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)
- Accessible Technology Initiative
- Achieving Competence Today
- ACU Online Course Management Alternative: Moodle
- Adelphi Moodle
- Admissions Moodle
- Alachua County Public Schools
- Alaska Pacific University Moodle
- Albion College Course Webs
- Albion College Discussion Boards
- Alliant International University
- Alma College Courses Online
- American Liberty University
- American University Of Health Sciences Virtual College
- Anaheim University Online
- Anderson University Moodle
- Andrew Jackson University
- Anywhere School
- Aquinas College Course Web Pages
- Art Center College of Design | dotEd
- Aurora University Online Learning System – Moodle
- Bacone Online
- Baker – Production
- Bakersfield College Online
- Baptist Bible College and Graduate School Online
- Bastrop ISD Online Learning Center
- BCMoodle
- Beacon’s Online Learning Portal
- Bethany Divinity College and Seminary
- Bethany Theological Seminary and Earlham School of Religion Online Courses
- Bethel College
- Bishop George Ahr High School
- Blue Ridge Community College Continuing Education
- Blue Ridge Community College Online Learning
- Boston Baptist College – Course Management System
- bricc.lbhc.edu
- Brigham Young University
- Brooklyn Techincal High School
- BuMathEd.Org (experimental)
- BYU Mathematics Department Courses
- California State University
- Career Technology Center Virtual Classroom
- Carl Albert State College
- Carrier LMS
- CASAT Instructor-Led Distance Learning
- CBIS DL
- CCC CS Moodle: Online Support for Computer Science Classes@ Contra Costa College
- CCLE
- CCTC Online
- Cedarville Moodle
- CEHD Moodle
- CEHD Online Courses
- CEHHS Demo Moodle
- Center for Educational Training & Technology LMS
- Center for Veterinary Health Sciences
- Central Kitsap School District Moodle Site Ver 1.9.2
- Centre College Moodle Pilot
- Cerro Coso Community College
- Chaminade University of Honolulu
- Chapman University MathCS Moodle Site
- Charger Learning
- Chatham University
- Chemistry Diagnostic Test
- Chemistry Learning Center
- Cherokee High School E-Learning
- Christian Brothers University
- CICADA
- City Vision College
- CIU Moodle
- Classroom
- Classroom Portal
- CNS Course Site
- COE Portal Moodle
- Colgate Moodle
- Colgate Moodle
- Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School
- College Math Prep
- College of Education and Health Sciences
- College of Education Moodle Server
- College of Education Moodle Server
- College of Education Moodle Server
- Collins Career Center
- Columbia College Chicago Moodle Site
- Columbia College Chicago Moodle Site
- Computer Information Systems
- Computer Science At Mount Mercy College
- Computer Science Moodle
- Computer Science Moodle Site
- Computer Science Online!
- Computer Systems Moodle
- Concord Math/CS Department Moodle Site
- Concordia Moodle LMS
- “Continuing Education, Pharmacy”
- “Continuing Education, Pharmacy”
- Continuing Professional Education
- Cornell College Moodle
- Cornell Cooperative Extension Online Courses
- Course Support Materials for laddbc
- Courses taught by Prof. George Karypis
- Courses.monroe.edu
- Courses@Colgate (Courses.Colgate.Edu)
- CPCC Moodle
- Crab Orchard Elementary
- “Craig A. Struble, Ph.D.”
