Pros and Cons of Moodle 2024 (2024)

Group students

File uploads including cutoff date

Forum

Grading

Classroom is not 100% reliable

Copying content from one semester to the other was not straightforward

Coderunner is not very intuitive, building exercises can be tricky sometimes

Outdated UI, especially on Mobile

Difficult to find specific settings, online documentation is sparse

Moodle provides data for days. You can find out whatever you need to make informed, data-driven decisions about outcomes and forecasting.

Moodle integrates with other platforms very well via LTI with gradebook pass back, plug-ins, and commerce.

Moodle has a robust completion tracking and gating function for learning paths.

Moodle does a great job of announcing pre-release updates, limiting functionality changes/surprises.

Moodle's last update was a little challenging because it was a pretty big change. However, they did share pre-release information early and often.

The interface can be considered a little dated, but it is part of the trade-off for such a work horse of a system.

The gradebook can be challenging. For very simple gradebook structures, it is fine, but when there are a number of weights, the learning curve can be a little frustrating.

Dealing with Submissions

Allowing for a wide range of media uploads

Allow for a good organisation of different labels and sections

Some activities like the workshop are difficult to grasp

Group assignments and limitations are not always working well

Some settings are quite mysterious and not very useful

Online quizzes

LDAP integration

Certification system

Windows Server Installation is not stable like linux environment

Online "Scorm editor" module should be great

There is no Integration option with data visualization application

Teaching courses.

Access to learning material.

Incorporate videos and documents.

Mobile applications.

Best LMS.

Learning the system for clients can be hard.

Simple, easier to use user interface.

More accessibility inclusive.

External integration.

Easy customization.

Progress tracking.

Content sharing.

Engagement tracking can be improved.

Analytics.

LMS

Easier to Use

Course-driven learning delivery.

Reporting and status on learner progress.

Supporting asynchronous learning.

The interface is getting a little long in the tooth.

Some functions require drilling down multiple levels.

Reporting is basic, and requires a lot of manual collation across different learning groups.

Under the Open Source model of Moodle, there are countless customization options available. We only make use of the modules associated with rubrics and outcomes and that demonstrates the ability to pick and choose what you want to use of the software.

Moodle is very easy to install on the server and is readily available on CPanel (as well hosting control panels) for even easier installation.

Being that Moodle offers an Open Source model of their software, it can be very cost effective for an institution with limited resources if they are able to invest the time in setting up the system. If there is a budget allowance for an initiative involving this type of software, then Moodle does a great job of working with you to implement.

The interface is not very intuitive. You must know what you are looking for in order to navigate effectively.

Although installation of Moodle is easy, it is a little more difficult to configure it with your other Learning tools. As an example, LDAP synchronization is a little difficult.

The interface is a little dated, even though new releases keep coming out (which is great!) none of them really add value to the appearance of the platform.

Frequent updating (through Git)

Free

Customizable and flexible

Takes up relatively little disk space

The flexibility of the system can be a drawback, as beginners designing courses have too many options

Test analysis is lacking

Test results and responses can be bothersome to export

Moodle has impressive features in uploading and downloading lecture notes, creating quiz and test, notification features for both students and teachers, generating reports and many others.

The backup, restore and import features are really helpful feature of Moodle for teachers.

Managing learners' profile and setting enrollment keys are also good feature of Moodle to restrict the valid users.

It's about time that Moodle developers should update Moodle and incorporate videoconferencing functionalities.

Chatting is another interesting feature to consider by Moodle.

Providing immediate data analysis must also be one of the features I am looking forward that Moodle should consider (i.e. graph generation to compare the learning growth of each student)

Moodle does a good job providing students with online course content.

It provides for online class discussion.

Server speeds make connecting a little slow.

Integration into third-party software is limited.

Easy to learn to navigate

Connect learning with others around the world.

It can be difficult to navigate back and forth in the dashboard.

The aesthetic appeal of the platform is not has high as other programs.

