Most NC State students are familiar with Moodle, the platform the University uses for online classes, instructor/student communication and other class-related activity. This year, students face an updated version of the site. 

At first glance, the home page looks familiar. However, after clicking on a class, students will find the page looks slightly different from previous years. For example, the bar on the left no longer shows other classes, but now shows a breakdown of the current course and acts as a way to get to a specific spot on the page faster.

Moodle has always broken down classes by week, but the updated version allows instructors to give detailed directions for the week and even separate student tasks, what’s due and extra information.

Despite the update, both students and professors often have a hard time adjusting to the platform and utilizing it in an effective way. 

Dr. Tugce Ertem-Eray, an assistant professor in communication, is new to NC State said the new Moodle was hard to adjust to, especially after using other platforms like Canvas and Blackboard in the past. 

“Everything was so new to me, even creating a class was a bit problematic,” Ertem-Eray said. “It took some time for me to figure it out, and I think the most difficult thing was it isn’t very user friendly.”

Ertem-Eray said her process of learning how to use Moodle was a lot of trial and error and consisted of learning from mistakes and finding tips and tricks online. 

“You have to make mistakes and go over everything a couple of times to make things correct,” Ertem-Eray said. “It took a while to figure out, and I’m still figuring it out. For example, I wanted to make comments on students’ papers but I couldn’t figure it out in enough time.”

Some students also found Moodle confusing and difficult to adapt to when first using it, and still struggle after the update.  

“I found it hard to adjust from high school because we used Google classroom,” said Ana Moranta, a second-year studying biological sciences. “The announcements are kind of weird and I think the communication between students and professors is just okay.”

Moranta said the structure of Moodle is notably different after the recent update, and the new update has been in effect since summer. 

“I immediately noticed that the structure is different,” Moranta said. “I first noticed it’s easier to see your grades and who else is in your class, which was kind of weird.”

Nelie Tahssili, a third-year studying communication, said she is dissatisfied with the update, and even prefers to use other platforms.

“One of my professors uses Canvas and I like that way better,” Tahssili said. “I like the calendar, but I just don’t like the updated version overall, where the tabs on the left side have changed.”

Sophie Ketron, a fourth-year studying communication, also has negative feelings about the new update. 

“I wish they’d bring back the grades and announcements tabs, because now there’s no centralized dashboard,” Ketron said. “Now, I have to go into my specific classes to see those tabs.”

Despite disliking the Moodle update, Ketron does prefer using Moodle compared to less organized forms of communication, such as mass emails. 

“It used to be really good for communication, but now it has changed,” Ketron said. “I do like that [professors] use it, though. It feels less concrete when they don’t.”

Moodle is a platform students and professors alike have a hard time utilizing despite its central importance to academics at NC State. With an update changing the layout, time will tell if Moodle becomes more user-friendly or if it remains the same.