The Link: Issue 4, February 2011

Moodle Community Sites

Did you know that Moodle is used for more than academic courses? While you may not have much interaction with moodle if you have not taught or taken a course, there are new sites you might want to check out. After clicking the moodle link on Inside Augsburg, look for the “moodle community sites” link at the top of the page. [Image1]

Community Sites are areas in moodle for collaboration in groups on campus. This includes sites for student workers within departments for training and information sharing; for the work of campus committees; for student organizations; and many other uses. For example, Human Resources has created a site that is available to all faculty and staff so that information can be easily accessed.

Moodle provides a central location for documents, an easy way to send announcements, the ability for online interaction such as forums or polls, and can persist even when leadership of a group turns over.

Growth in community sites over the years

Augsburg has seen changing use of moodle over the past 6 years. Not all sites that are setup get fully used, but more people are interested in using moodle for more than just courses:

2005-2007: 48 sites
2008-2009: 52 sites, plus we added automatic sites for majors and faculty advisors
2009-2010: 89 sites, plus the majors and faculty advisors sites
2010-2011: we split off community sites, 141 sites plus majors and faculty advisors

If you are interested in what moodle can do, or in creating a community site, contact your LFC.