I’ve had about a week to settle back in after giving a presentation at Training 2009 on the open source LCMS, Moodle. As I mentioned last week, I had a packed audience but received mixed reviews. We have been utilizing Moodle for over two years for several client projects. The Moodle pedigree stems purely from higher education, so it was not designed for corporate use as a generic LMS. Moodle.org seems to have little interest in adapting to fit the needs of companies that want to train thousands of employees using hundreds of courses (see threaded discussions on the site-wide grouping feature). Nevertheless, there are many specific corporate training initiatives that Moodle is perfect for.
Clark Aldrich, the private-sector guru for immersive learning simulations, has compared books to white bread in his latest Blog post. “The business model behind linear content is becoming increasingly strained.” These are interesting comments from a person who has two books coming out. We accept them because Clark spends his time designing immersive simulations as well as writing traditional books.