Moodle Course Site
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At the beginning of the course we were asked to submit a flight path outlining what we wished to accomplish throughout this course and I chose to focus my flight path on Learner Management Systems (in particular Moodle). In my flight path I explained that I wanted to learn how Moodle could assist me in collecting evidence of student learning as well as providing opportunities for students to collaborate and reflect in various discussion forums.
Overview of my experience creating my Moodle site – Math 9
As I worked through my Moodle site I referred back to the E-learning toolkit provided to us within Connect. Here I was able to gain a better understanding of the criteria that had been set out for us, as well as learn tips and tricks about what not to do when creating a website. Below you will find a brief overview of how I accomplished the criteria for this assignment.
Splash page with at least four navigational components
Creating my splash page was the first component of my Moodle site that I attempted to complete. For me it was important that it had a lot of white space so that it didn’t look cluttered and that it looked professional in nature. Overall, I was happy with how it turned out. The navigational components were easy to format into a table so that they all lined up, and linking them also seemed very intuitive. I debated whether or not the navigational components should link to specific modules in the course or whether they should link to commonly accessed sites off the site. In the end I thought that my students would find the navigational components that linked off the site most useful. In my Moodle site you will see a component that links to the course outline, math text book, general class discussion forum, the online classroom, the school website, and my digital story.
Two or more completed learning modules
In an attempt to be able to use this course site in conjunction with my face-to-face class, I spent a lot of time making sure that the first two modules that I prepared for this course site were the actual modules I would teach in my class at the beginning of the year. While I have taught math 9 many times now, each and every year I end up revising what I do to ensure that students gain a better understanding of the concepts we are learning. Creating content so that I could incorporate a LMS into my face-to-face course therefore meant I was once again revising my activities.
Overall the challenging portion of this section was making sure that I didn’t simply upload too many pdf or word documents, but rather use the HTML editor. Looking back I do appreciate this constraint, as I believe the modules turned out better this way. I also feel as though I will be able to meet the needs of more of my students now having my course set up on Moodle. I am excited about the opportunities for students to interact in a collaborative manner in the discussion forums, as well as reflect upon their learning.
One module programmed for selective release
I will admit that I was a little confused about this portion of the criteria for our course site. Initially I thought that hiding one of my modules would count as selective release, but after doing a bit of detective work I figured that this would probably not meet the criteria. I understand now that Conditional Activities is the selective release feature available in Moodle. For my course I chose to have the module Building to Specs set for selective release on September. 27th, the anticipated day that we will begin this unit. In addition to this I also did not make the Circle Geometry Quiz available to the class until September 13th.
Two general discussion forum topics
One of the functions that I appreciated most with Moodle was the ability to add in discussion forums. In my course site you will notice that I incorporated a number of discussions forums for each module. These discussion forums provide students with prompts to reflect upon their learning and encourage students to collaborate with one another in the class. This has provided me with an opportunity to do things that I normally do in my face-to-face class in another way. In addition I have included a general course discussion forum that is set up for students to ask other off topic questions.
One additional group discussion forum for at least 2 groups
This is a great feature provided by Moodle for teachers who tend to have students work collaboratively in groups on class tasks or projects. Embedded in my second module is a discussion forum which is set up with groups. This worked out perfectly for this module, as this unit has students completing a project which is to be done in groups of four. Here students will have their own discussion forum to communicate with their group members, and share work for their project.
Final Reflection
In general this was my favorite assignment for the course. While I probably spent a disproportionate number of hours on it, this is where I experienced the greatest learning curve. At the beginning I was hesitant on whether or not I would actually be able to use what I created in my classroom or not, but now I feel confident that I can create a site which will help me reach my goals that I stated in my flight path. While I still need to determine whether or not I can manipulate the assessment and reporting tools enough to suit my needs, I am confident that Moodle will be a very valuable tool in having students collaborate in yet another manner and reflect upon their learning.
Michelle