Comments for Moodle: The user's experience

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Lester

Lester — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:26:48 +0000

Thanks for the reply Olli.
Currently, I am going to look in to usability in Learning & Technology systems, mostly accessed through mobile devices. I am very new to this but very interested in usability soI hope to learn as I do this project. I do agree that there seems to be a need for new models in different communities and I think this is a similar case. So far I am researching any available material in and around the subject, like I said, I am still fairly new to usability and in no way a professional (yet :-P) so I am eager to see how this goes :)

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Olli

Olli — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:43:50 +0000

Hi Lester,
Thanks for the kind words. Usability in open source is an interesting but a very challenging area, since many of the traditional processes user centered design work rules do not seem to be applicable. Many things work like the wild west, and open source communities are in grave need for new models for usability work – models that actually work in such communities. So, fancy a challenge? :)
If you wish to share your thoughts about where you are planning to go with your work, I am curious.

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Lester

Lester — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:43:16 +0000

I am currently looking at various approaches for my own usability Masters thesis and accidently stumbled on to this page. I am not from a Moodle background at all, more a student within user experience and usability. It is just refreshing to see work at masters level based on usability do so well, so I congratulate you! All sounds very impressive.
I could only hope for 1/4 the success with mine :-)

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Ozkan

Ozkan — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:16:14 +0000

You are right Olli. I suggested further researh that focusses on learner performance,,I haven’t given a certain thought to carrying out experimental research on it, though.

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Olli

Olli — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:00:36 +0000

Oh, had no idea you are following this. Good to hear of you!

Great stuff, actual concrete research into the effects of using Moodle. I skimmed some of it (after having figured out the captcha), and it seems well written indeed. Congratulations!

The one thing that makes me wonder is that you seem to have mainly asked for the students’ opinions, which to me seems to risk producing a bias for, for example, telling the researcher what they want to hear. It would have been great to have seen an additional measurement of the actual change in the skills taught, for example, by means of exams perhaps? Of course, exams are a bit out of mode for social constructivist teachers though :).

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Ozkan

Ozkan — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:55:55 +0000

Congratulations, Olli. I have finished my thesis, too. It’s been such an exhaustive work that I almost forgot about these postings :(

How little I knew about Moodle those days! :)

For those who are interested, below is the link of my thesis;

http://sosyalbilimler.cukurova.edu.tr/tez/1635/

PS: The thesis is in English; the abstract is written in Turkish and English.

Comment on Master’s thesis about Moodle and open source usability work by Olli

Olli — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:07:59 +0000

Wow, sweet. The citations (apparently all of them?) can now be viewed at http://scholar.google.fi/scholar?q=related:ITx3E0fX1dMJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5