Who Is Using Sakai & Moodle

A recent exchange online with colleagues in the Moodle community led me to take another look at the statistics about which institutions are using Moodle in comparison with Sakai. Before you read further, know that I think of Moodle as a sister open-source project to Sakai and would celebrate Moodle’s increased adoption and success just as I would Sakai’s.

Up till now, I’ve always felt publicly available information about who is using Sakai has been inaccurate, erring on the side of undercounting, while Moodle’s published usage statistics have always seemed unbelievably high and in need of a lot of interpretation. Steps are being taken in the Sakai Community to do a better job of reporting who is using Sakai and how, but I would like to see even better information available because I know what we have is not yet complete and accurate.

Taking a new look at Moodle’s statistics: clearly, a lot of people download, install and somehow use Moodle, but I find it hard to distill a realistic picture of enterprise use in educational institutions from the big numbers on display. For example, the two instances on record for UNC Charlotte together have 118,352 users and 40,438 sites! There must be more to that story. Big numbers like that just lead me to question what is really being counted. Moodle publishes how their statistics are generated—and it sounds highly credible—but when I look at the actual stats, I’m still left feeling like I’m not getting an accurate picture that really tells me which institutions are using Moodle and how.

As an experiment, I analyzed the 7,724 US sites shown in the Moodle stats as of 11 Nov 2009. 2,070 are private and are not shown and thus unavailable for analysis—hopefully, real Moodle implementations at .EDU sites are not keeping themselves private, as that would be a disservice to the larger Moodle community. Of the remaining 5,654, I was able to find 574 potentially valid .EDU domains (below). Many of them are clearly not enterprise, higher ed implementations, but are rather departmental, project-based or even K12; others appear to be duplicates. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to comb through this list and extract which are actual enterprise, production implementations of Moodle.

While it may look good for Moodle to have such big numbers, I think potential enterprise adopters would be better served if they could find a credible list of peer institutions who have adopted Moodle as their primary, enterprise online learning platform without having to engage in such involved filtering. I’m working with others in the Sakai community to provide exactly that kind of data to help people connect with peers and generate a more useful picture of Sakai’s use.

US .EDU Moodle Sites

(from Moodle as of 11 Nov 2009)

