Proposal
Historical Background
Church Teachers’ College: Mandeville in Jamaica was established in 1965 by the Anglican Dioceses. The college was originally founded in response to the growing need to provide native teachers for the newly independent Jamaica. Before long, government assistance was sought and granted. We continued to offer full-time teacher training. During the 1990’s there was a rationalization program that caused drastic changes to be made and CTC became the sole provider of secondary education teachers. We continue to assume this role presently but there have been some major changes.
The Changing Context
Due to the melt down in the economy created in part by the global recession, further drastic changes have been proposed. Government has decided to play a less significant financial role in the affairs of the colleges and wants all the colleges, including CTC, to be self sufficient and market driven. The present principal has asked departments to come up with plans, as we face the daunting task of becoming a degree granting entity.
The Clients – Students
The demographics have changed considerably. Students need to work and study and there are new colleges (local and overseas based) which are offering similar programs. Students are technologically literate due the e-Learning project which has done intensive training in the secondary schools within the last decade.
Why Moodle?
We have to design programs to meet these students, whose needs can be catered for through online learning. The principal is in favor of full integration of technology. But while she sought to provide equipment through facilitation of the e-learning project no preparation was made for the lecturers to be trained.
Using the SECTIONS framework developed by Bates and Poole (2003) as the guiding force behind the implementation of my online courses, I believe that the Moodle Learning Management System offers opportunities which will ensure that:
- Students will be able to use the technological skills gained in secondary school.
- It will be easy to use as there are many tutorials available for the lecturers, and students will find it even easier to use as they have more technological expertise. I was even able to do a few things out instructions.
- No considerable new cost will be incurred as we already have the technical support and equipment which is heavily underutilized.
- The opportunity to answer questions posed without the distractions of advertisement is welcomed by to me because I dislike this deficiency with the wiki I presently use. The submission of some types of assignments is not possible with the wiki. This is possible with Moodle.
- It will afford multiple synchronous and asynchronous communication which is an important part of the model of online learning.
- Organizational issues is not problematic as all the stakeholders are eager to have something started quickly.
- There will be interest in this online program as it will be the first comprehensive online course offered with all the teaching and learning activities combined so the students need not have face to face yet learn sufficiently.
- There is a possibility of changing the materials of often and so many spaces to read and write.
I intend to explore and use as many of the features I come across and trouble shoot as well so that I will be able to help other lecturers with designing their courses using Moodle.
References
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Chickering, A.W & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 2-6
National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/
Delphine Williams-Young