I.J.

Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8

Published Online July 2013 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/)
DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2013.06.01

Moodle and e-learning Tools

Zahraa F. Muhsen
Department of computer sciences, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
Email: z_muhsin@ipu.edu.jo

Adi Maaita
Department of computer sciences, Isra University, Amman, Jordan

Ashraf Odah
Department of computer sciences, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
Email: ashraf.odeh@ipu.edu.jo,

Ayman Nsour
Department of computer sciences, Isra University, Amman, Jordan

Abstract— Online interactions provide a large when WebCT 1.0 and Blackboard was released and
knowledge exchange on variety kinds of information attracted millions of users. The Modular Object-
exchanged between users. There are many software Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle) has
systems available that provide online learning systems, been introduced as a Learning Management Systems
this type of software expressed by forms, commercial or (LMS), in 1998 and released in 2001.Moodle It becomes
open source software. This paper is focused on Moodle, the most common used LMS at that time.. Moodle has
it explained the comparative study that done by many the ability of tracking the learner’s progress, and can be
recent researches, it also shows the different between monitored by both teachers and learners. This fact
Moodle and other learning management systems, in implicitly includes both security and privacy threats and
order to discover their strengths and limitations, makes Moodle vulnerable system.
discusses different points in these systems. Moodle has The most known OSS are Moodle, Ilias, eduplone,
been adopted by many universities and organizations the Claroline, SAKAI, WebCT and Bscw. All the above
entire world because it offers a large accusable set of OSSs have wide developer communities who present
tools, and many components was developed without a robust arguments for considering them as a
specific design documentation including its security straightforward and potentially feasible competitor to
services. This paper shows the comparative study commercial products. One of the OSS projects that have
between Moodle and other e-learning systems; it aimed emerged to meet the growing interest in the OSS is the
to discover the best and most suitable choice of e- Moodle [1-5].
learning system. We have fined the optimal e-learning Moodle is also known as a Course Management
platform required to our e-learning university system, System (CMS), LMS, Virtual Learning comparison
and it is Moodle, according to the used by many Environment (VLE), and OSS e-learning platform which
Universities around the word and from many works that provides educators tools to create a course web site. It is
has been done to date that encourages the used and used in 193 countries, with 400,000 registered users.
develops this type of LMS. Moodle web page provides developer information,
roadmap, coding guide and concurrent versioning
Index Terms— Moodle, Learning Management System, system guide to access its source code and it has a long
E-learning, Course Management System. list of developers. It does not provide a formal model for
future development [6]. Moodle is a medium-scale
application, totaling 625 473 LOC across 2331 PHP files.
I. INTRODUCTION The Moodle website reports a total of 39 412 496 users
across 211 countries [7, 8].
E-learning is the technology based learning, which This paper is structured as follows. Section II shows
becomes an important part of the strategy for delivering
the general variation in the configuration of e-learning
an online and flexible learning. The main advantage of system, the way to manage the site of the Moodle is
e-learning is the opportunity to interact electronically. presented in Section III, containing the reasons for
There are more than 250 commercial e-learning system
choosing Moodle together with its limitations. The
and more than 45 free Open Source Software (OSS). E- comparative study between Moodle and other LMSs are
learning may cover a large set of application, system and described in Section IV. Section V talks about the
process, such as e-learning system, web based learning,
upgrade and requirement to Moodle 2.x. Section VI
blended learning, visual class learning, and computer shows the MOOCH site and discussed its features.
based learning. In 2006, hundreds of e-learning systems Finally a brief conclusion is described in Section VII.
were introduced, major milestone happened in 1997

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8
2 Moodle and e-learning Tools

II. E-LEARNING CONFIGURATION to varying extents. Many current LMS are taking the
advantage of the benefits of various types of delivery [1,
The variations in the configuration of many LMS
9].
offerings can be described through a number of
attributes, decried in Figure 1. Many university courses
contain several components, each with different attribute
III. MOODLE SITE
values. The components of any success course should be
delivered synchronously and others asynchronously, that When the site of the Moodle installed, the
mean it should involve some online components and administrator will be in charge of it, although some tasks
some in-class components. Most of the courses may be delegated to others by assigning them a role such
available on the Internet are based on this asynchronous as Manager. Table (1) provides the main information
model. Also the location of study may be learning at about how to manage the Moodle site [10]. Table (1)
same time includes technology (video conferencing and shows Authentication: which allow the user login and
electronic white boards), or at different time learning other addition that related to the user regestration.
applications (programmed instruction and tutorials that Managing accounts: this process allow user to perform
allow students to work through the screens at their own action such as edit or delete and other activeties.
pace and at their own time). Students can be involved in Enrolments: a methods for adding student to the course
e-learning from distributed locations, such as using a in the e-learning system. Roles & Permissions: these
group support system in a classroom to work on an tasks are necessary for desiging and controlling
assignment. Courses applications also differ in the levels student/teachers permissions. Security: different security
of collaboration, some courses are entirely independent wayes required for the e-learning system. And other
and individual, while others groups need discussion manages such as: Performance, Backup, Site appearance,
forums or chat rooms. The mode of course delivery can Language, Registration, Site wide reports, Developer
be with or without an instructor or take a more blended tools, Web services, Community hubs.
approach integrating electronic and classroom delivery

