Moodle

The transfer from Blackboard to Moodle will bring several other additional advantages including:

• A more user friendly system
• Improved links with web2.0 sites such as Flickr, YouTube, Picassa and WikiMedia
• Improved collaboration between Higher Education Institutions and Colleges, as Moodle is now used widely across the sector
• No limitations on licences to encourage greater integration and joint projects with partners at home and internationally
• Compatibility with other 3rd party commercial systems such as Turnitin, Campus Pack and Banner
• Lower running costs meaning that additional sums can be spent on improving University facilities
• Greater integration with existing University systems

The University has been working with the Students' Association to ensure that the transition between Blackboard and Moodle is as straight forward as possible.

Even though the transfer from Blackboard to Moodle will not officially commence until the start of Trimester 3, students will be able to gain access to our 'pilot' server in the coming weeks. This will provide an early opportunity to explore the new system as a guest, so no login will be required. This will provide access to generic, test modules and enable students to get a feel for how the system works, but students' own modules will not be provided. Further details will be provided when the pilot server is available. Please note that no teaching will take place on this server.

Students studying in Trimester 3 will be given access to Moodle for the start of teaching as well as Moodle guidance, and all other students will be given access thereafter.

To ensure that the transition from Blackboard to Moodle is as smooth as possible, we will be recruiting Student Champions who will be on hand at various campus locations from September 2012 to assist those needing support in using Moodle. If you are interested in becoming a Student Champion (training will be provided), please email president@sauws.org.uk

As part of the implementation process there has been and will continue to be a significant element of engagement with colleagues. Volunteer staff began to engage with the system during a first pilot phase in December 2011. We held our first staff forum on 14th February at Paisley Campus which provided colleagues with the opportunity to hear more about Moodle and ask any questions they may have had. There will be more of these sessions in the coming weeks and months.

We also asked colleagues who will be using Moodle to identify their preferred learning method by the end of February. Staff development events began in February 2012 and will continue through to June 2012 and materials have been made available to meet this demand. This will enable colleagues to be up to speed on the system by the time Moodle is implemented in June.

Colleagues can access Moodle FAQs via the following link: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/

More information will appear on this page as it becomes available. Please check back regularly for updates.