- CS Moodle
- CSC512 Web Sites
- CSE Dropbox
- CSU Bakersfield Computer Science Course Site
- CSU Monterey Bay Moodle (iLearn)
- CTER Course Management System – Illinois
- CTER Student Moodle
- CTYOnline
- CTY’s Parent Forum
- Cumberland County Schools-Central Office
- CUNY Moodle
- CygNET – National University of Health Sciences
- Dallas Christian College Online
- Dallas Nursing Institute Online Learning System
- David Carroll
- Davis College E-Learning Site
- Dean College
- Decatur City Schools Training
- Deerfield Academy Moodle
- Department of Computer Science – University of West Georgia
- DePauw University Moodle
- Development – Neurobiology and Behavior Educational Partnership
- Devin’s Wonder Symposium of Magical Wonders and Candy Fields
- Digital Humanities at UNL
- Discovery – Northwest University
- Distance Learning at Continuing Education
- Distance Learning Center
- Dordt College Online Courses
- Dr. Walck’s Moodle Site
- Drew University Moodle
- DRI Computer Based Training Site
- Dulap MOODLE
- Earlham Moodle 2010
- Earlham School of Religion Online Courses
- East Los Angeles College
- Eastern Michigan University: Professional & Ethics Modules
- eCampus: FutureEd4U
- eCOW2
- ECU Moodle Server
- Edinboro University of PA
- Edmonds eLearning Project
- EDUCATION CONNECTION MOODLE
- Educational Psychology
- Educational Technology
- Educational Technology Masters Cohort
- Educational Technology Support Center Courses
- Edward Waters College
- EIS Moodle 1.6
- eLearn @ Loras College
- elearning
- eLearning – Kilgore College
- eLearning at the Monterey Institute
- elearning.eduhsd.k12.ca.us
- Ellensburg School District – Moodle Server
- Elmhurst College
- Emerging and Exotic Diseases of Animals & Initial Accreditation Training
- Emmanuel Online!
- Emmaus e-learning
- Emmaus Moodle
- ESL @ ISU
- ESL Services @ UT Austin
- ETI Online Training Center
- Executive Development Center e-Learning Community
- Exploratorium Moodle
- Facultad Online
- Faculty Development
- Fielding Graduate University’s Moodle site
- Flint Hills Technical College Online Courses
- Florida Center for Instructional Technology
- Florida International University
- Florida Tech Computer Sciences
- Fox Chapel Area School District Moodle
- Franklin College Moodle
- Fresno Pacific University Moodle Site
- GauchoSpace
- Gavilan iLearn
- Genealogy.edu
- GGE Moodle
- GOBC course support
- Goshen College Learning Management System
- Grace Communion Seminary
- Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
- Graduate Theological Union
- Guilford College Moodle
- Guilford Technical Community College
- GVSU Statistics
- Hartwick College Modern and Classical Langauges
- Haywood Community College
- Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center
- Health Services Courses and Workshops
- HEBLearning
- HMI Courses
- Homestead Elementary School
- Hood Theological Seminary Moodle
- Hope College Psychology Course Sites
- HSU Moodle
- HTIC Elearning
- http://vle.subr.edu/moodle
- Humboldt State University Moodle
- Huntington College of Health Sciences
- IALC Moodle
- ICON: Iliff Community Network
- iLearn@MPC
- Illinois College
- Illinois Wesleyan University
- IMSA Online Teaching & Learning Environment
- Increasing Patient Access to Pain Medicines around the World: A Framework to Improve National Policies that Govern Drug Distribution
- insideCatlin Moodle
- Iowa State University College of Human Sciences
- Iowa State University English Department Courses
- Iowa State University Extension Courses
- IR Toolbox
- Isothermal Community College (The Learning College)
- ISUComm Courses
- ITA
- ITLS @ USU – Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences
- IVE Course Management System
- Jack Baskin School of Engineering
- Jackson Community College
- JCSU Moodle
- JFK University
- JHU Center for Talented Youth Staff Information
- Juniata College Moodle
- Kalamazoo College Guilds
- Kalamazoo College Moodle
- Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus eClassroom
- KCAI Moodle
- Kepler College Coursesite
- Keuka College Courses
- Keuka Online
- Kilgore College
- “Klaus Brandl, Ph.D.”
