The Owatonna High School has established Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS) system for their students and has been using it for various hybrid and non-hybrid classes over their years. Recently, the school has working towards switching to Schoology for their online class aids. Schoology and Moodle both aim to help students with their school work, but they both have their own pros and cons of use. Schoology and Moodle were created to help students organize and see their homework in today’s hectic society. They are platforms that allow students and teachers to interact with each other, and it is the best way to open up communication outside of school.

According to the Moodle about page, “Moodle has been in the making in the1970’s and has been a long-time project to Martin Dougiamas, the CEO of Moodle”. The site was released to the public in 2002, as the team decided to be taking more time and thought into the design and function of the service. Mr. Dan Leer said, “I use it for a vehicle to house a lot of classroom materials, and it gives students an access to that. It’s a place where I can streamline the course, embed documents, embed videos. So, if kids need to know what they missed, they can just go look into Moodle.”

 Schoology was created as an LMS. According to the Schoology about page. “The goal is to connect the students to the teacher with an interface resembling Facebook”. The website/app was created by designers/creators Jeremy Friedman, Ryan Hwang, Bill Kindler and Tim Trinidad. Some classes are already using Schoology such as English 12, AP American Studies 10, and business classes. The biggest difference between Schoology and Moodle, is the goal of the business and the usability of the service. Schoology has decided that rather than creating the site to make money, they created it to connect students, and help further education in a modern society. Principal Mr. Mark Randall said, “Schoology is a lot more user friendly, something that teachers and students can relate to better like Facebook. It’s also a lot easier for teachers and students to interact with each other.

Many of the students have mixed feelings about the LMS systems. Senior Ryley Glynn said, “I thought Moodle was easier to follow and Schoology was a lot more complex”. Although they are required to use the system not many students have adopted it so easily. Senior Jackie Barajas said, “It’s to extra and I havent used it since I started the class. We aren’t college students yet.”

The plan for the OHS is transfer from Moodle to Schoology next year. The school is deciding that they are already in the process of connecting more with Schoology than Moodle because of the site’s ability to interact with infinite campus better.