Moodle vs. Elgg - Can't we all get along

First of all what is one and what is the other. Well Moodle is a class management system, think class websites. You can give grades in Moodle, and for the most part only the instructor can see student work. Structured and organized by topics or weeks, Moodle allows instructors to guide students through the learning process and evaluate their performance. When the class ends, the user data is customarily wiped out, and everyone gets a sense of closure. It's basically a conventional class minus the paper.

Now Elgg on the other hand, is a much more social, equal, democratic, student-centered (or person centered) system. Everyone has a voice, and your files, and presentations live beyond the classes they originate from. This is a place to evaluate your own performance, allow others to comment, and be part of a dynamic community. The creators of Elgg call it a "learning landscape", a free exchange of ideas tailored to the individual. (It's also great for file storage and backup.)

So which one is better? Anyone who tries to argue one or the other should prpbably take a step back and look at the big picture. Co-existence is the key here, we need structure, and (by "we" I mean the students) and Moodle provides that by breaking the class into topics or weeks, plugging in resources and assignments, and ultimately giving grades. Elgg is for the students to shine, publish their work, express themselves, and over time reflect on what they've learned. Used together, with each being tied to the different approaches tolearning they are designed for, our students get a sense of freedom and individulaism rooted in a structured foundation.

Item Analysis in LMS(Moodle)

Ever wonder which questions students are getting wrong over and over again? Sure you can grade your quizzes by hand and count everything out or you can just have your students take the quiz online and instantly get a report. Moodle and perhaps other LMSs lets you see a breakdown of all the questions.

How does this make your teaching better? Well for one, you may have writtena bad questions which isn't very fair to your students. For two, at least you know what your students don't know. All of this instantaneously.

Wiki and Collaborative Learning

How's this for using the Wiki. First I broke my Moodle class into groups, easily done in Moodle. Then I added a Wiki activity and separated groups so that each group could work on their own. Then in class I had them make study guides based on questions in the text. It went so well I found myself suddenly and eerily obsolete.

Students were able to collaborate and share information so effectively using this system there was little room for my boring lectures and even for helping with questions. Teaching an ESL Geography and World History class, one would think an instructor would be needed but simply dividing the class into groups electronically, giving them study questions, and having them work on creating a study guide together, one that was editable online, that saved all drafts, that would always be there for reference, put me into the facilitator's role and of course, I was there for tech support.

Try having your class make a Wiki, with Moodle, Wikipedia, or any other flavors of WIki. You will be amazed at the ease and effectiveness of the digital collaborative approach.