Moodle is a free learning management system that enables you to create powerful, flexible, and engaging online learning experiences. I use the phrase 'online learning experiences' instead of 'online courses' deliberately. The phrase 'online course' often connotes a sequential series of web pages, some images, maybe a few animations, and a quiz put online. There might be some email or bulletin board communication among the teacher and students. However, online learning can be much more engaging than that.
Moodle's name gives you insight into its approach to e-learning. From the official Moodle documentation:
The word Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which is mostly useful to programmers and education theorists. It's also a verb that describes the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such, it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course. Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler.
The phrase 'online learning experience' connotes a more active and engaging role for the students and teachers, as in:
Web pages that can be explored in any order
Courses with live chats among students and teachers
Forums where users can rate messages on their relevance or insight
Online workshops that enable students to evaluate each other's work
Impromptu polls that let the teacher evaluate the students opinion on a course's progress
Directories set aside for teachers to upload and share their files
All these features create an active learning environment, full of different kinds of student-to-student and student-to-teacher interaction. This is the kind of user experience that Moodle excels at, and the kind that this book will help you create.