Moodle Final Reflection
Wow. I think that I’ve actually had dreams about my LMS course site built in moodle! Some dreams have been stressful, others extremely successful. Over the past week as I’ve been putting the finishing touches on, I must say that I have enjoyed this experience and it has been very worthwhile.
Within the Calgary Board of Education, the LMS Desire to Learn (D2L) is used. For four years, I have attempted to figure out this technology in a purposeful manner. Through ETEC 565A, I have gained the tools to build a course in a LMS. The first four readings in Module 1 gave me the foundation to make critical decisions as I worked through and built my course site. My intention is to use the resources I have created in moodle to build a course site in D2L that I will use next school year.
I chose to build my course around a theme that I have taught face-to-face. I am anticipating having a SMART Board in my classroom next year, so I designed my course to be interactive as well as able to be used individually by my students either during Literacy Centers or at home.
Here is a breakdown of my LMS course-site:
A Learning Management System (LMS) online course site, either in Moodle or WebCT/Vista (25), including complete set-up for the following:
On my splash page, there are images and animations that provide a visual hook for students. Young children love colourful and engaging images and I believe that students viewing this splash page would be instantly excited about the theme. The images on the Splash page have the correct alt attribute assigned to them, so if a student were using screen-reading software, they would understand where to click. There is also a silly picture of myself, from a field trip to the Calgary Science Centre. Students love seeing funny pictures of their teacher, and I would argue that this helps to foster a relationship with students.
- Two (or more) complete content modules (5)
I created three complete content modules. They are balanced in terms of activities and allow for interaction with the SMART Board and individual work. There is a nice balance of multimedia in each module; see my Multimedia Inventory for a detailed explanation.
- (At least) one module programmed for selective release (1)
This was tricky! After researching selective release on the moodle.org forums, I learned that in moodle, conditional release is different. It turns out that if you design your course in weekly format, you can apply selective release. However, I have designed my course in topic format and therefore, selective release does not apply to my LMS course site.
- Two general discussion fora topics (2)
In total, I created 4 discussion fora topics, including the Icebreaker activity. Each module has 1 discussion forum, with the exception of Module, A which has 2 with the Icebreaker activity.
- One group discussion forum for (at least) 2 groups (2)
In Module B, I created the discussion forum for 2 groups. The activity is to read my digital story and then answer reading comprehension questions. This was a valuable exercise as I see the value in creating smaller groups for discussion when appropriate, similar to our small working groups in ETEC 565A.
Overall, my experience completing this assignment has been fantastic. By critically thinking about each element to include, sound pedagogical decisions could be made. I was able to create a course that will be very beneficial in my teaching practice, not only to me, but to my students as well. I can’t wait for next April, as that is when I will be teaching this theme!
Thank you for reading!
Camille