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A comparison of WEBCT, BLACKBOARD and MOODLE for the teaching and learning of continuing education courses

K S Cheung
Hong Kong Baptist University
Hong Kong SAR, China

Among many others, WebCT, Blackboard and Moodle are three well-known and popular web-based teaching and learning (WebTL) tools that are widely used in universities and tertiary institutions. This paper presents a detailed comparison of these tools from their functional perspectives, regardless of non-functional issues such as costing and services rendered by vendors, and the focus is placed on their usage in the teaching and learning of continuing education courses. Unlike many full-time and formal academic courses, continuing education courses are characterized by short duration, less face-to-face contact hours, part-time study mode, less structured but flexible curriculum, flexible study schedule and flexible assessment. Moreover, the instructor community and student community are rather loose and less cohesive, as they usually have their full-time engagements.

Pinpointing these characteristics for the teaching and learning of continuing education courses, a desirable WebTL tool should be able to provide sophisticated off-campus teaching and learning supports; facilitate group work and discussions among students; deliver comprehensive course contents, materials and resources, and give extensive guidance and detailed instructions to students; and allow more flexibility in designing the curriculum, working out the study schedule and assessing student performance. Typically, a WebTL tool offers functions in four areas; namely, curriculum design, communication and discussion, performance assessment, and course administration. With respect to these functional areas, a comparison of WebCT (version 6.0), Blackboard (version 5.5) and Moodle (version 1.5.2) was conducted and the comparative results are briefly summarized as follows.

For curriculum design, all three tools provide course templates that allow instructors to deliver course materials and to define study schedules and class activities, whereas WebCT and Blackboard allow more varieties in course contents and materials. WebCT also supports students to study off-line.
For communication and discussion, all three tools provide discussion forums, chat rooms, electronic mail and file exchanges, whereas WebCT allows instructors to have firm control on discussions and chat rooms. WebCT and Blackboard also provide private folders and internal electronic mail for students, and allow students to make their own private notes.
For performance assessment, all three tools provide assessment and grading functions, whereas WebCT and
Blackboard support more varieties in assessment and grading.
For course administration, all three tools allow uploading of student data and course data in batches, whereas Blackboard and WebCT also provide direct data interfaces with information systems.

Put into the context of continuing education courses, it can be concluded that WebCT and Blackboard are more desirable than Moodle, and WebCT is the best. WebCT offers very sophisticated teaching and learning supports, and allows more flexibility in designing curriculum and study schedules. These are especially suitable for continuing education courses. With many useful features for communication and discussion, WebCT facilitates active participation for instructors and students of continuing education courses. Moreover, it allows varieties in course contents and materials to tailor different types of continuing education courses. Its assessment and grading functions are also flexible enough to meet the needs of a wide spread of continuing education courses.