PBS TeacherLine Moves to Moodle for Course Management -- THE Journal

Learning Management Systems

PBS TeacherLine Moves to Moodle for Course Management

By Scott Aronowitz
07/20/10

Online professional development program PBS TeacherLine has made the conversion to the popular open source learning management system (LMS) Moodle. The organization said it made the move in order to make its program easier for schools to customize in offering it to their educators.

As an open source system, Moodle is available without license fees or the same kinds of deploment and modification restricts that typically apply to commercial software. In addition, both system's tools and its code accommodate extensive customization, allowing developers to create or modify functionality to fulfill their own institutions' needs; allowing school administrators to customize professional development course design and curriculum and manage schedules, courseloads, and facilitation; and allowing teachers to manage their own courseloads, assignments, requirements, and goals.

"Open technologies are well aligned with the movement toward collaborative digital learning environments," said Melinda George, senior director of PBS TeacherLine. "We decided to use Moodle to better serve schools and districts today and into the future as the educational system evolves. Now schools can enjoy greater flexibility in adapting and using our high-quality professional development content to meet their local needs."

PBS TeacherLine also pointed to several other advantages of Moodle over proprietary solutions, including interoperability and a broader and more flexible range of use and access. A free orientation course to introduce new users to online learning and TeacherLine on the Moodle LMS is available here.

About the Author

Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years. He can be reached here.

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