  1. Accessible Technology Initiative
  2. Achieving Competence Today
  3. ACU Online Course Management Alternative: Moodle
  4. Adelphi Moodle
  5. Admissions Moodle
  6. Alachua County Public Schools
  7. Alaska Pacific University Moodle
  8. Albion College Course Webs
  9. Albion College Discussion Boards
  10. Alliant International University
  11. Alma College Courses Online
  12. American Liberty University
  13. American University Of Health Sciences Virtual College
  14. Anaheim University Online
  15. Anderson University Moodle
  16. Andrew Jackson University
  17. Anywhere School
  18. Aquinas College Course Web Pages
  19. Art Center College of Design | dotEd
  20. Aurora University Online Learning System – Moodle
  21. Bacone Online
  22. Baker – Production
  23. Bakersfield College Online
  24. Baptist Bible College and Graduate School Online
  25. Bastrop ISD Online Learning Center
  26. BCMoodle
  27. Beacon’s Online Learning Portal
  28. Bethany Divinity College and Seminary
  29. Bethany Theological Seminary and Earlham School of Religion Online Courses
  30. Bethel College
  31. Bishop George Ahr High School
  32. Blue Ridge Community College Continuing Education
  33. Blue Ridge Community College Online Learning
  34. Boston Baptist College – Course Management System
  35. bricc.lbhc.edu
  36. Brigham Young University
  37. Brooklyn Techincal High School
  38. BuMathEd.Org (experimental)
  39. BYU Mathematics Department Courses
  40. California State University
  41. Career Technology Center Virtual Classroom
  42. Carl Albert State College
  43. Carrier LMS
  44. CASAT Instructor-Led Distance Learning
  45. CBIS DL
  46. CCC CS Moodle: Online Support for Computer Science Classes@ Contra Costa College
  47. CCLE
  48. CCTC Online
  49. Cedarville Moodle
  50. CEHD Moodle
  51. CEHD Online Courses
  52. CEHHS Demo Moodle
  53. Center for Educational Training & Technology LMS
  54. Center for Veterinary Health Sciences
  55. Central Kitsap School District Moodle Site Ver 1.9.2
  56. Centre College Moodle Pilot
  57. Cerro Coso Community College
  58. Chaminade University of Honolulu
  59. Chapman University MathCS Moodle Site
  60. Charger Learning
  61. Chatham University
  62. Chemistry Diagnostic Test
  63. Chemistry Learning Center
  64. Cherokee High School E-Learning
  65. Christian Brothers University
  66. CICADA
  67. City Vision College
  68. CIU Moodle
  69. Classroom
  70. Classroom Portal
  71. CNS Course Site
  72. COE Portal Moodle
  73. Colgate Moodle
  74. Colgate Moodle
  75. Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School
  76. College Math Prep
  77. College of Education and Health Sciences
  78. College of Education Moodle Server
  79. College of Education Moodle Server
  80. College of Education Moodle Server
  81. Collins Career Center
  82. Columbia College Chicago Moodle Site
  83. Columbia College Chicago Moodle Site
  84. Computer Information Systems
  85. Computer Science At Mount Mercy College
  86. Computer Science Moodle
  87. Computer Science Moodle Site
  88. Computer Science Online!
  89. Computer Systems Moodle
  90. Concord Math/CS Department Moodle Site
  91. Concordia Moodle LMS
  92. “Continuing Education, Pharmacy”
  93. “Continuing Education, Pharmacy”
  94. Continuing Professional Education
  95. Cornell College Moodle
  96. Cornell Cooperative Extension Online Courses
  97. Course Support Materials for laddbc
  98. Courses taught by Prof. George Karypis
  99. Courses.monroe.edu
  100. Courses@Colgate (Courses.Colgate.Edu)
  101. CPCC Moodle
  102. Crab Orchard Elementary
  103. “Craig A. Struble, Ph.D.”
  104. CS Moodle
  105. CSC512 Web Sites
  106. CSE Dropbox
  107. CSU Bakersfield Computer Science Course Site
  108. CSU Monterey Bay Moodle (iLearn)
  109. CTER Course Management System – Illinois
  110. CTER Student Moodle
  111. CTYOnline
  112. CTY’s Parent Forum
  113. Cumberland County Schools-Central Office
  114. CUNY Moodle
  115. CygNET – National University of Health Sciences
  116. Dallas Christian College Online
