Blackboard Alternatives

[Teralyn Cohn]

I just received word that our district license for Blackboard is on the chopping block forcing me to use an alternative course management system (free) for my paperless classroom. I am considering Moodle, except that it wiill need to be loaded on a server and I'm not sure I can get the permission for that. I hear hopeful things about Google Wave, but it won't be released in time. I am considering using the Google Apps (Blogger, Sites, Gmail, Docs and Groups) but students won't have ready access to grades (hmmmmm...). Anyone have experiences with any of these? + or - comments welcomed.

[Bryan Frederick Wilson]

I have a similar question. Currently the EKUWP has been told that our Moodle server space may be closed later this summer. We have been a Moodle site for 3 years now but might move to Ning if it works for us. We use our page for everything: emails, announcements, PD sign-up, discussion boards, wikis, projects posting, etc.

[Teralyn Cohn]

SCKWP uses the ning for everything except our anthology. I would love to use the ning, but my district won't allow it because it is a "social network"

[Scott S. Floyd]

You know, through hosts like SiteGround, you can have as many Moodles you want for about $5 a month. That is affordable enough for any site. If you need support, there are plenty of forums and such that will provide that to a willing and needing individual for free

Good luck.

[Kevin H.]

This is tricky, isn't it?
And the permission factor makes it trickier than it should be. (again, we head back to "access" issue).
My guess is that you may have to cobble together a few different apps, which is less than ideal.
I don't have any suggestions, sorry to say.
Kevin

[Bill Gaskins]

Our district will soon crank up Moodle. Our district decided to lease a server for $15 a month and our webmaster has/will be loading Moodle to this server. This has been a good move for us. I can tell you more in the fall. Since our IT department is short handed, this was the best move for us....

Bill

[Bryan Salagovic]

I've used both Moodle and Ning in my classroom, and will probably stick with Moodle for the future. Although I really like Ning, Moodle offers a more secure environment, especially where students are concerned. Moodle allows you to monitor student conversations, including private messages and IMs, enable alerts for various student activities, and create forums/wikis/blogs within the Moodle environment. Ning allows forums and the such, but does not allow monitoring of student activity to such a degree (at least, not that I'm aware of).

Moodle can be a pain to get going, but if you're looking to experiment, Lunarpages offers free web hosting and domain name registration for K-12 educators. More information can be found here: http://www.lunarpages.com/education/. I've been with Lunarpages for about 3 years now (with a pay server, not the free education hosting), and our site hosts through them, and overall I've been very happy.

[Teralyn Cohn]

Is anyone using Google Sites or Edmodo for online instruction? I just learned about Edmodo this evening and it will work for my online class but everything posts to one page, leading to mass disorganization and lost assignments I fear. Perhaps I haven't delved deep enough into the application.

Edmodo is a collaborative platform with blogging and online assignment submission as well as a grade book. However, EVERYTHING (assignments, blog posts, notes, alerts, etc) posts to one page.

[Scott S. Floyd]

If you are on Twitter, shoot your Edmodo suggestions to @Zemote. He is one of the co-founders and is more than happy to answer questions or discuss issues.

You should seriously consider Moodle if you want a strong foundation for a paperless classroom. I currently have three middle school teachers beginning the process of developing their paperless classrooms. They are testing and modifying this year with the goal of being as close to 100% paperless next year as a public school, standardized testing classroom can be.

[Scott S. Floyd]

Moodle rocks. If you are not able to install it on your server, just go grab a free room at Moodle Rooms. Our entire virtual high school is based on Moodle. Most of the school districts in TX who are venturing into the VHS realm have chosen Moodle as well. It allows us to share courses with each other, too. You will not regret using it. There are tons of modules to make it the system you want: http://moodlerooms.com/moodle-uses/k-12/

[Teralyn Cohn]

Just received the answer from our district. I am going to pilot a Moodle application on Keys to School. It is a free application and you can have up to 250 users on your Moodle app. Since it is free, I'm sure that space will be limited. In fact, one of my IT advisors said if anyone will "crash" this system it will be me, so I should go for it! This will be the evidence to the district to load Moodle on the district server.

I'll let you know how it works. I've already set up my 5 classes with 3 assignments each and will be populating with students this weekend.