A strong, and well-informed community is the core foundation of any non-profit organization. Thanks to Moodle’s open source model, Saylor Academy has been able to open up their services to an unlimited number of learners, allowing their community to grow, and strengthen. As a non-profit organization, it was important to them to be inclusive of anyone who wished to learn, participate, and help their cause.
Saylor Academy is committed to the transition towards an open education ecosystem. It was important to them, as an open source course provider, to work with an open source LMS hosting vendor. It seems fitting then, that they recently moved to Moodle to deliver their 93 courses. Before moving to Moodle, Saylor had two main objectives; First, mass student feedback told them there was a dire need for additional features to their existing courses; Second, there was an internal desire for more effective courses in educating learners, and allowing them to achieve their personal goals. Moodle helped them achieve both of these goals.
Moodle has allowed Saylor Academy to improve the services and education they provide to students. Moodle gives learners the ability to track their own academic progress with a progress bar that is broken down by individual course units, quizzes/activities, and final exams. It acts as a visual reminder of what work they have done, and what they have left to do in each specific component of their course. Moodle also gives students the ability to receive feedback and assess knowledge. In courses where learners are working remotely, and there is no physical authoritative figure, feedback and communication are essential for learners to stay on track.
The one thing that Saylor really enjoys about Moodle, is that Moodle is never at a standstill - it is constantly growing and improving. The Moodle open source community of developers is large and active, so new features are always being added, meaning that Saylor’s own site will also have the capacity to improve and grow at a sustainable cost!