The system should allow display or download of existing PDF documents.
The system should allow display or download of existing Microsoft Office documents.
The system should allow display or download of graphical images.
The system should allow working web links to be used.

Moodle allows practically any file type to be uploaded as a resource for use within the system. The only real limiting factor is the size specified for maximum upload within the environment. Within LPS Moodle, this is set to 2 megabytes. Also the Moodle environment allows links to be used to navigate to external resources either as a new browser window or within the current Moodle pane.

The system should allow communication outside of regular classroom hours.

As the final system is available for use by students and teachers at any time, communication via the forums can take place outside of regular school hours. Also with the inclusion of the Chat functionality, real time chat sessions can be used to provide real time communication whenever required.

The system should allow resources to be hidden from users.

Moodle allows resources to be made invisible to the users without course editing priveliges.

The system should allow individual courses to be presented differently.

Via the inclusion of introduction text and images, courses can be given a certain degree of flexibility that allows them to be presented in a different manner.

The system should allow descriptive text to be included with resources.

During the creation of a resource and its inclusion into the system, the environment allows descriptive text to be added.

The system should be largely text based with minimal use of images to keep download times to a minimum.

Images within the site and required for the AA Board Set assignment were kept to a minimum when displayed or if complex made only available as a download. Students found that page loading times for the final system were perfectly acceptable even when viewed through a standard dial-up connection.

Instructional material should be provided for forum usage.

As only 38% of the student surveyed during the requirements capture phase had any experience with forum usage, a basic guide to the forums was created and made available to the students through the environment.

The system should be easy to navigate and avoid the need to use the back button.

Moodle uses a system called breadcrumbs to provide a continually updating navigation chain that can be used to return to previous sections of the environment and is always present when within the environment.

The system should contain in-built help.

Moodle contains a thorough help directory that can be customised to provide specific help as required. The majority of Moodle functions and functional areas have help text associated with them via a simple graphic.