EMPOWER TALENT

CORPORATE E-LEARNING
Six Strategies for Leveraging Moodle

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 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3

DELIVERING AND MANAGING

COMPLIANCE TRAINING IN MOODLE 4

LEVERAGING MOODLE FOR

COMPETENCY TRAINING AND
MANAGEMENT 5

SEAMLESS ELEARNING COURSE

DEVELOPMENT IN MOODLE 6

LEVERAGING MOODLE FOR PRODUCT

AND SERVICE LAUNCHES 7

UTILIZING MOODLE FOR THE HIRING

AND INTERVIEW PROCESS 8

FORMING COMMUNITIES OF
PRACTICE IN MOODLE 9

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 3

Moodle,
the worlds leading
open sourceC learning
ERTIFIED SERVICES P
management system.

INTRODUCTION
There is a reason why Moodle, the worlds leading
open source learning management system, is used by
73 million users worldwidebecause it is license-free
and provides organizations with a feature-rich solution to
ensure their learning needs are met and exceeded.

There is a common misconception that Moodle is

best for University environments but this is simply not
the case. Moodle is used by countless organizations
in healthcare, enterprise and even non-profit arenas
to ensure employees are provided with learning
opportunities to meet their performance goals.

In this guide we discuss how Moodle is best utilized for

your corporate eLearning needs. We cover everything
from the hiring and interview process, to product
launches, and compliance training.

If you are in the market for a learning management

system that meets your unique learning needs, this guide
will provide you with an overview of some of the many
benefits you will gain from implementing Moodle into
your organization.

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 STRATEGY 1
4
4

DELIVERING AND MANAGING COMPLIANCE TRAINING IN MOODLE

Many organizations do not have the resources to hire
full time compliance officers, or buy and implement
governance, risk and compliance software suites. However,
they do usually have training programs to ensure employees
understand how to be compliant with industry and or
government regulations. With the advent of hosted, open
learning and talent management systems such as Moodle,
executives in mid-sized companies can tackle compliance
training and get the benefit of aligning individual employee
At the end of the lesson compliance managers have the
performance with corporate strategy producing a serious
option to direct employees to a timed and secure quiz.
competitive advantage. In this section we will outline how
Depending on when you want employees to gain access to
to use the Moodle Lesson Module to effectively deliver and
the quiz you also have the option to provide time frames of
manage compliance training.
when it will be available. Equipped with the ability to choose
question formats of all those listed above, compliance
Using the Lesson and Quiz Module for trainers can ensure that knowledge is tested appropriately.
Compliance Training For example, if needing to test employees on how they
would respond in specific scenariosan essay question may
The lesson module is an excellent tool for compliance
be best so they arent prompted with a set of options. On
training because it allows compliance managers to provide
the contrary, if you are looking to test on specific legislation
content and graded questions that are automatically
change to financial reporting, a multiple choice question
graded4. It is also an excellent tool to help solidify the
may be better suited.
learning as the trainee progresses through content.
Depending on the learning that one wants to occur during
To begin, ensure you have a clear idea of the learning
the quiz itself, there are also options to provide feedback as
outcomes that you want to achieve at the end of the
the learner goes. We often find that this is a great method
lesson. For example, will it be graded and a linear learning
to help employees learn as they are provided with the
experience? Or will it be ungraded and non-linear so that
correct answer immediately after discovering they answered
employees can go back and review the content? Once you
incorrectly. If you want a more traditional approach where
have decided on the direction you want to take, you can
the students get no feedback and only one chance to take
begin creating your lessons various pages. With the content
the quiz, this is possible too!
editor there is plenty of room to get creative with your
lessons! Embedding videos, pictures and links to additional For more information on Compliance Training we encourage
resources allows the learner to benefit from multiple ways to you to download the whitepaper, Turning Compliance into
absorb the material. a Competitive Advantage.

Within each content page you also have the option to + Download Whitepaper
include questions to test the employees understanding
of the content. Moodle provides you the ability to choose
between multiple choice, essay, matching, numerical,
short answer or true/false questions. While all of these
are great tools to test learning, if your goal is to have all
questions graded automatically, we would not suggest
using the essay question option as it requires responses to
be manually graded. Having the questions automatically
graded helps when training large batches of employees due
to the compliance managers ability to view the progress,
4. Cole, J., Cole, J., & Henrick, G, Moodle 2.0 for Business
completion and scores of each employee.
(Olton, Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2011)

