Cornell Considers Moodle as AlternativeSep 22, 2008 1:00 PM EDT
Cornell University is considering alternatives to their current learning management system
September 18, 2008 - 12:00am
By Seth Shapiro
Tags: News Story
Recently, several universities across the country decided to put an end to their relationships with Blackboard and switch to one of its competitors. Cornell is now evaluating whether it will do the same.
The University is currently testing Moodle, one of Black board’s leading competitors.
The pilot does not stem from complaints about Blackboard, but rather is part of the typical process of making sure that the University is using the best services available, according to Clare van den Blink, assistant director for academic technology services and user support for Cornell Information Technologies.
“This year we’re piloting Moodle to see how it is,” van den Blink said.
This fall and spring semesters, there are 40 courses will to pilot the Moodle website.
“So far, I like Moodle,” said Prof. Jami Carlacio, English, who is using the Moodle pilot for her class ENGL 2880: Making the News: The Politics of the Media. “It’s a clean site, user friendly, and insofar as I have used it for only a month now, seems to be more flexible in ordering and changing course content around. The interface is uncluttered and can be adapted to however you want your students to retrieve materials from your course.”
Van den Blink explained how it was necessary that the professors of the courses who agreed to use the Moodle pilot were users of Blackboard in previous years. Since these professors were experienced with Blackboard, they are able to offer comparisons between the two websites.
“As I see it, Blackboard is less flexible than Moodle. Frankly, I haven’t had to work very hard to figure out Moodle,” Carlacio said.