Product Comparison

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Product Name	Moodle 1.9	ATutor 1.6.3
Developer Name	Moodle	Adaptive Technology Resource Centre University of Toronto
URL	http://moodle.org	ATutor Learning Content Management System
Review Date	August 29, 2008	September 19, 2009
Forums	Moodle 1.9 Discussions	ATutor 1.6.3 Discussions
Reviewer	Email Review Staff	Email Review Staff
Communication Tools
Discussion Forum	Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email. Students can receive posts by email as daily digests of subject lines or whole posts. Students can subscribe to forum RSS feeds. A spell-checker is available for student and instructor responses. Reviewer Comments There are many other features and configurations of forums than are listed here. Discuss	Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email. Reviewer Comments Discussions can be viewed by thread. Posts can include URLs, and can be either plain text or formatted text. Discussion threads are expandable and collapsible to view a list of topics or view an entire conversation on one screen. Threads can be sorted by author, topic, post date, and activity level. Students can enable or disable notification of new posts sent to their email. Threads can be locked by the instructor from reading and/or writing, or attached to the top of a thread list so important threads appear first. Active threads appear near the top of the thread list. An administrator can share discussions across courses, departments, or any institutional unit. Discuss
Discussion Management	Instructors can allow students to create discussion groups. Instructors can set up moderated discussions where all posts are screened. Posts may be peer reviewed by other students. Instructors can view statistical summaries of discussions displaying participation which can be used to generate grades. Discussions can be shared across courses, departments, or any institutional unit. Discuss	Discussions can be shared across courses, departments, or any institutional unit. Discuss
File Exchange	Students can submit assignments using drop boxes. Discuss	Students can submit assignments using drop boxes. Students can share the contents of their personal folders with other students. Administrators can define disk space limitations for each user. Reviewer Comments Student and instructors can upload files in most document formats to a shared course library, or to a shared group library. Students can share content from their personal folder with other students, and with an instructor or teaching assistants. Students can submit assignments into a drop box. Discuss
Internal Email	Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups. Students can use a searchable address book. Students can elect to forward their mail to an external address. Discuss	Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups. Students can use a searchable address book. Instructors can email the entire class at once at a single address or alias. Students can elect to forward their mail to an external address. Reviewer Comments Students can use the internal email feature or instant messaging tool to communicate with other enrolled students Discuss
Online Journal/Notes	Discuss	Reviewer Comments Students can keep private or shared notes, associate notes with private or shared files, and print out compiled notes from within their personal work area. Students can make notes in a journal and can select to make them private or to share them with their instructor or with other students. Discuss
Real-time Chat	The chat tool supports a limited number of simultaneous rooms. The chat tool supports unlimited simultaneous group discussions Students can create new rooms. Instructors may moderate chats and suspend students from the chat rooms. The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms. Discuss	The chat tool supports unlimited simultaneous group discussions The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms. Reviewer Comments There is a PHP-based chat tool for course or group level messaging. Students can see who else is online within their course, or group. Instructors may monitor chats. The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms. Instructors can schedule chats using the groups calendar. The chat tool supports multiple simultaneous group discussions. Discuss
Whiteboard	Reviewer Comments It can supported by adding available 3rd party modules for Dim Dim, Elluminate or other products. Discuss	Reviewer Comments Available as a third party addon. Open Meeting. Discuss
Productivity Tools
Bookmarks	Discuss	Discuss
Calendar/Progress Review	Instructors and students can post events in the online course calendar. Instructors can post announcements to a course announcement page. Students have a personal home page that lists all courses in which the student is enrolled, new email and all course and system-wide events from their personal calendar. Students can view their grades on completed assignments, total points possible, course grade, and compare their grades against the class performance. Students can subscribe to RSS feeds to be notified of changes to materials. Discuss	Reviewer Comments Available as a third party addon. Google Calendar Discuss
Searching Within Course	Students can search all discussion threads. Students can search chat or virtual classroom session recordings. Discuss	Students can search all course content. Students can search all discussion threads. Reviewer Comments Students can use keywords to search a single course, all of their courses, or all available courses. Discuss
Work Offline/Synchronize	Discuss	Students can compile and download the content for an entire course into a format that can be printed or stored locally. Students can download course content and discussion group content with a PDA. Reviewer Comments Students can compile selected course content, or an entire course, into a downloadable content package for viewing offline in an accompanying content viewer. Upon re-entering a course, students have the option of resuming at the last page viewed. Instructors can record synchronous sessions so that students can review them asynchronously at a later time. Discuss
