Note: This entry is currently being updated every other day as I learn about Moodle 2.5.
Latest update: 15:32pm 11/09/13.
Week One Reflection
It has been one year since I published my dissertation research into the Learning of ICT/Web Tools on this blog. Since then, I have not added anything, believing that the blog had run its course, served its purpose. I am now re-igniting it for two reasons. One reason is that I am going to be doing a follow-up to the research via my first webinar, as presenter, for the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group, on 15 September. The other reason is I am currently learning how to use Moodle - version 2.5 - via the first ever official Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) - and I have to write a reflection on how I am doing.
Moodle - here - is now 11 years old. It is used by thousands of institutions, organisations and individuals to run and maintain online courses. It is learning based on theories of constructivism (Ref: Piaget) and constructionism (Papert, Aristotle). I discussed this pedagogy with some of the simpler tools already mentioned on this blog. It also uses the theories of social constructivism (Vygotsky) and 'ways of knowing' (Belenky), according to Martin Dougiamas, the original creator and developer of Moodle. He offers this as an opening statement about the flexibility of the platform:
Moodle needs to be flexible to cater for a wide variety of needs while remaining simple enough for ordinary teachers to start making good use of the power of the internet for community building and collaborative learning. My hope is that Moodle can be seen as a toolbox where they can start simply and naturally, and then progress to more and more advanced community facilitation over time. Ultimately, we'd like to see teachers being involved with and supported by a community of their peers. (Dougiamas, M.)
Moodle is a sophisticated LMS (Learning Management System), which I first wrote about last December, in a post on Virtual Learning Environments, for an #ELTchat on this topic - here. It has been around for years. Despite having an awareness of what Moodle can do, I have never actually needed to use it until now. It is not by chance that I am doing the introductory course. I am starting a new job next week and the university programme that I will be teaching on has just started using Moodle 2.5 to share materials with the students and to effectively connect what happens outside the classroom with what happens inside. So the timing is almost perfect (I could have done with completing the course before I fly out). I am also applying some teacher autonomy about learning ICT/Web Tools here, ahead of my webinar on this topic on Sunday.
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The course began on 1 September with a live launch broadcast on YouTube and on a Google+ hangout - recording here - hosted by Martin Dougiamas, in Australia and featuring a tutorial from lead facilitator, Mary Cooch. This webcast gave the thousands of participants, who had already introduced themselves on the main site forum, an introduction to the course. Martin first outlined how Moodle is used as a learning platform and how it can integrate everything needed for maintaining an online course. He explained why and how it is used. Mary, speaking from the UK, gave a run through of what to expect on the course and how it works. She gave an overview of the first week including outlining tasks, how to request a course and explaining about badges. Although the MOOC is designed for beginners, many experienced Moodlers are on hand to offer tips, suggestions etc via the site forums and by using the Twitter hashtag, #learnmoodle. Some of those are learning version 2.5, which went live on 8 July 2013, and finding out what has changed. The MOOC offers an opportunity to engage and connect with other teachers or educators needing to either set up their own course or need experience of using Moodle to manage a course they will be working with. Invitations are, unsurprisingly, also made to collaborate and share experiences.
I was a bit slow in starting with the course. This is due to being more concerned about my upcoming webinar presentation. I requested a 'sandbox' practice course but I did not have any strong ideas on the course I wanted to design. I did not have any materials, apart from the real life materials - three Syllabi for the English language programme I will be using in new job. I proceeded, nonetheless, to read information in the two 'books' which contained learning content:
Book: 'Setting up your course' - this seven part book, which included seven short screencasts by Mary, was about finding your way around, how to personalise and layout the course.
Book: 'Learning on the side' - this further seven part book, with some more screencasts, focused on learning about 'blocks', those moveable side elements which are used to navigate, administer and arrange course content. Things like a calendar or HTML can be added here, which would mean that embedded content can be handled easily.