Lecture asynchronous deliver at different time (e. g. email)

Synchronicity
Lecture synchronous deliver at same time (e. g. web cast)

Student use an application at same place (e. g GSS in classroom)

Location
Students use an application at various paces (e. g. GSS in distributed locations

Student work independently from one another (autonomously)

Independence
Students work collaboratively with one another (share ideas)

An electronically enabled distance learning course

Mode
In class lectures are enhanced with handson computer exercises

Figure 1. The Dimensions of E-Learning [9]

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8
 Moodle and e-learning Tools 3

TABLE I. THE IMPORTANT POINTS FOR DESIGNING THE MOODLE SITE

Process Description
Authentication The process of allowing a user to login, different methods of adding new users.
Managing accounts Search for, edit, delete or perform bulk actions on users.
Different methods of adding users. It is the process of assigning users to roles
Enrolments
(usually student) in a course.
Roles &Permissions Add or remove permissions from students, teachers and other users on.
There are many ways to customize the appearance of the site so that it blends in
Security
with.
Performance Check the efficiency and smooth running of the site.
Backup How to backup your site and courses.
Site appearance Change the display and navigation of site.
Language Add new languages and alter the default terms used.
Server settings Registration, maintenance and default settings.
Site wide reports A list of useful reports for administrators.
Developer tools Debug your site, purge caches and tools for test sites only.
Web services Connect other systems to Moodle to perform operations.
Community hubs Search for, download, enrolling or add courses to public directories.
Blogs, Comments, Tags, Messaging, Notes, RSS feeds, Calendar, are more features required to manage the site.

features of learner tools. The support tools show many

IV. COMPARATIVE OF MOODLE WITH OTHER E- LMSs products which have all features except eCollege,
LEARNING SYSTEM Dokeos 2.1.1 and Blackboard learning system (V.7).
The costs feature is different from other tools since there
Moodle has a good architecture, implementation, is no cost on the software that will be a good point. At
inter-operability, and internationalization, and also has the end score Moodle has missed just one feature than
the strength of the community. It is free and its
other LMS. Moodle (1.8) and other LMS in technical
accessibility is average. On the other hand, it has specifications tools, have missed 1/8 features. But
limitations, notably lack of SCORM support, and its Desire2Learn 8.1, Blackboard learning system and
roles and permissions system is limited. However, these
Dokeos 2.1.1, have missed 2/8 features. The weakest
limitations can be fixed, and are part of the project products are KEWL and Claroline 1.6, which missed 4/8
roadmap [3, 4]. features [3, 4, 11].
A. Features and Capabilities B. Communication Tools
Ajlan and Zedan [2] have shown a simpler and Maneva and Tauchmanova in [13] have shown the
simplify comparison study using three features tools:
results of the study done in University of Hradec
Learner Tools, Support Tools and Technical Tools. Kralove that compared two LMSs (Moodle a
Learner tool contains various features and capabilities, WebCTBlackboard), since the academic year 2011/12,
four products are shown to be the best with almost the
these two systems have been researched from various,
maximum number of features, 15/16 features of learner points of view, that done on the comparison of the
tools. These products are Moodle, Desire2Learn, Moodle with the WebCTBlackboard system, and in their
ANGEL learning management suite, and Sakai. The
study they constrained at the communication tools and
Claroline 1.6 product has the minimum features of the possibilities of their use by student the evaluation
learner tools, missing 5/16 features. KEWL, eCollege process done by the student in the survey shows that the
and the Blackboard learning system platforms have
tool of Discussion Forum in Moodle higher than the
missed 2/16 feature. Moodle is the best with three WebCT- Blackboard system but the E-mail tool
products missing 1/16 features. Overall the best OSSs supported by the Moodle has less recourse than the
are Moodle and Sakai respectively, which missed 1/16
blackboard system, From he results of the Chat tool it is