Orientation/Help	Students can access context sensitive help for any tool. The system includes online tutorials for students that help students learn how to use the system. Discuss	Students can access context sensitive help for any tool. Reviewer Comments Most documentation is available in the ATutor Handbooks, included with each distribution. Various multimedia documentation can be found on the developers documentation site or wiki. Discuss
Student Involvement Tools
Groupwork	Instructors can assign students to groups. The system can randomly create groups of a certain size or a set number of groups. Students can self-select groups. Each group can have its own discussion forum. Each group can have its own chat or whiteboard. Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities. Groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups. Discuss	Instructors can assign students to groups. The system can randomly create groups of a certain size or a set number of groups. Each group can have its own discussion forum. Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities. Groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups. Reviewer Comments Instructors can create group activities, and assign group leaders to create and manage groups. Each group has its own group home page, file exchange area, discussion forum, chat room, group email list, assessments and shared calendar. Students can collaboratively author a document using a version control tool, and can annotate their edits. Discuss
Community Networking	Students can create online clubs, interest, and study groups at the system level. Students from different courses can interact in system-wide chat rooms or discussion forums. Discuss	Students can create online clubs, interest, and study groups at the system level. Students from different courses can interact in system-wide chat rooms or discussion forums. Reviewer Comments Students can gather contacts, create and manage their own groups, create a profile, and customize their network with Google Open Social conformant gadgets. Discuss
Student Portfolios	Discuss	Reviewer Comments Available as a third part addon. Mahara Discuss
Administration Tools
Authentication	Administrators can allow guest access to all courses. The system can authenticate against an external LDAP server. The system can authenticate using the Kerberos protocol. The system supports Shibboleth. The system supports the Central Authentication Service (CAS). The system can authenticate against IMAP, POP3 or secure NNTP. Administrators can set up fail-through authentication against a secondary source (e.g. the system's own database) in the event that the primary source (e.g. LDAP server ) fails. The system can support multiple organizational units and virtual hosts within a server configuration. Discuss	Administrators can allow guest access to all courses. The system can authenticate against an external LDAP server. Reviewer Comments LDAP authentication available using an addon module. Administrators and instructors can set courses to be publicly accessible, or can protect access to individual courses with a username and password. System has a password reminder option. User logins can be encrypted with SSL. Discuss
Course Authorization	The system supports restricting access based on roles and roles can also be customizedby the service provider. Administrators can create an unlimited number of custom organizational units and roles with specific access privileges to course content and tools. Administrators can distribute the permissions and roles across multiple institutions or departments hosted in the server environment. Instructors or students may be assigned different roles in different courses. Discuss	The system supports restricting access based on roles and roles can also be customizedby the service provider. Administrators can create an unlimited number of custom organizational units and roles with specific access privileges to course content and tools. Administrators can distribute the permissions and roles across multiple institutions or departments hosted in the server environment. Instructors or students may be assigned different roles in different courses. Reviewer Comments Instructors can assign students limited access to instructional tools based on pre-defined roles or permissions, and create teaching assistants or additional instructors, each with their own custom privileges. Administrators can be created with limited access to play various administrative roles. Administrators or instructors can customize roles, create new or custom roles, create an unlimited number of custom organizational units and roles, with specific access privileges to course or administrative tools. Instructors or students may be assigned different roles in different courses, or in different groups. Discuss
Registration Integration	Instructors can add students to their courses manually or allow students to self-register. Administrators can batch add students to the system using a delimited text file. Administrators can transfer student information bidirectionally between the system and an SIS using delimited text files. Administrators can transfer student information bidirectionally between the system and an SIS using IMS Enterprise Specification v1.1 XML files via web services. The software supports data interchange with student information systems through an event-driven API. The software supports integration with SCT Banner, SCT Luminis, Datatel, PeopleSoft 8 or customized integration with other SIS or portal systems. The software is compliant with the IMS Enterprise Specification for Student Data. Discuss	Instructors can add students to their courses manually or allow students to self-register. Administrators can batch add students to the system using a delimited text file. Reviewer Comments Students can self-register. Administrators or instructors can batch add students to a course using a delimited text file, and send a system generated email message to students inviting them to join courses. Student registration can be authenticated against a master list generated from a student information system or other directory system. Discuss
