Sue M’s UBC MET E-Portfolio

Editing the E-Toolkit

Tried out editing content in the E-Toolkit Wiki and adding content.  It was extremely easy!

1. Edited the section under Examples of Synchronous Communication Tools
   • Moodle’s built-in Chat Tool
     • Moodle Chat Module: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Chats
     • Chat module includes documentation on: Adding/editing a chat, Chat permissions, Viewing a chat, Chat sessions, Chat reports, Chat FA
2. Added content to the Practice for Moodle Users section:
   • Moodle & Audio Chat & A/V Conferencing
     Moodle itself does not yet include an audio chat solution, due to the large server requirements to implement a standalone solution.
     However, there is a choice of third party modules that you can install into your Moodle to achieve this:
     • OpenMeetings – FREE full audio/video conferencing http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/
     • Dimdim – FREE full audio/video conferencing http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=932
     • Elluminate Live – full audio/video conferencing http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=557
     • Wimba – full audio/video conferencing http://www.wimba.com/products/moodle_integration/
     • Marratech – Emeeting Module – full audio/video conferencing http://docs.moodle.org/en/Emeeting_module
     • Nanogong – FREE, for recorded audio http://gong.ust.hk/nanogong/moodle.html

Now I’m going to test these Audio Chat and Audio/Video conferencing tools…and then once I’ve decided on one, I’ll try integrating it into the Moodle course that is in development.

Quiz

I have designed and developed a quiz in Moodle for the online course I am developing for ETEC565A, as per Assignment #4 criteria. 

• In my E-Portfolio #4, Assessment Tools – Quizzes, I defined my process, the documentation consulted, and included notes to self for areas I need to revisit to ensure I have followed best practices for their implementation within the Moodle course and have adhered to sound pedagogical instructional design!

 Although I’ve developed many quizzes in Moodle both through importing question text and through coding questions and quizzes directly in Moodle, this assignment took more time than I had planned. I realize that I started to develop the questions and assemble the quiz in the LMS, without first completing the off-line design.

Prior to starting to build in the LMS, I had written the text for a variety of question types (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, short answer, essay and matching).  However, I had not considered sufficient distracters for multiple choice questions, nor partially correct alternatives allowable for the short answer questions.  For each question, I had not authored general feedback for the entire question and specific targeted feedback for each correct, partially correct and incorrect response.  Nor had I designed the grading feedback for the entire quiz.

As I explored deeper the documentation for questions and quizzes, I learned Moodle quiz functionality has many layers and can be very powerful with additional features than I have used previously, both at the question level, the category level, and the quiz level.  I am still experimenting with various combinations of settings at each of these levels and evaluating the effect to the presentation of individual questions and the overall quiz delivery for learners, and the impact of these combinations on marks and grading feedback.

Reminder:  Check notes to self, one month prior to start date (no later than August 14, 2009).

Reflection on Selecting These Communication Tools:

According to Adria and Campbell (2oo7),  in “E-Learning as Nation Building”,  the glue that holds communities together involves active connections among people that involve trust, mutual understanding, respect, and shared values and behaviours.  

Murphy and Laferriere (2007),  in “Adopting Tools for Online Synchronous Communication”, report that the immediacy and spontaneity of synchronous communication was much more effective at building a sense of community and social presence – especially audio/video web-based conferencing that allowed participants to see each other in real time and communicate with several people simultaneously – this helped “make people come alive”, created a greater sense of intimacy and greater sense of knowing each other, which helped learners overcome any feelings of  isolation, etc.

“The Continuing Struggle for Community and Content in Blended Technology Courses in Higher Education” ( Schwier & Dykes, 2007) states that “If a course goal is to create an online community, then an instructor must be a participant in online discussions in order to nurture community development and growth“.   The authors state that content and community are both critical to creating effective learning environments and that evidence of community is found in interactions that occur between the learner and the instructor, content, learning activities, and other learners.  Instructors are challenged to create an atmosphere that nourishes real and deep engagement among the learners, the instructor, and the content through dialogue and interaction via platforms for online chat  (or other synchronous communications tools) and discussion boards (or other asynchronous communication tools).