  117. Dallas Nursing Institute Online Learning System
  118. David Carroll
  119. Davis College E-Learning Site
  120. Dean College
  121. Decatur City Schools Training
  122. Deerfield Academy Moodle
  123. Department of Computer Science – University of West Georgia
  124. DePauw University Moodle
  125. Development – Neurobiology and Behavior Educational Partnership
  126. Devin’s Wonder Symposium of Magical Wonders and Candy Fields
  127. Digital Humanities at UNL
  128. Discovery – Northwest University
  129. Distance Learning at Continuing Education
  130. Distance Learning Center
  131. Dordt College Online Courses
  132. Dr. Walck’s Moodle Site
  133. Drew University Moodle
  134. DRI Computer Based Training Site
  135. Dulap MOODLE
  136. Earlham Moodle 2010
  137. Earlham School of Religion Online Courses
  138. East Los Angeles College
  139. Eastern Michigan University: Professional & Ethics Modules
  140. eCampus: FutureEd4U
  141. eCOW2
  142. ECU Moodle Server
  143. Edinboro University of PA
  144. Edmonds eLearning Project
  145. EDUCATION CONNECTION MOODLE
  146. Educational Psychology
  147. Educational Technology
  148. Educational Technology Masters Cohort
  149. Educational Technology Support Center Courses
  150. Edward Waters College
  151. EIS Moodle 1.6
  152. eLearn @ Loras College
  153. elearning
  154. eLearning – Kilgore College
  155. eLearning at the Monterey Institute
  156. elearning.eduhsd.k12.ca.us
  157. Ellensburg School District – Moodle Server
  158. Elmhurst College
  159. Emerging and Exotic Diseases of Animals & Initial Accreditation Training
  160. Emmanuel Online!
  161. Emmaus e-learning
  162. Emmaus Moodle
  163. ESL @ ISU
  164. ESL Services @ UT Austin
  165. ETI Online Training Center
  166. Executive Development Center e-Learning Community
  167. Exploratorium Moodle
  168. Facultad Online
  169. Faculty Development
  170. Fielding Graduate University’s Moodle site
  171. Flint Hills Technical College Online Courses
  172. Florida Center for Instructional Technology
  173. Florida International University
  174. Florida Tech Computer Sciences
  175. Fox Chapel Area School District Moodle
  176. Franklin College Moodle
  177. Fresno Pacific University Moodle Site
  178. GauchoSpace
  179. Gavilan iLearn
  180. Genealogy.edu
  181. GGE Moodle
  182. GOBC course support
  183. Goshen College Learning Management System
  184. Grace Communion Seminary
  185. Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
  186. Graduate Theological Union
  187. Guilford College Moodle
  188. Guilford Technical Community College
  189. GVSU Statistics
  190. Hartwick College Modern and Classical Langauges
  191. Haywood Community College
  192. Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center
  193. Health Services Courses and Workshops
  194. HEBLearning
  195. HMI Courses
  196. Homestead Elementary School
  197. Hood Theological Seminary Moodle
  198. Hope College Psychology Course Sites
  199. HSU Moodle
  200. HTIC Elearning
  201. http://vle.subr.edu/moodle
  202. Humboldt State University Moodle
  203. Huntington College of Health Sciences
  204. IALC Moodle
  205. ICON: Iliff Community Network
  206. iLearn@MPC
  207. Illinois College
  208. Illinois Wesleyan University
  209. IMSA Online Teaching & Learning Environment
  210. Increasing Patient Access to Pain Medicines around the World: A Framework to Improve National Policies that Govern Drug Distribution
  211. insideCatlin Moodle
  212. Iowa State University College of Human Sciences
  213. Iowa State University English Department Courses
  214. Iowa State University Extension Courses
  215. IR Toolbox
  216. Isothermal Community College (The Learning College)
  217. ISUComm Courses
  218. ITA
  219. ITLS @ USU – Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences
  220. IVE Course Management System
  221. Jack Baskin School of Engineering
  222. Jackson Community College
  223. JCSU Moodle
  224. JFK University
  225. JHU Center for Talented Youth Staff Information
  226. Juniata College Moodle
  227. Kalamazoo College Guilds
