Three years of egg on their face and the disciples over in moodle-land are still pushing the big Moodle security lie. Maybe they need to refresh their memories.

Good thing Blackboard bought Moodle…at least there is one secure LMS in the company to choose from and it isnt Moodle

Moodle Security = Oxymoron

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Now that Blackboard has effectively bought out Moodle, they are wasting no time making their presence noticed. Just look at the #Moodle hashtag on Twitter today and it’s right in your face. Moodle sells out and Blackboard takes over…of course, I still don’t see Blackboard in the Official Moodle Partner list over at Moodle.com

MoodleBoard

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I love it when people tell it like it is…especially when that person is the leader of a very successful endeavor and doesn’t care that the truth may offend the “elites” in the industry. Kudos to the Canvas leadership for putting it out there.

But what about open source? Yes Ray Henderson talks a lot about open source, but clearly it’s eyewash. Blackboard hasn’t changed, but hope springs eternal.

So, what’s going to happen now? Expect more confusion. I don’t think it requires much imagination to suppose that the Moodle and Sakai community will become even more jumbled and Blackboard will shove innovation even further back on the burner.

And what about Instructure? Most of our customers are former Blackboard schools. We rarely see Moodle or Sakai make it to the short list of any education institution. We launched only 13 months ago and have just closed our 128th school. Why did Alamo Colleges, Auburn, Brown, Maricopa Community Colleges and Wharton pick us? Because Canvas is the open, full featured LMS platform, built on modern technology, native to the cloud. Instructure is about innovation.

And no, Blackboard can’t buy us – it’s not all about the money. (Yes, that’s my 2011 W-2.)

Keep learning,
-josh

Source: http://www.instructure.com/blog/2012/03/27/blackboard-calls-it-quits/

And in related news, it seems the Moodle lead dev isn’t getting a lot of love related to this sellout and he doesn’t seem to be taking it well…see screenshot below

The Blackboard PR department may have to contact him and provide some training on maintaining the proper corporate image.  Maybe the training department can travel to Australia and provide that training to all MoodleBoard employees like, according to the Chronicle, the BB leadership did when asking for his blessing on this deal:

Officials from Moodlerooms, NetSpot, and Blackboard recently traveled to Australia to tell the inventor of Moodle, Martin Dougiamas, of their plans, and in a way, to ask for his blessing. He is quoted in a press release by Blackboard as saying that he will continue to consider Moodlerooms and NetSpot official Moodle partners.

Source: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/blackboard-buys-2-leading-supporters-of-open-source-competitor-moodle

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=199248#p868841

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Blackboard was bought out by Providence Equity Partners venture (vulture?) capitalists, who specialise in leveraged buyouts, last year. Presumably they borrowed the $1.64 billion they paid and need to see a significant return on that ASAP. Leveraged buyouts are usually about a fast turnaround and how to extract the biggest possible return in the shortest possible time regardless of the long-term outcomes. If they destroy Moodle and/or Blackboard in the process, that’s just business.

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=199248#p868732

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Blackboard announces the purchase of moodlerooms, the largest Moodle partner. For those of you who don’t know, Moodle partners pay a stipend (normally around 10%) to Moodle HQ. Wonder how much Moodle HQ got and will continue to get in this deal?

Not sure why this should surprise anyone…Moodle was never an open source project…it was always about pretending to be one, getting free labor and development from thousands of people, and making a handy profit off a closed business model. However, this announcement takes the business side of Moodle to a complete new level.

I remember years ago, in the early days of Moodle, when the Open University had about 3 million pounds to invest in an LMS and decided to go with Moodle. There was a lot of concern about what that kind of money and influence could do to an “open source” project…many feel it drove moodle development via the development interest of the OU and not necessarily the community. That kind of money and influence doesn’t even begin to touch what Blackboard will bring to the table. I predicted years ago, even before, the ex-BB executive bought into Moodlerooms that this was heading toward BB owning Moodle.

