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Book Review: Moodle 2.0 First Look
melbenson writes "The open-source software Moodle has become one of the most popular Learning Management Systems around the world. The release of Moodle 2.0 came with hundreds of changes, new features and even completely rewritten features. Because of these major changes and potential issues when upgrading from Moodle 1.9, there has been a lot of fear and uncertainty among Moodle admins in the Moodle Community when it comes to Moodle 2.0. I am one of those admins and that is why I chose to read Mary Cooch's book, Moodle 2.0 First Look. Keep reading for the rest of Melissa's review.
Moodle 2.0 First Look
author
Mary Cooch
pages
255
publisher
Packt Publishing
rating
9/10
reviewer
Melissa Benson
ISBN
978-1-849511-94-0
summary
Discover what's new in Moodle 2.0, how the new features work, and how it will impact you
Moodle is a free and open-source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) that was created by Martin Dougiamas. There are currently 50,000+ registered Moodle sites with over 1 million registered users in the moodle.org community, which creates a lot of discussion and debate especially around the topic of Moodle 2.0 . The long awaited release came after several delays resulting in a much later release date than expected. Perhaps the reason for the all of the delays was because of the scope and amount of changes in Moodle 2.0. I am currently a Moodle admin in a K-12 school district and I plan to upgrade our Moodle 1.9 site to 2.0 in this summer. I read this book hoping to learn about the new features, relieve any fear and to gain confidence in upgrading. In Mary Cooch's book, Moodle 2.0 First Look, the cover accurately describes the book, "Discover what's new in Moodle 2.0, how the new features work, and how it will impact you".
First, this book is for everyone, although not all chapters will pertain to a non-admin user. Readers should have intermediate level knowledge of Moodle features and how they work. Throughout the entire book the author describes what's new and changed in Moodle 2.0 by comparing it with version 1.9. Second, I believe it to be most useful for readers who are currently using 1.9 and will be upgrading to 2.0. However, it can be somewhat helpful for Moodle users just starting off with 2.0 because it does describe Moodle 2.0 and it's features (although it could get distracting when the author mentions 1.9). Finally, although it's not required, I highly suggest having a Moodle 2.0 site to work with when going through the book. I found the book's examples easy to follow which consisted of step by step directions and illustrations for each example. Moodle is a free software which an be downloaded at moodle.org and can be installed on a host or your local computer (Mac, Windows or Linux).
Chapter 1 acts as a teaser to the rest of the book, giving a brief overview of Moodle 2.0 and the new features which will be discussed in the the following chapters. Chapter 2 jumps right into the quite significant changes in Navigation and Blocks. To help the reader get an idea of different perspectives the author introduces 3 characters which you will follow throughout the book — a student, teacher and administrator. Being able to see a Moodle page at 3 different permission levels lets the reader see which blocks and settings are available depending on the user, which gives the reader a better understanding of the big picture. In the Navigation and Blocks chapter the author shows the differences of navigating between the Moodle Front Page, My Moodle and a Course page along with how the new Blocks and block settings integrate with the process of navigating throughout Moodle.
Chapter 3 tackles another big change which is the new WYSIWYG Editor and File Management. I highly recommend paying close attention and following along on an actual Moodle site in the chapter. There are some big changes in file management and the book does a good job of showing the reader how the new File Picker works and looks. The book covers a new concept when uploading and storing files that users will need to know and the book provides nice screenshots and examples allowing the reader to follow along on their own site. File management in Moodle 2.0 works totally different than in 1.9 and could cause confusion for users. The author gives some tips and advice on how to make the transition of this change easier for your users. New integrations with services like YouTube, Flickr and Google Docs are examined and explained. As an admin I will definitely need to do more research when it comes to the back-end, file structure concept issues and changes. The book covers the how-tos and interface changes
Chapters 4 and 5 cover what's new in Activities and Resources. These two chapters cover the changes and small new features nicely, but it's an easy read as there is nothing too complicated in the differences. The Resource names in 2.0 are different and some have been combined. A nice image comparing 1.9 to 2.0 is shown to the reader. One notable feature rewrite is the Workshop Activity and improvements have been made to the Wiki and Quiz.
