Posted by jbc on November 26, 2007 at 7:50pm
Can anyone advise at all on a comparison of the capacities and features of drupaled and moodle?
Thank you.
DrupalEd and Moodle
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Comments
Where to start?
That's really comparing apples and oranges. The two are vastly dissimilar, despite their similar roots.
In my dealings with teachers, I generally characterize Moodle as more linear and structured, while DrupalEd is more flexible and nonlinear. DrupalEd is nodular where content is broken down into nodes or learning objects while Moodle is more focused at the larger "course" level. The DrupalEd interface focuses on the content itself while Moodle has a much greater focus on the management, organization, and tracking of users and content.
exclusivities?
gchaix: are you aware of any exclusive aspects of either package? I.e. things that can / can't be done with one or other — at a macro, rather than micro level, obviously. Or is simply the difference in management of contenet that you have already described.
shalom from wales!
John
comparisons
Thank you, that's helpful.
If anyone else has any further points that would add to my understanding, they will be appreciated.
shalom from wales!
John
Learning Management Systems
As a LMS, Moodle is a lot more specialized and has built in a lot of features which are specific to running an online course. This means that if you intend to set up an LMS, Moodle will be a lot less work. However, if you also intend to use this script to build your school's homepage, then Moodle is a poor choice.
The DrupalEd profile by comparison would be a lot of work to set up as a complete LMS. It's really designed more to give schools some LMS functionality. The strong advantage of the DrupalEd version is that you get all of the power and flexibility of Drupal. You can build your school's website, and right in the same framework, include all of the LMS stuff that is included in the DrupalEd profile. So if you want to image galleries, webforms, database management tools, then DrupalEd is the way to go because it is built on Drupal which allows all of those things.
Another possibility that is starting to see some light is that it should be possible to link Moodle and Drupal. You would give both Moodle and Drupal a common theme, and when users log into Drupal, they are automatically logged into Moodle, which means a user has a seamless experience moving between the two parts of your website. Then Moodle can handle the LMS, for which it is specialized to do, and Drupal can handle all of the content management and general website administration.
Anyway, which one you choose depends largely on what you want to do with it.
Dave
Cooperative Drupal-Moodle sites project
Dave,
You seem to be an active drupal member, can you summarize what the status is of the "cooperative" co-installation and use of Drupal and Moodle together?
Is this project still being worked on or was it too big/complex and died due to its own complexity?
Mark
Mpls, MN
Mark
Mpls, MN
Still ongoing.
The trick/difficulty with integrating Drupal and Moodle is that there are almost countless permutations of what the integration could look like. From a practical place, most people are also more interested in meeting their specific need than in solving a general need that can then be adapted for multiple uses -- a one-off solution meeting a specific purpose is often less expensive in the short run.
There are also questions wrt what system would be the center of the user experience, Drupal or Moodle. IMO, it makes sense for Drupal to be the center of the user-centric experience, with Moodle handling strict course management. However, there are some types of courses where Drupal is a better fit (ie, a class that is more discussion-based/process-oriented, as opposed to something that is teacher-driven. A key strength of Moodle is its structure, which feels familiar to many teachers.)
The waters between Drupal and Moodle get more muddied when one brings up the idea of portfolios -- should they live in Drupal or Moodle? IMO, Drupal makes more sense, as it is not rooted in a course paradigm, but that in turn brings up the question of what content gets ported over from Moodle to Drupal, and how.
This is the short version, and really, all these factors are simply questions that need an answer, and the answers generate the spec. Then, of course, there is the other issue of having the time to code it, which is related to having the financial support to make the time.
The good news: a single username and pw is easy to do, and getting a list of courses from one site to another is also pretty straightforward (although there is no single set-it-and-forget-it solution). So, it's not like there is no interest. However, the challenge lies in turning what everyone agrees is a Good Idea (tm) into a spec that people will agree on.
Although, now that I'm writing this, this sounds like it could be a great Summer of Code project...
Cheers,
Bill
FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers
FunnyMonkey
Drupal-Moodle and user Node Access strategies
Bill,
BTW-We just installed the 5.3.0 DrupalEd on our Linux server and it was clean, elegant and VERY, VERY well done!!! thank you for all your group has done this is such a nice drupal install!!! (great modules included, and superb options to config TinyMCE, the best we have seen!!! Kudos)
Thanks too, for your detailed and well thought out response... the purposes and +/-'s of Drupal and Moodle are indeed a complex set of questions and answers and it very much depends on what you want to accomplish. You give some good ideas to consider carefully...
I am a "scarred" old veteran of working with teachers to build websites (going back many years) and my concern after years of work in this area has changed. These days, I am less concerned with what makes instructors "happy" and much more concerned with how to treat parents and students as very busy and over-extended "customers" and to give them an easy-to-use consistent interface that maximizes time spent.
As such I am trying to find ways to make Drupal (and Moodle) consistent in services and navigation.
One thing I am struggling to get my arms around is managing content pages by organic groups. What inherent +/-'s does OG have over modules like NodeAccess?
In basic Drupal I could never really manage 100+ staff well with Drupal 5 roles, and I am not sure organic groups is a solution I am comfortable with either, especially if it can spawn chaotic services and content pages.
Is anyone in DrupalEd using NodeAccess for a more structured approach to K-12 websites? Any experience good/bad you could share? Thanks much and again, superb job on DrupalEd v 5.3!!
Mark
Mpls, MN
Mark
Mpls, MN