Interview with Jeevan Joshi about the use of Moodle in corporate environments
About Jeevan
Jeevan Joshi is the Principal Consultant at KnowledgeWorking, a company that specialises in technology enabled workforces and business productivity solutions. Jeevan has more than 17 years of experience in designing and delivering e-learning, human capital, knowledge, and risk and compliance solutions for leading organisations in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. He has had wide exposure to various functions, including business development, project management, consulting, and human resources and has worked for leading companies such as Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PWC.
Robin: Jeevan, the use of Moodle is growing in the education area, especially the K-12 area. Do you think Moodle is ready for business environments? As an enterprise system?
Jeevan: Robin, that's a good question and it is one that is being asked by a lot of people. Moodle is a fairly popular Learning Management System, or Virtual Learning Environment, in the education sector and with some small to mid-sized companies. Moodle, I would say at this point in time, doesn't actually meet the requirements of the larger organizations, which have a different set of requirements in terms of scalability, integration, and functionality.
However for small and mid-size businesses, Moodle does present a very attractive option as a learning management system. Having said that, there are instances where Moodle has been used for large-scale deployments.
Robin: By mid-sized, you mean businesses that might have 1,000 employees?
Jeevan: Yes. Anywhere between 500 to 2,000 employees. Mid-sized companies typically cannot put in the capital expenditure to implement proprietary LMSs. Open-source applications like Moodle, do not have annual license fees. Having said that, another angle for even large companies, who typically can afford LMSs, to consider is: What are you trying to achieve through the LMS?
There have been instances where fairly large organizations have deployed Moodle for certain learning initiatives or projects; for example, to their customers, suppliers, or to a specific segment of their employees. Again, the numbers are not as large as 10,000, but certainly Moodle has been deployed for specific initiatives.
Robin: In these enterprise markets, what do you think is the actual weakness of Moodle?
Jeevan: A couple of things.
The first is that most corporations' IT departments are not comfortable with open-source models, and Moodle, being an open-source system, is available for free from Moodle.org. They are used to the more traditional proprietary software packages, with their skills ecosystem and accountability "” if things go wrong, the vendor can be approached.
Deploying an open-source application like Moodle does require a different skill; e.g., PHP or My SQL. IT departments do not always have this skill set. So, they would obviously focus on something like Oracle or ASP.NET technologies. In terms of selection, that's one disadvantage of Moodle. The PHP skill set is not readily available, and corporations don't necessarily want to develop that skill set unless there is a critical mass within the organization.
However, open-source models are now gaining acceptance in enterprises as open-source applications mature.
Having said that, organizations are exploring open-source systems, and it's quite possible that a skill set will develop. Hence, they will become more open to open-source applications.
The second weakness is the corporate-level learning requirements, which are not really met by Moodle.
Originally, Moodle was really a class management system. It's a learning management system used by teachers for teaching courses to their students. It has progressed beyond that and put on some additional features.
However, the fact remains: it is that legacy.
The proprietary element systems have been designed with the intention of providing an enterprise-wide, consistent platform.
Consider some of the features that are needed by large corporate deployments but that are missing in Moodle, slowing its use in corporate training.
The first item is scalability. Certainly the scalability of PHP, MySQL is getting better, but there are some question marks. There is a perception that PHP, MySQL doesn't scale up as well as needed for the corporate world.
Another item is the function of learning. Learning in a corporate environment typically works by a training needs analysis of a certain audience within the organization. It could be, for example, staff in the retail branches of a bank honing a certain new skill set or knowledge about a new system. Moodle doesn't allow the management of these groups very well, certainly not as well as do some of the proprietary LMSs.
An additional item is management of complexity. Complex organizations, with a matrix of learning needs, audiences, and business initiatives are not being well-served by Moodle at this time. The complexity of a large learning organization is overwhelming for Moodle. A further issue is reporting capability. Moodle certainly does have reporting capability at the student, class, and host level. But many large organizations generate reports about the entire organization and need the ability to drill down to certain groups of employees.
That reporting needs to be high-powered, considering some large organizations have as many as 30,000 employees.
However, the fact remains: it is that legacy.
The proprietary element systems have been designed with the intention of providing an enterprise-wide, consistent platform.