For me, the most complex section was Chapter 6 "Managing the Learning Path" which introduced the powerful new feature of conditional activities. The author dedicated a large section to this topic and it is imperative that the reader follows along on their own Moodle site. The author goes through a few real life examples to test your knowledge. Chapter 7 eases up and describes the significant improvements in Blogs and Commenting. The final chapter named "Admin Issues" covered a lot of essential and commonly used material. The author goes over each item in the Admin Block on the front page. The topics of users, permissions and plugins were covered most extensively. A must read for all Moodle admins to show what to expect in Moodle 2.0, but as the author points out at the beginning of the chapter, it is in no way meant to be a complete administration guide.
I believe the book delivered exactly what it said it would — a "First Look". As expected, the book was an overview of Moodle 2.0 that introduced but only touched on the new and changed features. However, as mentioned in my review some features were discussed in more depth than others. The book does a good job of comparing version Moodle 1.9 to 2.0 to show the differences and how it could potentially impact me and my Moodle site. Although there is still fear and much more research needed before an upgrade it did give that "first look" and I'm much more comfortable with how Moodle 2.0 works — the hurdle for me and other admins will be the upgrade process. I believe this book is a great first step in a long journey to moving to Moodle 2.0.
Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this book free of charge by the publisher for review purposes. They placed no restrictions on what I could say and left me to be as critical as I wanted so the above review is my own honest opinion.
You can purchase Moodle 2.0 First Look from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
First, this book is for everyone, although not all chapters will pertain to a non-admin user. Readers should have intermediate level knowledge of Moodle features and how they work. Throughout the entire book the author describes what's new and changed in Moodle 2.0 by comparing it with version 1.9. Second, I believe it to be most useful for readers who are currently using 1.9 and will be upgrading to 2.0. However, it can be somewhat helpful for Moodle users just starting off with 2.0 because it does describe Moodle 2.0 and it's features (although it could get distracting when the author mentions 1.9). Finally, although it's not required, I highly suggest having a Moodle 2.0 site to work with when going through the book. I found the book's examples easy to follow which consisted of step by step directions and illustrations for each example. Moodle is a free software which an be downloaded at moodle.org and can be installed on a host or your local computer (Mac, Windows or Linux).
Chapter 1 acts as a teaser to the rest of the book, giving a brief overview of Moodle 2.0 and the new features which will be discussed in the the following chapters. Chapter 2 jumps right into the quite significant changes in Navigation and Blocks. To help the reader get an idea of different perspectives the author introduces 3 characters which you will follow throughout the book — a student, teacher and administrator. Being able to see a Moodle page at 3 different permission levels lets the reader see which blocks and settings are available depending on the user, which gives the reader a better understanding of the big picture. In the Navigation and Blocks chapter the author shows the differences of navigating between the Moodle Front Page, My Moodle and a Course page along with how the new Blocks and block settings integrate with the process of navigating throughout Moodle.
Chapter 3 tackles another big change which is the new WYSIWYG Editor and File Management. I highly recommend paying close attention and following along on an actual Moodle site in the chapter. There are some big changes in file management and the book does a good job of showing the reader how the new File Picker works and looks. The book covers a new concept when uploading and storing files that users will need to know and the book provides nice screenshots and examples allowing the reader to follow along on their own site. File management in Moodle 2.0 works totally different than in 1.9 and could cause confusion for users. The author gives some tips and advice on how to make the transition of this change easier for your users. New integrations with services like YouTube, Flickr and Google Docs are examined and explained. As an admin I will definitely need to do more research when it comes to the back-end, file structure concept issues and changes. The book covers the how-tos and interface changes
Chapters 4 and 5 cover what's new in Activities and Resources. These two chapters cover the changes and small new features nicely, but it's an easy read as there is nothing too complicated in the differences. The Resource names in 2.0 are different and some have been combined. A nice image comparing 1.9 to 2.0 is shown to the reader. One notable feature rewrite is the Workshop Activity and improvements have been made to the Wiki and Quiz.