  228. Kalamazoo College Moodle
  229. Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus eClassroom
  230. KCAI Moodle
  231. Kepler College Coursesite
  232. Keuka College Courses
  233. Keuka Online
  234. Kilgore College
  235. “Klaus Brandl, Ph.D.”
  236. KMSD Moodle
  237. Knox College Moodle
  238. KSC Vietnam Field Study Summer 2009
  239. Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
  240. Lake Forest College Course Moodle
  241. Lake Forest College Moodle
  242. Lambuth University
  243. Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School – PRODUCTION
  244. Landmark College Institute for Research and Training
  245. LATTC Moodle Server
  246. LCA Moodle
  247. Learning with and about technology
  248. Learning with and about technology
  249. Learning@BGU
  250. LearnRightNow
  251. Levelland ISD Web Campus
  252. Lewis & Clark College Moodle
  253. Lewis & Clark College Moodle
  254. Linn-Benton Community College eLearning
  255. Los Angeles Mission College
  256. Los Angeles Southwest College Online
  257. LSU Health Sciences Center Moodle
  258. Lubbock Christian University
  259. Luther College KATIE Learning Management System
  260. Lyceum
  261. Maharishi University of Managment
  262. Manzano Cluster Intranet
  263. Manzano HS Classroom Connection
  264. Manzano HS Classroom Connection
  265. Marina High School
  266. Marywood University Moodle
  267. Math Center
  268. MC Moodle
  269. MCCSC Moodle
  270. McKinley College
  271. Mercyhurst Moodle
  272. Messenger Online
  273. Messiah College Moodle
  274. MHS Cluster Family Connection
  275. MHS Cluster Family Connection
  276. MIAD Course Management
  277. Mid Michigan Community College
  278. MidSOUTH
  279. “Mildred Elley College (Albany, NY and Pittsfield, MA)”
  280. Missouri Valley College – Moodle
  281. MKO Course Site
  282. MLC/WELS Online Learning
  283. Montreat College Online
  284. Montreat College Online
  285. Moodle
  286. Moodle @ Bethany College
  287. Moodle @ Coe
  288. Moodle @ Coe
  289. Moodle @ East Carolina University
  290. Moodle @ Fuller
  291. Moodle @ Jacksonville College
  292. Moodle @ Lawrence University
  293. Moodle @ Rhodes
  294. Moodle @ RMCC
  295. Moodle @ The Dwight School
  296. Moodle @ Tougaloo College
  297. Moodle @ UVa-Wise
  298. Moodle at D’Youville College
  299. Moodle at Kalamazoo College
  300. Moodle at Lane Community College
  301. Moodle at Montclair State University
  302. Moodle at NJIT
  303. Moodle at OIT – Open Source Course Management Software
  304. Moodle at the ELI
  305. Moodle CMS at WV State
  306. Moodle Community at George Fox
  307. Moodle EDTC
  308. Moodle for courses instructed by Dr. Gray
  309. Moodle for ISI Networking classes
  310. Moodle for TAMUCC
  311. Moodle on Chaucer
  312. Moodle One
  313. Moodle University of Washington
  314. moodle.bard.edu
  315. moodle.hccs.hunter.cuny.edu
  316. moodle.macalester 2004-2005 Archive
  317. moodle.macalester Spring 2006
  318. moodle.ncssm.edu
  319. moodle.nl.northweststate.edu
  320. moodle.nts.edu
  321. moodle.oxy
  322. moodle.ucx.ucr.edu
  323. moodle.wittenberg.edu
  324. moodle@CACC
  325. Moodle@Learning Technologies
  326. Moodle@PhilaU
  327. Moodle4Me
  328. moodlearchive.macalester Fall 2005 Archive
  329. MOODLE–SNU’s Online Course Management System
  330. Moss Landing Marine Labs Moodle
  331. Mrs. Liu’s Site
  332. MSUM Fall 2009 Moodle installation
  333. mtest.ucx.ucr.edu
  334. Multnomah Biblical Seminary :: Connect
  335. My Moodle – Wake Technical Community College
  336. MyCBIT LMS
  337. myCourses @ Louisiana State University – Eunice
  338. Nami Group
  339. National School Lunch Program Refresher Module
  340. Native Eyes Indigenous Studies Online
  341. nbep
  342. NC Testing Program Moodle
  343. NCNM Continuing Education
  344. NCSA Education Moodle
  345. NDNU LMS
  346. Nebo School District Moodle Server
  347. Nebraska Christian College Online
  348. Neumont University LMS
  349. Neurobiology and Behavior Educational Partnership
  350. Neurobiology and Behavior Educational Partnership
