A new Moodle website will greet students and instructors when they return to school this week.
Learning Management Systems Administrator Buddy Ethridge said the new Moodle was beta tested in 35 courses during the spring 2012 semester.
Moodle 2, part of the myLSU portal, was fully implemented in June, a day after PAWS was retired and replaced with myLSU.
Ethridge said the most noticeable change is Moodle 2’s modernized appearance. A mobile version of the Moodle website is also available.
For instructors, a Gradebook builder with a customizable graphic interface was added, and all editing functions can now be found in one place.
Despite the changes, Moodle 2 closely resembles its predecessor. Ethridge said the switch to Moodle 2 was more about making improvements than moving to something completely new.
Mathematics senior Steven Li said he hasn’t noticed any major differences between the old and new versions of Moodle.
“It’s like the same thing except the layout, but it’s not easier or harder to navigate,” he said.
However, the transition to Moodle 2 has not been as smooth for some instructors. Ethridge said some instructors struggled to adjust to the new technology.
“Almost every time we make a big change, the negative feedback is an aversion to change,” he said.
Graduate assistant Laura Crosswell, who taught a mass communication course over the summer when Moodle 2 was used campus-wide, said she had problems learning how to post grades using the new Gradebook builder.
“I had certain assignments weighted differently in my class, and it was difficult to figure out how to do that,” Crosswell said.
She attributed some of the confusion to the Gradebook builder’s customizable appearance, which she said was difficult to properly set up.
Crosswell said her issues with Moodle 2 were just part of overcoming a learning curve.
“After I adjusted and figured out how to use it correctly, it worked in my favor,” Crosswell said. “Things still don’t upload as easily as they did on the old Moodle, though.”
Ethridge said much of the feedback from beta testers were questions about how to use new features. He said users have also offered constructive suggestions that have been used to make further improvements.
