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  11 <h1>Background</h1>
  12
  13 <blockquote>
  14   <p>Moodle is an active and evolving work in progress. Development was started
  15   by <a href="http://moodle.org/user/view.php?id=1&amp;course=1" target="_top">Martin
  16   Dougiamas</a> who continues to lead the project:</p>
  17   <blockquote>
  18     <p><em>I've been working on it, in some way or other, for several years. It
  19     started in the 90's when I was webmaster at <a target="_top" href="http://www.curtin.edu.au/">Curtin
  20     University of Technology</a> and a system administrator of their WebCT installation.
  21     I encountered many frustrations with the WebCT beast and developed an itch
  22     that needed scratching - there had to be a better way (no, not Blackboard
  23     :-)</em></p>
  24     <p><em>I also know a lot of people in schools and smaller institutions (and
  25     some big ones!) who want to make better use of the Internet but don't know
  26     where to start in the maze of technologies and pedagogies that are out there.
  27     I've always hoped there would be a Free alternative that such people could
  28     use to help them move their teaching skills into the online environment. </em></p>
  29     <p><em>My strong beliefs in the unrealised possibilities of Internet-based education
  30     led me to complete a Masters and then a PhD in Education, combining my former
  31     career in Computer Science with newly constructed knowledge about the nature
  32     of learning and collaboration. In particular, I am particularly influenced
  33     by the epistemology of social constructionism - which not only treats learning
  34     as a social activity, but focusses attention on the learning that occurs while
  35     actively constructing artifacts (such as texts) for others to see or use.
  36     </em></p>
  37     <p><em>It is crucial to me that this software be easy to use - in fact it should
  38     be as intuitive as possible. </em></p>
  39     <p><em>I'm committed to continuing my work on Moodle and on keeping it Open
  40     and Free. I have a deeply-held belief in the importance of unrestricted education
  41     and empowered teaching, and Moodle is the main way I can contribute to the
  42     realisation of these ideals.</em></p>
  43   </blockquote>
  44   <p>A number of early prototypes were produced and discarded before he released
  45   version 1.0 upon a largely unsuspecting world on August 20, 2002. This version
  46   was targeted towards smaller, more intimate classes at University level, and
  47   was the subject of research case studies that closely analysed the nature of
  48   collaboration and reflection that occurred among these small groups of adult
  49   participants.
  50 </p>
  51   <p>Since then there has been steady series of new releases adding new features,
  52   better scalability and improved performance.
  53 </p>
  54   <p>As Moodle has spread and the community has grown, more input is being drawn
  55   from a wider variety of people in different teaching situations. For example,
  56   Moodle is now used not only in Universities, but in high schools, primary schools,
  57   non-profit organisations, private companies, by independent teachers and even
  58   homeschooling parents. A growing number of people from around the world are
  59   contributing to Moodle in different ways - for more details see the <a href="?file=credits.html">Credits</a>
  60   page.
  61 </p>
  62   <p>An important feature of the Moodle project is the <a href="http://moodle.org" target="_top">moodle.org</a>
  63   web site, which provides a central point for information, discussion and collaboration
  64   among Moodle users, who include system administrators, teachers, researchers,
  65   instructional designers and of course, developers. Like Moodle, this site is
  66   always evolving to suit the needs of the community, and like Moodle it will
  67   always be Free.
  68 </p>
  69   <p>In 2003, the company <a href="http://moodle.com/" target="_top">moodle.com</a>
  70   was launched to provide additional commercial support for those who need it, as
  71   well as managed hosting, consulting and other services.
  72 </p>
  73   <p>For more about our future plans for Moodle, see the <a href="?file=future.html">Future</a>
  74   roadmap.</p>
  75 </blockquote>
  76 <p align="center"><font size="1"><a href="." target="_top">Moodle Documentation</a></font></p>
  77 <p align="center"><font size="1">Version: $Id$</font></p>
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