- KMSD Moodle
- Knox College Moodle
- KSC Vietnam Field Study Summer 2009
- Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
- Lake Forest College Course Moodle
- Lake Forest College Moodle
- Lambuth University
- Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School – PRODUCTION
- Landmark College Institute for Research and Training
- LATTC Moodle Server
- LCA Moodle
- Learning with and about technology
- Learning with and about technology
- Learning@BGU
- LearnRightNow
- Levelland ISD Web Campus
- Lewis & Clark College Moodle
- Lewis & Clark College Moodle
- Linn-Benton Community College eLearning
- Los Angeles Mission College
- Los Angeles Southwest College Online
- LSU Health Sciences Center Moodle
- Lubbock Christian University
- Luther College KATIE Learning Management System
- Lyceum
- Maharishi University of Managment
- Manzano Cluster Intranet
- Manzano HS Classroom Connection
- Manzano HS Classroom Connection
- Marina High School
- Marywood University Moodle
- Math Center
- MC Moodle
- MCCSC Moodle
- McKinley College
- Mercyhurst Moodle
- Messenger Online
- Messiah College Moodle
- MHS Cluster Family Connection
- MHS Cluster Family Connection
- MIAD Course Management
- Mid Michigan Community College
- MidSOUTH
- “Mildred Elley College (Albany, NY and Pittsfield, MA)”
- Missouri Valley College – Moodle
- MKO Course Site
- MLC/WELS Online Learning
- Montreat College Online
- Montreat College Online
- Moodle
- Moodle @ Bethany College
- Moodle @ Coe
- Moodle @ Coe
- Moodle @ East Carolina University
- Moodle @ Fuller
- Moodle @ Jacksonville College
- Moodle @ Lawrence University
- Moodle @ Rhodes
- Moodle @ RMCC
- Moodle @ The Dwight School
- Moodle @ Tougaloo College
- Moodle @ UVa-Wise
- Moodle at D’Youville College
- Moodle at Kalamazoo College
- Moodle at Lane Community College
- Moodle at Montclair State University
- Moodle at NJIT
- Moodle at OIT – Open Source Course Management Software
- Moodle at the ELI
- Moodle CMS at WV State
- Moodle Community at George Fox
- Moodle EDTC
- Moodle for courses instructed by Dr. Gray
- Moodle for ISI Networking classes
- Moodle for TAMUCC
- Moodle on Chaucer
- Moodle One
- Moodle University of Washington
- moodle.bard.edu
- moodle.hccs.hunter.cuny.edu
- moodle.macalester 2004-2005 Archive
- moodle.macalester Spring 2006
- moodle.ncssm.edu
- moodle.nl.northweststate.edu
- moodle.nts.edu
- moodle.oxy
- moodle.ucx.ucr.edu
- moodle.wittenberg.edu
- moodle@CACC
- Moodle@Learning Technologies
- Moodle@PhilaU
- Moodle4Me
- moodlearchive.macalester Fall 2005 Archive
- MOODLE–SNU’s Online Course Management System
- Moss Landing Marine Labs Moodle
- Mrs. Liu’s Site
- MSUM Fall 2009 Moodle installation
- mtest.ucx.ucr.edu
- Multnomah Biblical Seminary :: Connect
- My Moodle – Wake Technical Community College
- MyCBIT LMS
- myCourses @ Louisiana State University – Eunice
- Nami Group
- National School Lunch Program Refresher Module
- Native Eyes Indigenous Studies Online
- nbep
- NC Testing Program Moodle
- NCNM Continuing Education
- NCSA Education Moodle
- NDNU LMS
- Nebo School District Moodle Server
- Nebraska Christian College Online
- Neumont University LMS
- Neurobiology and Behavior Educational Partnership
- Neurobiology and Behavior Educational Partnership
- New York Theological Seminary Online Learning System
- Newbury College
- NJ Transit Training
- NMT Distance Education
- North Cumberland Elementary
- Northeast Technology Center
- Northern Seminary
- Northwest AHEC
- Northwest Christian University
- Northwest Indian College Moodle Site
- Northwest University Discovery
- Northwestern College CourseSites
- Northwestern Michigan College
- NSCC Computer Science and Engineering Site
- NUoodle of Norwich University
- NWHSU Moodle
- OBI Online
- OCC Moodle
- Oglala Lakota College
- Ohio State Department of Mathematics Course Pages