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 STRATEGY 2
LEVERAGING MOODLE FOR
COMPETENCY TRAINING
AND MANAGEMENT
More and more organizations are implementing competency
based training because it helps to prioritize training dollars
and ultimately, it achieves results5. Research tells us that
some individuals are up to 20 times more productive
than others6. If you could have your pick of these hyper-
productive employees, wouldnt you? Lucky for you, with
competency based training you can. When you match
both individual competencies with job competency models
you effectively put talent in positions where they will
flourish. Coupled with this, by simultaneously focusing on
developing the employees competencies, you will come
closer to closing the gap to the competency model so that
the employee reaches his or her ultimate potential. When
this happens the individual will have reached a level of self-
actualization wherein benefit to the company continues
to multiply. The Moodle Outcomes Module provides an
excellent system for defining, tracking and assessing
employee competencies right within your LMS.
Developing a Competency Based Training
Program with Moodle Outcomes
With the Moodle Outcomes Module, training managers
are equipped with a process for defining competencies
that are linked to a series of numbers or letters to
determine the learners level of understanding of said
competency. Unlike grades, which may be composed
of test scores, participation points, attendance and
projectsoutcomes, like competencies, assess a series of
statements which can be provided at the end of a course
along with the overall grade.
5. Graeme Dobson, A Guide to Writing Competency Based Training
Materials (Melbourne: Commonwealth of Australia, 2003)
6. William J. Rothwell and Jim M. Graber, Competency Based Training
Basics (New York: ASTD, 2010)
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5
Before setting up your competency program in Moodle it
is important to have clearly identified the competencies
that are achieved with the completion of the courses and/
or activities. Once these have been defined, it is a matter
of going through the various activities and assigning
competencies that are achieved once completed. Activities
can cover single or multiple competencies and can be set
so they are only achieved once a student has attained a
certain level of understandingthis level of understanding
is defined by either completion of an activity or course, or a
set of minimum scores.
What if you could
pick only the hyper-
productive employees?
Once a learner has completed a competency training
program, a manager can then pull a competency report
that outlines the competencies achieved and their overall
average which can be measured through multiple grade
items. If your organization is already using a competency
based model, these reports are great because they identify
employees whom are eligible for internal positions and the
specific competencies that align with the role.
For a guide to developing a Competency Based Training
Model, we welcome you to check out the complimentary
resource, A Guide to Competency Based Training for
Organizational Excellence.
+ Download Guide
 STRATEGY 3
6

SEAMLESS eLEARNING
COURSE DEVELOPMENT
IN MOODLE
Different people learn best with different learning methods,
which is why many people cannot excel in traditional
learning systems. Textbook learning is not the right fit
for everyone, but it is for some. This creates the need to
integrate traditional and non-traditional methods to create
one hybrid learning module. This is where eLearning comes
in. eLearning is beneficial because it addresses the learning
needs of non-traditional learners, but does not exclude
those who work well in traditional settings. It is truly the
best of both worlds. There are various components of Content includes any and all resources
eLearning that make it both beneficial, and effective. that you will use in your course. With
eLearning, content can be administered
eLearning allows you to incorporate different activities that through technology, so students can access
not only assist the learning process, but are also considered the materials on the device of their choosing.
primary sources of content. These activities will fall into one This can include written material, textbook
of two categoriessynchronous or asynchronous7. These material, external articles, videos, and
two activities are good examples of the harmony between video conferences9.
traditional and non-traditional learning methods.

Synchronous activities are happening in real time, and
require all participants to be present. This includes video
conferencing, polling, instant messaging, games, and
whiteboards.
Asynchronous activities can be done independently, at
any time. This includes contributing to Wikis or blogs,
participating in discussion forums, watching videos, listening
to audio, going over slides, and composing emails8. Allowing
students to access to material on their own time means they
can work at their own pace. Now lets move onto the real
meat of eLearning. Learners can engage with their peers, ask
There are different features and components that
your eLearning course will include. These are content,
mentorship, communication/collaboration, and virtual
learning. Lets discuss this further.
Mentorship can come from administrators, or
peers. This is possible with video conferences,
instant messaging, email, and question boxes.
Learners can ask their questions, or express
their concerns, and receive instant feedback.
Just because learners are not in physical
proximity, does not mean that there is not an
opportunity to communicate and collaborate
with peers. This is possible through features
like discussion boards, and group chats.
each other questions, share ideas, and work
together. This collaborative effort is essential
to the quality of eLearning. Not only does it
allow learners to ask their questions, it allows
learners to motivate one another.

Virtual Learning is the learning that occurs

when content is administered through
7. Rice, W., Moodle 2.0 E-Learning Course Development virtual means. This is possible with video
(Olton, Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2011)
conferencing, PowerPoint, as well as visuals
8. Ibid.
and audio.
9. Ibid.

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 STRATEGY 4
7

LEVERAGING MOODLE FOR PRODUCT AND SERVICE LAUNCHES

Central to any business is the level of understanding your opportunities via training and knowledge communities.
employees have about the products and/or services you Moodle has many tools to help you do this.
provide. In todays global economy, competition is steep
The one we will be discussing here is the Moodle Course
making it a necessity that your people are experts in the
Module. Additional tools in Moodle that help with product
value your organization provides and how your products
or service knowledge training include the Glossary Module,
deliver that value. Ensuring your people have strong product
Moodle Chat Module and the Database Activity Module.
knowledge is one of the key pillars for providing a positive
The glossary module allows you to create pages that link off
customer experience. It is also important because it ensures
to important terminology in your product training courses.
that sales executives can communicate the product or
The chat module on the other hand allows for real-time
service value to customers in a way that resonates with their
discussion and knowledge sharing between learners and
business objectives. At the bare minimum, it is important
the database activity module allows you to store documents
that employees can answer the following questions:
that can be easily linked and accessed through your
Moodle courses.
What purpose does your
product or service provide for
your customer segments?

