I am deeply interested in open source and opens standard applications for the K-12 market. Having been an implementer of many different commercial software packages, I am amazed at the large amounts of money that schools and districts are paying for administrative software that is often times simply not good.
I remember the time very clearly when I was evaluating a student information system (SIS) and entered negative test scores, erroneous data such as letters in a numeric field and the SIS simply accepted the entries. I am sure that there could be some customization, but that would likely cost additional implementation dollars that this market can hardly afford.
Thus open source alternatives. Previously I have written about Centre, a young open source alternative to the commercial SIS systems. Today I want to talk about Moodle, an open source Course Management System (CMS). Moodle has over 150,000 registered users and documented over 20,000 sites using Moodle. There are 38 sites that serve 20,000 users or more and one that serves over 42,000. There are 35 certified Moodle partners that provide support and training services for schools and districts that use Moodle. Most of them offer customized development services as well.
It boggles my mind, that a proven open source system in use at over 20,000 places around the world has not achieved a strong foothold in the U.S. If a Moodle implementation can serve 42,000 users successfully, is can provide course management services for over 10,000 U.S. school districts and it is completely free.
Moodle for Windows is distributed in XAMMP, a great package combining Apache HTTP Server, MySQL and PHP, the base components required to run Moodle as well as other open source applications. It has a wizard driven install and a nice control panel like feature that makes for easy management.
Moodle also has a free course exchange where users from all over the world post courses that can be directly imported into Moodle. This truly the desired state of community software and one that is specifically targeted at K-12 education. Moodle has been successful for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the dedication of Martin Dougiamas, the creator of Moodle. Martin's unswerving dedication to Moodle is the reason for its success.
Like most successful open source software, Moodle has a community of developers continually adding modules and plug ins that can be downloaded for free from the Moodle.org site. The continuing growth of the community is ensured by a central organization that continues to support and develop the product. It is an example of how community based software can work.
So, why are you paying all of that money for commercial CMS?
1 comment:
Excellent question!
I bet it's just an awareness thing. Tech departments are typically understaffed and snowed under with "catch-up" work and the every day M&O tasks.
School districts, like people generally, wonder what could I get for FREE? Free usually connotes less value; however, in the case of open source the opposite is usually true. In our marketing to districts we try to have some cost involved so that "ownership" is created and "value" is established. Trying to convince people that you really DO get great value for little or no cost is a change management battle that is better not to fight.
Casey, thanks for the forum to freely discuss these issues. Awarenes may just lead to better results.
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