I went through each of these steps and then returned to the start. Due to a lack of actual original material I thought I would steal (borrow) documents, as already mentioned, for the actual course I am going to be teaching on. I called my 'sandbox' course, 'DPU Art & Design Foundation Course' (DPU A&D FC for short) and uploaded Syllabus 'A' material. Only I (and probably the Moodle admin team) could access/read the material and it would be deleted on completion of the course anyway. So I decided I wouldn't share my work, because I did not write the material. It is not really mine to share. This was not about me writing new material, anyway, but how to lay it out on the page and to later, add activities. I designed a 6 week version of the 17 week syllabus, taking the topics, lesson aims and objectives and language focus for each week. It looked pretty good when I had finished although I didn't tweak my 'sandbox' that much. As the course progresses, I will play around with it more. This will come as I add activities.
Due to the popularity of this first official Moodle MOOC, there are thousands of participants all simultaneously working on their practice courses, albeit at different stages, with some naturally racing ahead. The forums are full of questions and replies, problems and solutions, posted by beginners, responded to by the facilitators or other, more experienced Moodlers. There are numerous tips and good ideas shared in the forums, but it can be somewhat daunting when confronted by the sheer volume. These are, fortunately, searchable and so if you want to find about people mentioning how to share a blog post you could search using those terms. Best to quietly work on your own course and use the forums sparingly. I have asked the occasional question, such as when I asked about using real materials from my employer. You can also tweet the occasional comment or query, using the Twitter feed - #learnmoodle - to judge how your progress compares with others.  |
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The MOOC recommends that reflective writing takes place in order that learning can be shown to have taken place. Participants are invited to share their thoughts via the Moodle blog or via Twitter using the hashtag #learnmoodle - hashtagging now operates in Facebook, too, of course. One of the required tasks needed to complete week one was to consider (write down answers to) the following four things:
- one thing we've learned
I've learned how to set up and manage the layout of a new course. I've played around with the settings but did not change much in terms of theme or appearance. I also learned about the blocks used on either side of the central column which are used to administer, navigate and control what is seen and not seen by students. There are a lot of optional settings and a lot of flexibility, too. You can stick with simple settings or, if more experienced, go fancy using the Tiny MCE text editor. I also learned a bit about SCORM - here - but that's more than one thing now.
- why we consider it important
It is important to be able to manage the content that is uploaded and shared with students. The access of materials need to be straightforward and easy to use by the learners. It requires simple and understandable navigation on the part of the end user (student). Being able to use the editing icons and to be able to move blocks around are important. In the case of a VLE for Chinese students of English as a Foreign Language, who I will be teaching, instructions on how to use the platform need to be clear. In order to connect the classroom I want them to be able to access, engage with and post feedback, maybe even submit homework using it.
- how we can use it later
Being able to manage the layout of your course is something that needs a fair bit of work at the set up, but this gets easier once everything is in place. It will continues to be something that needs keeping an eye on as more material is added and interacted with. The aspects of learning covered in the week one tasks are basic settings which all users of Moodle need to understand.
- which other questions it raises
I'm not sure how to answer this. But there is a good chance that you've already stopped reading anyway, so I won't bother. Hehe!
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Just before I posted this, the second webcast took place, with instructions for the second week (8-14 Sep). Statistics so far for the MOOC were shared - see image below. I am still to complete the survey and provide feedback on the first week. Then, if I can find the time, I will tackle the activities and tasks required. Hope I don't fall behind with my homework. But my priority is getting organised for this webinar, which will clash with the tutorial for week 3.
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| Statistics for Week 1 shared by @moodlehelen |
Week Two Reflection
Having sorted out my webinar presentation for Sunday, I rewatched the webcast tutorial featuring Helen Foster and Mary Cooch (broadcast 8 Sep) - here - before getting stuck into the tasks for week two. I got a mention from Helen who read out my question, live from the Twitter #learnmoodle feed. I later got a re-tweet from Mary about this blog post. Kudos! I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working on the tasks for week two, although I did not initially get much feedback from the group forum. This might change.
Book: 'How can I help my learners learn?'