How is the product or service

described? What are the
benefits in relation to shape,
size, color, function, time to
delivery and process?
How does a potential buyer
receive it? What is the mode of
delivery?
How much does it cost and
what are the parameters for
usage?
In todays business world, products and services are being
updated, modified or changed at an ever increasing rate
so it is important to understand that product knowledge
training is not a one-time event. Rather, product knowledge
is an ongoing education initiative that changes as new
clients emerge, new features develop or new knowledge
is discovered. While this may seem like an obvious
organizational initiative, the reality is that few organizations
execute well on this. In order to do so it is important to
provide employees with the right resources and learning
Using the Moodle Course Module
for Product Training
Depending on an employees role in your organization
their product training may differ. For example, your sales
team needs product information regarding descriptions,
benefits and updates, whereas your support staff needs
access to this information, in addition to deeper knowledge
such as the history of bug fixes or product timelines. The
finance department, on the other hand, needs access to
managerial accounting information such as costs of goods
sold, delivery and support. While it is an option to create
product knowledge training specifically for every functional
department in Moodle, it is much more efficient to use
Moodles topic structure feature to allow each role to focus
on the information they need.
To do this in Moodle, administrators and managers have
the option to set up courses within the course category,
topics format, which allows you to organize a product
knowledge courses based on the resources and activities
needed for each functional role in your organization. This
method is particularly helpful because it does not restrict
employees from understanding your product or service
from a holistic perspective.

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 STRATEGY 5
8

UTILIZING MOODLE FOR THE HIRING

AND INTERVIEW PROCESS
Before you even begin training your employees, you must
have employees. Having a committed team on board is
essential to any organization, and the hiring process is a
big part of that. Moodle can be used as an HR tool, where
applicants can send in their resumes, and employers can
screen them.

Heres a Look Into How It Works:

Create A Course. As a Moodle

1 Admin, you can create a course
(just like how you would for
a class), that is solely for assisting the
hiring process. You can create a different
Course, for each position you are hiring
for. You can label each section within the
course to make it very clear to applicants
what they are to be doing in each section.1
Accept resumes. You can include
2 a section where applicants can
upload files this is where they
should submit their CVs/Resumes.
You can also add a time range in which
Having a
committed team
on board is essential
to any organization!
First, set a minimum grade an applicant must receive in
order to be considered for the job. When you are going
through the resumes, you can include a grading component
where you can rank each applicant. An email will be sent to
all applicants once they have been graded, with a link to the
page where they can review their score and feedback. For
individuals who qualify for the position (i.e. they received a
grade higher than, or equal to the one you decided would
be your minimum for approval), provide them with the

submissions will be accepted2 (Eg. From x
date to y date).
Assess applications. You can see
3 which applicants are acceptable
and which ones do not fit. Within
this step, there are a few different features
of Moodle that you can benefit from.
next steps to take. If you have the latest version of Moodle,
you can ensure that only those applicants that received a
qualifying grade can access these next features3. You can
create competency tests for these qualified applicants
to complete, which gives further insight into whether or
not they will be a good fit with your organization. This
may include personality tests, aptitude tests, and reading
comprehension depending on the competencies you are
looking for in the successful applicant.
1. Cole, J., Cole, J., & Henrick, G, Moodle 2.0 for Business
(Olton, Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2011)

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

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 STRATEGY 6
FORMING COMMUNITIES OF
PRACTICE IN MOODLE
Communities of practice (CoPs) are informal groups of
people within the business community that have common
goals, and interests, who work together to teach each
other, and learn from one another. These people have a
shared passion, or concern about a certain topic, and work
collectively to reach their goals. There are four types of
communities of practice, each one defined by their own
strategic devices.
Helping Communities
Best Practice Communities
Knowledge Sharing Communities
Innovation Communities.
10. Cole, J., Cole, J., & Henrick, G, Moodle 2.0 for Business
(Olton, Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2011)
11. Ibid.
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9
9
Each of these communities will require different design,
different features, and different course structures within
Moodle. We will go through the different features of Moodle
that CoPs benefit the most from.
Anyone who has been a part of a group project will know
first-hand that without a moderator, things can go awry.
Moderators are necessary in group settings to keep
everyone on track. Through Moodle you can establish
who your moderator will be, and what their privileges
will include10.
Wikis are online documents that group members can
collaborate and contribute to individually, but which forms
a piece of work as a whole. Think of Wikipediaeach page
in Wikipedia is created by community members, who
add information as they see fit. Each community member
can contribute information, edit information, and remove
information that they believe to be incorrect, or irrelevant.
In the case of wikis in Moodle however, only members
enrolled in the course are able to access and contribute to
the documents. Another tool commonly used in Moodle is
glossaries of keywords and terms that are common within
the field each group is working in.
CoPs can also build their own library database of
references11. In this section of the course, you can enable
each member to upload a number of references (with
a minimum number of your choice). You can also set
the page up so that members can only view anothers
submissions after they have submitted their own. This is
usually common within graded courses, but in community
groups it may not be necessary.
 10
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