A lot of people in e-learning and beyond have been asking us about Moodle recently. They’re curious about this funny word because what was once a little-known verb is now a global movement: forty million users in 216 countries and fifteen books written about how to use it so far. And it’s no longer just universities, colleges and schools which are using Moodle-based online learning environments. Increasingly, the corporate LMS is a Moodle-based LMS.

Private sector ears pricked up when they heard that Moodle was adaptable, easy-to-use and above all, open source. That means no license fees and an army of enthusiastic volunteers to do your development for you. Every day Moodle grows new functionality.

But many still have reservations, and I can understand why. When I bought my first laptop, much like IT purchasing managers everywhere I trembled at the thought of paying a license fee for the operating system. And so it was that Tux, the Linux Penguin, beckoned to me with his bright, booming eyes. Linux was in many ways beautiful: free, fast and totally immune to viruses. But as the months rolled on I sensed I was abusing my Penguin.

Basic functionality like downloading updates and plug-ins and connecting to different devices isn’t easy with Linux for a novice (this was long before I had any programming know-how). It was like I’d never seen a Penguin before and I was keeping it alive by cramming it into a humid reptile breeding box and feeding it cheese slices all day.

My Penguin stopped working properly. I turned to the Linux community of experts for help and found more impenetrable programming-speak and the assumption of proficiency. The open source party was rocking, but there were no invites for average users.

Things are very different now. The joy of Moodle for enterprises is not only that there is no license fee, but that learning professionals don’t need to be IT professionals to create a virtual learning environment that looks and feels exciting.

You want a news feed to deliver live headlines about your company? Easy – just add an RSS block and paste in the link. You want videos of all shapes and sizes sprouting from customisable players? Child’s play – Moodle has a multimedia plug-in filter that can turn any link into whatever media you want.

SCORM assessments, progress tracking, certificates? Click-and-drag page design? Self congratulatory webinars? Sure! And here’s the best part. You know that guy on the IT helpdesk who sneers at you and makes you feel two inches tall every time you spill coffee on your keyboard? Forget about him, Moodle just wants you. The dead Penguin is as far from my mind as it has ever been.

Moodle in its standard form may be very easy to use, but on the other hand, you can’t just download Moodle all shiny and ready to go. It has its quirks and corners (and a few gaps to fall into). Like any potent and open sourced thing, an enterprise Moodle that’s fit for purpose needs to be brought into the world with care and shepherded well.

It must also be disciplined. The interface is actually so easy to use that if you aren’t careful you can have a blooming, uncontrolled social jungle of blogs, chats and forums before you know it – and find the rest of the internet pouring into your Moodle in places where it isn’t always welcome.

Just like Linux and the Linux community of experts, the success of Moodle is based on a set of open-source assumptions that need to be managed and modified for its successful deployment as an enterprise-wide VLE. At Saffron we’re a part of the Moodle movement, but we understand that successful companies don’t march with the herd.

In this day and age, we see videos played out to introduce learners to the learning objectives of the course, to show them a simulated problem-solving scenario that they can identify with, or even to relate previous learner experience.

Used well, video can be a valuable addition to your course; used badly, it will have heavily impacted on your resources to no discernable advantage and, worst of all, could alienate the learner. After all, who wants to watch a video that gives the same tired clichés the learner has probably encountered X times in Y years?

To steer clear of this, there are three concepts that I believe are fundamental to scripting an effective video scenario:

• Content

Catherine Blanchard, Camilla Weich and Stephanie Dedhar have all mentioned in previous blogs the importance of making your content relevant to your audience. Video scripts are no exception. Make sure that the content of your conversation is succinct – don’t try and force in fictional discussion that isn’t relevant to the scenario. For example:

Subject A: “Hey, did you and Toni go to the cinema last night?
Subject B: “Yeah, but all we could talk about was due diligence procedure”

As you can see, the script doesn’t flow and seems quite unnatural. Not that I’m saying talking about due diligence in your spare time would be unnatural, but it isn’t necessarily something you would bring up in a conversation with a colleague within the context of the conversation. Instead, keep it focused on business and the learning objectives:

Subject A: “Hey, have you had time to look at the due diligence guidelines?”
Subject B: “Yeah, I tried having a read last night, but I got really confused”

This admission from subject B can then be used as motivation for subject A to give a definition of due diligence. Subject B also seems more human, and the learner may also sympathise with the confusion. It’s less false, concentrates on the course objective and flows better than the first example.

• Character

Character is perhaps the area that those new to script-writing will find the hardest. Again, the key to integrating them into the fabric of your course is to make your characters relevant, enhancing (and I apologise, as I’m about to use a clunky neologism that makes me cringe) the “believability” of your fictional scenario. Think about the target audience – information such as targeted learner age and the diversity of the business. With this information, you’ll be better equipped to create believable, plausible characters that the learner can identify with.

• Conversation 

If you can accurately capture the tone of the business and successfully replicate how the learner interacts with colleagues on a day-to-day basis, then you should find that the learner immediately finds the video more engaging. Proceed with caution though – if you get too bogged down in trying to recreate the vernacular of the business, then you’ll only highlight the falsity of your video. To put it another way, you wouldn’t try and have a conversation with a cockney by constructing a whole sentence with rhyming slang. But drop in the odd colloquial phrase here and you’ll find your video interaction becomes more than just Robin Hood (good).

There is no generic formula for scripting an effective video scenario, no magic words that will work in every case – but if you make these three concepts integral to your script and execute them well, then you’ll find your video content doesn’t fade into the background of your course.

Got any ideas of your own about what makes a script effective? Maybe you’ve seen a really good video interaction – what was it that made it great? Likewise, what is it that you feel contributes to making a bad script? Share your experience in the comments section below.