The Moodle advantage

Many of the features in Moodle are carefully chosen to support a philosophy of learning called social constructionist pedagogy. Simply stated, this style of learning and teaching is based on four concepts: constructivism, constructionism, social constructivism, and connected and separate:

You are probably not accustomed to an application's features being chosen based on a philosophy. Usually, features are chosen based only on what is technically feasible and what customers are willing to pay for. These are certainly factors to consider for Moodle developers. However, the educational philosophy behind Moodle is also a criterion for adding features. This gives Moodle a tremendous advantage.

As Moodle is designed around a well-defined educational philosophy, its user interface is very consistent. I don't just mean in the traditional sense, where you compare icons, colors, menu actions, and layouts on each page to ensure that they match, but as you go through a Moodle site, things look, feel, and function consistently. More importantly, you interact with each activity, your classmates, and the teacher in a consistent way, whether it's in a chat room, forum, or by leaving feedback for a Workshop. When interaction becomes easier, a student can focus more on learning and less on the software.

Further, Moodle's interactive activities and features allow developers to create courses that are self-guided and self-paced and can be utilized with mobile devices as well as desktop computers.