Building an online course site in Moodle was a great experience for me. I have familiarity building course sites in Blackboard, so some things came naturally and others were frustratingly difficult. Overall I now feel confident in my skills using Moodle, both what I know and what I can troubleshoot.
The most difficult aspect of building for me was the GUI. I could not figure out how to do it on my own, which I am usually capable of with systems like this. I then turned to the Internet for guidance and came up with nothing. Finally I had to ask classmates and their answer was so straightforward I cringed at my inability. On reflection, I think the process for building a GUI is so different in Blackboard I was allowing this to prevent me from seeing the obvious. I kept looking for a way of building learning modules rather than simply linking the graphics to the course activities. This explains why I probably had no luck searching the Internet as well, since my search terms were obviously wrong. This made me realize there is potential for confusion, especially with less technically savvy teachers, if my college switches from Blackboard to Moodle.
One aspect I really like about Moodle is how the information is presented in a straightforward manner. Users move through the content from top to bottom, which makes sense to me. One of the major complaints about Blackboard at my college is how many clicks it takes to get to the content. This is not an issue with Moodle. The content is right there and there are many navigational features built into the system to guide users through the course.
I am also happy with the opportunity this assignment gave me to practice using html. I have had one other experience in the past using Dreamweaver, but to be honest someone else build the style sheet and I just typed the content in word and did the odd html fix if it did not copy correctly into html. With this assignment I did not have that option. Since it was my first real foray I did not to get too fancy. I decided a clean, sharp, consistent style would be user friendly as well as push me as far as I was comfortable with my first time. I was also limited with the amount of time I could spend using dreamweaver as it was on a stationary, school computer (lunch hours and after work). I am happy with the overall look of my pages and am excited to push myself further in the future.
I am glad I learned Moodle. I did not find it any easier to learn than Blackboard, despite the many claims that it is, but I do feel the system is much more user friendly from the student perspective. I am now confident in my ability to design user friendly course materials.