Creating the Introductory Module and Project Documentation for the course was challenging in a few ways.  The first hurdle involved learning the basic operation of the Moodle LMS platform.  After reading Moodle documentation and watching a few tutorial videos I was able to add some objects and elements but it took a considerable amount of trial and error. The course forum was a good resource and I received some help from colleagues to get the hang of the system.  Because the course I am designing is intended for secondary age students who may have limited access to high speed internet, the main goal of the course page was to be easy to follow and contain only the necessary elements with obvious links to content, activities and discussions.  For this type of course the Moodle platform seems to be an appropriate choice with many easy to edit tools included.  Once I work out some more of the course activities and assessments I feel that it will be a bit more apparent which structure and design components will need modifying.

When creating the project documentation for the course it felt a little daunting as this is my first attempt at using an LMS platform; I have designed many courses and activities which include web components but they have always been supplementary to the traditional classroom.  My biggest challenge is creating a design that pedagogically strong from an online learning perspective but also works well with my goals when teaching history.  I am excited about the number of possibilities that online learning provides for the use of digital artifacts and I am hoping that students are able to dig deep into online archives and share what they find and create.  The tricky part will be designing activities which give students enough choice to be engaged in their projects but not overwhelmed by the possibilities and skills needed to work with the various types of media that are accessible.

My initial response to the assignment guidelines was that I felt that the task to evaluate an LMS platform in 2000 words while splitting the activity between five people would create a challenging group dynamic. With the limited amount of time, being the first assignment of the course, it seemed that there was a considerable amount of pressure for the group to get organized quickly and make some key decisions early.  I was more than relieved to see that the entire group was able to agree and setup a working document with some rough ideas almost immediately.  The group communicated effectively using two main channels of communication utilizing email as well as the Google Doc comments and chat feature.   The group had already answered several of our initial questions about the task as well as completed a considerable amount of research by the time we met up to chat through Skype, well before the due date.  After  quickly discussing our evaluation and deciding on the remaining tasks we were able to establish a working final document quickly and effectively.  At different times throughout the process, each member of the group was able to take the lead to push the assignment further along.  The platform evaluation was a valuable experience as I not only found some key components and drawbacks of an LMS platform, I also recognized that perhaps the most important component of an online course is to provide students access to collaborative tools.  I can imagine that a course designed for secondary school learners would benefit greatly if it featured a collaborative activity which focused on building online group work skills.  I am glad that so many MET students I have worked with already have these skills.