This was my first experience building a course in the Moodle platform. I have supervised many students working through courses on Moodle over that last few years so I have had the opportunity to see aspects that I like and do not like; things that I found were user friendly for the students and things that were not. The Moodle platform has progressed a lot with the new update. I really like the Book format. I like the ability to chunk up information and dole it out in smaller pieces.

This is a course I would like to use in my school one day so I stuck to a format very similar to the courses we already have. I have found that the students prefer layouts that are familiar and thereby easy to use. They know where to go for information and how the program works. Courses that required students to hunt for information, or did not follow a linear path, led to frustration and an inclination to quit.

I found the actual creation components quite limiting. I ended up doing most of my layout in Word and the copying it over once I was satisfied. There must be a more efficient method of working within the Moodle platform, but that is what I ended up doing. I am very familiar with Word and like how easy it is to move things around, change table boundaries, and play with fonts. I am sure that the same formatting tools are available inside of the Moodle platform. I just couldn’t find them quickly. ie Is it possible to change the column boundaries inside of a table? Can you merge cells? Can you insert questions that the student needs to answer correctly before they can move onto the next page? Is that a feature of a Lesson? These are all questions I would like to explore more.

I would like to explore the Lessons option more with the next section. It seems like it will have more of an interactive feel to it. I only discovered it as I was nearing the end of this assignment and didn’t want to start over.

I added in a discussion forum and will create a section for each unit. I like the discussions that we have in this course so thought it might be a good mode of communication for help to problems for students. I am not sure how it would actually work in my situation, as the way we use Moodle at my school is very interactive with the students already. The students come to the supervising teacher with their questions in a face-to-face manor. If this were a 100% online course then I can see how the discussion forum could be very helpful (Anderson, 2008a).

I have decided to incorporate little quizzes with each lesson that a student must pass before they can move onto the next topic. I believe this option is possible as a feature of Lesson. Math is a very sequential subject with one concept being built upon the one before. Mini quizzes and unit tests should provide a formative assessment of how the student is progressing through the course. A midterm and final will provide summative assessment of how much was learned over all (Gibbs, 2005). Foundations and Pre-calculus Mathematics 10 has a Provincial Exam as well that is completely separate from the marks generated in this course. The final exam in this course will hopefully help to prepare students for the Provincial Exam as well as show them concepts or areas they need to go back and review.

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf