Moodlerooms saves ULM $100,000 a year.
Posted by: wiredinstructor in Course Design Reflections, Web 2.0, class management, e-learning, moodle, rant
http://www.ulm.edu/universityrelations/news/nov07/moodle.html
http://tarrysingh.blogspot.com/2007/11/open-source-e-learning-louisiana-state.html
For more financial details: http://mfeldstein.com/louisiana-state-university-moves-to-moodle/
What keeps budget conscious college administrators paying through the nose for Blackboard, D2L, or E-College? My theory is they are risk adverse. They stay safe and allow inertia to rule. By sticking with the big outfits that overcharge for online services they can ‘play it safe’. Who ever lost their job by hiring Blackboard to provide an online learning environment?
But what if it becomes clear that you could save a million dollars+ over a decade by going with Moodle? Hmm… perhaps some of the savings could be invested in training professors to teach online so that students could get a ‘quality’ online education?
Could someone in admin get canned for NOT being technically adept enough to make the Moodle move?
Sure everyone knows that open source software is like a free puppy. You have to pay for maintenance. But the wisdom ULM displays is going with Moodlerooms, which supplies everything: tech support, servers, software upgrades for about $1 a student. With the big boys charging outrageous seat costs, and Moodlerooms providing world class infrastructure and Moodle… what’s keeping other struggling small schools from making the change?
It used to take vision and guts to switch to open source.
Now it just takes fiscal responsibility and common sense!
ps. I know the folks at Moodlerooms and believe in what they are doing… that’s why I’m writing! ~ Dennis O’Connor
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November 20th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Agreed. While our college cuts staff, faculty, classroom resources, etc. we have paid through the nose for an LMS. Why? Too scared that online courses might look a little bit different from each other if we don’t.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Maria, I’m sorry you and your colleagues are suffering. Why do the decision makers lack vision? Here’s a change to save money, train staff, and get in the ed-tech fast lane. Why let the visual element be the decision point?
Ironically, Moodle can have a lot of different looks. Here’s an innovate free course on Instructional Design delivered via Moodle: http://www.kineolearning.com/60minutemasters
My site looks like moodle, but has some pop! http://21cif.mrooms.net
Hope you can make some local changes. Try to find out what your current cms costs per student per year. Moodlerooms can do it for about a dollar a student.
Den