Enhancing Moodle for offline learning in a degraded connectivity environment

In developing countries, higher education is an essential vehicle of the development process. Learning Management Systems (LMS) have emerged from an auxiliary role to a critical one in higher education. In short, ICT development, telecommunication infrastructures and Internet have a strong impact in the education sector especially with the advent of distance learning that is becoming more important. More and more academic institutions are moving to eLearning today and Moodle is one of the most popular LMS with several currently active sites. However, in Moodle, learners must be connected online all time they need to do eLearning activities. Moreover, the introduction of distance learning in developing countries is done with a set of constraints such as connection costs, power cuts and permanent Internet connectivity failure in some areas. This paper presents an enhanced solution for running Moodle in offline mode to improve asynchronous learning. This solution allows learners to continue eLearning activities in cases where Internet connection is highly disturbed or not existed. The presented solution uses transparent and automatic configuration for end user´s PC or laptop. After the connection is restored, all offline activities will be synchronized to the principal Moodle platform. This paper presents an enhanced solution for running Moodle in offline mode to improve asynchronous learning. This solution allows learners to continue eLearning activities in cases where Internet connection is highly disturbed or not existed. The presented solution uses transparent and automatic configuration for end user´s PC or laptop. After the connection is restored, all offline activities will be synchronized to the principal Moodle platform.