  351. New York Theological Seminary Online Learning System
  352. Newbury College
  353. NJ Transit Training
  354. NMT Distance Education
  355. North Cumberland Elementary
  356. Northeast Technology Center
  357. Northern Seminary
  358. Northwest AHEC
  359. Northwest Christian University
  360. Northwest Indian College Moodle Site
  361. Northwest University Discovery
  362. Northwestern College CourseSites
  363. Northwestern Michigan College
  364. NSCC Computer Science and Engineering Site
  365. NUoodle of Norwich University
  366. NWHSU Moodle
  367. OBI Online
  368. OCC Moodle
  369. Oglala Lakota College
  370. Ohio State Department of Mathematics Course Pages
  371. Oklahoma Wesleyan University
  372. Olympia Regional Learning Academy
  373. Olympic ESD Moodle Server
  374. Online @ University of Dubuque
  375. Online Communication Courses
  376. Online Education @ RCC
  377. onlineNTID
  378. Open Source College Administrator
  379. OtterMoodle
  380. Passion University eLearning
  381. PICCLE: A Forum for International Discussions
  382. PICCLE: A Forum for International Discussions
  383. Pierce Mortuary College
  384. Pine View Elementary School
  385. Pitt CE
  386. Pitt Community College
  387. Portal@USCB
  388. Porter-Gaud Moodle
  389. Posner-Keele Cognitive Labs Experiment Scheduling System
  390. PPDC Act 48 Professional Development Center
  391. Prescott College Learning Management System
  392. Project ACCESS Community of Practice
  393. Projects
  394. ProjectStretch.gc.cuny.edu
  395. PROWL- CC’s Platform and Repository for On-line and Web-based Learning
  396. PTI Training
  397. QCC Center for Continuing Education
  398. Quant Moodle
  399. Quincy University
  400. Race and Gender Conscious Remedies
  401. Radford University Moodle Server
  402. Ramapo College
  403. RCE Online – Localization
  404. Reading Academy
  405. Red Cross
  406. Renaissance School of Therapeutic Massage
  407. Rhetorica Moodle
  408. Riverdale Country School Moodle
  409. RWC Moodle
  410. S.C. Professional Development Consortium
  411. Safety on the Internet
  412. Sage Online
  413. Saint Martin’s University Moodle
  414. San Francisco Art Institute
  415. Sauk Valley Community College
  416. SBCC Online College
  417. SCC Computer Careers Moodle Server
  418. SCE Moodle
  419. School Nutrition Toolbox
  420. School of Business Reseach
  421. School of Health Information Sciences
  422. SDI Online
  423. SDSC Education Data Portal
  424. SDSC Online Training
  425. Seattle Pacific University – Moodle
  426. SEBTS Moodle
  427. Sierra College Computer Science
  428. Sinte Gleska University Moodle Learning Site
  429. Sioux Falls Seminary Contextual Learning
  430. Skidmore College Moodle
  431. Smith College’s Moodle
  432. Smith College’s Moodle
  433. Soil Science Courses
  434. South Kitsap School District
  435. South Piedmont Community College
  436. South Texas College of Law Online courses
  437. Southeast Arkansas College
  438. Southeastern Free Will Baptist College Center for Online Studies
  439. Southwestern CC Moodle – Curriculum
  440. Southwestern Community College Continuing Education Moodle
  441. SSC Moodle
  442. ST JOHN’S SEMINARY
  443. St Vladimir’s Seminary E-Campus
  444. St. Augustine College E-learning
  445. St. Catherine University: Moodle
  446. St. Mary’s College Moodle
  447. St. Mary’s University Course Management System
  448. St. Norbert College
  449. St. Norbert College
  450. St. Olaf College Moodle Server
  451. St. Olaf College Moodle Server
  452. Stone Memorial High School
  453. Strategic Open Source At CIS SAC Moodle
  454. Students of the Global Information Internship Program
  455. SU College of Technology Moodle Server
  456. Subject & Course Guides
  457. SUNY Oneonta – Moodle
  458. SVC Web-based Course Resource Center
  459. SVSU – Online Learning
  460. Sweet Briar College
  461. TeacherTECH Community Portal
  462. Teaching English as a Second Language/Applied Linguistics at ISU
  463. test for moodle
  464. Testing Suite
  465. Texarkana College Online
