Student Opinions of Moodle and Chef

During the fall 04 semester it occurred to me that a substantial number of students in my class (Information Technology and Society - MGMT 110) where we were using Moodle intensely were also using Chef concurrently in a different Management class. Thus I administered an online survey using the Free Assessment Summary Tool to these students asking the questions listed in survey results: data section. 13 students were invited to take part in the survey and 11 responded.

Questions	Strongly Disagree	Somewhat Disagree	Not Applicable	Somewhat Agree	Strongly Agree
Q1. Would you agree that that you were comfortable in using computers?	0	0	0	6	5
Q2. Taking the whole software into consideration, would you agree that Moodle is easier to use than Chef?	0	3	1	5	2
Q3. Comment on why you made your choice above	written responses for Q3
Q4. The Journal tool of Moodle was easier to use than the Assignment tool of Chef? N/A indicates you consider they are the same	0	2	3	4	2
Q5. The Resources tool of Moodle was easier to use than that of Chef ? N/A indicates you consider they are the same	0	1	7	3	0
Q6. The Forum of Moodle was easier to use than the Discussion tool of Chef? N/A indicates you consider they are the same	0	1	4	4	2
Q7. Chef is being used effectively in your class?	0	5	2	2	2
Q8. Moodle is being used effectively in your class?	0	1	1	4	5
Q9. Getting feedback within assignments via CHEF was helpful for me?	1	4	2	4	0
Q10. Getting feedback to Journal entries in Moodle was helpful for me?	0	0	0	7	4
Q11. Having all grades summarized online in Moodle was helpful for me?	0	0	0	8	3
Q12. Having grades available for assignments in Chef was helpful for me?	1	2	3	4	1
Q13. Comment on one feature or software behavior you especially liked and one you disliked in the Chef system	written responses for Q13
Q14. Comment on one feature or software behavior you especially liked and one you disliked in the Moodle system	written responses for Q14
Q15. Any other comments on the two Course Management Systems?	written responses for Q15

 

Q3: Comment on why you made your choice above (preferring Moodle or Chef)

Date	Response
10 Nov	i use moodle much more and i am more comfortable with it
10 Nov	I think that they are both frustrating and useful in their own rights. I think that to use either students need to be given a thorough tutorial in how to use the programs. How to submit work, etc.
09 Nov	Moodle is much easier than chef. chef is hard to navigate. I'm always afraid I'm going to miss some important piece of information. The layout seems too spread out. Also with chef there are all these extra features and boxes that we don't really use that just make it hard to figure out. with moodle everything feels more centralized. also, chef's way of submitting things is difficult. You can't edit after you've submitted. with moodle you can edit your work untill it is due, which is a lot better. also with chef you can't use the back button for navigation half the time. chef also loads a lot slower than moodle. The one small poor thing about moodle is that when you view all the journals you see the entile entry of the journal and not just the title of the journal, then it take a lot longer to load. yipee for moodle. Moodle was a good experience, chef was a bad one.
08 Nov	they both are about the same. one just has features that the other one doesn't
08 Nov	the Chef site design is much simpler than moodle. moodle has so many side bars, tools and pull menues that it is difficult to figure out what exactly the prof is assigning, where it is, where all the tools neccessary to complete the assigment are and where and when to turn it in. Homework is complicated enough! Getting to it needs to be easy. Chef is no pile of roses either but its less complicated and confusing that moodle.
08 Nov	Moodle has clearer navigation paths. Chef has had technical problems that hindered our work.
07 Nov	Moodle automatically sends forum/journal feedback to our inboxes, so that we don't have to rely on chef being "up and running" in order to see everything; also, in chef things were CONSTANTLY being updated, assignments were put up as late as the night before it was due. This is unacceptable, especially for people who actually plan ahead.
07 Nov	they both are easy to use which is why i do not feel that one is better than the other
06 Nov	Because I usually dont have problems with moodle and it is just overall a lot easier than Chef.
06 Nov	Journals are easier with Moodle but I like resources in Chef

Q13. Comment on one feature or software behavior you especially liked and one you disliked in the Chef system

