U New England in Australia Adds Moodle to LMS Lineup

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/24/10

The University of New England in Armidale, Australia will be adding another open source learning management system to two other systems already in use on campus, Blackboard and Sakai. The institution said it would be adopting version 2.0 of Moodle, expected to be released shortly. At the same time the university is also adding the open source e-portfolio application Mahara.

The school has contracted with NetSpot to help with implementation and to host the applications. NetSpot is a service provider that specifically consults to the education sector in Australia and Asia. Full conversion is expected to be done by mid-2011, according to a statement from the vendor.

"The partnership with NetSpot and the move to Moodle and Mahara are important aspects of the large renewal program we are undertaking to reinvigorate our extensive online course offerings together with the technologies and support systems that contribute so much to the student experience," said Graham Webb, a professor and senior deputy vice-chancellor.

The university joins 10 others in Australia that have adopted Moodle, according to NetSpot. U New England has about 17,000 students, of which 12,500 take classes online.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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