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8
4 Moodle and e-learning Tools

clear that the Moodle environment has a similarly modify the contents of your database and your moodle
evaluation result as the other learning environment. The data file storage area). The major new and
statistical significance of the difference in the improvements features that have been release by
evaluationswas not confirmed [14]. Moodle.org [17,18, 21,22, 23] are summarized as follow:
New features: community hubs (Figure 3), repository
C. Collaboration Tools
support, portfolio support, course completion and
Three studies [14-16] showed that students preferred prerequisites, conditional activities, cohorts, web
Moodle because it was easy to use and had rich services support, new blocks, plagiarism prevention,
communication and collaboration tools. From repository integration, proftfolio integration, conditional
developers’ prospective, Moodle had more tools for the actives, course completion, progress tracking, feedback
learning environment, and it is easy to incorporate module, bolg 2.0, resources 2.0, sit-wide groups, web
multimedia elements and has a desired features. From services API, IMS CC, totally flexible user fields
the instructors’ views, different users had different Improvements existing features: backup and restore,
preferences, mainly from their experience and blocks, blogs, comments, enrolment plugins, file
knowledge of LMS. There is no doubt that Moodle has handling, filters 2.0, HTML editor, messaging, my
some advantages over other LMSs. according to the Moodle page, navigation, ratings, roles and permissions,
Mitchell et al. report (2005). Wainwright et al. (2007) secure RSS feeds, themes, translation system, user
study showed while four different colleges with similar profile pages.
size and needs have chosen a different LMS to support Improvements activity modules: lesson 2.0, quiz
and maintain their online teaching and learning, the tools module and question bank, resource, SCORM, Wiki 2.0,
that the LMSs offer are very similar. The campus culture workshop 2.0, javascript handling, database access/ data
had a big influence on the decision making. Many handling, File storage and handling, roles and
colleges chose Moodle because of its strong community enrolments, messaging, backups, gradebook and roles,
based structure; Machado and Tao in [13] believe an navigation and blocks, themes, text formats,
OSS gives users the freedom to develop the system they commenting.
require and the ability to integrate existing products [16]. M. Dougiamas [19] write about the new features that
releases at Moodle 2.3 in changes of course layout
features which have a new section-per-page feature, the
V. UPGRADING TO MOODLE 2.X AJAX for managing the course has been cleaned up,
new “add activity or resource” – the activity chooser,
Moodle website [17] release many document to drag and drop of files directly to the course page which
encourage university to work with Moodle 2.x. developed by Davo Smith, new quick-edit, and the
Universities started to upgrade their Moodle platform ability to add/remove sections using a plus and minus
with Moodle 2.x (2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 or 2.4). These icon. Other features for the changes in 2.3 came out by a
versions required many planning and testing then the old survey that Moodle HQ ran in December such as
one (1.9 and later). Moodle 2.0 platform does not changes to the File picker. A new file manager has the
accepted to be straightforward as upgrades through new drag and drop which is a nice visual friendly
earlier versions; it is different to the moodle 1.9 versions. manager that has auto-generated thumbnails for images.
The default icon driven view, a table view and a tree
view so it is much easier to navigate back through
courses in server files. There is also a nice sort by last
modified, size and type which is very handy!
M. Dougiamas [20] indicate that Moodle 2.4 has
release the following features: adding a new cool
caching system, course formats are more flexible and
pluggable, new course/category management interface, a
new icon set and graphic design, increased in usability, a
repository plugin for direct audio/video recording, a look
at reviewing forum and Wiki, importing of iCal streams
to make calendar synching much easier.
According to M. Dougiamas and the Moodle.org site,
there are number of new features that increased ease-of-
Figure 2 shows an example test view for moodle 2.0. use and enhanced usability in general at the new Moodel
Figure 2. Moodle 2.0 Test Web site layout design 2.x. The most main features are in the new question
engine, restoring of Moodle 1.9 backups is now possible,
Table 2 shows the requirements tools to install Mobile Apps, file preview information, re-use a file in
Moodle 2.0. The Moodle 2.x show some changes in the multiple places, file information, EQUELLA integration
user interface of the old Moodle interface layout. demoed, Netspot reworked Assignment module. The old
Moodle site pointed that “if something goes wrong you assignment types become a 3rd party module in Moodle
cannot go back, the upgrade process will irreversibly 2.4 probably. The marking guide, is similar to rubrics

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8
 Moodle and e-learning Tools 5

which is a list rather than a scale. Book module, created. They also improved the automatic phase
workshop module and quiz module have had some switching, submission deadlines show in calendar,
improvements. A new SCORM graph report has been plugin updates , and pagination support and filtering.

