Today we are interviewing Hiram Kuykendall, CTO of MicroAssist and Jacob  Williams, Senior Training Application Developer at MicroAssist about Moodle, an  open source Learning Management System.   Moodle is designed to help educators  create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source  license and modular design means that people can develop additional  functionality.  MicroAssist is an experienced custom E-Learning company that has  a number of large Moodle installations.

Editor: What is Moodle?

Jacob Williams: Moodle is an open source web application designed to create a  collaborative online environment for students and teachers.

Hiram Kuykendall: In this case it is web based and as Jacob stated it is an open  source package.  The main Moodle site is www.Moodle.org.  The only thing I would  add to that... is I would classify Moodle as a Learning Managment System (LMS).

Editor: What is a Learning Management System?

Hiram Kuykendall: A Learning Management System is software for delivering,  tracking and managing training. Jacob Williams: A LMS allows teachers to post  assignments, record grades and have discussions with and among the students in a  class.

In preparing for an interview on Moodle (A LMS licensed under the GNU License) I found this interview with martin Dougiamas, creator of Moodle at Steve Hargadon's site (http://www.stevehargadon.com/2006/10/interview-with-martin-dougiamas.html)
It provides an excellent background into this LMS.  We'll be publishing an interview with some E-Learning practitioners who use Moodle in their work soon.

Here are some statistics for the next time you need to make a business case for Training from Assima. 
Assima Managing Director, Paul Stevens presented some strong arguments for effective IT training:

I was playing with the free online software Dabbleboard that makes it easy to draw diagrams, jotting notes and sketches.    Dabbleboard comes with a library of readily-available objects for piecing together org charts, mind maps, network diagrams, floor plans, photo annotation, interface designs, and electrical diagrams.  I drew the little diagram below (my brainstorm about what makes information valuable) in a few moments using a mouse.  It is possible to draw diagrams with a mouse because Dabbleboard takes your mouse gestures and interprets them as a diagram.  Sometimes it makes a silly c