Before I go any further, I must state what a rewarding experience participating in this course was. I believe that it is highly instructive to compare the discourse of my initial plan with that of my preliminary results in this ETEC 565A course.In my Flight plan, I indicated that many educators from my country do not have adequate access to technologies and platforms that support teaching and learning.My hope for this course was that it equipped me with the necessary tools to continue my professional development and that of my peers.I also stated that I would like to learn how to use LMS platforms to create learning opportunities to educate my peers about e-learning, collaborative learning environments and the various communication tools to enhance their teaching practices. Fortunately, this course has delivered on all fronts.I had very little experience using Moodle and was very pleased that this course not only transformed my instructional design skills but developed it even further. Working on my course prototype, along with the numerous course activities, I was able to acquire lifelong skills that has truly impacted my life.I have learnt that Moodle is much more than just a delivery platform; it is an avenue for both instructor and students to work collaboratively. It promotes creativity, critical thinking, initiative and community building, as it fosters an online learning community.More importantly, my instructional design skills has been transformed as a result of working with the course material and designing my course project. This course has equipped me with the tools to begin designing courses and I fully intend on improving on my skills.
While working on the platform evaluation of Moodle one resolute action that arose from me thinking deep and critically was about the importance of taking into account the empirical realities of LMS such as the being “open, inclusive and educationally informed.” Coates, James & Baldwin (2005) postulate that, “it is important that steps are taken to identify how online LMS can be used to augment and complement rather than substitute for an institution’s core teaching objectives.” With that said, when designing my own course I decided on using Moodle to design a course that was not only educational but one that can help me improve my assessment skills. Among all the different LMS platform I felt that Moodle better suited my needs. One of the goals that I listed in my Flight Path was to learn how to design a course that is very interactive,fun-filled uses a lot of game based learning and multimedia tools to enhance students’ learning ;since I work primarily with younger students.This would allow me to not only capture their initial interest but to continue to increase their motivation and engagement in learning.Moodle, unlike some of the other platforms presented numerous assessment tools which was very important to me. Additionally, one of the readings that really resonated with me was by Bates and Poole (2003),which discussed the infinite possibilities of using new technologies and LMSs. Moodle really availed itself to the inclusion of new technologies in its platform. I was able to create a digital stories, use Google Apps for Education,embed websites links along with other multimedia tools to make my course prototype fun and interactive.
At one point in the course, the instructor enabled a “four stars :overall rating” system for class discussions; this I believe was to rate the quality of our peers’ discussion on a particular subject.Similarly, if I were to rate my overall experience in this course it would undoubtably receive four stars. The reading materials were current and relevant and made understanding the various facets of this course much easier to comprehend. The discussion themes and questions paved the way for intelligent discussions, active participation, collaboration and building a valuable online learning community.This facilitated collective,knowledge building among my peers and I.Similarly, the course activities and projects design work challenged me in positive ways and gave me a chance to interact with some truly amazing tools.In particular,the projects done by my peers introduced me to some very innovative technological tools that I can use in the classroom. My ultimate best experience in this course was creating my Moodle course. It was truly a labour of love and I really enjoyed experimenting with the numerous tools in this LMS. There is nothing that I would change about this course as it was properly organized and flowed seamlessly.