Context

The context for my proposal is the setting up of a Learning Management System (LMS) to provide online distance delivery of Social Studies 11 for remote students and for students who are absent from regular face to face classes within School District 27 (Cariboo Chilcotin). The widespread geographic nature of SD 27 means that students are spread out over very low density population areas. Students in the furthest reaches of the district must leave home to complete their high school education and the development of online courses would afford them the opportunity to remain in their home communities. As well, students who are absent would be able to keep pace with the regular class.

Platform Choice

The LMS platform that I am recommending be used is Moodle. The Moodle platform meets several of the criteria set out in Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model (2003). Most importantly, the cost of Moodle is far less than a commercial shell such as WebCt or Blackboard since the platform is open source. There will be a cost involved in training and maintaining the Moodle LMS but those costs would also be present in any other platform that was used. Moodle has shown to be the choice of other educational institutions because of its ease of use and reliability. The University of Athabasca which operates as a distance education facility recently looked into the choice of LMS and decided to go with Moodle (Stewart, et. al., 2007). The intuitive nature of Moodle also provides for an ease of use for both instructors and students (Perkins and Pfaffman, 2006). Also, at this point there is no widespread use of any one type of LMS within SD 27 so it will not be prejudged by instructors who have experience elsewhere thus allowing buy in to be more easily gained.

Resources Required

The development of an individual course as opposed to developing many courses at once, will allow this particular course design (Social Studies 11) to be a showcase for other instructors to view and learn from. In order to develop the course there will have to be initial training within the mechanics of how to operate and manipulate Moodle. Following that, there will have to be time made available for the course instructor to develop, adapt and present course materials within the Moodle course shell. To meet these needs, release time would be the most logical method of allowing the instructor to properly develop and troubleshoot the course. A teacher carrying a full course load would find it difficult to give this project their full attention and produce an effective educational program. A half time course load for a semester would probably suffice to allow the instructor to properly develop this course. The other half of their course load could be designated for the development of Social Studies 11 within a Moodle course shell. The development of this course should be able to be completed over the duration of one semester.

Rationale

The use of Moodle to deliver Social Studies 11 to both absentee students and remotely located students would be beneficial to the educational development of students within School District 27. The development of Social Studies 11 as a course within Moodle will allow other teachers to see the benefits of this system and move forward to adopting similar online courses in their areas of expertise. The cost benefits of going with Moodle compared to an LMS such as WebCT/Blackboard makes Moodle an attractive solution to online learning within the district. If adequate training and time is given to the development of a Social Studies 11 course within a Moodle shell, the results should be positive as it gives the school district’s teachers another option for course delivery. The intuitive nature of Moodle should go a long way to its successful use by teachers.

References

Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4.

Perkins, M., & Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a course management system to improve classroom communication. The Science Teacher, 73(7), 33-37.

Stewart, B., Briton, D., Gismondi, M., Heller, B., Kennepohl, D., McGreal, R., & Nelson, C. (2007). Choosing Moodle: An evaluation of learning management systems at Athabasca University. Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 5(3), 1–7.