Course Site
You are most welcomed to browse my Pharmacy Math 101 Moodle site
What a journey! It took many trips to Moodle.org, readings of fellow classmates postings on the ETEC 565 course site, and watching and listening to the archives of John’s Wimba Live sessions to get here. “Here” being a technically complete, for the sake of this assignment, course site. Did I also attempt to incorporate best pedagogical practices to create an atmosphere conducive to learning? Yes, however, I must confess that technical issues plagued me at times throughout this process and threatened to take over.
Things that went well
Basically I think the site looks pretty good. I really like the “weekly tabs” format because I think it helps create order and it eliminates the “scroll of death” for students. I took into consideration the different learning styles and potential disabilities of some students and added in some audio along with the text – at least for the introduction of each module. I included the Voicethread that I had created for my original Digital Story but discarded in favour of a more appropriate story using a different tool. I also included the video that I made when exploring that part of the Learning Toolkit. I included these thinking they might be effective for increasing student motivation for the course not simply, or even at all, to fill up space.
Challenges
I had no end of trouble with the “link” feature in Moodle. It just would not link more than once. So, I had to go into HTML mode and do it manually which worked fine. Frustrations aside, I am a much better HTML coder because of it! I also had issues with the site not loading properly and soon figured out that I needed to be persistant and click “editing off” or “on” or logout and back in – a minor inconvenience.
Things that need improvement
I am well aware that my splash page is far too “busy.” This tells me that I need to work a lot more with Dreamweaver (or find a different HTML editor?) to learn how to create a drop-down box or some other nifty trick to condense things.
Course Site Requirements Checklist
* organized look and feel
* user friendly
* splash page with GUI and 4 navigational components: Welcome, Course Introduction, Module 3, Module 8 (Pharmacy Math 101 banner links to audio)
* 2 complete learning modules with HTML content pages: Module 3 and Module 8
* 1 (or more) modules programmed for selective release: Module 9 and Module 10 content is closed
* 2 general discussion forums: Weekly updates and Icebreaker
* 1 group discussion forum for 2 groups: Module 3 and Module 8 have group discussion with 4 groups each
Overall Experience
I cannot even begin to describe how valuable building this course site was using Moodle. I have learned so many useful, practical skills in such a short period of time. I look forward to improving my “real” courses – but can I have a break first?
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.
Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved June 7, 2011 from http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html