Today Moodle just got Owned!

Of course, the lead dev is already trying to put lipstick on this pig and I’m sure many will pucker up and kiss it, but I’m not one of them…a pig is still a pig, no matter how much you try to dress it up

I would be misleading everyone if I said I wasn’t enjoying this more than just a little…to see the shock on the faces of all those Moodle disciples–and the cognitive dissonance of a couple already is priceless

First disciple in denial: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=199248#p868706

Second disciple (even named himself after Moodle)  in denial:

“@moodler: Bb has NOT bought Moodle itself. I want that to be perfectly clear.” <= @moodler is the project lead of #moodle

March 26, 2012 7:21 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@moodleman

Julian Ridden

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The research report attached to this post was published in the “International Journal of Information Technology and Knowledge Management, January-June 2011, Volume 4, No. 1, pp. 233-238“. It covers some major security flaws in Moodle that will not surprise anyone who has been following Moodle security issues for the past few years. I no longer need to use Moodle, but for those of you who do rely on it, don’t be fooled…just because I’m no longer dedicating time and effort to publically demonstrate major security flaws in the Moodle code and design, don’t take that as a sign that those problems no longer exist! I know of at least two major security holes in the latest version of Moodle and one of them is just as bad as this one I publicized not long ago…and like that vulnerability, it has been discussed in the Moodle forums for months and has received no attention by the devs. If that security issue is not addressed in the next few months, then I may do another “open demonstration” for the public…that seems to be the only way to force action by the Moodle lead dev.

In the meantime, you may want to read this study on Moodle security. Below are some of the more interesting excerpts from the paper.

LMS Moodle has much vulnerability like authentication, availability, confidentiality and integrity attacks. So, it is necessary to develop a mechanism that defends these security flaws of LMS Moodle.

Moodle is only for IT experts. It is complex for normal users to use and more than 66% of them are teachers, researchers and administrators [11]. It is difficult for beginner technicians to install and use Moodle [9], because there are many technical word lists in installation instructions.

It [Moodle] does not support the SSL implementation all over the site.

It stores the user data into cache which can be later used by the attacker to launch the attack for next session.

Brute force attack is possible on Moodle as the attacker may try different keys for several numbers of times.

We have determined following security attacks on Moodle such as session attack; design attack and user log out, session not closed. Session attack which is effective against Moodle is session hijacking. As per the concern of design attacks, Moodle is vulnerable to password prediction and user name prediction. Another, security vulnerability is that when the user logout still the session is not closed. When the user clicks on the back button then he reaches the page which was logged out earlier.

Moodle (modular object oriented dynamic learning environment) is defenseless to password prediction and username prediction.

I thought the last quote above about the modular object oriented design being “defenseless” deserves special attention. If you accept this conclusion, then what that really means is that Moodle is fatally flawed since that is the foundation of Moodle’s design–Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment–is Moodle! So, to conclude that entire approach to LMS design is “defenseless” when it comes to security issues is quite damming.

Moodle = 1990′s Technology in 2012

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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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I am a senior this year and getting to know a new program just to check my grades and post papers is ridiculous. Blackboard had become a friend to me; I knew everything about it and how to get to where I needed to be. Moodle is a stranger, one that I care not to know. You may say I am one of those people who does not like change, which is wrong: I love change, just not when it deals with my school work.

There is even a Facebook page called “Moodle Sucks.” If there are enough people to make a Facebook group dedicated to the hatred of Moodle, then something is obviously wrong. If you go to Google and type in “why Moodle sucks,” there will be an endless number of pages to scroll through and hear everyone’s opinion on the matter.

I say bring Blackboard back, we are paying over 30 thousand dollars a year to go to a private college, where is all of that money going? You would think they had a couple extra nickels and dimes to spare in order to keep Blackboard up and running.

Source: http://www.weathervane.emu.edu/radiant/archives/volume-57/2/opinion/blackboard-better-than-moodle/

No related posts.

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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