Date	Response
10 Nov	chef shows you what users are present when you are signed on is something i liked. it is difficult to figure out hoe to get people to enter a chat room
10 Nov	I don't like how you can not use the "back button" in Chef. It drives me nuts. I prefer the layout of assignments in Chef. They are clearer.
09 Nov	side comment---I'm not even sure on to see feedback on chef. grades are also hard to determine on chef for numerous reasons. I did really like the drop boxes and team boxes on chef, they were useful. Everything seems too spread out on chef, I feel like i'm going to miss something important if I dont' scoure the site.
08 Nov	I like the chat room. I dislike that it closes out too much and too fast
08 Nov	I hate that Chef is constantly refreshing itself. Sometimes it won't open text fields with scroll bars properly and you have to try to refresh a few times. I find Chef to be more bare bones, simple and plain, this is good because i don't want to deal with a complicated system, i just want to do my homework.
08 Nov	i liked the links setup that we had to follow. i disliked the setup of the program as whole.
07 Nov	In the ASSIGNMENTS section, everything's organized by dates... but the earlier dates are always at the top, so you have to scroll down more and more the later into the course you get. ALSO, assignments that don't have written componenets (like discussion or reading assignments) are viewed as "LATE" by Chef because there's nothing to upload. There should be different classifications of assignments, and we should be able to choose was assignments we want on the list or not - if one's completed, we should be able to move it out of our way. In the RESOURCES, everything is alphabetized. In class the teacher says "it's on chef," but our being able to locate it relies solely on whether or not we can think of what the teacher would call it - it should be organized by what Class Period or Homework Assignment it's related to.
07 Nov	LIKE - Drop Box DISLIKE - chat room because you have to be in the room...you're not automatically in the room just because you logged in.
06 Nov	I dont like the assignments posted on chef because we do not discuss them in class and there is a brief explanation on them. It is harder to figure out what the prof wants and does not want. I like the drop box for group purposes in CHEF.

Q14. Comment on one feature or software behavior you especially liked and one you disliked in the Moodle system

Date	Response
10 Nov	it is easy to post and edit journal entries moodle seems slow to navigat through and does not load completely sometimes
10 Nov	I liked being able to jump from week to week instead of having to see all of the assignments all at once. I disliked the fact that some of the time you couldn't get a full page to load so you couldn't get to waht you wanted.
09 Nov	I really like the feedback and class schedule features. I don't like the journal feature in which you view all the journals at once and the entry in the journal also apears.
08 Nov	I like the way you can see who is in class. I don't like how it doesn't have chat room
08 Nov	I like the shared space on moodle, like the project forum and things like that where you could leave a message for just the group. On Chef chat what you say is recorded for everyone to see. It bothers me though that when mark leaves comments you recieve an email with a dead link and then you have to got into Moodle and scroll through scads of journals or assignments to find what you're looking for.
08 Nov	i liked the easier navigation. i disliked the loading time.
07 Nov	Sometimes it's hard to navigate because everything looks the same... it's hard to differentiate what section of the website you're in. The links on the individual days for in-class assignments were hard to locate from anywhere else, and many resources had different titles depending on what it was to be used for but they were actually the same. I've always had to make sure I've gotten EVERY single link. It's easy to leave a part out. I like the easy use of profiles - and the calendar feature when you first sign on.
07 Nov	LIKE - Grades DISLIKE - not sure
06 Nov	I like the journal feedback because it shows good communication with the student and prof. It is easier to make corrections and by doing this, it helps you learn better. Lately, I haven't been able to click the link from the e-mail to go directly to the certain journal feedback.

Q15. Any other comments on the two Course Management Systems?

Date	Response
10 Nov	if there was someway that the assignment could be visible under the line item of what it is, i would have prefered that, because it was hard to plan ahead because i was so focused on figureing out what to do for the day after instead of the week after, and there is a major problem with professors posting something, students working ahead and then the professor changing the assignment. it is punishing the student for doing their work in advance.
09 Nov	I like moodle, I wish more classes used it.
08 Nov	overall they are both helpful and time saving
08 Nov	I think more than just the actual computer system need work. Teachers need to realize how frustrating web-based classes can be. They don't seem to realize the contraints it puts on students who don't have constant internet access. It is not fair to post midweek and expect that everyone will neccessarily check Chef or Moodle before class. It is also unfair to require work to be due outside of class hours, because not all students can get to a computer all the time. Even if students do have computers in their dorm, checking moodle and Chef everyday, even on days when you don't have class is not a requirement in the syllbus, and it's unfair and frustrating to think that you have your work done only to have a prof pop something on you at the last minute, when you've already planned to spend that time on other things. Teachers need to be more sensitive to students and be clearer with their expectations. If you expect students to check daily, say it up front, and give more credits for the course because then its like taking a cours everyday, since teachers feel like they don't have to respect your time and can post whatever they want whenever they want and expect that you've checked that day and will have it done by the next!
08 Nov	no
07 Nov	None
06 Nov	No

