Most LSU students know the familiar struggle of relentlessly checking Moodle in the weeks leading up to the start of the semester, waiting for courses to appear so that they can read through syllabi and order textbooks. The learning management system is used to disperse class materials and administer quizzes and exams throughout the semester, but for many, their courses don’t show up until the first day of class, making it difficult to adequately prepare. 

Some professors neglect to use the learning management system at all, never uploading grades, materials, or a syllabi. Additionally, classes from the previous semester will often show up on a student’s Moodle page during their current semester, clouding the information they need to see. Students have to wait until professors manually remove the class from their schedule for it to be cleared on their Moodle page. 

Geology junior Sarah Bancroft said she is still waiting for two of her classes to appear on Moodle, almost a month into the semester. Her Moodle page is still clogged with courses from previous years, including one from her freshman year. 

“One of my teachers refuses to use Moodle, he just emails us,” Bancroft said.  “It’d be nice to have Moodle, but he doesn’t like it, so we don’t get it.”

Bancroft said she has not had as much of a problem with professors putting in grades, but some will take until midterms to enter them. Additionally, she’s had issues with purchasing textbooks in time to have them for a class that was posted on the first day of school, and said the bookstore provided the most convenient option, albeit for a higher price than her other options.

“I was given a week,” Bancroft said.  “So it was really just buy from the bookstore or you’re screwed.”

According to university spokesperson Ernie Ballard, students are automatically enrolled in Moodle courses 14 days before the first day of class, but the instructor can manually alter this to range from 0 to 60 days before the semester begins. Additionally, faculty are not required to use Moodle for their courses, and some opt out altogether.

Ballard also said that the tech team at the Faculty Technology Center is working on removing courses from last semester. 

Zoologist professor Dominique Homberger said she believes it’s important for students to see their courses early so they can adequately prepare for the class, but added it can be difficult for professors to put their information up in advance. 

“I can access Moodle for a new course about six weeks before [the semester starts.] If I want to do it in May, I have great difficulties,” Homberger said. “Two weeks before [class], I open [Moodle] up, and then I tell my students it is open.”

Communication disorders junior Darby Gilmore had to wait until the day before classes started to access even one of her courses, and the rest didn’t upload until the first day of school. 

Gilmore said she usually finds it easiest to buy or rent textbooks from the LSU bookstore so she doesn’t have to wait on shipping. This year, however, one of her classes required her to buy a textbook that was out of print and not at the library, a difficult and expensive task to assign students, especially since they weren’t aware of the requirement until the class began.

She added that some classes require students to purchase separate software for completing coursework along with the textbook. While students become accustomed to managing this financial burden over time, that is difficult to do when they do not know their real expenses until the first day.

Natural resource ecology and management senior Drew McMahon said that his current classes usually have coursework uploaded online beforehand with enough time to acquire materials, but before he changed majors from engineering, that wasn’t the case.  

“There are stark differences in what professors put on their Moodle [pages],” McMahon said. “Some will make sure all materials are on there, others will just have their syllabus and tell everyone nothing else will be on there.  I think that just requiring professors to have Moodle up isn’t going to be enough.”

McMahon added that some of his classes required him to get a textbook almost immediately at the risk of falling behind from the outset of the course, regardless of when the course opened on Moodle. He believes that because Moodle is almost ubiquitous at the university, professors ought to at least have a syllabus uploaded online for students to reference later.