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.

The book is structured
in a logical and linear fashion: the author aims to guide you through
the full application implementation and course development process. The
text seems to be aimed primarily at teachers and trainers and the
author spends the majority of the manual discussing – in detail and
very effectively - the processes, “how-to’s” and “gotchas” of using
Moodle from a teaching and training perspective. I must point out that
something strange must have happened during the editing process of the
book, as there’s some glaring typos (and even a whole word omitted from
the back cover of the text) which are a distraction, but do not deter
from the usability of the manual.

As
I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this book was my companion
through a recent upgrade from Moodle 1.6 to 1.9, and it did not let me
down. As an experienced Moodle user, I used the book very much as a
“just enough, just in time” resource rather than as an end-to-end guide
through the application. My experience was that the text works very
well when used in this fashion. Some other positive aspects of my “user
experience” of the text included the author’s accessible and direct
writing style and use of web-based resources like a downloadable Moodle
Project Plan. In my view this text is a straightforward and reliable
companion for those who seek to find out more about – and use – Moodle
1.9.

http://elearningcurve.blogspot.com

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