Consider some of the features that are needed by large corporate deployments but that are missing in Moodle, slowing its use in corporate training.
The first item is scalability. Certainly the scalability of PHP, MySQL is getting better, but there are some question marks. There is a perception that PHP, MySQL doesn't scale up as well as needed for the corporate world.
Another item is the function of learning. Learning in a corporate environment typically works by a training needs analysis of a certain audience within the organization. It could be, for example, staff in the retail branches of a bank honing a certain new skill set or knowledge about a new system. Moodle doesn't allow the management of these groups very well, certainly not as well as do some of the proprietary LMSs.
An additional item is management of complexity. Complex organizations, with a matrix of learning needs, audiences, and business initiatives are not being well-served by Moodle at this time. The complexity of a large learning organization is overwhelming for Moodle. A further issue is reporting capability. Moodle certainly does have reporting capability at the student, class, and host level. But many large organizations generate reports about the entire organization and need the ability to drill down to certain groups of employees.
That reporting needs to be high-powered, considering some large organizations have as many as 30,000 employees.
Moodle varies from installation to installation. The corporate world prefers consistency. Corporate leaders want to see a list of all available features in an application. You can certainly use that.
Robin: We've talked about some of the negatives for Moodle. What do you see as some its advantages?
Jeevan: There certainly are some advantages. Moodle's learning model is different from those of the larger, proprietary LMSs. Moodle is learner centric and integrates social learning very well, which is something that proprietary LMSs are starting now. Being designed from scratch has helped Moodle gain some advantages over proprietary LMSs. The flexibility of the application allows people to modify content by logging onto Moodle and making changes.
Essentially, the learner-centric approach is very advantageous.
Robin: Have you seen any evidence that Moodle has been used to save money on training?
Jeevan: Yes, it has. In fact, we've replaced some of the current, proprietary LMSs with Moodle for some of our customers. Costs have been the driving force many times. We've been able to compare the costs of deploying an open-source application, such as Moodle, and a proprietary system. Not only does Moodle save money, but it also provides flexibility. Many commercial models for LMSs are based on the number of users. Thus, a larger number of users results in higher license fees or subscription fees. Moodle doesn't have this restriction, which is another way of saving.
You always have to remember that the total cost of ownership of a system is extremely important.
Moodle software itself is open source and doesn't cost anything; however, you do need to implement it well, meaning consulting fees will be required.
In terms of modification, technical help might be required. If your IT department does not have those skills, you will have to consider going with external technical support, which could cost more.
Overall, though, Moodle is an extremely attractive financial proposition for many corporate customers in certain segments.
Robin: What are some of the ways in which you've seen Moodle implemented?
Jeevan: There are different approaches to implementing Moodle. The most popular is one where Moodle has been used to deploy one course. So, an online course is developed and put onto Moodle.
In terms of the deployment of Moodle, it should be done using a structured, project-managed approach.
On the other hand, structured approaches require a lot of time and a lot of support from the organization, which is why Moodle also allows you to start deployment on a fairly user-friendly pilot basis. It allows you to start small and scale up once you've proven your concept.
Robin: One thing I like about Moodle is that it allows an enterprise operation in an ecosystem, instead of forcing a company to go to a particular solution provider and be locked in with the maintenance and ongoing user fees inherent to content and learning management systems. How do you see this working for and against enterprises?
Jeevan: One of the major considerations for the deployment of an enterprise-wide system is security and managing the risk around that application. There is very low tolerance for risk in large organizations.
Moodle is open source. Open source software's strength is that if there are any security issues, they are identified and fixed fairly quickly. However, someone needs to monitor, test, and apply any fixes. In terms of considering Moodle for an enterprise-wide software deployment, its security aspect does not yet have proven credentials.
Moodle itself is not insecure. However, there are few examples of large Moodle deployments that have had to be really secure. I'm sure it can be done. The lack of a track record at this point in time is one of the reasons why corporates may be a little reluctant.
Robin: Your answer covers some of the questions I was going to ask regarding the issue of intellectual property. Do you have anything to add on that topic?