For me, the most complex section was Chapter 6 "Managing the Learning Path" which introduced the powerful new feature of conditional activities. The author dedicated a large section to this topic and it is imperative that the reader follows along on their own Moodle site. The author goes through a few real life examples to test your knowledge. Chapter 7 eases up and describes the significant improvements in Blogs and Commenting. The final chapter named "Admin Issues" covered a lot of essential and commonly used material. The author goes over each item in the Admin Block on the front page. The topics of users, permissions and plugins were covered most extensively. A must read for all Moodle admins to show what to expect in Moodle 2.0, but as the author points out at the beginning of the chapter, it is in no way meant to be a complete administration guide.
I believe the book delivered exactly what it said it would — a "First Look". As expected, the book was an overview of Moodle 2.0 that introduced but only touched on the new and changed features. However, as mentioned in my review some features were discussed in more depth than others. The book does a good job of comparing version Moodle 1.9 to 2.0 to show the differences and how it could potentially impact me and my Moodle site. Although there is still fear and much more research needed before an upgrade it did give that "first look" and I'm much more comfortable with how Moodle 2.0 works — the hurdle for me and other admins will be the upgrade process. I believe this book is a great first step in a long journey to moving to Moodle 2.0.
Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this book free of charge by the publisher for review purposes. They placed no restrictions on what I could say and left me to be as critical as I wanted so the above review is my own honest opinion.
You can purchase Moodle 2.0 First Look from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
did anybody else read the subject as noodle 2.0? sounds like a trendy pho place in palo alto.
-- Flame me and I will happily flame you back. Bring it!
Mary is very active on the Moodle message boards, and has helped many people with Moodle issues. Just told my boss to order a copy of this book for me, we plan to upgrade to Moodle 2.0 this summer as well.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Packt works with reviewers in a method pretty much identical to other tech publishers. I'd be interested in hearing what you think constitutes a "shill review" and how you know this is one.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Hi guys, I just wanted to make a comment on the latest with Moodle 2.x. I submitted this review on March 25th and in those few months there has been a lot of activity and progress made regarding performance issues, patches and bugs. Moodle 2.1 comes out today and the biggest (most important) improvement is the ability to import 1.9 courses into 2.1. Other updates include the ability to clone activities and resources and a question engine rewrite. I highly recommend admins to use http://tracker.moodle.org/ . See 2.1 release notes here: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_2.1_release_notes I hope this will help ease the transition/upgrade and if you have any questions I'd be happy to discuss and help out.
So a well known member of a community was paid off to sacrifice their reputation in order to recommend a bad book. You find that to be the probable situation because, though you've not read this book, you know it's poorly written and edited because of the publisher.
I'll never understand the thought process that leads to this kind of idiocy. And I wouldn't care but Melissa took the time to read and write the review and then has to put up with this kind of nonsense.
I don't know her, but I know what it's like to post a review here and have morons pop in to decry the effort because the only possible explanation for the review is some kind of monetary conspiracy.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
In no way did I get "paid off" to read or review this book. Unless getting a free copy of the book means getting paid off..I'm an active Moodler on moodle.org, twitter, have a Moodle blog and participate in a lot of networking with Moodlers. I enjoy reading Packt's books and this book was no different. I hope it will help others and like I said if I can help in any other way I'd be happy to.
Does Moodle 2.x suck less from an administration and content creation standpoint than Moodle 1.x?
I have to administer and do class creation on Moodle at work and from my experience with it, it's farking awful.
