moodle

I opened my copy of Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development by William Rice with a high expectation that it would be an informative and practical reference text. Why? I was about to upgrade to Moodle 1.9. Did it meet my expectations? 

Now read on...

Using open source software can be a daunting experience, regardless of your technical or business experience, and this text's purpose is to shorten users' path to competency in the application. Broadly speaking, the text covers four Moodle-related activities:

• Installing and configuring Moodle 1.9
• E-Learning course development and delivery
• E-Learning course management
• Moodle administration and maintenance

The author assumes zero previous knowledge of the application, and begins by describing Moodle’s Social-Constructionist approach to learning, before bringing the reader on a whistle-stop tour of Moodle 1.9’s features and functionality– a very good idea indeed, as this goes some way to providing an understanding of why Moodle 1.9 looks and works the way it does for newcomers, acts as a pertinent reminder for experienced Moodlers, and sets the context for the course creation sections later in the book.

Moodle Course Conversion: Beginner’s Guide is a new book from Packt that provides the quickest way for teachers and trainers to turn their familiar teaching materials into a Moodle e-learning course. Written by Ian Wild, this book helps to add multimedia, and incorporate existing sounds and videos to improve a course by converting the existing handouts, worksheets, and other resources into Moodle courses.