Moodle is the popular open source Learning Management System (LMS) that has taken the training market by storm in recent years. The Elearning Guild LMS Survey in 2010 showed that of the top 3 LMS applications (Moodle, Blackboard and TotalLMS), Moodle had the highest satisfaction ratings for ease of installation, cost, reporting capabilities, time to implement, living up to vendor promises and assessment capabilities.
However, in evaluating Moodle the newcomer could easily become confused by a proliferation of releases: Moodle 1.9 or Moodle 2, various distributions such as Totara and Joule, and packages called Moodle Flavours which comprise standard Moodle with the author's favourite plug-ins. So where do you start if you’re considering a Moodle implementation? If you’re not sure whether to use Standard Moodle, a Moodle Distribution or a Moodle Flavour, then this article is for you