Moodle® For Dummies®

Busting Moodle Myths

If you've undertaken the task of searching the Internet for information on learning content management systems and software to develop online learning, you probably found fantastic reviews on many products (promoted by vendors) or a lot of negative rhetoric about the whole area of distance learning, the software, and so on. Many people, mostly those from the digital migrant groups, have had to deal with adapting to continual changes in the workplace due to technological changes. I believe that teaching and training continue to be affected, more so than any other industry, and I sympathize with the ambivalence and often the cynical stands that instructors take.

The following set of myths has been compiled thanks to help from the millions of users spanning the globe. (More than 200 countries use Moodle.) No doubt you're familiar with some of these statements and have thought about some (if not all) of the issues presented here. You can find more myth busting at the Moodle.org site: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Top_10_Moodle_Myths.

Myth 1: I have to be terribly tech savvy to use Moodle.

If you know how to attach a document to your e-mail, set up a Facebook or LinkedIn account, and open a variety of files, you can start using Moodle. Start slow, use resources to upload documents for your students to access, and create links to Web sites. When you and your learners are comfortable with Moodle, you can start exploring the cool tools such as discussion forums, wikis, ...