At the onset of this project I was excited to work on such a practical assignment, despite that, throughout the process there were certainly a few ups and downs. I chose Moodle as my LMS of choice for two reasons. First, I had heard that it was rather intuitive and popular, so I figured it would be easier to figure out (for someone who has yet to teach an online course) and there would be many online tutorials available to help. More importantly, it is the LMS that my district uses for online learning. While I do not currently teach any online classes, if in the future, I was to, I will likely be asked to work with Moodle. I wanted to stick with a practical option for the choice of course as well. I chose Planning 10, as I have taught the course before (face to face) and it is also a course that is commonly (and in increasing numbers) taken online by many students.

Despite looking forward to the usefulness of this assignment, I had a surprisingly hard time getting started. Once given access to the LMS I open it and left it open, but untouched on my computer for over a week. I kept looking at it, looking for a simple place to start, but kept struggling to actually start. I finally did force my self to start (possibly because the clock was ticking) and it was very slow going at first. I would be able to figure out one small piece, but would then get stuck on the next one, and would need to walk away. Coming back, sometimes after a bit of research, sometimes just with a clear head, I would be able to figure it out. This pattern continued for pretty much the whole process.

While there were many sources of information out there (including my classmates) I found I did not know what questions I wanted to ask, and therefore ended up figuring most of it out on my own through trial and error. Which is admittedly, not the most efficient method. As a result, I found that I very much missed my support network. For me teaching has almost always been a collaborative process. I share resources with my colleagues, we plan units and lessons together, and figure out new digital tools as a group. In this felt very alone (maybe I should have chosen to work in a group.) Eventually, I did ask my colleagues at work for some support and they did provide tips and suggestions here and there, but it is not the same when we are not all invested in the outcome. The example projects and student forms for the class were also helpful, but again not the same as the teamwork I am use to.

Once I got use to formatting the Moodle, I found that I just wanted to keep adding content, in my mind it made sense to add content and then work out the design and details later. I had to stop myself, and force myself to get back to thinking about the design. I have hopefully managed to do enough with the designs and the tools of Moodle to have explored this LMS sufficiently.

One of the other big things I had to consider was how to modify the planning class to fit into a completely online setting. There were several simple things like removing the criteria of having good eye contact when presenting your digital autobiography to the class, to bigger picture questions of how to get the lessons across to the students when I am not physically their to guide them. I will continue to explore these questions as I move on with this project.

It was very important to me to create something useful while doing this project. I did however, also want to test out several of the resources and activities available on the site. I tested out several options and features. I tried both inserting a file directly from word and also providing a hyperlink directly to a google doc. In the end I mostly used the second option, I felt it was a bit easier for the user and provided a more streamline look on the site. I also learnt how to embed a PowerPoint presentation using slide boom, this allows the user to view the presentation and does not required them to download anything. I was pleased to see that the video link in the PowerPoint still worked in this format.

The main features I appreciated about Moodle, are its ascetics, it ease of use for students, and it ability to embed and hyperlink elements. Once I sorted things out, it was relatively easy to make the Moodle look decent. I believe it appears relatively engaging, but is still clean and simple. I can also imagine that Moodle would function pretty well from a student perceptive. I am speculating here since I do not actually have any experience using it, however it does seems straight forward and simple to follow. I really enjoyed the feature where students can check off the elements that they have completed. The whole course seems to present like a to-do list and to me that is appealing. The most useful and convenient feature by far was the ability to embed and hyperlink different elements into the course. It made my work simple. I could keep all the document in one google drive where I can edit them and then link them in when I am ready.

One of the main limitations I found on Moodle was in the formatting. It was tricky to make the text uniform and ascetically pleasing. One specific example is from when I tried to create a table in the “course schedule” section. It was not user friendly to create one in the Moodle, therefore I attempted to import one from word. This was easier to use, but not all of the formatting remained. A large part of it had to be fixed and even after I spent a great deal of time on it, it is still not where I would like it to be. I also found the grading elements to be challenging. I am still not entirely sure how that works, and do not really know how to play with it without having any student’s work to grade. This is something I will need to continue to workout in the second part of this assignment. I very much liked the ability to make pages on the Moodle, however I wish that you could “hide” them while still having them function for the students. As an example, I have three features at the top of the main page, there are icons that link to useful pages, those pages also have to be listed elsewhere on the site, I wish that was not the case, as it is redundant. One of the other activities I wanted to test out was the Quiz option. I normally would not have any formal tests in a planning class, however I wanted to learn how to use that activity. I found it to be very challenging. There were many options for questions types and options for a lot of feedback for the students, all of which are great. However, it was very time consuming to create even a short quiz, I cannot imagine using this feature in a course with large amounts of testing. I think in the future I would likely set up a quiz using another program and link it into the Moodle.

Overall, I have certainly learnt a lot already but feel there is so much more I need to learn and play around with before I would be ready to teach a real online course.