iSean

i discovered a new resource that looks very promising for folks who want to have online learning resources. the site is called OpenAcademic and is all about helping educators to use various resources (e.g., Drupal, Moodle, Elgg, and MediaWiki). their first order of business is creating an integration across these various tools so that a student would only have to login one time and be able to use all tools an instructor chooses from the above list. that’s a big deal, for what it’s worth. well, i discovered the site and promptly posed a question about using Drupal AND Moodle at the same time. i received a quick response and left a comment, which is similar to the rest of my post here:

i am *really* struggling with what to use for 2 online courses (two sections of the same undergraduate education course) i am teaching this fall . . . and this fall starts in about 3 1/2 weeks.

i got very excited when i learned that someone was using the Google summer of coding to make a module for Drupal that would be a grade book and assignment manager. that inspired me to install Drupal on my server because it seemed like the missing link. i spent about a week or 2 learning some of the intricacies of Drupal and also installing various modules and doing customization, etc. i could go with Drupal, but i really don’t like the forum. so, i am going to have my students use a phpBB forum i’ve installed and i’ve previously used this forum and know the ins-and-outs and features. that’s going to be two logins — plus, since the grade book / assignment manager is not done for Drupal as yet, my students will also have a login for our university provided Blackboard, which i’ll use for grades only (and maybe the assignment manager in BB since it’s decent). i’ll recommend that my students use the same login across all tools, but it’s still going to be many logins . . . and, i’ll have them create blogs as well (i’ll be exploring Elgg later on).

on the other hand, this week i installed Moodle and have been fiddling with it as well. i don’t like the forum included with Moodle either. so, i’ll still link to my phpBB forum, but i could use Moodle’s grade book and that would eliminate Blackboard — i like the idea of only using tools that are free as i work with preservice educators who will be on limited budgets in their own classrooms some day. but, i don’t want to go with Moodle over Drupal just for one feature. there’s just something i haven’t quite put my finger on with regard to Drupal, but i like it much more than Moodle (perhaps the number of modules and the speed that new modules appear???). then again, if i can decide that Moodle is a better tool for my students this semester then i can’t let my bias get in the way of a better learning experience.

time is running out. i am going to continue preparing to use Drupal and Moodle and probably not decide until the final week. hmmm. hmmm. 2 blog posts in 2 days — must mean i am getting back into academia mode. ;~)

Tags: OpenOffice, Drupal, Moodle, Elgg, learning, Blackboard, phpBB, elearn