- Oklahoma Wesleyan University
- Olympia Regional Learning Academy
- Olympic ESD Moodle Server
- Online @ University of Dubuque
- Online Communication Courses
- Online Education @ RCC
- onlineNTID
- Open Source College Administrator
- OtterMoodle
- Passion University eLearning
- PICCLE: A Forum for International Discussions
- PICCLE: A Forum for International Discussions
- Pierce Mortuary College
- Pine View Elementary School
- Pitt CE
- Pitt Community College
- Portal@USCB
- Porter-Gaud Moodle
- Posner-Keele Cognitive Labs Experiment Scheduling System
- PPDC Act 48 Professional Development Center
- Prescott College Learning Management System
- Project ACCESS Community of Practice
- Projects
- ProjectStretch.gc.cuny.edu
- PROWL- CC’s Platform and Repository for On-line and Web-based Learning
- PTI Training
- QCC Center for Continuing Education
- Quant Moodle
- Quincy University
- Race and Gender Conscious Remedies
- Radford University Moodle Server
- Ramapo College
- RCE Online – Localization
- Reading Academy
- Red Cross
- Renaissance School of Therapeutic Massage
- Rhetorica Moodle
- Riverdale Country School Moodle
- RWC Moodle
- S.C. Professional Development Consortium
- Safety on the Internet
- Sage Online
- Saint Martin’s University Moodle
- San Francisco Art Institute
- Sauk Valley Community College
- SBCC Online College
- SCC Computer Careers Moodle Server
- SCE Moodle
- School Nutrition Toolbox
- School of Business Reseach
- School of Health Information Sciences
- SDI Online
- SDSC Education Data Portal
- SDSC Online Training
- Seattle Pacific University – Moodle
- SEBTS Moodle
- Sierra College Computer Science
- Sinte Gleska University Moodle Learning Site
- Sioux Falls Seminary Contextual Learning
- Skidmore College Moodle
- Smith College’s Moodle
- Smith College’s Moodle
- Soil Science Courses
- South Kitsap School District
- South Piedmont Community College
- South Texas College of Law Online courses
- Southeast Arkansas College
- Southeastern Free Will Baptist College Center for Online Studies
- Southwestern CC Moodle – Curriculum
- Southwestern Community College Continuing Education Moodle
- SSC Moodle
- ST JOHN’S SEMINARY
- St Vladimir’s Seminary E-Campus
- St. Augustine College E-learning
- St. Catherine University: Moodle
- St. Mary’s College Moodle
- St. Mary’s University Course Management System
- St. Norbert College
- St. Norbert College
- St. Olaf College Moodle Server
- St. Olaf College Moodle Server
- Stone Memorial High School
- Strategic Open Source At CIS SAC Moodle
- Students of the Global Information Internship Program
- SU College of Technology Moodle Server
- Subject & Course Guides
- SUNY Oneonta – Moodle
- SVC Web-based Course Resource Center
- SVSU – Online Learning
- Sweet Briar College
- TeacherTECH Community Portal
- Teaching English as a Second Language/Applied Linguistics at ISU
- test for moodle
- Testing Suite
- Texarkana College Online
- The Agora
- The Browning School
- The Browning School Parents Association
- The Center for Child and Family Studies Online Training
- The City College of the Arts
- The College of Idaho Moodle
- The COMET Virtual Classroom
- The Personal Learning Center
- The South Hills School of Business & Technology
- The UW MEBI Online Course Management System
- Thomas Krichel’s moodle at LIU
- Thunderbird Learning Environment
- TJNHS
- TLEARN – Trinity University Moodle Site
- TMCC Partnership Moodle
- TnTech Computer Science / Web Design Moodle Portal
- Toccoa Falls College Online
- Transylvania University Moodle Server
- Trinity Christian College
- Trinity International University
- Trinity Online Learning Center
- Truckee Meadows Community College
- TSTC Moodle Help
- UAA Instructional Design Resources
- UAB School of Public Health Moodle
- UC Davis – Language Learning Center
- UCAR Education and Outreach Online Courses
