Open edX ® platform and Moodle both are used for online learning and both are also open-source platforms. Open edX ® platform and Moodle follow both are different types of approach as educational approaches and business models.
Let’s find, what is the difference between Open edX ® platform and Moodle.
Open edX ® platform and Moodle
Moodle is a learning management system (LMS) designed to provide education. Moodle is used as an e-learning tool by colleges, healthcare, government or enterprises because Moodle is highly customizable.
edX ® is a free and open-source course management system (CMS). It is a joined venture of giant companies like MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Google. edX ® committee created open source platform that’s called Open edX ® platform. Open edX ® platform code is freely available for everyone. It is also used as an e-learning platform.
Supports
edX ® is a new compare to Moodle, Open edX ® platform was created in 2013, Open edX ® platform doesn’t have a large community supporting it.
But Moodle is a minimum 15-year-old and has a very large active community for support, and Moodle partner support and many Moodle partners support in case.
Active User
Open edX ® platform is used by many companies like Google, Amazon Web Services, and IBM.
And Moodle is used by companies like Allianz, Intel, University of Canberra, University of New York.
User Experience
It’s also better suited for open education which can be achieved in Moodle too but the user and learning experience seems to be better on Open edX ® platform.
Connectivity with Google
The Google / edX ® relationship will mean that edX ® will be able to take advantage of the scale of Google’s cloud computing infrastructure. We will see this first at http://mooc.org/, which will position edX ® as a free, a multi-tenant cloud-based offering for any educational entity that wants to offer open courses.
Creating course
Moodle is a tool used to help facilitate a course created by anyone.
edX ® platforms aggregate courses from reputable colleges. For instance, edX ® started as a partnership between MIT and Harvard and has expanded to more schools such as Berkeley and UT Austin.
Additional functionality
Moodle has a built-in chat functionality. We can add-in for most of the major synchronous learning tools, including Blackboard Collaborate & Ultra, Big Blue Button, Zoom, and WebEx. (Additional licensing may be required.)
Installation flexibility
Moodle tends to be easier to install than edX ®, and there are hosted or one-click install options available.
Comparison Sheet
Scale description: The scale defines how will these features are supported by the tools.
1 – Poor, 2 – Below average, 3 – Average, 4 – Good, 5 – Excellent
| Open edX ® platform vs Moodle | ||
| Features | Performance | |
| Open edX ® platform | Moodle | |
| ADMINISTRATION SECTION | ||
| CMS | 4 | 4 |
| Notifications | 4 | 3 |
| SSO | 5 | 4 |
| SCORM, LTI, API | 5 | 5 |
| CRM | 4 | 4 |
| LEARNING ANALYTICS SECTION | ||
| Assessment Tracking | 4 | 4 |
| Administration Reporting | 4 | 4 |
| Feedback Tracking | 3 | 3 |
| Student Tracking | 4 | 4 |
| Automated Report Creation | 4 | 4 |
| AUTHORING TOOL SECTION | ||
| Gamification/Simulation technologies | 3 | 4 |
| Assessment and Testing technologies | 4 | 3 |
| Audio/Video Conferencing tools | 5 | 3 |
| Grading functionality | 4 | 4 |
| Chart tools | 3 | 3 |
| CUSTOMIZATION SECTION | ||
| Customizable LMS Branding | 5 | 3 |
| Customizable Reporting | 5 | 3 |
| Customizable User Interface | 4 | 3 |
| Customizable Functionality | 5 | 4 |
| Customizable Certificates | 5 | 3 |
| INTEGRATION SECTION | ||
| Adaptive learning | 4 | 4 |
| Social learning | 3 | 3 |
| e-Commerce | 5 | 3 |
| mLearning | 3 | 4 |
| Blended/Hybrid learning | 4 | 3 |
Conclusion
Moodle and open edX ® platform are great tools. They both provide ample features and plugins by which you can achieve your requirement, but the choice is yours.
Depending upon your business needs whether it requires the business model or traditional education approach you can choose to go with Open edX ® platform or Moodle.
Open edX ® platform is a modern approach that can handle massive concurrent participants while Moodle will provide more traditional classroom teaching approach.
edX, Open edX, MicroMasters, and MicroBachelors are registered trademarks of edX Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Open edX platform is a free–and open source–course management system (CMS) that was originally developed by edX. The Open edX platform is used all over the world to host Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as well as smaller classes and training modules. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. VS Self-Definition: Moodle is a free, online Learning Management system enabling educators to create their own private website filled with dynamic courses that extend learning, anytime, anywhere.