Moodle (abbreviation for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a free and open-source e-learning software platform, also known as a Course Management System, Learning Management System, or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a web application, developed by Martin Dougiamas, to help educators create online courses with a focus on interaction and collaborative construction of content. The software is used all over the world by universities, schools, companies and independent teachers, in many types of environments such as in education, training and development, and business settings.

Moodle Pvt Ltd (http://moodle.com/) (based in Perth, Western Australia) does most of the development of Moodle. Moodle's open source license and modular design allow any developer to create additional modules and features. Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare and any other systems that support PHP and a database, including most webhost providers.

Data goes in a single database. Moodle version 1.6 could use MySQL or PostgreSQL. Version 1.7, released November 2006, makes full use of database abstraction so that installers can choose one from many types of database servers such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. Please see the associated text box of individual spoken tutorials on the website to decide the versions of Moodle and OS to which it is applicable.

The Spoken Tutorial Effort for Moodle is being contributed by Ela Goyal, Mumbai University, Mumbai; Dr.K. Sridhar, SASTRA University, Thanjavur; Prof.B.Abirami, SASTRA University, Thanjavur; and Prof. Gaurav Parashar, INMANTEC, Ghaziabad.

Note: Each numbered topic corresponds to a single spoken tutorial. Each bulleted point corresponds to a command or topic that must be covered in the given spoken tutorial.

Moodle Slide Template Glossary

General Information

Moodle is primarily developed in Linux using Apache, MySQL and PHP (also sometimes known as the LAMP platform). It is also regularly tested with Windows XP/2000/2003 (WAMP), Solaris 10 (Sparc and x64), Mac OS X and Netware 6 operating systems. Support for PostgreSQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server is also available. It can be installed on any computer that can run PHP, and can support an SQL type database (for example MySQL). It can be run on Windows and Mac operating systems and many flavors of linux (for example Red Hat or Debian GNU).

Features in Moodle

Moodle has a number of features that can be used extensively in the teaching and learning process. Some of these are Upload files and lessons, Give Assignments, Mark Attendance, Chat room, Choice/Questionnaire/Polls, Forum, Glossary, Calendar, Quiz, Wiki and Workshop. More features are continuously being added to this list in the form of plug-ins. There is a possibility of conducting a Virtual Classroom also by connecting Moodle with DimDim. The Latest version for Moodle is 1.9.9+ (1.9.10 is in development phase)

Features

To show what all is available in Moodle to support the teaching and learning process

Installation of Moodle

The tutorials here will teach how to install and run Moodle. The requirements for Moodle are as follows:

Disk space: 160MB free (min). You will require more free space to store your teaching materials.
Memory: 256MB (min), 1GB (recommended). The general rule of thumb is that Moodle can support 50 concurrent users for every 1GB of RAM, but this will vary depending on your specific hardware and software combination. This includes hosting limits of PHP or MySQL on a hosting service. The capacity can limit the number of users your Moodle site can handle.
Web server software: Most sites use Apache as the web server software. Moodle should work fine under any web server that supports PHP, such as IIS on Windows platforms.

Basic Installation of Moodle using WAMP

Show where to download and what to download
WAMP Installation
Contents of the Moodle Package
Moodle Installation

Installation of Moodle using XAMPP

Show where to download and what to download
XAMPP Installation
Moodle Installation

Setting Up the Environment

This tutorial will give you a brief idea on getting started with moodle . Once moodle is installed using wamp or xampp , the moodle front page will contain various elements like menus , articles and web links . The administrator can create courses and assign roles to the users .Users can create and edit their accounts to access the various courses that are available . Various roles such as teachers and students are assigned to make use of interactive services like forums .