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Teams Vs Moodle Vs Google Classroom?
I work at a school and Ms Teams for Education is definitely a viable option for providing blended learning. I would like to hear more from tertiary institutions. Do you think that Ms Teams is a viabl...
- I am interested in this comparison as well. I have used Google Classroom in a secondary classroom last year and it is amazing.
I am still waiting to try the (1) rubric grading feature and (2) forms to assignment feature to be available.
I especially don't like that there are no toggles just to "Ask a Question" it is a very important step in formative assessment. :( I'm hoping the forms to assignment will make this happen.
Thank you, Giorgio Banaudi, that is exactly the kind of feedback that I was looking for. You will notice that Microsoft Teams is a young product and is improving all the time.
You mention that you have used Moodle for many years and that it has many more features. While I don't dispute the fact, don't you think that for new educators it can be quite overwhelming because it has so many features? I wonder whether the simpler approach of Ms Teams for Education makes it easier for new teachers to adopt? Universities usually have dedicated staff that can support implementing the LMS (such as Moodle) but at schools that is not always the case. For me it seems that Microsoft Teams is more agile, easier to implement, easier to maintain and easier to change. I am aware of all the powerful quizzes you can set with various Moodle plugins. Did you try out the latest update where a Microsoft Forms quiz can be set as an assignment?
You mention that the Chat aspect of Microsoft Teams is a problem due to it being abused by the learners. That was one of the first requests of teachers - how to disable it. It is possible to switch off global chatting - which prevents one on one chatting by students, plus you can mute the students in a particular team. So, you can control that aspect. One can then use the Conversation area in a Team to make announcements to the class or open up a discussion period where you control it. If it is used in that way it becomes quite useful.
There are different ways in which you can show the same information to different classes, either by using the files section in Microsoft Teams, or by inserting the information into the associated OneNote section. OneNote works together with the Class Notebook which allows you to distribute information in various ways to different groups. I suggest you explore that approach.
I agree that it is very limiting that you can open Microsoft Teams in only one window. As you say, hopefully Microsoft will still improve a tool that is already very useful.
Do you know which language is the language most spoken in the world? Poor English ;-) No problem :-)
Microsoft adds more functions to Teams day by day. I think that MS TEAMS could replace Moodle, especially in small schools where you cannot have a team of people dedicated to support an LMS.
In Moodle I can program the resources or activities to be available only on certain dates. That is not yet possible in Teams, but is possible set assignments, grades, rubric, sharing materials, set power BI for users or resources analyze.
Yes Marius, I think the learning needs in the organizations have been simplified, so Teams may be enough. I have been Moodle user for 10 years and Teams user by 2 weeks.
Hello, Javie1975, thank you for contributing to the conversation.
I've been using Teams for Education since it was released. I have never used Google Classroom. Years back I dabbled with Moodle. Our school in rural South Africa teaches in a face-to-face situation, so there was never a compelling reason to implement Teams fully in the school. As you know, change is difficult and people prefer to use their trusted old methods.
Fast forward to COVID-19 lockdown. All of a sudden the school needed a remote learning platform. Since all the learners and teachers in the school were already registered with Microsoft Office 365 licenses the logical move was to get everyone onto Teams. What followed was a very rapid onboarding training process. By and large it was a success with a couple of speedbumps. I don't know whether such a rapid onboarding process would have been possible with Moodle. I cannot speak for G-Classroom, but since we already use Microsoft Office 365, that wasn't even an option.
Hello MariusPretorius
I used both Google Classroom and MS Class Notebook last year with students. They liked GC better. Class Notebook kept glitching up. Students had constantly reload their pages, etc. Now fast forward to MS Teams. I find the same problems with Teams. Additionally, one big problem I have with Teams is that it is very time consuming to do anything in the classes. Except for the Assignments feature, every other adjustment to classes has to be made separately in each Team (class). Also, all the Teams were autopopulated by our sys admin, and there is no way to combine Teams to match my course schedule, unless I do it myself, and then what happens when sys admin runs an update to my rosters as students enter the district throughout the year. Granted, in GC I have to set up the classes, but I can create sections and materials for all classes at once, rather than one at a time. I think the learning curve for younger kids is too steep with Teams. I teach 6th graders, and they were lost in Class Notebook, I can't see them figuring out Teams any faster. My vote for younger students goes to Google Classroom.
- I wouldn’t suggest having students use Classroom Notebook directly, at least not witho frequent reinforcement. The great thing about Teams is you simply attach the work to an assignment (e.g. a notebook page) and the student clicks it and does it on the page that loads, whatever program it uses, right in the assignment area. No extra windows or tabs like in GC. They don’t have to know where the notebook page is located in the folder structure. They’re just linked there. Teams definitely wins on that front. Being able to type in scanned sheets or to print and “scan” in Their completed physical work for a teacher to then digitally mark up is something impossible without paid third party tools like Kami.
