Assessment Rationale
I am finally getting the hang of Moodle. I guess it just takes a bit of time to get farmiliar with the interface and where to find everything. Trial and error also always helps.
You can view my moodle site at:
http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=134
Exploring Communications tools.
I decided to incorporate the use of lots of different tools into my moodle class. I have modeled this moodle class after a Social Studies 8 Medieval Manor unit. I choose this because I am familiar with this content that I have taught before, and I find it really interesting.
So, the tools that I used in moodle are a News Forus, Blog, Chat, Wiki, Assignment (text entry), Glossary, and a Survey/Feedback.
Develop an Activity
I have developed some drafts of activities for each of these moodle CMS tools. They are:
News Forum. I used a KWL chart to find out about students prior knowledge. This is also used to assess the learning at the end of the course. K stands for what do you know, W stands for what do you want to learn, and L stands for what did you learn. The L get completed at the end of the course. The News forum allows all of the students to post their answers and to be able to read other students.
Blog. I used a blog in CMS mostly just as a coffee shop gathering place to express oneself and get to know the students. I have posted a few general questions about events happening outside of the course to get some social interaction and talk going. This will help the students and teacher to get to know each other better.
Chat. This allows students to answer a question that I posted and chat with other students about their post. This question is designed to be an extension of learning that has occurred already in a classroom. The key terms that students enter here will automatically hyperlink to the Glossary.
Wiki. Here students are to update the wiki with information on the Serf. I choose a wiki format as an experiment to see what kind of document could be created with each student adding and improving the work.
Assignment. Here students enter what a typical day of a Medieval Monk was like. This is an assignment posting that is done in text. I felt that this was the best way to get an idea of whether or not students understood the role of a Monk.
Glossary. I love this activity. The glossary is a great summative activity for the class to complete. Each one adding vocabulary to create a full glossary. Students can rate other glossary entries to ensure accuracy. Of course the teacher will be involved and will moderate and check for accuracy.
Survey/Feedback. This is basically for the instructor to get feedback on the whole CMS for future improvements. It is valuable to find out what the students liked and didn’t like about the whole experience.
Rationale
My rationale for the individual activities are posted above. However, I wanted to comment on the potential problems with some of the activities. This is a first draft of a CMS that is designed to supplement a regular classroom. I have some concerns with the wiki, if some students don’t take it seriously they could destroy the work of some others. This is why I may frequently check this and periodically save the wiki in case this happens. To ensure full participation from each person in the class I would assign a mark for using the CMS.
So please visit my moodle site. It is improving, and I welcome your participation in any activities there.
http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=134