Dear Board of Trustees,
Enclosed I have provided my proposal and recommendations for Toronto X Academy’s new Learning Management System. The following proposal will explain why Moodle will provide the most cost effective, user friendly LMS that will also be able to enhance the current culture of the school’s learning environment.
Rationale: Why Adopt a Learning Management System?
Toronto X Academy prides itself at providing its students with an advanced curriculum and cutting edge teaching pedagogies. Adding the use of a Learning Management System, specifically Moodle, would improve how teachers are able to deliver curriculum.
Giving teachers and students access to Moodle would enable them to share work, provide meaningful feedback, engage in discussions, maintain a grade book, track participation, and participate in an over all creative, learning environment (Unal, 2011).
Moodle as the Best Choice
There are many LMS options that exist for Toronto X Academy, ( Moodel and webCT/vista being the most popular). However, my recommendation comes after careful consideration of the needs of our teachers, students, school culture and over all cost for the school itself. Academic literature supports that Moodle is in fact a more intuitive, user friendly LMS that offers both instructor and learner a greater range of how information can be delivered. Personal experience using various LMS’ also directs my recommendation.
Moodle is favoured among educators due to it being created with sound pedagogical principles. Its intended use is for a clear and collaborative type of learning through group work, collaboration, communication, sharing, activities and critical reflection (Munoz & Duzer, 2006).
To further solidify Moodle being Toronto X’s best option, I used SECTIONS ( Bates &Poole, 2006), a model for examining Learning Management Systems.
SECTIONS
S- Students
The face of education is changing, and how students relate to, gather and share information has undergone a dramatic renovation over the last decade. Most students rely on the Internet and media as their main source of information. Having a place to communicate and share online would be in line with how our students currently relate to learning. It is an opportunity to integrate technology within the curriculum and to better meet their needs as learners.
E- Ease of Use and Reliability
Even users with minimal exposure to technology can easily become proficient at using Moodle. Unlike other systems, there is not a need to know advanced code to create a functioning Moodle site. Given that it has three options in how the site can be established, it allows the teacher to tailor their Moodle to the specific needs of their course. This ensures that that the curriculum can stay true to the acedemic goals set by the school.
C- Cost
One of the more attractive benefits of Moodle is that it is free. Moodle is an open source, licensed, free web-based application. Also, since Toronto X already has an established server and Internet throughout the school, there will be no extra start up fees. (view extra resources for estimated training costs)
T- Teaching and Learning
More schools (including our own) have been making moves towards having a curriculum that is built upon inquiry and constructivist learning. Teachers would be better equipped to meet the needs of individual learners as well as the their class as a whole. Students would have an easy access point to resources directly geared towards a particular course of study. With these two aspects working together symbiotically, the possibilities of what can be achieved through curriculum are limitless.
I-Interactivity
As mentioned earlier, Moodle has been designed to be an interactive learning environment. It enables both teachers and students to participate in a wide variety of communication and sharing opportunities. Through the use of discussion forums it can also provide opportunities for student-to-student interaction as well as teacher to student interaction.
O- Organizational Issues
I do not see this being a major issue. Moodle is designed to be used by all levels of technical understanding. As far as technical support is concerned, training and assigning this duty to one of the already in place tech staff would be sufficient. Staff training is a must; professional development should not be underestimated in this case. If a teacher does not have the proper training, or fears it, or misconstrues its uses, the technology will be used ineffectively or not at all (Groff and Mouza, 2008).
N-Novelty
It is in the schools best interest to go with a reliable and tested LMS. There are many options, but few are as widely used and supported as Moodle.
S-Speed
Being able to download and established the LMS within our school system quickly is another key factor. The speed at which courses are created will depend on the level of technical skill of the teacher. I would allow 4-6 months for teachers to develop their courses before launching for school use. I recommend offering several workshops for the current staff to help them operate Moodle with ease and comfort.
Students will be comfortable using it within minutes due to its intuitive nature.
Extra Resources
The key to launching and maintaining Moodle is proper teacher training. I recommend a survey being given to all teachers to establish the technological skill level of the staff. Once this is known, appropriate training can be decided upon. Below is a rough estimation of what this may cost the school.
Moodle– Free
Workshops– $1,500.00
The average in school workshop ranges from $250.00=500.00 per day. I believe three all day workshops would allow for those with the least amount of tech experience to feel comfortable with Moodle. After this, we can establish mentoring partnerships within the staff.
Extra Materials/Software- $3,500.00
While our school has an excellent computer lab, we may discover that some classroom computers could be updated.
Total budget: $5000.00
Conclusion
Integrating Moodle will give Toronto X Academy a free, flexible, and intuitive learning platform. This will allow all teachers to create classroom environments that meet the high demands of 21st century learning prepare our students for their future ahead.
Resources
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.
Blackboard vs. Moodle, Dr. Kathy Munoz and Joan van Duzer. 2006. Accessed online Feb 2, 2012. http://www.humboldt.edu/~jdv1/moodle/all.htm-
Edutools. (2006). CMS: Product Comparrison System. Accessed online Febuary 2, 2012. http://www.edutools.info/compare.jsp?pj=8&i=358,386-
Groff, J. & Mouza, C. (2008). A Framework for Addressing Challenges to Classroom Technology Use. AACE Journal. 16 (1), pp. 21-46. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Panettieri, J. (2007). Addition by subtraction. University Business, August 58-62. Accessed online January 30,2012. http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=845
Schaffhauser, Dian. (2010). Mission Critical: Selecting the Right LMS. Campus Technology. 23, pp. 34-43. Chatsworth, CA. Media, Inc.
Unal, Zafer & Unal, Asil. (2011). Evaluating and Comparing the Usability of Web-Based Course Management Systems. Journal of Information Technology Education. 10, pp.19-38. Santa Rose, CA. Informing Science Institute.