Statement

New technologies (in particular, the internet) provide teachers with many interesting tools that can be used to improve the teaching–learning process. The usefulness of these tools makes important for teachers to have more information about the advantages and possibilities of using technology in the classroom (Kaminski, 2005), as well as about the results derived from their application(Martin-blas,2008). Learning Management Systems such as Moodle are popular teaching tools with a broad spectrum of features. However, several aspects relevant for computing education are typically missing. This includes the annotation of materials, such as scripts or exercises, the inclusion of slides, and the integration of algorithm visualizations (Rößling , Kothe,2009). Moodle is an open source Course Management System (CMS) that universities, community colleges, businesses, and even individual instructors use to add web technology to their courses. More than 30,000 educational organizations around the world currently use Moodle to deliver online courses and to supplement traditional face-to-face course. Moodle is available for free on the web, so anyone can download and install it. More on that later in this preface (Cole and Foster, 2007). Early on Dougiamas established (http://moodle.org) as a site for user interaction and support. The site is one of the most active and useful sites that this writer has experienced. It isn’t unusual for as many as 100 new users to enroll daily to make use of the various “courses” and “forums’. Discussion areas are available for each major feature of Moodle as well as for those under development and testing. There are also courses for users of Moodle in 40+ languages and dialects, and a “Teachers” Hands-on Playground” where teachers can take full control and experiment with Moodle’s features (Dougiamas, 2004).Learning management systems are becoming ubiquitous technology adopted at institutions of higher learning. Before these systems can be considered effective the user experience must be studied and analyzed to provide the optimum solution to meet pedagogical needs of both faculty and students (Machado,2007). The main advantage of e-learning is the opportunity for students to interact electronically with each other and their teachers during forums, on discussion boards, by e-mail and in chat rooms (Al-Ajlan and Zedan,2008).Though many people associate online CMSs with distance education, we use Moodle to support our traditional classroom instruction and facilitate communication (Perkins and Pfaffman, 2006). The advantages of e-learning as opposed to traditional learning are instantly evident with e-learning making education independent of time and location. More importantly, it opens up fresh possibilities for implementing pedagogical innovations in and environment where students are expected to function as active, independent, self-reflected and collaborative participants (Kakasevski, Mihajlov and Arsenovski,2008).

Moodle is widely used in education this period, research on Moodle could make contribute to education-relate development. It is a kind of method of learning management system, it is available to the main trend of education development. This research for using of Moodle is based on the different faculties including different academic areas in HKU. The using of moodle is divided into three levels (Level 1: news forum, book, calendar, folder, label, page, resource, URL; Level 2: assignment, choice, group choice, feedback, lesson, notes , questionnaire, quiz, survey, Turnitin tool, Iti; Level 3: blog, chat, database, forum, glossary, wiki, workshop). This research try to analysis different level within different academic areas. We will use interview, questionnaire and observation to do data collection. We will focus on teachers and the three different levels. Meanwhile, we try to analysis advantages and disadvantages of Moodle, and what Moodle could contribute to education development. Also, we will discuss about teachers’ and students’ requirements for Moodle, find out the most effective way of using Moodle.

References

[1] Martín-Blas, T., & Serrano-Fernández, A. (2009). The role of new technologies in the learning  process: Moodle as a teaching tool in Physics. Computers & Education, 52(1), 35-44.

[2] Rößling, G., & Kothe, A. (2009). Extending Moodle to better support computing education. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 41(3), 146-150.

[3] Jason Cole and Helen Foster. Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System. O’Reilly, 2007.

[4]Perkins M, Pfaffman J. Using a course management system to improve classroom communication[J]. SCIENCE TEACHER-WASHINGTON-, 2006, 73(7): 33.

[5] Machado M, Tao E. Blackboard vs. Moodle: Comparing user experience of learning management systems[C]//Frontiers In Education Conference-Global Engineering: Knowledge Without Borders, Opportunities Without Passports, 2007. FIE'07. 37th Annual. IEEE, 2007: S4J-7-S4J-12.

[6] Al-Ajlan A, Zedan H. Why moodle[C]//Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems, 2008. FTDCS'08. 12th IEEE International Workshop on. IEEE, 2008: 58-64.

[7] Dougiamas M. Moodle: A virtual learning environment for the rest of us[J]. TESL-EJ, 2004, 8(2): 1-8.

[8] Kakasevski G, Mihajlov M, Arsenovski S, et al. Evaluating usability in learning management system Moodle[C]//Information Technology Interfaces, 2008. ITI 2008. 30th International Conference on. IEEE, 2008: 613-618.

[9] Stewart, B., Briton, D., Gismondi, M., Heller, B., Kennepohl, D., McGreal, R., & Nelson, C. (2007). Choosing Moodle: An evaluation of learning management systems at Athabasca University. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies (IJDET), 5(3), 1-7.

[10] DeSchryver, M., Mishra, P., Koehleer, M., & Francis, A. (2009, March). Moodle vs. Facebook: Does using Facebook for Discussions in an Online Course Enhance Perceived Social Presence and Student Interaction?. InSociety for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (Vol. 2009, No. 1, pp. 329-336).