  466. The Agora
  467. The Browning School
  468. The Browning School Parents Association
  469. The Center for Child and Family Studies Online Training
  470. The City College of the Arts
  471. The College of Idaho Moodle
  472. The COMET Virtual Classroom
  473. The Personal Learning Center
  474. The South Hills School of Business & Technology
  475. The UW MEBI Online Course Management System
  476. Thomas Krichel’s moodle at LIU
  477. Thunderbird Learning Environment
  478. TJNHS
  479. TLEARN – Trinity University Moodle Site
  480. TMCC Partnership Moodle
  481. TnTech Computer Science / Web Design Moodle Portal
  482. Toccoa Falls College Online
  483. Transylvania University Moodle Server
  484. Trinity Christian College
  485. Trinity International University
  486. Trinity Online Learning Center
  487. Truckee Meadows Community College
  488. TSTC Moodle Help
  489. UAA Instructional Design Resources
  490. UAB School of Public Health Moodle
  491. UC Davis – Language Learning Center
  492. UCAR Education and Outreach Online Courses
  493. UCCS Moodle
  494. UCLA CCLE – test
  495. UCLA CCLE Moodle
  496. UCLA CCLE Moodle – Archived Sites
  497. UCLA Department of Statistics Collaborative Learning Portal
  498. UCLA Engineering Science Corps Outreach Program
  499. UCLA Physics & Astronomy
  500. UCLA Physics & Astronomy
  501. UCSB ID Moodle
  502. UCSB Music Project
  503. UCSF Collaborative Learning Environment
  504. UF College of Education Online
  505. UIUC Life Sciences
  506. UIUC Life Sciences
  507. ULM Moodle
  508. UMaine College Of Education and Human Development Moodle
  509. UMCES Moodle Courseware Server
  510. Umpqua Moodle
  511. UNCC Moodle
  512. UNCC Moodle
  513. Unet – Moodle
  514. UNH Cooperative Extension – eLearning
  515. Union at Catholic Theological Union
  516. Union College Course Management System
  517. United States Sports Academy
  518. Univeristy of Tennessee Center for Executive Education
  519. UNIVERSIDAD POLIT
  520. University of Louisiana at Lafayette – Moodle LMS
  521. University of New Mexico
  522. University of Philosophical Research On-line Campus
  523. University of Philosophical Research On-line Campus
  524. University of Philosophical Research On-line Campus
  525. University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary Courses Online
  526. University of Texas at San Antonio
  527. University of Texas at San Antonio
  528. “University of Washington, Tacoma Moodle Server”
  529. University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics
  530. University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics
  531. UNLV COE Courses
  532. UNLV Computer Science
  533. UNO Moodle
  534. UPS Moodle Courses
  535. UR Math Moodle
  536. URMoodle
  537. USF Department of Computer Science
  538. USU Mild Moderate Distance Community
  539. UT Extension Online: Certifications
  540. “UV Open – Open Educational Resources, OpenCourseWare”
  541. UW Madison Agronomy Web Courseware
  542. UW Math Moodle Test Site
  543. UWT Institute of Technology Moodle
  544. Vance Granville – Continuing Education
  545. Vance-Granville Moodle
  546. Vanguard University
  547. Vanguard University
  548. Virginia International University
  549. VT – ESIH Moodle Site
  550. W&J Moodle
  551. Waldorf College Course Management
  552. Walla Walla University
  553. Warden Schools Moodle Site
  554. Warner University
  555. Warren Wilson College Online Classrooms
  556. WDT Online
  557. Weatherford College Workforce & Continuing Education Online Courses
  558. WebIT: Online Instructional Technology
  559. Welcome to the iCollaboratory
  560. West Shore Community College – Moodle
  561. Wharton County Junior College
  562. Whatcom Community College Access
  563. Whittier College Moodle
  564. Wilkes Mathematics and Computer Science
  565. Wilkes University
  566. Winsor Moodle
  567. woodle
  568. Woodward Academy
  569. WOSC Portal
  570. WOSC Portal
  571. WPC Online Learning
  572. Writing Assessment System
  573. WWU NSF ILN Moodle Site
  574. yurimi’s courses

