About Moodle
Moodle is actually an acronym—MOODLE (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment). Moodle is modular in the sense that there are many modules and
plug-ins available for users to add to any Moodle site in order to extend its
functionality. These modules are interchangeable, which gives users the
flexibility to customize Moodle.
Schools, universities, and companies have heavily adopted Moodle. Many schools
and universities use it as a tool for online instruction while others use it as
a supplement to face-to-face/brick-and-mortar classrooms for a blended learning
approach. Many companies are also using Moodle as a corporate training tool to
educate employees and customers.
History of Moodle
Martin Dougiamas is the original developer and founder of Moodle. He released the first beta version in November 2001 (Martin Dougiamas at EDUCAUSE 2010 by Michael Felderstein). Moodle 1.0, the first feature-complete version, was released on August 20, 2002. Moodle 2.0 was released on November 24, 2010. Moodle 3.0 was released November 16, 2015. Dougiamas followed the social constructionist pedagogy in order to develop five guiding principles, which he used to design and develop Moodle. We'll review those shortly.
As of August 2018, there were 100,130 registered Moodle sites. Visit moodle.org to view more Moodle statistics. Today, it is the world’s most widely used open-source LMS, with more than 131 million users and sites in 231 countries.
Moodle Community Resources
There are many Moodle resources available. Take a minute to view these sites and bookmark them as favorites for future reference.
- Moodle Docs: Anyone can contribute to Moodle Docs. It's a wiki of user-generated content. It's a great reference as you work in Moodle.
- Moodle Tracker: This site displays the current status of each Moodle release. You can vote for specific feature requests and bug fixes.
- Moodle Forums: This page allows you to discuss Moodle with the Moodle community.
- Moodle HQ Channel: YouTube channel of Moodle features.