Course delivery - Moodle is very flexible. We have a Moodle Developer so we can create plugins, reporting features, basically anything we want.

LTI compatibility - because Moodle is used globally it can communicate with other systems, Student Management Systems, CPR, etc.

There are a lot of hidden features that require quite a bit of training in the use of the platform. Sometimes you really have to search to find things it can do.

To be able to brand and have Moodle look and function the way we need it to for different projects requires a developer to make those changes.

Managing course schedules, like being able to manage elements of an individual course over a period of time (i.e. which specific lessons happen in which week, when assignments are due)

Providing teaching staff with useful tools

Better scheduling management. You are not able to set up time tables for lessons and exams

Administration of staff and teaching allocations. It would be helpful to be able to set who teaches which subject and being able to see who is free to take extra teaching subjects each semester. Also, being able to track teachers' skills would be useful.

Acts as a bridge between students and faculty.

Reading materials can be downloaded and assignments can be uploaded on the same portal.

Email can't be sent from Moodle directly.

Everyone can't participate in the forum discussion at a time.

Cheap.

Customizable.

Lack of real features.

Unless you go through a provider that offers support you are on your own.

Simple to look up scores/evaluations.

Great for evaluators to look at progress/scores.

Overall the interface could more simple to navigate.

A relatively poor mobile offering.

Communication.

Tasks.

More tutorials.

Ease of use.

Traditional LMS.

Good recordkeeping.

Cheap.

Not user-friendly to the iGen user.

Needs reskinning.

Outdated.

Detailing each assignment so that students could refer back to expectations as they completed assignments. This way students were not dependent on they're own notes for reminders.

Being open-source, Moodle has so many good plugins that there are few limitations to what it can do.

Related to above, this means that virtually every type of assignment a teacher might envision can be created in Moodle. This allows for a vast array of learning experiences.

Updating can feel clunky at times. Updating plugins is easy, but updating from one version to the next takes a bit more work.

Because it is open-source, you generally need to have someone fairly tech smart to set up and maintain Moodle. This means generally simple HTML coding ability, and the ability to troubleshoot issues as needed.

Generic Form builder for the quizzes is an amazing feature.

External DB connection provides us the support to re-utilize our existing user base.

The security system is phenomenal, someone doesn't need to worry about their data.

While we were designing the quizzes, there were some requirements to customize the GUIs. So you need a lot to time to understand the existing structure of the codebase.

Multiple features, such as the ability to hold content (PDF, PPT, Word, URLs, etc.), assessment and grading (quizzes), and offers certificates of completion

Organization of content into modules

The ability of users to interact with other users and instructors easily

Certificates of completion are not very customizable, especially for unique modules within a "course"

Not very user-friendly in terms of the instructor/manager of the course when it comes to set up. Some features that are different can produce the same results, which makes it confusing to know which should be used (such as requiring specific percentage to complete activity/quiz to move to next module vs. having an item be marked as complete which can only happen if certain percentage achieved, etc.)

Offline capabilities

Moodle's grade book works well. Assignments are integrated so the grades are recorded automatically.

Moodle is customizable by administrators, so our version only gives us the options we need. NO Clutter.

The discussion board offers several options for instructors that help with grading. I use "sum of points", but there are other options as well.

Moodle needs an option for adding extra credit or "bonus" questions to exams. There is a work-around but it is complicated.

In the discussion board, there needs to be a place where an instructor can reply ONLY TO THE STUDENT to critique a particular post.

The main strength for using Moodle is the fact that it is an open source platform.

We love it as it is scalable and easy to use.

We also like it as the Moodle community is very supportive. Any questions asked in the Moodle community will be answered.

The theme is a bit difficult to customize. If you insist on having a lot of changes made to your outlook, it is easier to find another vendor to do it.

Development of features in Moodle slowly evolves. For example, if another proprietary LMS has video recording function in 2016, Moodle probably will have the features in 2018.

It would be good if Moodle Cloud can be subscribed to online from Moodle HQ without going through the Moodle partners.