16 thoughts on “Who Is Using Sakai & Moodle”

  1. I agree with you that the Moodle usage stats seem inflated/unfiltered, which makes them unusable (IMO). Interestingly enough, my institution has a bona fide Moodle enterprise installation (albeit with about 20% or less of our online classes; Blackboard is our primary LMS) yet we aren’t in your list. Makes me wonder if it’s really possible to identify the “real” installations from the many projects and one-off downloads.

    Lane at Central Piedmont Community College
    Charlotte, NC

    Reply
  2. Moodle is also a one-click install on Dreamhost, so I’m sure that a lot of people have installed an instance of Moodle to check it out, and then never did anything with it.

    Reply
    • My view of Moodle is that they have a lot of small instances. Its strength is in its ease of deployment. As I looked at University of Delaware’s peer institutions, I only found one that supported Moodle centrally versus nine for Sakai.

      It seems to me that both products are not really competing for the same markets.

      Thanks for plowing through that data Nate, and hopefully, Sakai can become more accurate in it’s adoption numbers as well.

      We would need some sort of “Call home” code embedded in Sakai to keep track of what’s happening.

      Reply
    • Well, we (State University of New York at Delhi) have not asked to be “private” and our site is not listed in the above, http://vanckohall.delhi.edu

      Our implementation is campus wide (6,000+ enrollments), and while not the size of the University of Delaware (20,000 students), would suggest the following as peer institutions to UD (20,000 +/- students, undergrad and graduate programs)
      1. UCLA (http://www.oid.ucla.edu/units/tec/tectutorials/tecmoodle),
      2. Louisiana State Univeristy (http://moodle.grok.lsu.edu/),
      3. University of Minnesota, (https://moodle.umn.edu/)
      4. University of North Carolina (https://moodle.uncc.edu/)
      5. North Carolina State (http://delta.ncsu.edu/news/announcements/item.php?id=63)
      6. Cal State (http://dat.cdl.edu/lms/csu-moodle-coalition),
      7. Idaho State (https://elearning.isu.edu/2009/login/index.php)
      8. Oakland University (https://moodle.oakland.edu/moodle/login/index.php)
      9. Rutgers State University of New Jersey, New Jersey Institute of Technology (http://moodle.njit.edu/)
      10. University of North Dakota (http://lms.ndus.edu/)

      OK there’s ten – Moodle must be one better?

      I think this is a huge waste of time and only results in the trivial banter like that of above.

      I would suggest that the important discussion that should be taking place is how the “procurement process” is changing on campus from one that is centrally controlled by campus administrations to one of emergence where new teaching and learning tools are adopted and adapted by faculty despite the “enterprise solution” identified by the campus. How many faculty are using the LMS as nothing more than a tool for authentication and authorization then pointing out to Flickr, Ning, FB, Second Life, WordPress, Twitter, Drupal, etc.?

      The Moodle adoption model (where adoption is at the individual faculty, course, department level) highlights this. While at UCLA I installed Moodle in the Dental School and five years later, it’s the “official” LMS. I think there might be an interesting discussion around this, the adoption models that appear to be bottom-up versus top-down. This might provide a framework for other tools as they emerge on campus.

      I would offer that the adoption of on-line learning itself occurred, not through strategic planning or as a centralized initiative, but much more like what we are seeing on our campuses with Web 2.0 and social networking tools (and Moodle). Consider the 2000 Campus Computing Survey, while roughly 55% of campuses offered “full courses online” only 15% of campuses reported “using some type of course management tool in their online offerings” (Green, 2000). Clearly instructors teaching courses recognized the value of incorporating Internet-based technologies into their courses before their campus’ administration did.

      Rather than questioning if Moodle or Sakai has more adopters, I spend my time wondering how to provide integration and interoperability between local and remote/distributed/decentralized services and thus open specifications and standards; support, not for specific tools, but for computing concepts and work flow, who is using what and can we create support groups; procurement, how to write an RFI/RFP that includes open source or cloud options, etc.

      By the time we figure out which LMS is better, no one will be using any of them.

      Reply
    • We at Sakai hear a lot about Moodle’s popularity. I don’t think they are trying to hide the fact that the vast majority of sites are very small (their new stats page makes this abundantly clear) and when you look at the number of large (5,000+ users) installations the difference between Sakai and Moodle isn’t nearly as pronounced.

      But as Patrick said it is high time to move beyond measures like this. The question underlying the crude “number of installations” figures is, in my view, the health and sustainability of the project. Given the size and quality of the installed base of both Moodle and Sakai, I think these questions should be laid to rest–both have demonstrated they are here to stay. There are important differences between the products and the communities, of course, which may lead you to prefer one over the other.

      Patrick’s comments on procurement process are key and an area the communities should work together. A “Guide to Acquiring Open Source Solutions” for the education procurement departments would be a great deliverable for the two communities to collaborate on.