The last time I looked at moodle was in 2008, and here's what my notes say: "Looking at the log of debian bug reports, it seems that it's extremely poorly maintained and packaged. There are major outstanding bugs, including security-related bugs. Some of the bugs in the serious categories go back for over a year." Still true? No longer true?
I teach at a community college, and our district pays big bucks to run a similar system using proprietary software. The thing is, the main cost isn't software, it's hardware, administration, and support.
Find free books.
Is this a statistical aberration or did all the other publishers go out of business?
I've been at schools using both Moodle and Blackboard (the commercial variant), and my experience as a student suggests that they're fairly interchangeable.
The most important thing with both of them is an a instructor who's willing to take the time and effort to learn and use them effectively. Really engaged teachers can make excellent use of these systems, and make life - and learning - easier for students. If your teacher is the kind who's just pulling a paycheque, these systems are a waste of money.
Three Squirrels
I agree with waiting to upgrade until 2.1 (comes out today). If you are starting fresh and have not been using Moodle 1.9 then I would install Moodle 2. I'm not quite sure what appointment scheduler you're talking about but I would just use the new Google Appointment feature! Use whatever tool works best! Moodle's good at some stuff and other things are better at other stuff!
I actually had a faculty member ask me about Moodle yesterday. I'd never heard of it, so I did a quick google search - followed by a sans.org search. It appears Moodle doesn't have the best security track record... and since it doesn't seem to offer anything beyond what our university's Catalyst system does, there's no good reason to add yet another piece of software to the mix (note that I don't have to manage Catalyst, but I would have to manage Moodle - so I'm not completely impartial here).
#DeleteChrome
They aren't all from Packt. I know this because I have submitted, and had accepted reviews for books from O'Reilly, Tor, Penguin, Manning, Addison-Wesley and others.
I have submitted reviews for Packt books that were not green-lit for the front page.
The book reviews at slashdot work like all the other submissions. A person writes one, submits it and if the editors o.k. it, it goes to the front page. It's that simple. They don't take them all, and they don't explain why, just like with other submissions. I guess it is possible that there are people getting payed to write reviews and submit them, but I would guess that this is less likely than so many commenters seem to imply.
In a lot of cases, it's folks like me, that enjoy writing reviews. I haven't been able to do any in a while because life has been too busy and writing them is a lot of work, but I'll probably start again later this year if things slow down a bit as I expect.
Once I had a review green-lit on slashdot I did receive emails from others that would like me to review books. They are willing to provide a book, but there's no payment, no conspiracy, nothing. And on some of those books I was given, I wrote negative reviews. But usually if I didn't like a book I didn't take the time to review it. I rather let people know about books I like, rather than spending effort and time complaining. I think this explains some of the positive skew that is seen in review scores.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
So, you're saying a good review can be bought only for the price of a new book, eh?
I kid, I kid. It was a well written review. One question - is there an automated migration process for the 1.9 to 2.0 upgrade, or does it take a lot of manual tweaking?
What are you doing about staff development for the changes in Moodle 2? I support a number of districts, and that's my biggest concern. We've got teachers comfortable using it finally, and training on the new file management system alone is going to be a pain...
stored on computers from birth to the grave
We sort of changed our mind with the upgrade and decided to install a fresh version of 2.x which will be used for new staff development courses and a few super Moodlers. Part of that reason is that prof development/training. We plan on getting feedback from Moodlers about what is most different and make our trainings include those things. We may open the 2.x up to more after 6 months and within a year have everyone moved over. We want to make a good Moodle training course and face to face training so it eases the "pain" of learning a new Moodle. The one thing that I would try getting across to staff is reasons why they WANT to change to 2.x - all of the awesome new features. Try and make them see how much better it is..I mean if you tell them they can have a quiz hidden until they get 85% on the practice quiz...they'll be first in line to learn 2.x! http://www.moodlebites.com/enrol/index.php?id=116 is a course for 1.9 to 2.0. I have not seen how good it is.