{"id":10,"date":"2011-05-19T20:02:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T04:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/"},"modified":"2011-06-12T19:03:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-13T03:03:25","slug":"proposal","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Proposal for a Moodle Server at Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, Jamaica<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Edna Manley College needs a Learning Management System (LMS) and a supporting server.\u00a0 \u00a0For the past six years, individual lecturers have taken the initiative to develop an elearning program.\u00a0 They have been working, however, as \u201cLone Rangers\u201d (Bates, 2000) each developing his own course site, and materials, mostly by trial and error, and in isolation.\u00a0 At a recent campus-wide faculty and staff meeting, there was a unanimous vote to make learning with technology a priority in the college\u2019s Strategic Plan. With the commitment of the faculty already in place for technology-based teaching and learning, the time has come for the college to support a LMS that will develop these efforts and provide sustainability to this venture.\u00a0 I recommend that the college install Moodle on the college\u2019s server.<\/p>\n

Why Moodle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Society for Technology in Education<\/a> (ISTE, 2008) identifies five qualities of a 21st<\/sup>-century educational professional, which places the student at the center of the learning environment, and requires the teacher to model skills such as creating digital learning objects and spaces which promote active, collaborative learning.\u00a0 Significantly, Chickering and Gamson<\/a> (1987) foreshadowed ISTE when they advocated active, student-centered learning, where student\/student, student\/teacher, and student\/subject matter interactions were paramount.\u00a0 With the college\u2019s chronic lack of office, classroom and meeting spaces, quality interaction remains challenging.\u00a0 Students must depend upon lecturers\u2019 limited office hours, which are often inconvenient to students.<\/p>\n

Both ISTE and Chickering and Gamson emphasize teaching styles that prepare graduates to function in a knowledge-based society that emphasizes critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, collaboration and decision-making.\u00a0 Moodle supports these skills because the platform is designed for interactivity and collaboration through forums, blogs, and wiki spaces, which \u201ccan emerge as a critical backbone for student-to-student and student to professor interaction\u201d (Panettieri, 2007<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The platform is easy for faculty and students to learn how to use. \u00a0Faculty will be able to mount their courses quickly, and make adjustments during the term as needed.\u00a0\u00a0 With the plethora of teaching styles on campus, Moodle offers lecturers the flexibility to use the platform to suit their particular needs. \u00a0Additionally, Moodle integrates well with the college\u2019s existing resources.\u00a0 Students, for instance, will require just one username and password to access their courses on Moodle and Ralston, the existing student manager.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the greatest attraction towards Moodle is that it is an open source platform:\u00a0 the college will not have to pay licensing fees to the company.\u00a0 If the college chose a closed source platform such as WebCT it would have to pay a licensing fee which could become quite costly, especially if LMS companies merge and prices rise due to decreased competition within the industry.\u00a0 \u00a0In such a scenario the college may find itself unable to sustain learning technologies in the long run (Panettieri, 2007).<\/p>\n

Method for Evaluating LMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In searching for an appropriate LMS for the college, I used Bates and Poole\u2019s (2003) SECTIONS framework.\u00a0 SECTIONS is an acronym, where each letter of the word represents an aspect of the LMS that must be considered.\u00a0 Significantly, the first letter stands for \u201cStudents,\u201d and is consonant with a student-centric teaching approach advocated by ISTE and Chickering and Gamson.\u00a0 Under this part of the acronym, accessibility is ranked important, and Moodle works across the major platforms used on campus by students and faculty:\u00a0 Windows and Mac OS.\u00a0 All of the students at the college are computer literate, and an unofficial poll indicates that over half of them own computers.\u00a0 The college\u2019s computer labs will provide additional access.\u00a0 I have already mentioned \u201cC\u201d as in Cost and \u201cT\u201d as in Teaching and Learning in connection with Moodle\u2019s affordances for collaboration and interactivity above. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019d like to briefly mention the other letters in the acronymn:\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cE\u201d for Ease of Use, \u201cO\u201d for Organizational issues and \u201cN\u201d for Novelty and Speed.<\/p>\n