Hosted Services	Hosting and support services from Commercial Affiliates. Reviewer Comments Moodle itself is FREE to use, but optional hosting services are provided by Moodle Partners. Discuss	The product provider offers a hosted solution. Hosting and support services from Commercial Affiliates. Reviewer Comments The product provider offers: a free hosted systems for a small number of courses: hosting contracts vary from a set fee per course, to school, or board level and offer: a secure facility with environmental control, a direct T3 connection, with load balancing across all systems, 24x7x365 monitoring, and nightly backups. Discuss
Course Delivery Tools
Test Types	Multiple choice Multiple answer Matching Ordering Jumbled sentence Calculated Fill-in the blank Short answer Survey questions Essay Questions can contain other media elements (images, videos, audio) Custom question types can be defined. Discuss	Multiple choice Multiple answer Matching Ordering Fill-in the blank Short answer Survey questions Essay Questions can contain other media elements (images, videos, audio) Discuss
Automated Testing Management	The system can randomize the questions and answers. Instructors can create self-assessments. Instructors can set a time limit on a test. Instructors can permit multiple attempts. The students are allowed to review past attempts of a quiz. The system supports a MathML editor for the inclusion of mathematical formulas in both questions and answers. Instructors can specify whether correct results are shown as feedback The system supports proctored tests. The system supports Remote Quiz Protocol which allows questions to be rendered and scored externally to the system via standards-based web services. Discuss	The system can randomize the questions and answers. Instructors can create self-assessments. Instructors can set a time limit on a test. Instructors can permit multiple attempts. The students are allowed to review past attempts of a quiz. Instructors can specify whether correct results are shown as feedback Reviewer Comments Instructors can create automatically scored true/false and multiple choice questions, and randomize questions from a larger pool, with optional required questions that appear on all randomized tests. Instructors can set dates and times during which students can access tests. Instructors can provide individual feedback, override automated scoring, and create individual, unit specific, or course level tests. Instructors can also create survey questions. The system provides test analysis data for individual test items, for individual tests, and for surveys. Instructors can differentially weight tests. LaTeX formatting can be used to create math equations. Discuss
Automated Testing Support	Instructors can create personal test banks. Instructors can create system wide test banks. Questions can be imported from external test banks that support QTI. The system provides test analysis data. Discuss	Instructors can create personal test banks. Questions can be imported from external test banks that support QTI. The system provides test analysis data. Reviewer Comments Tests can be packaged with content, exported and imported together as IMS content packages or common cartridges. Discuss
Online Marking Tools	Instructors can choose to mark each student on all questions or to mark each question on all students. Instructors can choose to evaluate student responses anonymously. Instructors can enable students to rate and comment on submissions of other students. Discuss	Reviewer Comments Instructors can assign partial credit for certain answers. Instructors can view grades, by student, and for all students on all tests. Instructors can delegate the responsibility for grading assignments and tests. Instructors can manually edit all grades. Instructors can create a comma-delimited version of test scores for export to an external spreadsheet program. Instructors can provide feedback on all assignments through links to the relevant course content, and through annotations. Discuss
Online Gradebook	When an instructor adds an assignment to the course, the software automatically adds it to the gradebook. Instructors can add grades for offline assignments. Instructors can add details to the gradebook in custom columns. Instructors can export the scores in the gradebook to an external spreadsheet. Instructors can create a course grading scale that can employ either percents, letter grades, or pass/fail metrics. Discuss	Instructors can add grades for offline assignments. Instructors can export the scores in the gradebook to an external spreadsheet. Instructors can create a course grading scale that can employ either percents, letter grades, or pass/fail metrics. Reviewer Comments Instructors can optionally add internal or external tests and assignments. Custom grade scales can be created. Multiple tests can be combined to integrate make up tests with a primary test. Automatically generated marks can be overridden by an instructor. Discuss
Course Management	Instructors can selectively release assignments, assessments, and announcements based on specific start and stop dates. Instructors can personalize access to specific course materials based on group membership. Discuss	Instructors can selectively release assignments, assessments, and announcements based on specific start and stop dates. Instructors can personalize access to specific course materials based on group membership. Discuss
Student Tracking	Instructors can track the frequency and duration of student access to individual course components. Instructors can get reports showing the time and date and frequency students as an aggregated group accessed course content. Instructors can get reports showing the number of times, time, date, frequency and IP address of each student who accessed course content, discussion forums, course assessments, and assignments. Instructors can review the navigation record of each student. Usage statistics can be aggregated across courses or across the institution. Discuss	Instructors can review the navigation record of each student. Usage statistics can be aggregated across courses or across the institution. Reviewer Comments Instructors can track the frequency and duration of student access to individual course content. Discuss
Content Development Tools