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The book in week two had 14 sections to work through. Each section had a written or visual/audio guide recorded by Mary, except for section 14 itself on generating feedback. In the book, I learned about adding content to my course, in the form of activities (stuff for the students to interact with) and resources (information for them to read, listen to or watch). I did this using the Activity Chooser. For example, the storage of files (or 'repositories') was covered early on. I went through each section, rewound the screencast recording if necessary and tried to play around with the feature as I was listening to the description, adding content to different parts of my six week course. It didn't matter that the information I entered was rubbish or not related to the actual course as nobody apart from me was going to see it. This was about learning what Moodle 2.5 can do in terms of organising and maintaining a course. Along the way I met 'labels' - a space in which I could add embedded video. Thanks to moodler, @benwagner1988, I discovered a secret '(martin)' emoticon..JPG)
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| Dictionary Definition |
I added a banner (bit small), a URL (BreakingNewsEnglish site), an embedded video ('GoGoGorillas) and a glossary term (called 'key vocabulary') with a new entry for 'negative pronoun' taken from Swan's Practical English Usage. I added a choice option and a forum. In addition, I learned how to set filters to link glossary terms and enable punctuation to show a smiley face ('display emoticons as images'). There were step by step instructions for adding a collaboratively edited wiki to the course and, finally, a way to generate feedback from the students using a survey. More detailed evaluation that running a 'choice' poll can be obtained, as the site section stated, but is non-customisable and uses particular kinds of survey tools:
It offers verified survey instruments, such a s COLLES (Constructivist On-Line Learning Environment Survey) and ATTLS (Attitudes to Thinking and Learning Survey), which have been found useful in assessing and stimulating learning in online environments.
Later tasks for week included editing and adding to a collaborative 'wiki' and offering a tutorial on a topic of my choosing in a small group forum. The former did not take long. I just amended a couple of lines of text, corrected some spelling mistakes and added some lines to some of the pages in the wiki. I got the gist pretty quickly. For the latter exercise, I decided to share my tutorials and powerpoint presentations for MyBrainshark, as featured elsewhere on my ICT in ELT blog. I was automatically assigned to group 238 and could see the other participants, although I was told not to hold my breath waiting for feedback. I did not understand why the embedded content appeared in the entry when I added the HMTL but disappeared when I saved it. So I raised a question for Helen.
Finally, I took part in a Constructivist On-Line Learning Environment Survey (COLLES) - here:
The COLLES comprises an economical 24 statements grouped into six scales, each of which helps us address a key question about the quality of the on-line learning environment:
- Relevance How relevant is on-line learning to students' professional practices?
- Reflection Does on-line learning stimulate students' critical reflective thinking?
- Interactivity To what extent do students engage on-line in rich educative dialogue?
- Tutor Support How well do tutors enable students to participate in on-line learning?
- Peer Support Is sensitive and encouraging support provided on-line by fellow students?
- Interpretation Do students and tutors make good sense of each other's on-line communications?
(Moodle Survey Settings)
This survey invited me to reflect, as the above description indicates, on whether this online learning stimulates my critical thinking. At first the questions did not seem particularly well structured - each statement had two options split across two questions - 'I prefer that...' or 'I found that...'. with degrees of frequency choices, i.e. 'almost never' to 'almost always'. I did find, however, that I ticked a strong preference for other students asking about my ideas rather than me asking about them. Certainly strong is my own critical thinking skills. I know, for a fact, that I am often critical of how I go about things, often needing reassurances that I am doing things right in my profession. I can lead and show inspiration to others and I wish to do that in my new job. This is a motivating factor to learning moodle, as I want to arrive knowing something that I can share knowledge with other (teachers). For 'other students' in the survey I could only answer in relation to experienced moodlers. As of yet, I have not had any real interaction with fellow newbies.
Finally I completed the week two quiz and, unlike the first week where I scored 73%, this time I hit the jackpot. Took a bit of thinking about, especially on the question relating to simply adding text onto a moodle page but I guessed right.
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End of Week Two text.
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This is the space where I will continue to reflect on my learning. Weeks three - four reflections will be posted here once the tasks have been completed. There might be a delay completing the tasks for weeks 3+4 and writing a reflection due to uprooting myself to China and getting internet connection sorted out. Watch this space.