Not only is Moodle easy to use, it is a reliable platform; but its reliability is greatly enhanced if we can host and maintain it on our own servers.\u00a0 It is not a novel platform.\u00a0 It has been around for quite a few years, and has been tested thoroughly.\u00a0 It is the LMS of choice at The University of Montana, Ohio State University, and\u00a0 \u00c9cole Polytechnique de Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0 Not much organizational changes need to be made should the college adopt Moodle.\u00a0 The college\u2019s centrally located IT department makes it possible for all four schools to benefit from Moodle.<\/p>\n

Resources Needed<\/strong><\/p>\n

For lecturers and students to maximize Moodle\u2019s affordances, some resources are necessary, including a server and learning and design support.<\/p>\n

Moodle can be hosted on a third-party server.\u00a0 I strongly recommend, however, that the college hosts the LMS on our newly-acquired server.\u00a0 By hosting on our server, we will not be limited by disc space or bandwidth.\u00a0 We can always adjust space as the demand requires.\u00a0 Also, we will have IT staff on site who will be able to maintain the server and troubleshoot as the need arises.\u00a0 The IT department will need<\/p>\n

a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0A web server that supports PHP<\/p>\n

b)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 GB of RAM for every 50 concurrent users \u00a0(Installing Moodle 2.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

c)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3 months (approximately) of time needed for members of the IT department to get acquainted with Moodle, configure the site and administer the system.\u00a0 It will also need to train the help desk team to provide technical support for students and faculty (Penney, 2008<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Although Moodle is a fairly easy program to use, lecturers will need learning and design support\u2014a team that will show them Moodle\u2019s possibilities, and help them design learning spaces that support active learning.\u00a0 This could be provided easily at no extra cost to the college as there are lecturers with Moodle experience.\u00a0 They could be enlisted to serve in this capacity in exchange for a reduced teaching load.<\/p>\n

By supporting Moodle on campus, not only will the college join the ranks of universities world-wide who have upgraded their approach to teaching and learning in keeping with 21st<\/sup> century ideals, but will support lecturers as they design digital learning experiences.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bates, A.W. (2000). Managing technological change<\/em>. San Francisco, CA:\u00a0 Jossey-Bass Inc.<\/p>\n

Bates, W.A.\u00a0 and Poole, G.\u00a0 (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105)<\/em>.\u00a0 New York: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated.<\/p>\n

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987).\u00a0 Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Education.\u00a0 American Association for Higher Education Bulletin<\/em>. Retrieved from <\/em>http:\/\/www.aahea.org\/bulletins\/articles\/sevenprinciples1987.htm<\/a>.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

International Society for Technology in Education (2008).\u00a0 NETS for teachers 2008<\/em>.\u00a0 Accessed May 18, 2011 from http:\/\/www.iste.org\/standards\/nets-for-teachers\/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

Moodle. (2011).\u00a0 Installing Moodle 2.0<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Retrieved from \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/docs.moodle.org\/20\/en\/Installing_Moodle<\/a><\/p>\n

Panettieri, J. (2007).\u00a0 Addition by substraction.\u00a0 University Business:\u00a0 Solutions for Higher Education \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Management<\/em>.\u00a0 Retrieved from http:\/\/www.universitybusiness.com\/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=845<\/a><\/p>\n

Penney, M. (2008).\u00a0 Response to query on Moodle re: Moodle Hosting Cost and Time.\u00a0 Discussion Forums.\u00a0 Accessed June 6, 2011 from http:\/\/moodle.org\/mod\/forum\/discuss.php?d=97713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proposal for a Moodle Server at Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, Jamaica The Edna Manley College needs a Learning Management System (LMS) and a supporting server.\u00a0 \u00a0For the past six years, individual lecturers have taken the initiative to develop an elearning program.\u00a0 They have been working, however, as \u201cLone Rangers\u201d (Bates, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7335,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/davidson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}