Accessibility Compliance	The product provider self-reports that the software complies with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. The product provider self-reports that the software complies with the WAI WCAG 1.0 Level A guidelines. Discuss	The product provider self-reports that the software complies with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. The product provider self-reports that the software complies with the WAI WCAG 1.0 Level A guidelines. The product provider self-reports that the software complies with the WAI WCAG 1.0 AA guidelines. Reviewer Comments Conforms with these Accessibility Standards: WCAG 1.0 AA, WCAG 2.0 AA, Section 508 (U.S), Stanca Act (Italy), BITV (Germany), ATAG 2.0 AA, IMS AccessForAll, ISO FDIS 24751, XHTML 1.0 Discuss
Content Sharing/Reuse	Instructors can share content with other instructors and students through a central learning objects repository. The repository can be system-wide or for individual organizational units. Discuss	Instructors can share content with other instructors and students through a central learning objects repository. The repository can be system-wide or for individual organizational units. The repository supports IEEE LOM and metadata application profiles such as, Dublin Core, Cancore, and custom profiles. Reviewer Comments Repository features available through the TILE repository software, or Equella third party addon. Discuss
Course Templates	The software provides support for template-based course creation. Course content may be uploaded through WebDAV. The system allows administrators to use an existing course or a pre-defined template as a basis for a new course. Discuss	The software provides support for template-based course creation. Reviewer Comments The software provides support for template-based content creation. Course content may be uploaded to a file manager, imported from, or exported to, a learning object repository, imported directly from the Web using a URL, or imported from an HTML editor. Instructors can clone and modify the default the templates, or create new templates. Instructors can add to, or remove course functions from course templates. Discuss
Customized Look and Feel	The system provides default course look and feel templates. Instructors can change the navigation icons and color schemes for a course. Instructors can change the order and name of menu items for a course. Institutions can create their own look and feel templates across the entire system, including their own institutional logos, headers, and footers. The system can support multiple institutions, departments, schools or other organizational units on a single installation where each unit can apply its own look and feel templates as well as institutional images, headers and footers. Discuss	The system provides default course look and feel templates. Reviewer Comments The system provides 5 default course look and feel templates, as well as others that can be downloaded and installed. Institutions can create their own look and feel templates. Institutions can apply their own institutional images, headers and footers, across all courses, or across categories of courses. Instructors can change the navigation tabs, tools icons available, and the number and order of menu items for a course. Discuss
Instructional Design Tools	Instructors can organize learning objects, course tools, and content into learning sequences that are reusable. Instructors can create linear learning sequences organized hierarchically by course, lesson, and topic. Instructors can reuse courses as templates for future lessons. Discuss	Instructors can organize learning objects, course tools, and content into learning sequences that are reusable. Instructors can create linear learning sequences organized hierarchically by course, lesson, and topic. Instructors can reuse courses as templates for future lessons. Discuss
Instructional Standards Compliance	AICC IMS Content Packaging 1.1.3 IMS Content Packaging 1.1.4 IMS QTI 1.2.1 IMS Enterprise 1.1 SCORM 1.2 SCORM 1.3 Discuss	IMS Content Packaging 1.1.3 IMS Content Packaging 1.1.4 IMS QTI 1.2.1 IMS Metadata 1.2.2 IMS Metadata 1.3 SCORM 1.2 Reviewer Comments System can be used to author and export content in IMS formats, as well as importing of content created with external tools. Includes experimental support for authoring, exporting, importing of IMS Common Cartridges, to be finalized in the next release. Conforms with IMS AccessForAll and ISO FDIS 24751 adaptable content standards. Discuss
Hardware/Software
Client Browser Required	Discuss	Reviewer Comments Any browser. Discuss
Database Requirements	The system supports Oracle. The system supports MS SQL Server. The system supports MySQL. The system supports PostGreSQL. The application requires only one database and can coexist with tables from other applications. Discuss	The system supports MySQL. Discuss
UNIX Server	A Unix version is available. Discuss	A Unix version is available. Discuss
Windows Server	A Windows version is available. Discuss	A Windows version is available. Discuss
Company Details/Licensing
Company Profile	Reviewer Comments Moodle Pty Ltd is the company that organises funding and pays for core development, support plus quality assurance, allowing a broad community to help work on any aspect they want to. Discuss	Reviewer Comments The software was originally developed at the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto. ATRC is a not-for-profit organization that promotes accessibility through its open source development activities. Support and development services available. Discuss
Costs / Licensing	Reviewer Comments Moodle is free and distributed under the GPL license. Discuss	Reviewer Comments The software is free for most uses. Discuss
Open Source	The software is distributed under one of the OSI-approved licenses. Discuss	The software is distributed under one of the OSI-approved licenses. Discuss
Optional Extras	Reviewer Comments Moodle has a wide range of third-party modules that can extend functionality in different ways. Discuss	Reviewer Comments Many extras available through addon modules: e.g. social networking, audio/video conferencing, payment gateway integration, portal integration, Merlot repository search, certificates, wiki, API documenter, and more Discuss

Reference Citation: EduTools. (2010). CMS: Product Comparison System. Retrieved July 30, 2010 from http://www.edutools.info/compare.jsp?pj=4&i=624,616