Before diving into the actual design work within Moodle, I spent time doing some background research. After reading both of the Anderson (2008a, 2008b) readings, I also spent time talking to some of my students who are enrolled in online classes. The anecdotal data suggests that online courses are self-paced and that it is difficult to form connections with the instructor and peers. Further research indicated that completion rates are quite low for standard online courses. According to Abbotsford Virtual School (2012), 43.3% of students successfully complete courses in Grades 10-12 and they are the most successful rates within BC Distributed learning schools. 19% of students withdraw from the courses. Further research proved to be difficult to follow up on the data. However, according to the Ministry of Education (2014), there are new measures coming in to effect to ensure equitable access and adherence to ministry standards, as there was some concern about the quality and fairness of some online education providers. (Steffenhagen, 2013). The overall sense that I get is that much of the online learning in BC is a digitized version of correspondence courses. There are steps being taken to address some of the significant issues (Abbotsford Virtual School, 2012). Overall, this background research of what is happening within online courses encouraged me to apply sound pedagogical principles within the design of the course.
With this in mind, I, thus, approached the planning and design process with Anderson’s (2008a) model of online learning in mind. He argues that an “effective learning environment is community-centered, knowledge-centered, learner-centered, and assessment-centered” (Anderson, 2008, p.47). Of these, the greatest challenge in online environments is creating and fostering a sense of community. Although students may register in online courses for the freedom there is a need to limit this freedom as participation in a learning community will place constraints on this independence in order to help foster participation which will in turn advance knowledge creation and attention (Anderson, 2008a). “The community … binds learners in time, and thus forces regular sessions – or at least group-paced learning” (Anderson, 2008a, p.61). As stated earlier, this is notion is not necessarily applied to current online courses. However, it is a principle that I took quite seriously when designing the overall look and feel of the course. Therefore, I implemented a schedule for the modules, as I would envision they would happen within the course. This would foster group-paced learning and keep the students within the same modules at the same time. Furthermore, having students at the same place within the course curriculum would help foster collaborative learning (Anderson, 2008b).
In order to further foster this community-centered approach, I also decided that each module would have a regularly scheduled live chat for the participants. Khoo and Cowie (2011) posit that “an effective learning community depends fundamentally on developing the social and emotional ties between members” (p.48). Thus, having a live discussion would help build such bonds. These chats would begin in the first week and happen at the same time each week. This would help build a community of trust, which is important for learners to have (Anderson, 2008b). Regular discussion forums which participants will participate asynchronously would not only aid in building community, it would support each participant’s own intellectual, emotional, and social transformations (Khoo and Cowie, 2011). The first discussion forum is also a way for students to introduce themselves and have a sense of their classmates and their instructor. I posted my own introductory post as a sample for students to use. By showing students this post as well as providing a diverse overview of my life, I am hoping to create a critical teacher presence within this online environment. Anderson (2008b) suggests that teachers personalize online courses as much as possible. One way is to have the style of writing more conversational than academic (Anderson, 2008b). Again, it is hoped that this, too, will help build a community of learners together as we interact with the content together.
Within the design and layout, I tried to make the course easy to navigate and ease any fears students may have. Thus, I made the first clickable page a link of how to get started in the course. I also included a page of general student resources that would be helpful for students to have throughout the course. I also included a discussion forum in which students could post any general questions or concerns they may have.
From there, students will then see the introductory module.
The module is meant to ease students into the course. They get a sense of the overall pacing of the course, an explanation of the requirements, some tips for success, an overview of myself, and an introductory activity.
For the introductory activity, I have students post a brief introduction of themselves along with a photo of themselves and something that they believe represents Canada. This helps all participants know a little bit more about one another and gives a sense of the discussions that the overall course will focus on, namely, Canadian identity. I also have students view two You Tube videos (which were easily embedded into Moodle) as a way to facilitate the first live chat discussion. I also included an optional reading for students which would appeal to some students and would also add an interesting perspective to the first live discussion.
Overall, I feel that this introductory module to the course allows students to begin functioning with in the Anderson model. They will interact with one another via the chat and discussion forum. They begin looking at some content and reflect on that both individually and again within the live chat. Finally, there are opportunities to interact with the instructor.
This is the first time I have worked with Moodle as a designer. What was most helpful for me was planning out my overall course before beginning the introduction. As with everything I do, I did all this planning in Evernote. I laid out the course timetable and adapted my current rendition of the course for an online environment. Then I began to design the necessary pages. Initially, I found it quite frustrating to work with. I found that I needed to design my pages using Dreamweaver. This made for a quick transfer of the page content if the Moodle server was not too slow. I found that the Moodle server was generally quite slow and I often had to exit out of it and come back to a page I was working on. This was the most frustrating aspect of working on this course. I also found that changing the aesthetic feel of the course was quite time consuming. I appreciate the functionality of Moodle as reflected in its simplicity but I wish that it were easier to make the course look more appealing to high school students. I also did not find a way to indicate an image source as anytime I included the website address, it would insert the image a second time. Overall, I gained new insights into the time needed to design a web-based course. I look forward to working more with Moodle and fleshing out some of the ideas that I have regarding online education.
References:
Abbotsford Virtual School. (2012). School plan for student success. Retrieved from: http://facilities.sd34.bc.ca/sites/default/files/AVS%20School%20Plan.pdf
Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf
Anderson, T. (2008b). Teaching in an online learning context. In Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and practice of online learning. Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf
Khoo,E. & Cowie, B. (2010). A framework for developing and implementing an online learning community. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distances Learning, 15 (1), 47-59.
Steffenhagen, J. (2013, June 3). BC Christian school is unexpected leader in online education. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/christian+school+unexpected+leader+online+education/8468050/story.html