Until now, course creation and content management processes for Blackboard and Moodle were similar: click intensive, minimal drag and drop, prone to page loads, etc.  Themes for Blackboard were far behind the flexibility that Moodle has offered historically (not counting the numerous non-standard themes available).  With SP8 the course creation and course aesthetic for Blackboard has been turned on its head,

• pervasive drag and drop
• obvious editing features
• rollover editing
• simplified tabs
• customize-able CSS (links, font change with themes)
• most features, menus are just 1 click away

The emphasis on fewer clicks, easier editing and improved aesthetics is obvious from the first glance.  Other Learning Management Systems should take note that Blackboard will not go quietly.  If you’re interested in checking out some of the Blackboard features (either as comparison or for ideas in a Moodle course) check out CourseSites.com which has some of Blackboard’s course innovations available already (themes and course layouts/types to name two).

• California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California (article): In April this year CalPoly announced its gradual transition to Moodle from Blackboard.  The move was spurred by a forced upgrade to the newest version of Blackboard which would cause and equally disruptive learning curve comparative with the adoption of other LMSs available on the market.  This provided the impetus to reevaluate LMS needs and requirements.  The absence of licensing fees is sited as a major contributing factor in the decision.
• Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan (article): Andrews is switching from D2L to Moodle this academic year.  The decision follows their periodic evaluation of software needs prior to the sunset of their D2L contract.  Students, according to the student paper, have reported mixed opinions.
• Bryn Mawr University, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (blog post):  After evaluating and comparing Moodle to Blackboard (the current provider/LMS), Bryn Mawr has decided to transition to the open source software.  During a pilot of Moodle faculty and students found that both systems offered a very similar feature set and capabilities.  According to the information on Bryn Mawr’s Tech Bar site, “After the initial costs of transition, the decision to move away from a commercial product that annually increases its subscription costs at rates well ahead of inflation was seen as a major financial sustainability advantage in switching to Moodle.”

It would seem that Moodle is slipping in market share just as it was beginning to pull to the front and lead. I think that’s an inaccurate conclusion. It’s probably more accurate that the media coverage is simply uneven.  There are some better ways to gauge the health of Moodle’s community, here are just a few.

Moodle.org/stats: while the total number of “known” Moodle sites has dipped recently (known = voluntarily registering with Moodle HQ) the total number of registered users continues to grow on average over time.  Up and to the right is exactly where new user growth should be heading.  As for the dip of registered site?  Could be caused by upgrades or consolidation (teachers nixing their single course sites for school-/institution-provided solutions).

Google.com/insights: this is a great way to track search trends over the years.  I plugged in Moodle, Blackboard and Instructure to see their respective search volume over the page 15 months.  The data are pretty cool.  You can see seasonal dips in searches from year over year always in the summer and at xmas time (following traditional academic calendar) for both Moodle and Blackboard.  Moodle still leads and seems to be pulling away in overall search volume.  This could be that Blackboard users simply go to the Blackboard support forums for help (or email their local text staff) or the Moodle perhaps has a more disparate collection of resources and help online (~65% of Moodlenews traffic is through Google searches).  Whatever it is though the growth of Moodle search volume is healthy/thriving.

Do I think Moodle adoption is slipping? No, and I think there’s a bright future for the LMS as its partners continue to improve its flexibility and potential userbase (now providing and customizing products for businesses for example). Not to mention that it has a great community to support it. Other, new LMSs will always crop up and share headlines with Moodle, which is a great thing to drive innovation of the marketplace overall. As I get more experience in online courseware and elearning I’m happy that the marketplace is so robust and that there are so many players; which provides the best possibility that one is exactly what I need).

Unfortunately I do not have a WebCT/BB Vista backup file to test out with their converter, but if anyone does and can please post your experience in the comments.

Other services (data retention, bulk course creation) are also available.  Contact them today for more information: http://www.move2moo.com/Contacts.aspx

The graphic shows some interesting information, including the various origins of brand name learning management systems and their growth over time to 2010.  Nice to see Moodle’s overall growth and continued success.

Check out the article at http://www.deltainitiative.com/index.php/phils-blog/70-new-mentality-enters-lms-market

While Blackboard did come out on top and MSU will upgrade to Blackboard Learning 9.1 rather than changing over to Moodle, there are some good points about what really matters when it comes to a huge transition or LMS adoption, especially when there’s a legacy system in place.  I’ve been through this process once already and can attest that the major drawbacks of switching to Moodle from Blackboard or another LMS really comes down to convenience, time and effort.  Blackboard has a huge advantage of being the first to market with lots of schools on board already, which gives it that much more clout when it comes to consider a switch.

