My Experience creating the Moodle Course Site
Intention
My intention in creating the Moodle site was to run a course previously delivered as a face to face course as a fully online course. As such I wanted to include both asynchronous and synchronous tools. On Moodle I worked with mostly asynchronous means but included an opportunity for students to contact me synchronously through skype. Other alternatives are Wimba Classroom, which I would definitley utilise as it offers more affordances for creating classroom content and exchange than on skype. This is something I would like to explore more while using a tool such as Moodle.
Uploading Content
Uploading the content was manageable once I became more aware of and adept at manipulating the html language. It was still however quite tedious, particularly when it came to linking pages and creating a good user interface. A lot of research and practice with Html coding was necessary.
Social Media Tools
The variety of tools were a great attribute. I utilise journaling activities quite often and was pleased to have had the option of including a journal activity in one of the Units. I also utilised the Wiki and Glossary activities to support distributive cognition, an essential element in social and authentic learning situations (Jonassen,1999; Anderson, 2008 ).
The course is a practical one and this proved to be a challenge in creating activities that were primarily asynchronous. However, the use of forums supplemented this by offering students the opportunity to talk about what they have explored. Anderson(2008) proposes that discussions, as found in the use of forums, increase critical analysis and personal engagement through ownership and authorship. I also utilised the chat feature to set up a time when students could all meet at the same time with me to talk through important concepts and terms. These were linked to Pre and Post-Test Activities.
Assessment Tools
My assessment tools included a forum activity, the creation of a class wiki and a quiz. All of which were created in Moodle. The following discussion focuses on formative and summative assessments from a Moodle quiz.
The Process
In creating my assessment I went through a number of stages while asking myself some key questions:
1. Review Course objectives – I looked at the overall objectives of the course and how I could fashion not only lessons but my assessment to reflect overall objectives.
2. Assess Content and skills – What did I want my students to learn and/or be able to do?
3. Determine the Experience – What kind of experience did I want my students to have?
I wanted my students to have a practical hands on experience while having knowledge of scientific research and evidence that could inform their, design and application. A quiz comprising different types of questions; multiple choice, matching, short answer and essays was created in Moodle. Creating the quiz in Moodle allowed for the creation of computer aided instruction in that students are able to get feedback immediately after completing the quiz. This is valuable in the experience I would like to offer my students of timely feedback. Research shows that feedback is most effective when it is received right after an activity is completed (Gibbs & Simpson, 2005).
The feedback feature made me really concentrate on developing high quality feedback given the asynchronous nature and the inability to expand on points or clear up misunderstandings. This activity also proved time consuming for the very same reason aforementioned. However, the potential benefits (not having to grade papers and students receiving immediate feedback) outweigh this difficulties in this initial effort.
The Moodle structure also enabled both formative and summative assessments. I was able to set the time in which I wanted the students to complete the quiz and to signify how many attempts at each question they were allowed, while being able to award penalties for later trials. This was important as students could perhaps guess their way through some questions and as such information for summative and formative assessments would be skewed.
I had to employ other skills such as HTML coding to insert graphics in my questions. However, this was achieved simply enough.
Challenges
I had two main problems with difficulties with the Moodle quiz experience:
1. The assignment of values for marks to questions were not conducive to awarding higher marks to questions that require higher order thinking skills (Bloom’s Taxonomy)
2. I am not necessarily able to track students’ areas of misconception (or wrong answers). This is crucial if the true purpose of formative assessment is to be realised. Black and Wiliam (1998b) define assessment broadly from both a teacher and student perspective to encompass activities that are given/completed in order to gather information on content comprehension, teaching strategies and needs for alterations (whether to content or methods) (www.vtaide.com).
Evaluation of Assessment Tools
Overall it was a satisfying experience but I would have to supplement the activity in order to gather information on how students were thinking and also on assigning a grading scheme that caters to higher marks for higher order activities (Bloom’s Taxonomy).
Design Elements
There were a number of elements that I utilised in the design of the course that I embodied from other courses: one was the use of a schedule of activities. Another was the use of Pre-test and Post-test activities that helped to focus reading and learning goals and objectives. The use of forums, wikis and chats greatly supported these activities. I also utilised the selective release option for one module in particular in which I created and define groups and selectivley released a module to one group and not the other. This offers a great level of control and management for me as I teach multiple groups and find the option very useful.
I included links primarily to online sources (text, visuals and video, to cater to a wide variety of learning styles) in order to create a more flexible and easy to access environment. In order not to make the process to transmission oriented I directed the students to sites and set activities that allowed for discovery learning (Bandura), independence and self direction (Constructivism). Students were introduced to concepts but scaffolded to having their own meaningful experience (Ausubel).
Conclusion
The process was meticulous and required a lot more planning and effort given the fact that students would meet primarily asynchronously. Careful selection of tools was therefore crucial. I recall two activities in the ETEC 565 course that resonated with this experience. One was quantifying the number of hours required to develop an online course and the other a Wiki activity that proved a lesser choice for the designated activity.
Not only is time a significant aspect in properly designing the module but also uploading content and researching the language and affordances of the LMS. Also, research on the affordances and best uses of tools/activities is essential.
This was a very satisfying experience as although it was very time consuming to design and create when it is time to run the course I can spend my time truly focusing on facilitation. I found Moodle quite user friendly and easy to work with after somewhat mastering the html language. this is definitely and addition to my skills!
References
Anderson, T. (2008). “Teaching in an Online Learning Context.” In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.
Chickering, A.W. and Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,” American
Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), p. 3-7.
Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005). “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 28 June 2011 http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
Jonassen, D. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models: Volume II (pp. 215-239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/About_Moodle, Retrieved June 6, 2011
http://moodle.org/about/, Retrieved June 6, 2011
http://www.vtaide.com/png/ERIC/Formative-Assessment.htm , retrieved, July 2, 2011