On three separate occasions (2009, 2011 and 2013) DCU conducted a student survey on "usage of Moodle". This survey was part of a national VLE survey that was conducted across all of the publicly funded higher education institutions in Ireland. The paper presents the combined results over the three years tracking the progress from DCU's point of view. This paper highlights how we used the results from this survey to influence the design and roll out of Moodle 2 across the university. The paper outlines our next steps in the process including the invitation for any other higher education institution to participate in this research.

1. Student “Moodle usage” survey

2. Overview
• National VLE Survey
• 3 DCU iterations- '09 '11 '13
• 2013 figures
• >1800 students
• 90% Full time students
• 40% were first year
• 75% under 24 years old

3. 26 Questions e.g.
How often do you use Moodle?
If you do not use Moodle, why not?
For each of the statements below, choose whether you
.....
Is there anything else that prevents you from getting
the best use of Moodle?
What is the most important thing you would
like to see improved about Moodle?

4. Q1 - How often do you use…?
2009 2011 2013

5. Q2 – Use of Moodle

6. Q3 - What proportion of your coursework
2009 2011 2013

7. Q4 - If not, why not?

8. Q5 – How useful is Moodle for….?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
ClassAnnouncements
LectureNotes
OtherCourseDocuments
ReadingListsand
recommendedonlinelearning
resources
OnlineDiscussion
Quizzes
PlagiarismDetection(TurnItIn)
SubmittingAssignments;
Recommended
videos,screencastsand
podcasts
Do not use
Not very useful
Useful
Very useful

9. Q7 –Where do you access from
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
120.0%
Home
Workplace
OpenAccess
LabsonCampus
Departmental
Computerlabs
Laptopson
Campus
Wirelessaccess
outsidecampus
Mobilephone
device(e.g
Smartphone,iPh
one)
TabletDevice
(e.g
iPad,Android
tablet)

10. Q10 - What prevented you
Lecturers notes were not up in advance
It is very user unfriendly
Appearance is bland
Surge in usage prevented assignment upload
DCU Moodle crashes
No mobile app available

11. Q11 - Statements
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
UsingMoodlegivesme
moreaccesstomylecturers
UsingMoodlechangesthe
hoursIcanstudy
UsingMoodlegivesme
moreaccesstoresources
andlearningmaterials
Gettingnotesononline
makesmelesslikelytogo
tolectures
Iammorelikelyto
communicatewithmy
lecturerwhenusingMoodle
(egaskaquestiononline)
Iwouldlikemylecturersto
makemoreuseofMoodle
Mylecturersmakegooduse
ofMoodle
Iwouldprefergetting
materialinhardcopy
handoutstohavingitputon
Moodle
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly disagree

12. Q13 - Most important thing
2009 2011 2013

13. Conclusions
Lecturers use of Moodle
It is very user unfriendly, no mobile app
Student Focus groups
Change in IT infrastructure
Integration with existing systems
Moodle Clinics
Anonymous to confidential