Here are a few of the points raised by Morehead State and from my personal experience,

• If it ain’t broke…: while cost is a major factor, all other things are pretty equal between Moodle and Blackboard.  There aren’t that many functional/technical differences between the two LMSes if you compare each feature.
• Content: it’s a huge undertaking to convert all content from one LMS to another and still have everything (quizzes, discussions, etc.) work flawlessly.  If no LMS is in place yet then the decision is that much easier.  But if you’ve been using X LMS for years then there’s a lot of baggage that will accompany a move
• Features/Plugins: one issue that MSU raised was that SafeAssign, a plagiarism detection tool, was included in the Bb price.  While tools and features are comparable between the systems, a simple “extra” feature can make all the difference (especially if it’s somewhat different or lacking in the alternatives you’re exploring).  Note that Moodle does have support for a few other Plagiarism tools like Crot and Turnitin.

When you make a decision like this you weigh everything; it’s not just the technology versus the technology, the budget versus the budget, it’s all of those collective issues. So, when we really got down to looking at it, the savings in the budget did not singlehandedly override the advantages [link]

There’s been some important news lately about the partnering of content companies and publishers directly with the learning management systems that more often than not serve content to our high school, college and professional development students.  Most recently the announcement came from Cengage (whose sub brands include Brooks/Cole, Delmar, Gale, Heinle, South-Western and Wadsworth) and Moodlerooms who are partnering to make Moodle interoperable with the Cengage digital repository.  Of course, this was fast on the heels of Blackboard announcing a similar content partnership with many of the largest content providers,

• Pearson
• McGraw-Hill
• Cengage
• John Wiley and Sons
• Macmillan

To bring their digital content repositories and textbook supplements that much closer to the end-user by making the LMS a direct mode of delivery.  I’m had a chance to use a few of the Blackboard integrations with Textbook resources and the interface and interoperability is slick and easy to use.  For a hybrid or fully online course mapped to a textbook with rich digital content it can cut course development time and effort drastically.

If it’s a published content arms race, Blackboard has a huge lead over every other LMS in the market.  And as quality content grows in importance in higher education (arguably the cash cow of LMS services) it will be that much more important for LMS companies to provide a large library of possible content that’s easily accessible for integration directly to the classroom.

Moodle has taken a few important steps outside of the traditional published content repositories to ensure that teachers have options when it comes to finding easily integrated content; not the least of which is the nascent MOOCH which provides a community approach to open/community volunteered content. While the current courses listed are small in number and resources/content, there’s the potential that it could soon be a leading source for teachers looking for baseline content for courses.  With Moodle’s growing partner network I’m certain that we’ll see more partnerships between large publishers and Moodle companies.

Increasing the number of published resources available to teachers through Moodle will only strengthen Moodle’s chances for adoption in k12 and higher education (and beyond).

Image source: http://www.somethingdigital.com/category/blog/page/9

This action research study seeks to show in which ways tools such as Moodle and Blackboard can be used to foster learning or become barrier to learning in certain cases in learner centered project based course where students have to create together and/or remix from OER resources or create from scratch what they use in their projects and how course structure reflects the emerging changes in learning environment. Media course using open source software tools and CC licensed remix material was run in one year teacher education going from Blackboard to Moodle as the LMS tool with both distance learners and on campus learners and with instructors from both art and technology.

To check out more of the sessions visit http://tinyurl.com/438r9cm or http://moodlemoot.integrating-technology.org/.

According to the press release [link],

The platform integrates seamlessly with an institution’s learning management system and can also be used independently to enable a wide range of informal interactions across the institution including office hours, school services, student-to-student interaction, and more. The enhanced platform can also support administrative interactions, staff meetings and professional development sessions as well as larger events. The platform’s versatility allows for engagement across the academic community and drives outcomes by promoting a deeper level of interaction…

While the new release includes many features that will be familiar to current Elluminate and Wimba customers, improvements include a simpler user interface, enhanced video conferencing capabilities, and support for learning that evolves from ad-hoc to formal to on-demand.

It’s the end of two known brands in education and the solidification of a new brand name product in Collaborate.

Read more at

• blackboard.com/Moodle
• prnewswire.com/blackboard-launches-new-real-time-collaboration-platform-built-for-education