Before I delve into an evaluation of the course, I must say that this course was the most rewarding experience I’ve had thus far in my Master’s degree. This course frustrated me the most, but it sparked the inner fire in me to do better. I’m a hard-working individual who strives to always be better – for myself, my students, and my colleagues. When looking back at my Flight Path, I stated that “I never want to be the teacher that uses technology just for the sake of using it – there needs to be an educational purpose that is relevant for both teachers and students.” My hope for this course was to expand my knowledge on a variety of learning management systems (LMS) in order to capture and track student achievement in an innovative and fresh way. I had no experience using Moodle prior to taking this course, but I now feel more comfortable educating my peers about e-learning, collaborative learning environments, and various online communication tools that can extend their teaching outside of the classroom walls. I learned new ways to integrate digital technologies while using Moodle, but still have much to learn about the capabilities and extent of Moodle. I have learnt that Moodle is much more than just a delivery platform; it is an avenue for both instructor and students to work collaboratively. It promotes creativity, critical thinking, facilitates community building, and fosters an online community. More importantly, my instructional design skills have been transformed as a result of working with the course material and designing my course project.

As I was working through the course assignments on Moodle, I took into account the empirical realities of LMS, where the platform is open, inclusive and educationally informed. Coates, James & Baldwin (2005) states that, “it is important that steps are taken to identify how online LMS can be used to augment and complement rather than substitute for an institution’s core teaching objectives.” Keeping this goal in mind, when I was designing my course on Moodle with my partner, we decided to deliver this course in a blended form, so that students will learn the theory online, then apply their knowledge through hands-on activities in class. Bates and Poole’s SECTION (2003) framework allows us to teach effectively while using technology. It also enables teachers and instructors to help students develop the knowledge and skills they need in a digital age; not so much the IT skills, rather the thinking and problem-solving attitudes to learning that will bring them success in the future.

I found it challenging working with four people when working on assignment #2, because our visions of the course we wanted to create differed. At the end, we decided to split the group into two separate ones, which worked out better. Danielle (my partner) and I found that our visions for the course wasn’t what we had hoped for, due to the limitations of Moodle. We spent numerous hours just toggling through forums and videos to help us navigate the LMS. It was much easier to work on this course with a partner than by myself, because we were able to meet in person and develop our knowledge of Moodle together. Having multiple perspectives when developing a course allows us to consider the perspectives of both the teacher and the students. We both felt that 10 weeks wasn’t enough time to: create the course, find reading materials, develop interactive activities, create discussion threads, create assignments, and developing assessment pieces. Ultimately, I wanted to develop the skills to create an online course, so that I can transfer this to my teaching tool belt. It was a stressful 10 weeks to develop the course, but I’m very happy with the product that my partner and I have created.

I couldn’t help but continually think about how good my course could’ve been if I had the help of district IT support. I strongly believe that if there was a team behind me my vision of the course could’ve been more accurate. Danielle and I found it extremely frustrating at times when developing this course because we both had very limited experience using Moodle, yet having to develop a course on it by ourselves. We both felt that it is unrealistic to ask teachers with no experience developing websites, to develop a course by themselves using Moodle. But, having completed this task, it would be nice in the future to have videos specifically on how to navigate UBC’s Moodle, so that future students don’t spend hours learning how to toggle through this LMS. In addition, I was frustrated with the lack of intuitiveness and the endless screens and settings that needed to be navigated though, in order to complete simple tasks. The amount of work that was required to simulate the look of a webpage was excessive and overwhelming, especially to a novice technologist like myself. In my opinion, Moodle needs to be reformatted in order to make it a “super-easy-to-use” technology. Other platforms such as: Wix, Weebly, or Google Classroom was easier to toggle.

Aside from the assignments, I found that the reading materials were relevant and made understanding the various facets of this course much easier to comprehend. The discussion forums paved the way, as I found myself deeply engaged in several interesting conversations. Actually, my favourite part about the course was sharing my experiences with my colleagues because it allowed me to seek different perspectives on educational topics. Also, the discussion forum allowed me to seek help on my assignments as Tatiana and my peers came to my rescue on multiple occasions, as they helped me troubleshoot questions I had regarding WordPress/Moodle. The projects done by my peers has opened my eyes to the positive outcomes that stem from using innovative technological tools outside of the classroom. I found it extremely beneficial that we were able to access our classmate’s Moodle websites. This course was well organized and I appreciated how everything (course readings, objectives, assignments, etc.) were all available to be printed, as I like to have a physical copy of my work in front of me. Overall, I found myself constantly being challenged (in a good way), as I was introduced to many new tools and resources that I can implement to my practice in the future.

Resources:

Bates, T., Poole, G. (2003). Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Coates, H., James, R., & Baldwin, G. (2005). A critical examination of the effects of learning management systems on university teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, 11, 19-36.