Faber’s Foods and Nutrition 9: 

Cooking with Moodle

Wow!  It is finally put together (well, with the exception of a safety video in lesson 1 that is still in progress.  However, I added another module week to ensure I had met all criteria in the meantime).

The Moodle site, Faber’s Foods and Nutrition 9, is a medley of learning mechanisms including:

• discussion groups (for specific purposes and for help discussion groups)
• multimedia presentations (I chose Prezi because I had found it so user-friendly I thought it would be easy for the students to learn and use)
• videos (a safety video [in progress] and an instructional video on making scones
• documents for activity completion
• website exploration for learning about baking ingredients
• and more!

The course is laid out so that students can see the week ahead of them and anticipate their learning.  Module 3 is a preview of the general course layout for the remainer of the course.  In the course, students will be presented (with the exception of the first 2 weeks where students are exploring safety issues) with the following order for module learning and exploration:

1. A cooking demonstration,
2. A cooking lab,
3. Theory work based aspects of the cooking and demo,
4. Learning activity for application of the theoretical principles explored, and
5. A discussion group for each week where students discuss issues with the weeks work.

Rather than a dry text-only based course format that most distance ed courses offer in my district, this has layers and depth for both exploration and creative output. 

I am in awe of the depth possible in an e-learning course.  Students can be engaged on so many levels, levels which are reflective of how they enjoy learning and pursuing discovery of meaning (websites, Youtube videos, multimedia presentations, online discussions, etc).  I learned about the diversity of presenting a course in a way that can come alive, despite the screen web-based interface.  The biggest lesson taken out of this course is the idea that web-based courses can come alive!  I hope you enjoy the Faber’s Foods and Nutrition coursesite!  Despite challenges in putting it together (trying to get the technology to reflect my perceived goals) it was worth the effort in learning about the possibilities and options for creating the course.

When we began to develop our Moodle sites I must admit I was both scared and excited at the prospect.  I convinced a colleague to work on his own Moodle site, and it was nice to have someone physically there to bounce ideas off of, and to have a stronger front for demands to the school district (uploading of the Moodle account to the School board server: unsuccessful, and attempts to convince the head of technology to allow for Adobe Flashplayer for students to access features of Moodle and social media for assignment completion, and ironically, the school calendar on the website: unsuccessful).  We developed the early beginnings to the courses together but then went our seperate ways to a large degree, as I continued to work towards ETEC criteria and he worked towards a blended learning approach, not restricted by deadlines of a course. 

I originally had intended to create a blended learning course, but realized that I needed to immerse myself in the distance learning aspect so I was not dependant upon f2f to resolve problems I could not solve in a full e-learning approach.  I wanted to create a situation where I would be forced to create a fully on-line self sustaining course so that I would apply parts of my learning to a blended approach. 

I created 3 full modules and made a concious decision to stop at that point as I am eager to get feedback from learners before going further.  I would like to know what works and what doesnt, so I can create the rest of my course in accordance with student needs and feedback in the e-learning situation.  I was in awe of the possibilities, but also of the neccessity to recreate materials so they would fit in in the on-line learning atmosphere.  Throughout the MET course I learned that e-learning was different from f2f and, therefore, required different teaching techniques and mechanisms.  ETEC 565 and the creation of the LMS was where that came together for me.  I was able to see why certain modes of teaching would not be appropriate in an e-learning atmosphere and why it was important to create such aspects as group interactivity, embedded resource links, and uncluttered interfaces for easier navigation.  Just as it is important in a classroom to keep students engaged, we can not expect students to remain engaged with text-only materials and activities.  We need to apply our knowledge of best practices in the unique set of needs that e-learning presents.

~~Caroline~~