Jeevan: Absolutely. Moodle is a learning management system and a learning content management system combined in one. That is one of Moodle's strengths that many people don't realize. It does allow the speed of learning to increase. That is, the speed from the time when a learning need is identified to the time that learning is completed for a particular employee, for example. A subject-matter expert, with a little bit of training, can easily get onto Moodle and develop a course using its content development tools. Thus, it won't be a SCORM-compliant course, meaning it may not be easily transferable to other LMSs.
But in a lot of cases it's not necessary; it's a course which probably is pertinent only to the organization and doesn't need to be transferred to other LMSs. It does provide quite a flexible set of simple content development tools. This is an advantage and is certainly something that should be kept in mind.
Robin: I recently came across figures saying that training that happens in businesses is induction training. How do you think Moodle compares to some of the other systems that are specifically set up for induction training?
Jeevan: I think Moodle would fit very well into the induction training. In fact, I don't really consider induction training to be any different from other forms of training. Many companies that I know of and worked with have the case where induction actually begins before the person arrives with the company on day one. I've seen cases where, for example, Occupation Health and Safety courses are given to employees before they start work. In most cases they're paid for the time they've spent on the course.
It certainly can be used for induction, but I don't necessarily see the requirements for induction being of greater importance than the other forms of training.
Robin: For corporate users, the reporting and integration features of Moodle are often weak. What are your thoughts on this, reporting and the potential that exists for integration in Moodle?
Jeevan: To be honest, reporting is an issue with any kind of enterprise wide system. Because there is a lot of data and there is a lot of querying, performance and the flexibility required for reporting is always an issue with large enterprise systems. This is slightly changing with Moodle 2.0.
But I think the way to tackle the reporting in Moodle for large enterprise deployments would be to actually have the data go to a data warehouse. And then use the data warehouse tools to report against them.
Certainly there is very good reporting within Moodle. In fact, in terms of reporting on learning effectiveness, Moodle is probably stronger than a lot of other proprietary LMSs.
By that, I mean the ability of Moodle to drill into; for example, the responses given to a question, the ability to see what those responses are, and to see the trends. Therefore, the ability to identify any weaknesses in the course of analysis is pretty strong.
But in terms of the other reporting, which typically involves such items as, how many people from this division have completed this course by this date? And the ability to filter information, I think that's probably better served by putting the data into a data warehouse and then querying against it. This matter is most applicable to about large organizations with more than 20,000 to 30,000 employees. Anything less than that may not be such a big problem.
Robin: What, do you think, are some of the interesting trends that will happen with Moodle in the next year or so?
Jeevan: It's an interesting space. You've mentioned that there are some vendors who have now added some new features to Moodle, are offering Moodle as a supported and hosted application, and are providing professional services around that. Certainly that is a good trend moving forward. Moodle does suffer from its legacy of being an open-source system that can be installed in just a couple of hours. It's got a little bit of a reputation of being a lightweight, which is not actually true.
We'll see that change with these deployments coming to light and becoming successful. The thing is that, a lot of times, there are a lot of successful Moodle deployments that people don't know about because it is badged with the name of another company.
Moodle is the engine for many LMSs that have been deployed in some corporate spaces. It's just not very visible.
In the future, I see Moodle entering corporate spaces. We've always known that it is a game changer.
However, Moodle must face a very structured and fairly large LMS industry. Moodle will require corporations to take risks and think outside of the box in order to displace these large corporate LMSs. This will happen when these corporations see Moodle working.
We will just have to watch for signs of large, successful Moodle deployments.
Robin: What plug-ins and modules do you think are useful for Moodle in the business and corporate environment?
Jeevan: That's one of the issues that corporations face. They have a huge array of add-ins, and each add-in needs to be vetted and tested for security and compatibility with applications. It would help if more of these useful enhancements were actually incorporated into the core product. There are two types of important enhancements. One increases the depth of the functionality within the current feature set, and the other adds new features or functionalities to Moodle.
There are some great examples of this. I also know that some of the add-ons have actually been incorporated into the Moodle code for version two. There are add-ons for managing certificates and for managing grade books. There are also different plug-ins for different media types. Thus, there's much variety.
I think you need to ensure that it is an add-on that has a good community supporting it, and it will survive in the future.
Robin:Do you think there's anything we missed, Jeevan?
Jeevan: No. We've done well.