 

All the students surveyed were comfortable using computers with just under half apparently very comfortable [Q1:chart]. Thus we are dealing with a set of reasonably competent users. When asked about general preference for Moodle over Chef [Q2:chart] the majority seemed to prefer Moodle (two-thirds) but a significant minority preferred Chef and one student had no strong feelings. This was reflected in the comments [Q3:comments] where many students found them quite similar (eg they both are easy to use which is why i do not feel that one is better than the other) but some felt more comfortable with moodle — Because I usually dont have problems with moodle and it is just overall a lot easier than Chef. Navigation within each system was an issue but students differed about which they felt was better; for example one student wrote, the Chef site design is much simpler than moodle , but another asserted Moodle is much easier than chef. chef is hard to navigate. and another wrote Moodle has clearer navigation paths.

This pattern was repeated with the answers to questions four through six. Over half the students (55%) agreed that Moodle Journals were easier to use than Chef assignments [Q4:chart] but 27% considered them equivalent. A similar proportion considered that the Moodle Forum was easier to use than the Chef discussion tool [Q6:chart] and here 37% considered them the same. With the Resources function however 64% of respondents considered that Moodle & Chef were equivalent with 27% agreeing that Moodle was easier [Q5:chart]. Thus, on balance, the students seemed to find Moodle easier to use than Chef.

A student's opinion of a software system (such as CMS) can often be conditioned by how it is used in the class environment. Thus student's negativity towards Chef might be reflected in the fact that only 36% agreed that it was being used effecively while 46% disagreed [Q7:chart]. Similarly, 82% of students agreed that Moodle was used effectively [Q8:chart] which may have contributed to it's popularity.

The reaction of students to the question “[was] getting feedback within assignments via Chef helpful?” was puzzling [Q9:chart]. 36% students somewhat agreed to this proposition but an equal proportion somewhat disagreed and 9% strongly disagreed. This may have something to do with the short notice students were sometimes given about uploaded assignments; in chef things were CONSTANTLY being updated, assignments were put up as late as the night before it was due [Q3:comments]. Certainly all the students agreed that getting feedback to journal entries in Moodle was helpful and 36% strongly agreed [Q10:chart]. When I queried a student about this and expressed surprise about this difference she told me that most students strongly preferred seeing the feedback comments together with the grade within the system (as in Moodle) rather than having to download and open a document (as with Chef), also students seemed to have problems fidning the feedback; I'm not even sure on to see feedback on chef . There was a similar difference in responses to the question of helpfulness of having grades online. All students agreed that having grades summarized online in Moodle was useful with 27% strongly agreeing [Q11:chart], however, with the same question about Chef only 46% agreed, 27% disagreed and 27% were neutral [Q12:chart]. Since grades were not totalled in Chef between assignments this may have affected and one student commented; grades are also hard to determine on chef for numerous reasons.

In Chef drop boxes for group work were universally liked [Q13:comments] — I like the drop box for group purposes in CHEF — as was the chat room. In terms of layout some students liked the simplicity of Chef — I find Chef to be more bare bones, simple and plain, this is good because i don't want to deal with a complicated system, — but others disliked the layout; i disliked the setup of the program as whole and Everything seems too spread out on chef, I feel like i'm going to miss something important if I dont' scoure the site There were also some major usability issues; the back button doesn't work (I don't like how you can not use the "back button" in Chef. It drives me nuts) and the system would keep refreshing the display (I hate that Chef is constantly refreshing itself.). Although one student liked the layout of assignments, another offered a critique of why having all the assignments together and grouped by date didn't work well and suggested that the user should be able to hide completed assignments [Q13:comments]. Moreover, the same student pointed out that since the resources were merely alphabetised it made finding a particular resource a matter of minding reading what the teacher would call it.