An LMS course site proposal for the project Training and support for innovative teaching (TAS4IT) prepared by CARNet for The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
Gordana Jugo
University of British Columbia
ETEC 565, Section 66D
Instructor: John P Egan, PhD
June 13, 2011
Description of the project
The project TAS4IT proposed to EACEA by CARNet aims to educate teachers from primary to higher education for usage of innovative methods supported by ICT and empower them to introduce change in teaching through action research. Sixty teachers from Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland and Turkey will enrol one of the six constructivist-based online courses in English that will employ collaborative project-based learning. During the action research the teachers will participate in international online learning communities.
Arguments for selection of Moodle
Moodle is the optimal solution for the project because it efficiently supports all mentioned project activities while the costs are minimal. The costs criterion is critical because the project has a limited budget available while the project will not produce any incomes.
Except already mentioned costs criterion, here are the arguments for selection of Moodle according to criteria from Bates and Pooles’ (2003) SECTION model: students, ease of use and reliability, teaching and learning, interactivity, and organizational issues.
Moodle very well fits student’s population – full-employed adults with busy work and private schedule coming from four different countries. Ease of use and support for local languages enable focus on learning without need to invest extra time in training on LMS. Weekly format, calendar and activity completion features additionally help learners to manage their time efficiently.
Moodle has a huge base of more than 43 million users (Moodle, 2011) and has a rich documentation and different modes of users support for administrators, teachers and students.
Integrated communication tools, wiki and tools for group work support collaborative project-based learning and international online learning communities. Blog and user profile as tools for self-presentation and reflection support development of social and cognitive presence defined by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) as core elements for a worthwhile educational experience. All these features also encourage contacts between students and faculty, among students and usage of active learning techniques, which are identified by Chickering and Gamson (1987) as principles for good educational practice.
Moodle as an open resource free platform mirrors European Commission policies for equity in education.
Method for evaluation
The evaluation form has been developed and Moodle has been tested against the selection criteria. The categories in the form are based on the Bates and Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS model. The following resources were used for development of criteria: Bates and Poole (2003), Belfer (2004), Edutools (2010) and Longsight (2010). The layout of the form is inspired with Breda, Galbraith, Henry, Lank & Stieda (2011). The additional resources have been used for evaluation of Moodle: CARNet (2011), Moodle (2010).
Testing results
| Category/Criteria | Criteria Description | Scores | Comment | |
| -1 Unacceptable | ||||
| 0 Fair | ||||
| 1 Good | ||||
| 2 Excellent | ||||
| Students | ||||
| Language support | English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Polish and Turkish are supported. | 2 | Language packs for all required languages, multi-language content filter. | |
| Printable version | Static text-based content can be easily printed. | 0 | Not available, except in the book module. | |
| Awareness of the stage in the learning process | Students always know where they are in the process and what to do next. | 2 | Calendar – global/group/course/user level, topics/weekly format. | |
| Searching | Students can search all course content, discussion threads and chat. | 1 | Only forums and chat can be searched. | |
| Students’ self-presentation and reflection | Tools for students’ self-presentation and reflection are available. | 2 | User profile including posts, notes and blogs is available. | |
| Ease of use and reliability | ||||
| Back-up | System allows back-up. | 2 | Multilevel course back-up, restore. | |
| Design and layout | Simple intuitive interface, minimal clicks to access materials, little or no training needed, appealing look. | 1 | ||
| Content authoring | Enables easy authoring of content, importing many types of media files and metadata creation. | 2 | ||
| Browser setup and support | Supports all browsers and platforms with no special setup requirements for users. | 0 | Mozilla Firefox is a “preferred” browser for proper operation. Cookies and Java should be enabled. | |
| User support | The system has incorporated user support. | 2 | An integrated context sensitive help. User support is also available at http://moodle.org/support. | |
| Costs | ||||
| Cost of licenses | 2 | No cost of licenses. | ||
| Cost of technical support | 1 | More hours of technical support is needed in comparison with licensed LMS. | ||
| Costs of internet connection and training | 1 | More extensive administrator training is needed in comparison with licensed LMS. | ||
| Teaching and learning | ||||
| Assessment | Available tools for creating complex assessments including immediate feedback with tips for remediation. | 1 | ||
| Grades/Tracking | Students and instructors have access to information on student progress. | 2 | Grades, gradebook, activity reports and activity completion tools. | |
| Interactivity | ||||
| Discussion forum | Discussion forum is intuitive and has advanced features for efficient communication. | 2 | Different types of forum, posts can be sent to email, forum RSS feeds, spell-checker. | |
| Built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups and searchable address book are available. | 2 | Additional features such as folders, printing, sorting. | ||
| Group work | Group work is enabled by discussion forums accessible only to the group members and group-specific assignments or activities. | 2 | Group forum and chat, group assignment, wiki. | |
| Group selection | Instructor can assign students to groups or students can self-select groups. | 2 | ||
| Organizational issues | ||||
| Organization policy | Organization policy supports use of the system. | 1 | ||
| Total | 30/40 | |||
Needed resources
CARNet already has two servers with installed Moodle 2.0 and constant internet broadband connection. EACEA only needs to cover costs for the half-time administrator during the whole project and for the training of administrator and online tutors on new Moodle 2.0 version. Here are the estimated costs:
– Staff costs for Moodle administrator – 250 days x 0,25 (2 hours per day) x $250 per day = $15625
– Training for administrator – Moodle advanced online course= $1000
– In-house online training for six tutors delivered by the administrator – 10 days x $250 per day = $2500
– Literature on Moodle 2.0 = $100
Total Funding Requested = $19225
The cost of $320 per student is high in comparison with $22 per learner for 10,000 students as stated by Panettieri (2007) due to unfavourable ratio between fixed costs and a very small number of students.
References
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A framework for selecting and using technology. in Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Belfer, K. (2004). 5C Model – Top level model. Retrieved from https://moodle.carnet.hr
Breda, G., Galbraith, J., Henry, K., Lank, S. & Stieda, J. (2011). Evaluation rubric for selecting an online delivery platform – SIDES. Retrieved from https://www.elearning.ubc.ca/
CARNet. (2011). Browsers settings. Retrieved June 13 2011 from http://www.carnet.hr/moodle/postavke_preglednika
Chickering, W. & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin 39(7), 3-7.
Edutools, (2010). CMS: Product comparison system. Retrieved June 01 2011 from http://www.edutools.info/compare.jsp?pj=4&i=616,617,557,555
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.
Longsight Group. (2010) Criteria for the evaluation of e-learning systems. Retrieved from http://www.longsight.com/lms-selection-criteria
Moodle. (2010). Features. Retrieved June 13 2011 from http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Features
Moodle. (2011) Moodle statistics. Retrieved June 13 2011 from http://moodle.org/stats/
Panettieri, J. (2007). Addition by subtraction. University Business, August, 58-62. Retrieved from http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=845
References for costs calculation
Education and Culture DG. (2011). Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) Guide 2011, Part I: General provisions. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/education/llp/doc/call11/part1_en.pdf
Moodle. (2011) Moodle books. Retrieved June 13 from http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=7246
Open 2 know. (2011). Moodle courses, workshops, & certificate programs, Retrieved June 13 from http://open2know.com/course/view.php?id=192