Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication
After going through the communication tools available through Moodle, the main thing that struck me was the lack of tools that provided synchronous communication (although they may exist and I just can’t find them). Aside from an MSN-messenger style chat function, I didn’t see much in the way of video chat/conferencing, online seminars, or virtual classrooms (Bates, 1995).
As the module that I am focusing my design on is based on business writing, the activity will be separated into three parts. First, the learners will be divided into groups; each of which will be provided with a wiki with an incorrect form of a different form of persuasive letter writing. In groups, the learners will use the editing tools of the wiki to edit the letter so that it meets the standards in the module information; they will then upload the revised wiki to the course site to be peer-reviewed. Secondly, a ‘Q&A forum’ will be provided so that students can edit and ask questions regarding the letters that have been posted. Finally, the groups will be given a scenario where they need to write a persuasive letter that is a different type than they wrote in the original activity; however, it will be one of the types of letter that they peer-reviewed. They will then upload the final letter to be assessed.
The rationale for this activity is that it meets Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2000) ‘Community of Inquiry Model’ by: providing a collaborative component (ie. students working in groups to correct the letter using the wiki, peer edit, scaffold their learning, and create the final letter); a cognitive presence through the initial letters and knowledge-building scenarios provided; and a teaching presence as the final knowledge artifact produced by the groups will be assessed by the teacher (as cited by Anderson, 2009). Furthermore, these activities allow for not only the type of structured, quantitative assessment described by Levine and Dabbagh (as cited by Anderson, 2009), but also the type of subjective assessment described by Anderson (2009, p. 356). Since Moodle’s wiki and chat functions both allow teachers to track changes, they can see how often students have edited or made comments, while due to the nature of the task, learners that do not review the letters uploaded by other groups will likely not be able to publish letters of sufficient quality.
References
Anderson, T. (2008b). Teaching in an Online Learning Context. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.
Bates, A.W. (1995). Open Learning and Distance Education. New York: Routledge.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.