Course Site
Reflections on Creating a Course in Moodle….
This was a great learning activity for me. Several years ago I jumped into teaching online courses at the College of the Rockies. The courses were all set up, and other than little bits of updating, I didn’t have to do too much editing. Last year I had the opportunity to create a new course. I had no training, and very limited time to create it. I pretty much copied the format and instructional design of previous courses I had taught.
This MET course gave me the opportunity to really investigate some new features and to reflect on tool selection like I’ve never done before. I learned so much…and not just about what Moodle can do, but about how and why I select the tools that are right for each learning activity. I’m hoping to rework two of my fall courses in August to integrate some of these things I’ve learned.
For the MET course I created, “Modifying and Adapting Instruction – An Introduction for Education Assistants”, I utilized my newfound knowledge to:
- Create and incorporate multi-media presentations and images in my web pages
- Provide meaningful automated feedback on quizzes
- Incorporate asynchronous communication tools
- Create a glossary (which students will add to)
- Create a wiki activity
- Use a built in survey tool
- Create tables
- Link webpages (to text and images)
- Show/hide various content activities and modules
All of these things were new to me. Yay!
I enjoyed having some options in the “Settings” controls. Where I teach, these options are very limited. I played with all sorts of themes, and finally came back to cornflower (which may have even been the default when I started!). I prefer a very clutter-free clean looking page, and like the blue colour accents on the white page, and the linear presentation of the activities. It’s very….me. I added several blocks, but in the end, removed any that weren’t really essential to the course (keeping accessibility issues in mind!).
The most stressful part of this process was the requirement to have one module programmed for selective release. There are many terms and methods for hiding and/or limiting access to activities and modules in Moodle, and what you can do is dependent on both the version of Moodle being used, as well as the level of administrative access you have. Some of the topics I researched include:
- Selective release
- Conditional activities
- Concealment
- Lesson dependencies
- Dependency settings
- Activity locking
- Hide/Show option for modules
- Setting dates for individual activities
- Locks – which allow for time delay
Because the requirement was to have a module (not just an activity) selectively released, I chose to use the hide/show option (open/close the eye). While I have to open this manually, this option allowed me to close two modules that I will create this fall, in order to prepare it for teaching in April 2012.
When I was looking back at the course I created, I thought about Chickering & Ehrmann’s (1996) seven principles of good practice. I was pleased to see how much growth I’ve undergone in the area of learning different tools and knowing how to select and integrate them into my course design. I integrated lots of opportunities for students to interact with each other and with me, and chose activities that supported both collaborative and active learning.
I loved the hands-on approach to this activity. It was an authentic and highly valuable activity for me to undertake.