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    • Thanks Patrick and Michael for adding worthy points. I’m in complete agreement about where the discussion should be, but unfortunately I still spend a lot of my days in the discussion as it still is.

      The meme that sparked off my post was the appearance (in another forum) of a “pros/cons” matrix for Blackboard 9, Sakai & Moodle that I think oversimplified the issues a bit too much, but nevertheless appeared to be at least a start of a large institution’s evaluation process. One of Moodle’s pros was “market share = 10%+”, while the respective market share’s of Blackboard and Sakai were not listed as pros or cons. When I questioned that number as a small part of a longer post that attempted to shift the discussion to a different place, I was told to take a look at Moodle’s published statistics. So I did, and this post was the result.

      Further discussion revealed that the 10%+ Moodle market share number came from consultants, based on Campus Computing data—which I would argue is helpful as background information, but far from giving us clear pros and cons of any choice for any specific institution. Clearly, some folks out there are looking at data like Moodle’s published statistics, Sakai’s heretofore scanty self-reporting, and things like Campus Computing to help guide their evaluations and choices.

      My larger point here is not to continue debate in the bean-counting mode, but to question whether the continued publication of statistics the way Moodle does it is actually getting in the way of more productive discussion/evaluation.

      Based on thinking I’ve done as a result, I would actually counter Mathieu Plourde’s suggestion above that Sakai include a “call home” function (like Moodle’s?). I think that function is part of what generates all that Moodle data that clouds, rather than enables good discussion. Instead, I would like to continue the ongoing collaboration in the Sakai community to provide more fulsome profiles of institutions using Sakai, along the lines of the generic model we started at OpenedPractices.org. The main goal would be to give folks a way to find peer institutions (like Mathieu wanted to do, but had difficulty doing) so they can engage in more productive information exchange about their evaluation and choices.

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      • Reporting of Sakai installations to the Sakai Foundation, whether pilot or production, has been not only voluntary, but self-initiated and cumbersome to boot. Someone has to realize that they could report deployment data for their institution, then has to figure out where to report, get a Jira account to login and fill out the information. Pure inertia and perceived low-priority would lead to under reporting. Mathieu’s “call home” suggestion would be nice from a data collection standpoint, but any kind of automated reporting, however well intentioned, may seem a bit “Big Brotherish”.

        Instead, maybe the Sakai installation process, or initial run could invoke a voluntary registration application that would as a minimum ask for the institution name, pilot/production status, (pre-fill Sakai version #), and an admin/security contact. This approached is used by many commercial applications. This approach not only would encourage the user to initiate a deployment record that could be subsequently fleshed out, but the Sakai Foundation then would have on record a contact should we need to notify institutions of a security patch for example.

        I think the best approach to collecting deployment registration should be: make it obvious, make it easy, and show a benefit to the user.

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        • Agreed, Pieter! Obvious, easy and of benefit! In the absence of the right application-level solution, maybe we should initiate a community process at every annual convention where we all update our records ;)

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      • The “call home” feature I have in mind is definitely more like you describe it, something voluntary. It could end up being a nice way to initiate some sort of community mentoring too. Installers could request the foundation to assign them a contact person to help them get up and running faster.

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      • Pieter, Nate: I can give an hand. I’m pretty good with a tablet PC.

        We need to come up with the kind of information that would be useful and the workflow we want to deploy. Where on Confluence should we host this?

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  3. Nate,

    Thanks for this interesting and important post…as you started out saying, I see the projects as sisters and hope both grow but have had the same questions on the stats that are out there…I’m glad to see commercial affiliates taking on the effort of doing this type of analysis as such work is just not a priority in either community (for good reason…we’re focused on producing the best software possible).

    Josh
    p.s. I should clarify that I’m not implying that rSmart is not part of the Sakai community by my comment…I very much see you are equal members…my point was more that producing this type of analysis makes more sense for commercial entities to invest in then the open-source communities themselves.

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    • Understood Josh! I think one of the reasons I felt justified spending so much time lately working on the new Sakai website is knowing that it’s a proper role for a commercial affiliate to take on. Now, if we can just get all the Sakai usage profiles published in a more usable form ;)

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