Learn@UW or Moodle: Which to Use?
Learn@UW and Moodle are two leading course management systems that allow instructors to manage online course sites. This document outlines the similarities and differences of the two systems as well as how to obtain access and assistance at UW-Madison.
Both Learn@UW and Moodle provide instructors with a common set of tools to share course materials, communicate with students, host online discussions, collect assignments, and manage grades.
Learn@UW is powered by industry-leading software licensed from
Desire2Learn (D2L). Learn@UW is available for use by all campuses in the UW System.
Moodle is a prominent open-source course management system that is currently available at UW-Madison in
several colleges, schools, and units.
Why two course management systems?
UW System selected Desire2Learn as a system-wide centrally-supported course management system in 2002. Recently, some schools and colleges on campus have turned to Moodle to provide additional features in response to needs and requests from faculty and staff.
A number of factors may influence which technology is chosen for the delivery of a course including:
- Availability of features and their match to an instructor's teaching objectives
- Amount of interaction desired between students and instructor
- Personal preference for interface design
- Level of support available
Instructional technology consultants are available to help discuss your use of course management systems (see links below).
Why would an instructor choose Learn@UW?
Learn@UW (Desire2Learn) is designed to support many fundamental, online needs for teaching and learning such as distributing class materials, hosting online discussions, collecting assignments, and administering quizzes and grades. Learn@UW course sites offer a familiar design that is consistent across most Learn@UW courses. Extensive support for Learn@UW is available to all instructors and staff on campus.
In addition to the common tools described in the Introduction, Learn@UW provides the following:
- Available for all courses taught at UW-Madison
- Extended after-hours support for all students, faculty, and staff through the DoIT Help Desk
- Scantron exam grade imports from UW Testing & Evaluation
- Automatic generation of course sites for all timetable courses. Instructor may activate at any time.*
* Several UW-Madison Moodle environments also offer this feature. Please check with your
local Moodle provider for further details.
Why would an instructor choose Moodle?
Moodle was designed to support a more collaborative and participative teaching and learning environment. As an open source system, local technologists have the ability to customize Moodle to meet the unique needs in their department, school, or college.
In addition to the common tools described in the Introduction, Moodle provides the following:
- Tools that facilitate activities such as peer evaluation, peer commenting, and group work
- More choices of course formats and design templates
- Specialized support for math/science notation*
- Specialized support for foreign languages, including voice recording*
* These features are not standard to Moodle but are available in certain departments. Please check with your
local Moodle provider for further details.
Where to go next?
If you would like to further discuss your use of a course management system at UW-Madison, you are encouraged to contact one of many instructional technology consultants at UW.
Other resources:
| Keywords: | learn@uw learnuw d2l desire2learn moodle discussion quiz course wiki | Doc ID: | 11773 |
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| Owner: | Jeff B. | Group: | Learn@UW Madison |
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| Created: | 2009-07-17 | Updated: | 2009-07-21 |
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| Sites: | Help Desk, Learn@UW Madison, Moodle, School of Education |
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