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Completed Project

Go Moodle - Moodle replaces EWS

Project Duration

01.04.2015 - 31.03.2017

Project Description

There will be a major change in the digital support of teaching and learning: In future, the ITMC will focus its resources on Moodle, which is to completely replace the previous e-learning platform EWS by the end of 2016.  As early as the winter semester 2015/16, all newly established courses are to start on Moodle if possible, and from the summer semester 2016 it will no longer be possible to create new EWS workspaces. However, all EWS workspaces already created by the end of the 2015 summer semester are guaranteed to remain available until the end of the 2016/17 winter semester.  

The importance of digital media in supporting interactive teaching-learning scenarios is playing an increasingly important role. Teachers and students therefore rightly expect the digital tools provided to be highly secure and available, ergonomically designed, capable of depicting contemporary didactic scenarios and regularly adapted to the current state of the art.

The last two points in particular have repeatedly presented us at EWS with great challenges for some time. There is a simple reason for this: EWS was designed almost 15 years ago and the technical design decisions for the system that is still running today were made around 10 years ago. At a time when accessible web applications were still in their infancy, social networks like Facebook were not mass phenomena and mobile devices like smartphones or tablets were not even on the market.  In the last 10 years, the technical possibilities have changed and developed fundamentally, but the demands on a learning platform have also grown considerably. In order to be able to meet these requirements with EWS, a comprehensive conceptual and technical re-design would be necessary with a high expenditure of time and money.

At the same time, there has already been a second learning platform at TU Dortmund University since autumn 2012 that now covers a large part of these requirements: Moodle. One of the most widely used e-learning systems in the world with a huge developer community, largely barrier-free, easy to use on mobile devices and always state-of-the-art with regular updates. A few minor adjustments, e.g. in the distribution of video streams, are still necessary to be able to provide all the functionalities known from EWS, but in principle any EWS workspace can already be mapped in Moodle and extended with further additional possibilities.

We have therefore decided to bundle our resources on Moodle as a central platform for supporting digital teaching and learning in the future, instead of distributing them across two e-learning systems as before. Of course, this does not mean that you now have to immediately port your current or prepared workspaces from EWS to Moodle. But it does mean that all new courses should start directly on Moodle from the winter semester 2015/16 and that no new EWS workspaces will be possible from the summer semester 2016. All EWS workspaces already created by the end of the 2015 summer semester are guaranteed to remain available until the end of the 2016/17 winter semester.

Project Management

Location & approach

The easiest way to reach the main building of the ITMC is via the freeway A45 from the exit "Dortmund-Eichlinghofen". Turn right there onto Universitätsstraße. At the next set of traffic lights, continue straight ahead and turn left at the next junction onto Hauert Straße. At the first traffic light turn right onto Otto-Hahn-Straße. After about 300 m you will reach the ITMC building (on the left side of the street). The parking spaces on the parking lanes along the street are mostly occupied. A smaller - mostly also occupied - parking lot is located on Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Straße (entrance 36). A larger parking lot is located about 250 m further on Otto-Hahn-Straße (entrance 30).

From Dortmund main station, take S-Bahn line 1 in the direction of Bochum/Essen to the Dortmund Universität stop (journey time approx. 7 minutes).
From Bochum Hauptbahnhof, take S-Bahn line 1 in the direction of Dortmund to the Dortmund Universität stop (journey time approx. 15 minutes).

You can reach the building on foot in about 15 minutes from the S-Bahn station. Walk up the wide staircase of the S-Bahn station. Turn left along the university library, cross the Mensa bridge and continue straight ahead. At Martin-Schmeißer-Platz turn left until you reach Otto-Hahn-Straße. There, keep to the right and continue along Otto-Hahn-Straße until you reach house number 12.

The easiest way to reach this branch is via the A45 freeway from the "Dortmund-Eichlinghofen" exit. Turn right there onto Universitätsstraße. At the next set of traffic lights, continue straight ahead and turn left at the next junction onto Hauert Straße. At the second set of traffic lights, turn right onto Emil-Figge-Straße. Continue on this street until you reach the next crossing with traffic lights. There you will find the parking spaces closest to the building. You will reach the smaller one (entrance 21) if you turn right into Vogelpothsweg. If you want to use the large parking lot (entrance 18), continue straight ahead on Emil-Figge-Straße.

From Dortmund main station, take S-Bahn line 1 in the direction of Bochum/Essen to the Dortmund Universität stop (journey time approx. 7 minutes).
From Bochum Hauptbahnhof, take S-Bahn line 1 in the direction of Dortmund to the Dortmund Universität stop (journey time approx. 15 minutes).

You can reach the building on foot in about 1 minute from the S-Bahn station. Walk up the wide staircase of the S-Bahn station. Just in front of you is the large building Emil-Figge-Straße 50. Use the footpath that leads straight towards it in the direction of the stairs.

The facilities of TU Dortmund University are spread over two campuses, the larger Campus North and the smaller Campus South. Additionally, some areas of the university are located in the adjacent “Technologiepark”.

Site Map of TU Dortmund University (Second Page in English).