-slated-to-replace-mycourses-1.2637661#.Ton2M7K3N2I

There seems to be a movement in the LMS air these days…a movement from Moodle to just about anything else in the LMS world. Moodle’s 1990′s technology isn’t cutting it anymore. Anyone adopting Moodle these days is literally adopting technology from the last century. Moodle…1990′s technology in 2011!

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Hawaii Department of Education Selects Blackboard Learn 9.1 to Replace Open Source LMS.

The Hawaii Department of Education’s Extended Learning Opportunities and Student Support section has chosen Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 to replace an open source learning management system (LMS) Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced today. The platform provides online courses for over 1,200 students through the Hawaii Virtual Learning Network-ESchool (HVLN-ESchool) and over 500 teachers annually through the HVLN-Project Inspire program.

Prior to moving to Release 9.1, HVLN utilized an open source platform to deliver online content. But the need for additional features, easy customizations, and greater functionality prompted them to explore options for a more robust LMS platform. HLVN also anticipated an increase in student and teacher enrollments, suggesting the need for an enterprise capable implementation.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/20/3925118/hawaii-department-of-education.html#ixzz1ZN9eFQo1

Simply put, you can’t effectively educate 21st century students using a platform grounded in 1990s technology.

“The evaluation conducted by HVLN was a complete assessment of teaching and learning needs, cost comparisons and product performance,”

Moodle: Serving all your 1990′s learning needs in 2011….no thanks, says Hawaii

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The news that someone has offered to buy Blackboard is causing quite a bit of chatter in LMS circles today…not to mention a big boost to some who may own stock. My advice…sell now before the hype wears off Of course, I never was good at reading the stock market–I guess if the phantom buyer turns out to be a big player–think Google, Microsoft, or even a huge textbook publisher, then holding onto that stock may prove to be a very good idea. I love it that the CNBC article mentioned Instructure as one of the most interesting competitors and completely ignores Moodle…maybe they’ve been talking to those who have upgraded to Moodle 2.0 However, just so Moodle Disciples out there don’t feel completely left out, I think the announcement by Instructure last week that it has raised $8 million in capital and is in this for the long haul, did contain several references to Moodle, without mentioning it by name.

The following statements from that announcement has Moodle written all over them…

“Our mission is to relieve teachers and students in all levels of education of antiquated technology.”

– Antiquated/Moodle — synonymous

““We were compelled by Josh and his team’s vision of delivering outstanding user experiences to those in the education market,”

– Checked the Moodle 2.0 satisfaction meter lately? Even some of the hardest of the hard-core disciples, are starting to see the light.

“The LMS market is long overdue for a new learning platform built on the latest Web-based technologies.”

– Yea, that’s what the disciples over in moodleland were saying about Moodle 2.0 during it’s 3+ years in development…are you feeling it yet Moodlers?

“At EPIC, we were searching for a disruptive play to serve the dynamic needs of students in the 21st century,” said Nick Efstratis of EPIC Ventures. “Instructure is that company.”

A “disruptive play”…I love it!

“Canvas leverages the leading edge of web technologies by embracing features such as drag-and-drop file uploads, HTML5 video and automatic speech-to-text conversion.”

Humm…well, Moodle 2.0 has a “new” file system as well, doesn’t it — I don’t think it’s drag-and-drop and I’m not hearing a lot of love out there for it…in fact, it’s reducing  die-hard disciples to tears.

If BB does get bought by a tech giant and if Instructure does push forward aggressively with it’s mission, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy watching Moodle with its 1990′s look, feel, and functionality die a slow death over the next few years.

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The only license the Moodle Lead Dev knows, is what will make him the most $$. “All contributors give permission?” Are you kidding? You really think they even keep track of the contributors? This is a “community” open source project in name only–it operates like a privately held, commercial project and anyone who contributes to it should understand that fact.

Hi,

Last Moodle version is under GNU GPLv3. How can they upgrade from GPLv2 version? All contribuitors give permission for license upgrade?

Thanks in advance, Marc.

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=173669

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Moodle partners still trolling the forums un-checked–this has become a common, almost everyday occurrence in the Moodle “community” over the past few years. What a “caring” reply from the community, business partner–and you thought the forums were  for free help when you found yourself in deep trouble, didn’t you?

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=172883

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http://iandavidwild.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-moodle-partner-programme.html

Have you been hiding under a rock for the past 5 years Ian?

I know you have been around Moodle for a while, so why the interest all the sudden? Get rejected as one of the chosen few and now don’t like “the program”?

Here is a little history lesson on the subject for you. Moodle.com doesn’t only try to control who uses their logo (which is understandable) they try to corner the market to a point of attempting to prevent anyone from even using the plain text word Moodle to advertise that they offer moodle services.

See my very first reply to Martin in the thread at the link above, where over 5 years ago I predicted:

“In my opinion, you’re really going overboard here which may cost you far more in negative PR in the future than it will ever be worth.”

I think those in the know will be able to attest to just how accurate that prediction was…and will continue to be

well discussed points re #moodle partners by @iandavidwild http://iandavidwild.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-moodle-partner-programme.html

February 3, 2011 11:31 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@moodlefairy

Mary Cooch

No related posts.

No elaboration needed here…this from one of the most loyal Moodle disciples in moodle-land and an official Moodle business partner.

I would like to be able to placate you in some way but, unfortunately, although I might not put it so strongly you make some compelling points. The documentation for Moodle 2.0 is currently lacking, plain wrong or non-existent. The new file manager is proving to be a source of confusion for many and I strongly suspect bitter experience will result in some rework in future versions.

I will tell you what I’m honestly telling most people… unless you have a compelling reason to move from 1.9 – don’t

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=167147#p733803

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