TABLE II. MOODLE 2.0 REGUIREMENTS

Requirement Description
• programing language: PHP must be 5.2.8 or latest 5.3.x.
• Databases: MySQL 5.0.25, PostgreSQL 8.3, Oracle 10.2, MS SQL 2005 or any later
System versions.
• Standards-Supporting Browser: Firefox 3,Safari 3,Google Chrome 4, Opera 9, MS
Internet Explorer 7 or any later versions.

Operating • Required a full database backup and moodledata backup.

Systems • if you are using any PHP accelerator then purge PHP cache
Database Database account defined in config.php is allowed to create temporary tables. For
Privileges MySQL is controlled by CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES privilege.
Note: Any upgrading to Moodle 2.x must have the Moodle 1.9 or later versions.

Figure3. Community hubs as shown in [21] the diagram are (Ordinary Moodle site: A typical Moodle site with
teachers who want to download course templates and/or users who want to connect (enrol) with external communities,
Publishing site: A Moodle site: that wants to make some of its courses available for download, Community site: A
Moodle site that provides courses that are enrollable).

enabling self enrolment for the course. [24, 25,26, 27,

VI. MOOCH 28].
Courses must satisfy certain criteria in order to be
Moodle.org create a share directory for Moodle 2.0 approved and published for sharing on MOOCH. Sites,
courses site for Moodle users that is called Moodle.org they must first be registered with hub servers (either go
Open Community Hub (MOOCH) (Figure 4). MOOCH
to hub.moodle.org, or ensure your Moodle site is
is the hub feature that connects Moodle 2.0 installations registered with MOOCH). Then hub administrator will
using the Community hub feature. Courses in MOOCH check both course content and manage a course security
are available (for free/paid) for searching to download or process. The download process may trigger the backup
enrol in, they also could monitor newly published process on the original server. Later, Moodle users (who
courses via RSS or follow @moodlemooch on Twitter.
have permissions) can connect to a hub to search for
Course at MOOCH need to be approved by the hub down loadable courses and choose one. The Moodle site
administrator before it appears in the course listing, downloads the file and makes it available to the Moodle
MOOCH allows courses to be update at any time.
user. Later, any Moodle user can connect to a hub (via
Email-based self- registration enabled for the site and

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8
6 Moodle and e-learning Tools

Community block in their site) to search and find courses they want to join[24, 25].

Figure 4. Moodle.org Open Community Hub (MOOCH), shows the steps for Connecting to a community hub.
Managers that capabily for publish a courses at MOOCH can publish courses as shown in Figure 3.b and 3.c. [24, 25]

Figure 5. IUELS design and manage by IUELC main page lyout.

IUELS such as: student support, staff support, gallery,

VII. MOODLE IN ISRA UNIVERSITY electronic registrations, course schedule, university web
site. Figure 5 shows the IUELS designed which
Many faculty member at Isra university (IU) write managed by IUELC.
articals about the important and the features of using
Moodle as an e-learning system at IU. IU create a e-
learning center called IUe-learning center (IUELC) that
VIII. CONCLUSION
mange and update the e-learn system Moodle . Most
courses submited to IUELC and all student at IU are The success of the e-learning paradigm observed in
enrolled too. The courses are aranged in IU Moodle , recent times created a growing demand for e-learning
and many activite have been enably to access. The systems in universities and other educational institutions,
IUELC enrolled other not study courses (services that itself led to the development of a number of either
courses), such as e-library, courses plan, university commercial or open source LMS, also the success of
forms, and other usefl courses for faculty used. The implementing any e-learning system is dependent on the
IUELC allowed to brows other university site throw the needs and concerns of the organization groups that used

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8
 Moodle and e-learning Tools 7

the system, and this will led to encourage the e-learning [11] M. Zenha-Rela and R. Carvalho, Work in Progress:
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Dr. Zahraa Fadhil Muhsen is an assistant profesor at

Isra university since 2005 until now, work in
department of computer siencse.

Dr Adi Maaita is an assistant profesor at Isra university

since 2008 until now, work in department of software
engineering.

Dr. Ashraf Odah is an assistant profesor at Isra

university since 2010 until now, in department of
computer siencse.

Dr Ayman Nsour is a professor at Isra University , in

the departement of computer science.

Copyright © 2013 MECS I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2013, 6, 1-8