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The limitations of Moodle

15 January, 2016 - 09:49

Moodle’s low cost, flexibility and ease of use helps bring LMS technology within the reach of those with limited technical and financial resources. Moodle is a fine example of how and why open source works (Williams et al., 2006). On the other hand, Moodle has some disadvantages and we will mention some of them, as follows:

1. OSS is only for IT experts and is too difficult for normal users to install and use; more than 66% users of Moodle have identified themselves as teachers, on-line learning researchers or educational administrators (Chavan, et al., 2004, Koh, 2006);

2. Lack of simple-to-obtain support. The forum has a great deal of information, but nearly all forums are in the English language (Chavan, and Pavri, 2004);

3. It requires that someone on staff takes responsibility for making it work, you cannot just telephone Moodle technical support;

4. Although good with languages, some developments may be needed for vigorous handling of MathML and enhanced tracking features. Still, this program receives a high recommendation (Wharekura-tini, et al., 2004, Koh, 2006);

5. The Moodle website states that the steps required for getting Moodle up and running on a web server are very simple, but in practise this is not the case. There have been many problems that we have had to overcome, which required a technical understanding of the underlying technology and the way it all hangs together (Shearer, 2003);