In Mark’s intro to the presentation I particularly like “Unless your name is Neo and you can learn by jamming a cable into the back of your skull then learning all there is to learn about Moodle will be a gradual process” and when regarding labels and resource titles; “If content is the food, think of context as the menu”.

Check out more Netspot presentations at http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot

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

Here are a few of the most recent additions of courses you can download,

• Biology
• PHP/MySQL Course
• Mystery Moodle Fun
• Using Multimedia Tips
• Climate Change Course

And more.  There are now 15 courses to download.

All courses are for Moodle 2.0, and you can also search for courses to enroll in (which includes free and paid courses).

http://hub.moodle.org/

You might also check out their very nice looking Moodle (the StudyZone) at: http://moodle.roehampton.ac.uk/

Below is embedded their video highlighting how to move content around when AJAX controls (the drag and drop) have been enabled [docs about AJAX].  Direct video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA0avM2uHLc.

Check out the full contribution and demo at this Moodle.org thread: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=168937

Frankie uses a program called Xerte which makes creating elearning content and packages easier.  For more about Xerte visit http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/

It’s pretty slick.

Check out Moodletuts.com for more great content.

If you’ve never created a course from the Administrator view or embedded video this is a quick and easy tutorial that can illustrate how.

You might also want to check out:

• @Moodletuts on Twitter
• @Moodletuts on Screenr
• http://moodletuts.com/