Moodle

The popular software platform of Moodle allows to create and conduct various training courses online, at the same time the emphasis is placed on support of active interaction between the teacher and pupils and also pupils among themselves — joint solving of tasks, discussions, knowledge sharing and other types of collective work. The learning platform of Moodle is used by more than 50 thousand organizations from more than 200 countries of the world, including in Russia where today Moodle — one of the most demanded training solutions open source (Open Source). In the Russian Federation more than 600 installations with the number of users in some of them up to 500 thousand people are registered.

The Moodle platform has modular structure that allows to change and supplement functionality of a system flexibly.

In March, 2011 the Russian company SPIRIT, the developer and the supplier of a software platform of an operator class for Internet video telephony, together with ALT Linux company, the Russian developer in the development area of the free software and distribution kits based on Linux, announced release of the new module of integration of a system of a video conferencing of Video conference and a popular learning platform of Moodle.

VideoMost can be built in Moodle as the add-on module. VKS of Video conference integrated into SDO Moodle, unlike use by teachers and pupils of the separate external means of communication, for example, of Skype or iChat Apple, gives to users several advantages:

• support of multi-user conferences, and not just video calls "in private";
• convenience and lack of need for separate registration in different applications as at login all functions, including VKS, become available at the same time from a unified environment;
• simplicity — a call is made by one button in the usual interface of a training course;
• control — collecting and providing statistic reports is made in the necessary format in the general system.

The functionality of joint viewing the documents and materials created by the teacher or pupils and also option of the built-in text chat is integrated together with VKS. For convenience of solution integration of Video conference in the Moodle platform a number of the special program interfaces and plug-ins provided with the worked documentation is created.

The Russian company SPIRIT, the developer and the supplier of the innovation software platform of an operator class for Internet video telephony, together with ALT Linux company, the Russian leader in the development area of the free software and distribution kits based on Linux, announce release of the new module of integration of a system of a video conferencing of Video conference and a popular learning platform of Moodle.

Distance learning is a sphere where the efficiency of communications and interaction of participants of educational process directly affects success of process in general therefore the flexibility and interactivity of the systems of distance learning (SDL) purchase the increasing value for their users. Implementation of an option of a video conferencing (VIDEOCONFERENCING) in SDO is a logical step of development of the systems of online training.

Creation of the new module of integration of a domestic system of a video conferencing of Video conference and popular learning platform of Moodle based on Open Source fits into a framework of the concept of the National Software Platform (NSP), expanding competitive opportunities of the Russian software.

The module VIDEOCONFERENCING can be involved during creation of a training course of Moodle. In this case video conference will be organized during the planned lesson (a seminar, a lecture, etc.) or in other time specified by the teacher. The list of participants to whom the conference will be available matches the list of listeners of this rate. Options of video conference can be edited by the teacher, he will get access to management tools by conferees, including providing and prohibition of a voting right, display of video, etc.

Software of Video conference can be integrated also with other software solutions, having complemented their functionality with the integral unit of a video conferencing within a single system. An opportunity to instantly hold a session of video conference with any number of participants allows to bring efficiency of interaction of users of a system to qualitatively new level.

Moodle 2.2

In November, 2011 there was a new version of the open system of distance learning (SDL) of Moodle 2.2 extending according to the license GNU GPL. Using Moodle it is possible to create the websites for online training.

The leader and the ideologist of a system is Martin Dougiamas from Australia. The project is open, russification of Moodle is performed by a team of volunteers from Russia and Belarus.

Moodle is written for PHP using SQL-SUBD (MySQL, PostgreSQL, the Microsoft SQL Server, etc. — is used by ADOdb XML). Moodle can work with objects of SCO and meets the SCORM standard.

The following new features are provided in Moodle 2.2:

• Estimation headings — the plug-in expanding a subsystem of estimates of Moodle, implementing the concept of headings of multicriteria estimation. The teacher estimates works at once by many set criteria then estimates are automatically normalized on the level of other pupils. As envisioned by developers, it should compensate tendency of some teachers to overestimate or understating of estimates and also uneven complexity of tasks.
• Support of the IMS standard that it allows to connect to task rates now, located on the third-party websites or written in other programming languages is expanded. Thanks to the IMS LTI standard external tasks can obtain information on taking examination (or offset) the pupil and to return the received assessment.
• The subject of a design MyMobile is optimized for work from smartphones.