Course Site
http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=120&edit=0&sesskey=mGV9eQJc40
One thing that I learned in the creation of my LMS site was that sometimes the best plans can change. Much like my e-portfolio I had a vision of what I wanted my LMS site to look like, and it changed as I became more comfortable and knowledgeable with the software.
As I was rereading my posts and reflections from this term I came across one that I wrote near the beginning of the semester. It was about an idea that I had for my LMS site. Initially I was going to divide the website into two main sections, a Mindmap and a Podcast. This changed as I worked on my site. I decided to make these two activities a part of one of the two units that I created for my site. It seemed like the right approach. We learn through our actions. I wanted to make the LMS as interactive as possible. Second, teaching involves devising and implementing activities to encourage discourse between and
among students, between the teacher and the student, and between individual students, groups of students, and content resources (Anderson, 2003).
When working on activities such as this and my e-portfolio I noticed that what is initially planned is not always the final result. Views can change over time especially as designers (students, teachers) become more comfortable about certain technologies and issues. When your comfort level increases, so does your ability.
It is integral to note that in meeting all of the criteria that was set out in our outline about the LMS site I had to make a few decisions that I need to address. In viewing this site it is important to understand the context of the learners that I have designed the site for, and the type of classes that I normally teach. I am an alternative education fine arts teacher who teaches music, technology and various creative activities. I prepared this site with the knowledge that my students were technologically proficient and able to use the tools required. This needs to be taken in consideration when moving through the site. I have held many classes on podcasting and other media software work before. I made a conscious issue not to concentrate on how to teach these technologies, thus I would be able to concentrate on the curriculum based aspects of the LMS site. I did include a brief summary on how to podcast however, just in case there are students that need a reminder and are working from home. My district is Mac friendly and uses them exclusively, which does make podcasting easier for everyone.
I created two group activities in my LMS, both in the Ancient Greece section. One was to be used in the forum and the other was a group chat. Both are used in conjunction with the podcast activity in the unit. I was initially unsure of how to use the group setting. I created two groups for the podcast. Obviously, if I was working with an actual class I would have populated them. There is a chatroom for the students to talk about their podcast, and a forum where they can share information and resources. The podcasts are to be posted into the Ancient Greece forum. Each week there are focus questions for the students to get acquainted with the unit. This is seen as good practice, and helps the students get engaged in the academic process. “The instructor will start each discussion by posting one or more questions at the beginning of each week (Sunday or Monday). The discussion will continue until the following Sunday night, at which time the discussion board will close for that week (Levine, 2002).”
I decided to include the final exam as a selective release activity. It is set up for release on April 22. I enjoyed this feature but had issues in setting it up with full units because not all types of Moodle pages have this feature. If I were to set up a unit quiz I would certainly make it time released. I have also made the Ancient Greece section hidden from the students. I would manually activate it as needed. I believe that this form of conditional release is perfectly acceptable in an online learning setting. I have also made all of the units not being used hidden, and would activate them manually as needed. If you would like to examine the hidden units you will need to log on as a teacher, or admin.
I found Moodle to be a fairly straightforward, yet difficult program at the same time. The websites look fantastic overall, and the themes are quite nice overall. There are many modifications to the overall look that can be done if we had access to the server that would increase the visual appeal even more than it already is. The testing ability is excellent and the html editing ability is quite useful. I found that it is easy to create a basic looking site, however there are limitations to the overall layout that prevent the course site from looking professionally designed. Moodle sites look like Moodle sites, there is little that can be done about that despite my best efforts. However, please don’t take this as a critique, I believe that having a uniform educational site is a positive thing. It prevents confusion and makes it easy for all students to navigate.
Anderson, T. (2003). Modes of interaction in distance education: Recent developments and research questions. In M. Moore & W.Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education, (pp. 129–144). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Levine, S. (2002). Replacement myth. IT Forum. Retrieved March 2008 from http://www.listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0208&L=itforum &P =R7059&X=60858A07F2C0090FD4