In the Moodle

Headnote

Open source software has made a huge impact in the software market. One such product could be about to revolutionise e-learning.

To quote a well-worn adage: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. There are some exceptions though, and the free-todownload course management software, Moodle, which also allows users to build e-learning courses and communities, could be one of them.

In the learning sector, Moodle, developed in Australia by the educator and computer scientist Martin Dougiamas, is probably the most high-profile piece of free open source software (OSS). In simple terms, OSS is software that is developed through public collaboration because anyone can have access to the source code and therefore modify or extend it to suit their needs.

"Moodle has allowed many organisalions to explore e-learning with minimal risk," says Dick Moore, director of technology at Ufi and a trustee for The Association for Learning Technology.

While Moodle's ease-of-use has ensured it earns the lion's share of attention in the learning sector, there is a raft of OSS projects aimed at education if you hunt around.

Growing market

A browse through the 5,500 projects listed under education on the SourceForge.Net open source website reveals Segue, an open source content management system designed for e-learning that integrates the flexibility of weblogs for creating courses, Dokeos, a content management web application that is translated into 31 languages, and...