Moodle Proposal

The Quesnel School District (SD #28) is a small district in the northern Cariboo region of British Columbia. Currently, SD #28 offers a distributed learning program with course offerings for K-12 education. Open School BC sponsors a Moodle learning management system (LMS) for use within SD #28’s distributed learning program. Moodle is used as a LMS for grades 8-10 core courses and electives.

SD #28 has three rural K-7 elementary schools that offer programming in a one room school model with a head teacher responsible for all course instruction. While the student populations average less than 20, the demands of meeting the social and academic needs within these schools are a challenge. A challenge identified by teachers is providing adequate mathematics instruction to the intermediate students. Teachers of these rural schools are interested in developing a technology enhanced learning environment (TELE) that would utilize a Moodle LMS, so they are able to provide grade specific mathematics instruction to their intermediate students.

The following proposal will be submitted to the senior administration team of SD #28.  It is hoped that allocation of resources will be provided to support course development within Moodle, orientation for all users, and ongoing IT support of the LMS.

Background: Cariboo Chilcotin Rural Secondary Program

Upon perusal of the Cariboo Chilcotin’s (SD #27) Rural Secondary Program, it is evident how Elluminate Live! can be used in collaboration with a Moodle LMS to effectively deliver instruction to distance education students. SD #27 integrates the classroom meeting space of Elluminate Live! with Moodle LMS to provide remote secondary students with instruction and course resources. Students meet on Elluminate Live! Monday through Thursday with their instructor, and access their Moodle LMS to receive assignments, tasks, descriptive feedback, grades, and opportunities for peer and teacher collaboration.

Proposal: Moodle LMS for Rural Elementary Mathematics

This proposal is requesting that a Moodle LMS be developed and utilized for grades 4-7 mathematics instruction serving the rural elementary schools of SD #28. This LMS would be used in conjunction with Elluminate Live! meetings where teachers would provide live instruction to students. The rural elementary schools will use a common timetable where all intermediate students are connecting to their virtual mathematics class at the same time. Teachers at each site would be responsible for delivering instruction for a particular grade or split grade. The primary students would work in centres during this time supported by student support workers.

SD #28 promotes literacy, numeracy and social responsibility through their educational services for students. SD #28 encourages the purposeful use of Assessment for Learning (AFL) as a foundation for instruction across all grades and curricular content. It is realized that students who receive increased descriptive feedback regarding their learning will learn at a higher standard and rate (Black & Wiliam, 1998). The technological features of a Moodle LMS adequately support the use of AFL or formative assessment in instruction.

Moodle contains features where learning objectives can be clearly identified within a resource activity (e.g., website, text), or on a news bulletin. Students have access to developing criteria for success with teachers through the use of wikis and forums. Providing students with descriptive feedback can be supported through Moodle’s gradebook, wikis, and discussion forums. Wikis and discussion forums are also effective for asking students meaningful questions. A cumulative effect of using AFL is increased student ownership of learning, and this is easily supported in a Moodle LMS.  Students can share their products of learning with their classmates through the discussion forums and wikis, and Moodle also supports weblinks where students’ work can be published on digital platforms including class websites, blogs, glogs, Google Docs, and others.

Moodle is already used for SD #28’s distributed learning program, so it is being considered here rather than options including Blackboard Learn, and Desire2Learn. SD #28’s IT department is familiar with Moodle, and would not have to orient their employees to a new LMS.  In addition to SD #28’s IT support, there are current teachers and administrators in SD #28 who can serve as resource people when orientating new users to the Moodle program. Moodle is provided to SD #28’s distributed learning program through Open School BC, allowing an easy extension of the LMS to include elementary mathematics courses.

Costs associated with putting a Moodle server online are largely covered with the existing Moodle LMS offered through Open School BC.  The elementary mathematics program would simply add four (grades 4-7) additional courses to an existing, and supported network. There are costs for course development and orientation of staff and students. Considering the $15 000 surplus identified in the 2011/12 budget, a proposal would be to allocate some of these funds to pay for course development to occur over the summer, and orientation of staff and students in the fall. The Vancouver Foundation may also have funds available, and grants are being put forward to allocate some of these resources.

Rationale: Pedagogical Foundations

Bates & Poole (2003) suggest guidelines for the selection and development of a TELE. Their SECTIONS framework provides criteria to measure the usefulness of a technology to ensure it will meet the resource capability of the sponsoring institution. The proposed technology must be easy to use, cost effective, and supported by an IT team. The technology should also provide the focus group (i.e., student) with a novel technology that supports multiple modes of learning.

Anderson (2008) supports Bates & Poole’s TELE selection criteria, and further suggests that online learning has a foundational underpinning of knowledge, learner, assessment, and community centred learning. The application of Anderson’s theory emphasizes a TELE that fosters the language and knowledge of the academic discipline, provides opportunity for unique learning modalities, supports ongoing and timely formative feedback, and fosters a community of inquiry. Moodle LMS paired with instruction through Elluminate Live!, will meet these foundational pedagogical ideals.

References

Anderson, T. (2008). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Chapter 2 (pp. 45-74).

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment [Electronic version]. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2). 139-44. 32

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.