5 top open source Moodle modules - by Peter Smith

One of the reasons for Moodle's current pre-eminence in the LMS market is the large, talented and very active community that undertake all bug reporting, fixing and development duties. Over the years this community has created a huge quantity of third party modules and plugins that can be downloaded from the main Moodle plugins page. Through these modules Moodle administrators can add a range of new features to their site which go far beyond the basic Moodle installation.

The available modules vary greatly in terms of usefulness and the level of polish that have been applied to them. Some of the modules are so longstanding that they can be considered inherent Moodle features; these include the Questionnaire and Feedback modules, which are being incorporated into the new Moodle 2.0 Survey module, and the Certificate module.

The following are my current favourites - for a much more comprehensive list and the chance to see some of the plugins in action I would recommend the HRDNZ non-standard Moodle site.

Face to Face module

As the name suggests this module enables you to schedule a face to face event as an activity within a Moodle course. The functionality is quite simple but well thought out and includes full integration with the Moodle calendar, automatic confirmation, reminder and cancellation emails and a handy wait listing feature.

Open University Wiki 

A new Moodle Wiki is amongst the many improvements which will be released in the imminent Moodle 2.0. For anyone still favouring the 1.x version of Moodle we would recommend installing the OU Wiki which offers much neater navigation than the clunky Moodle Wiki 1.0. Also if you want to search wiki content install the OU Search Block.

Individual Learning Plan

Created by the University of London Computer Centre, this module enables an administrator and learner to set and specify deadlines for goals, targets and actions. Templates for progress reviews and personal reports can be set up, and the system uses a traffic light metaphor to quickly highlight areas of concern.

Mahara

There are a number of eportfolio systems that plug into Moodle, but the best of the bunch is Mahara. Developed as part of a collaborative venture involving a number of leading universities in New Zealand, Mahara enables learners to collate information (artefacts in Mahara parlance) from a variety of different sources into a file repository that is shared with other users. Individuals have a very fine level of control over exactly which artefacts other users can access. The tool also includes social networking functionality, blogs and a CV builder.

Google Apps for Moodle

A module created by the omnipotent Google which integrates Google Apps Premier or Education Edition with Moodle. With this module installed users can access their Google Apps mailbox via SSO directly from Moodle and set Google Apps as their default Moodle email account. Administrators can manage Google Apps accounts from within Moodle and run some fairly basic reports. Full integration with the other Google Apps tools (including docs and the calendar) are in the pipeline.