Innovation++Moodle

Sherri Carey Diffusion and Integration of Technology in Education Professor Carol Watson September 11, 2010 Defense of Innovation for Multimedia Presentation Defense for Moodle as an innovation is not difficult to do because Moodle has so much to offer the educational community. Moodle holds all of the key elements of a successful diffusion as Rogers (2003) defines, for instance, innovation, the idea for online learning is not new but the use of Moodle is new and exciting; communication channel is well established using the Internet as a medium to deliver information; and the rate of adoption is quick because online learning is becoming an established form of education in our society. Successful adoption of this innovation has been seen in other school districts and higher education across the globe. Moodle is an online course management system that allows for online curriculum building. Starting with its roots in Web-CT, Moodle has a huge share of the online learning market mostly due to the fact that it is open source, which means that it is free software and the support for the software is well known to have a large support community. Moodle could be highly beneficial to the educational community because of its ability to create online learning communities for the educators as well as students. Although this online curriculum does not have to replace existing classes; it could be used to enhance education with technology. Educators can build online communities for all subject areas for every level of school. Moodle provides an environment for collaborative learning and allows educators the flexibility to encompass all sorts of learning styles with the varied activities that can be done with the software. The study from Bekim Fetaji and Majlinda Fetaji entitled E-Learning Indicators: a Multi-Dimensional Model for Planning and Evaluating e-Learning Software Solutions, they studied the students learning styles and throughout the study, Moodle is successful with a large percentage of learners being successful in learning new material and being comfortable with the e-learning environment. Innovation is clearly the diffusion method for Moodle, although there is other software used for online learning. Using Internet technology to deliver education is innovative with the key indicators of teaching and learning present for educators as well as students (Rogers, 2003).

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References Fetaji, B., & Fetaji, M. (2009). e-Learning Indicators: A Multi-Dimensional Model for Planning and Evaluating e-Learning Software Solutions. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 7(1), 1-28. Retrieved from ERIC database. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed). New York: Free Press.Rogers,