September 2012 will herald a new dawn in how lecturers, tutors and students at the University interact with one another online.

Moodle aims to facilitate teaching and enhance the student experience, providing an improved method for students to submit coursework, receive feedback and collaborate on group projects.

There will also be discussion forums, wikis and blogs, and, in the future, all students will be able to refer back to modules taken in previous years.

How successful the project is relies on schools, who will be responsible for populating the site with content.

Andy Beggan, Head of Learning Technology at the University, explained: “The way that academic staff set up their Moodle modules will directly influence students’ learning experience.

“The University can be very proud of the way that its staff embraced e-learning through WebCT, with 85% of taught-modules included online. We hope that the increased functionality available through Moodle will encourage all staff to embrace online learning.”

The pilot was a success and those who took part were keen to encourage colleagues to get on board. Staff and students found the online learning environment to be more user-friendly and familiar; Moodle is now used widely in schools, sixth-form colleges and universities across the UK.

The University has the highest number of undergraduate applications in the UK. However, it needs to continue to evolve to meet the growing expectations of future students, many of whom are used to being surrounded by the latest technology.

Andy Beggan continued: “The learning opportunities provided by modern virtual learning environments have increased dramatically in recent years and Moodle allows us to take advantage of these enhancements and move into the future with more students, doing more learning online.

“Over time WebCT began to look dated compared to newer technologies and the switch to Moodle enables the University to widen uptake and take advantage of the innovations and developments from a worldwide learning community.”