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lessons can be carried out. One of them is the use of
the online learning application “Learning
Management System” (LMS). LMS is an application
with the purpose of managing, tracking, and reporting
a series of online learning programs and activities
(Ellis, 2009). This LMS allows users to create virtual
learning environment and have access to the learning
content and their administration actively and
interactively.
One of the most frequently used platforms LMS is
Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic
learning). Moodle is an open source product,
developed by a broad community and constantly
improved. These include developers, education
experts, translators, and many more. There are
numerous ways to join the community. Moodle offers
different types of online learning modules in a way
that can be easily adapted by the teachers in order to
achieve the learning objectives. Because of its many
learning modules, Moodle is recommended for Web-
based teaching, according to Kaya (2012, p. 680).
Sahin-Kizil (2014, p. 184) also notes that most
learners reacted positively to the use of Moodle in the
classroom, where they are more engaged in language
learning.
In its official website (http://docs.moodle.org),
it’s stated that the design and the development of
Moodle is guided by a “social constructionist
pedagogy”. This concept is largely motivated by
constructivism theory. A key point of constructivism
is that meaning is actively constructed by learners and
learning and development socially situated activities
that are enhanced in the meaningful contexts
(Kargiban and Kaffash, 2011).
This means its goal is to provide a set of tools that
support an inquiry and discovery-based approach to
online learning. Furthermore, it purports to create an
environment that allows for collaborative interaction
among students as a standalone or in addition to
conventional classroom instruction (Kotzer and
Elran, 2012).
Moodle has pedagogical advantages since it was
built in accordance with the teaching approach which
emphasizes the construction of knowledge through
active and interactive learning and learning multi-
sensory experience through multimedia (Kotzer and
Elran, 2012).
With its numerous features, Moodle enables
instructors to create test kits, that is secure and easy
to set up. There are over 20 highly configurable
activities available - for example, forums, glossaries,
wikis, tasks, tests, databases and more. Interesting in
this activity-oriented approach is the possibility to
freely configure these activities regarding to the
combination and the sequence. Thus, the learners'
learning path can be designed freely based on the
learning objectives. Also, the results of the previous
activities can be used for the next activities.
In addition to the standard modules of Moodle,
there are also hundreds of third-party modules and
plug-ins that can be installed according to the needs
of learning. From a technical point of view, Moodle
can run well with at least the Apache web server, PHP
and MySQL Database or PostgreSQL. Moodle also
supports multiple languages as the system language,
including Indonesian and also German.
Another important feature of Moodle was the
feedback capability. Students who participate in E-
Learning environments often complain about the lack
of feedback that is available in conventional
classroom settings (Kotzer and Elran, 2012). In
Moodle, almost all modules are designed to allow
teachers or course participants to provide feedback in
qualitative or quantitative form.
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research conducted the Research and
Development (R&D) approach with the steps define,
design, develop, and disseminate (Borg and Gall,
1979). This research method aims to produce a
product and to test its effectiveness (Sugiyono, 2011,
p. 297). The product of this study is an online ZIDS
exam simulation based on LMS-Moodle.
According to Sugiyono (2011, p. 289), the R&D
research method comprises the following steps: (1)
analysing potentials and problems; (2) gathering
information; (3) designing the product; (4) validating
the design; (5) revising the design; (7) conducting
limited trial; (8) revising the product; (9) conducting
larger trial; (10) revising the product; and (10)
preparing the final product.
The research was carried out in two years and
mainly took place at the German Department FPBS
UPI. In the first year (2016) the research was focussed
with the development of the product and consisted of
field observations in order to analyse the problems
and the existing potentials. The information used for
the research was then collected. The simulation
program was then developed and then validated
according to the expert evaluation. After revision of
the product, the limited trial was performed, the
subjects of which were only UPI students. In the
second year (2017) the research has focused on
revising the product based on the results of the first
/limited trial. At the end, the large sample was
A Development of Moodle based Test Simulation for ZIDS-Exam
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