- UCCS Moodle
- UCLA CCLE – test
- UCLA CCLE Moodle
- UCLA CCLE Moodle – Archived Sites
- UCLA Department of Statistics Collaborative Learning Portal
- UCLA Engineering Science Corps Outreach Program
- UCLA Physics & Astronomy
- UCLA Physics & Astronomy
- UCSB ID Moodle
- UCSB Music Project
- UCSF Collaborative Learning Environment
- UF College of Education Online
- UIUC Life Sciences
- UIUC Life Sciences
- ULM Moodle
- UMaine College Of Education and Human Development Moodle
- UMCES Moodle Courseware Server
- Umpqua Moodle
- UNCC Moodle
- UNCC Moodle
- Unet – Moodle
- UNH Cooperative Extension – eLearning
- Union at Catholic Theological Union
- Union College Course Management System
- United States Sports Academy
- Univeristy of Tennessee Center for Executive Education
- UNIVERSIDAD POLIT
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette – Moodle LMS
- University of New Mexico
- University of Philosophical Research On-line Campus
- University of Philosophical Research On-line Campus
- University of Philosophical Research On-line Campus
- University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary Courses Online
- University of Texas at San Antonio
- University of Texas at San Antonio
- “University of Washington, Tacoma Moodle Server”
- University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics
- University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics
- UNLV COE Courses
- UNLV Computer Science
- UNO Moodle
- UPS Moodle Courses
- UR Math Moodle
- URMoodle
- USF Department of Computer Science
- USU Mild Moderate Distance Community
- UT Extension Online: Certifications
- “UV Open – Open Educational Resources, OpenCourseWare”
- UW Madison Agronomy Web Courseware
- UW Math Moodle Test Site
- UWT Institute of Technology Moodle
- Vance Granville – Continuing Education
- Vance-Granville Moodle
- Vanguard University
- Vanguard University
- Virginia International University
- VT – ESIH Moodle Site
- W&J Moodle
- Waldorf College Course Management
- Walla Walla University
- Warden Schools Moodle Site
- Warner University
- Warren Wilson College Online Classrooms
- WDT Online
- Weatherford College Workforce & Continuing Education Online Courses
- WebIT: Online Instructional Technology
- Welcome to the iCollaboratory
- West Shore Community College – Moodle
- Wharton County Junior College
- Whatcom Community College Access
- Whittier College Moodle
- Wilkes Mathematics and Computer Science
- Wilkes University
- Winsor Moodle
- woodle
- Woodward Academy
- WOSC Portal
- WOSC Portal
- WPC Online Learning
- Writing Assessment System
- WWU NSF ILN Moodle Site
- yurimi’s courses
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
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.
Moodle inflates a lot of things that they want to put out there and hides a lot of things they want to keep secret. No different than any other business, I guess. And make no mistake, Moodle is a business. Moodle has some very serious security flaws that many of it’s users don’t clearly understand. For a prime example, see the following.
http://educhalk.org/blog/a-critical-moodle-lms-security-vulnerability-all-versions/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ;)
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.
Let’s spec it out for Sakai 3! ;)
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?
What about adding “connectability” (or something like that) to the Sakai 3 capabilities page:
http://wiki.sakaiproject.org/display/MGT/Sakai+3+Capabilities
with it’s own subpage like:
http://wiki.sakaiproject.org/display/MGT/Gradability
I created a capability called “Installability”. See: http://wiki.sakaiproject.org/display/MGT/Installability
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.
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 ;)