“Learner content interaction, if allowed to dominate a course, naturally emphasizes objectivist principles of learning and correspondence models of instruction. Learner-learner interaction, by contrast, emphasizes social constructivist models of learning.  Moreover, the two, when in balance, offer learners the opportunity to co-create knowledge and the substance to guide their efforts ” (p 160).

Given one of the major goals of this course is to build an online learning community – I’ve tried to incorporate a mix of asynchronous and synchronous communication activities throughout the course that will create opportunities for learners to connect and work together, share their experiences and build on their prior knowledge.  But first we have to help them build trust in a safe environment.  During the first couple of modules we will reach out to learners in multiple ways to try to provide learning activities that appeal to multiple learning preferences/styles and also that will help build rapport and relationships. 

We need to be cautious not to reduce the flexibility students desire from online courses, and must be sensitive to having a balance between asynchronous and synchronous communication activities, and finds ways to accommodate a variety of schedules.  Some of the synchronous activities planned may need to be optional, with recorded webcasts available to those who truly cannot attend. 

Citings from Making the Transition to E-Learning: Strategies and Issues. Bullen M. & Janes, D. P. Eds. (2007).  Information Science Publishing,, Hershey, PA.

• Adria, M. & Campbell, K.  (2007). E-Learning as Nation Building. In M. Bullen & D. P. Janes (Eds.), Making the Transition to E-Learning: Strategies and Issues (1-16). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
• Murphy, E. & Laferriere, T. (2007). Adopting Tools for Online Synchronous Communication: Issues and Strategies. In M. Bullen & D. P. Janes (Eds.), Making the Transition to E-Learning: Strategies and Issues (318-334). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
• Schwier, R. & Dykes, M. (2007). The Continuing Struggle for Community and Content in Blended Technology Courses in Higher Education. In M. Bullen & D. P. Janes (Eds.), Making the Transition to E-Learning: Strategies and Issues (157-172). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.

Over the years, my colleagues and I  have developed some short-cuts, productivity tools, templates and models, which we use for rapid development of a Moodle course.

Each of us has our own preferred off-line design tools and instructional design approach.

Instructional Design 1st

I have to think through the entire course from start to finish before I can start writing the content and designing learning activities and assessments.

The structure of the course is huge for me – as I really have to grasp the big picture, and know the overall purpose and goals of the course – Why are we developing this course? Why are we putting it online? What do we hope to achieve and why? What is our target audience and the characteristics of our learners, their backgrounds, literacy, expectations, etc.?  How will this course be deemed to be successful – what is the evaluation criteria?  Who are all the stakeholders who will have a say in the design, development, delivery and evaluation of this course – what is their bottom-line?

Once I have the big picture, I draft a Course Outline & Mod-Topic Plan – a statement of the course purpose and goals and desired learning outcomes, logistical information, and a list of Modules/Units I believe need to be in the course, expanded with a list of Topics (key concepts / skills) for each module/unit.

Then I set about looking for a textbook for background reading that covers all or most of the content identified.  I prefer a Canadian edition and a text supported with a Publisher Companion Site for online student resources, instructor resources, and/or DVD’s/CD’s that accompany the text, and preferably access to an interactive mylab site for demonstrations and hands-on practice and assessments.

Once I’ve evaluated several potential texts, I refine the Mod-Topic Plan to align with my preferred text and online resources available.  I also refine my Instructional Strategy and develop a Module Organization Plan – this helps me think through the structure of a typical module – the elements in the Module Intro, components of each Topic, and elements in the Module Wrap.  I build a chart – a visual representation of a Module-Topic Structure and another of the overall Course Map.  This helps provide a sense of scope – the structure and sequence of the course, itemizes types of course components included, and indicates the complexity of the overall course and individual modules-topics.

Once I’ve tweaked these off-line design documents, I develop a Schedule of Course Events, which is essential to ensure there is sufficient time for online students who are learning from a distance, to complete all of the required components, deal with the time delays and overhead of asynchronous communications and technical issues, as well as providing sufficient time for learners to reflect, discuss, connect and develop an online learning community – without cognitive overload and unrealistic time pressures.  At this point, some serious decisions are often made – to remove some content, to make some modules/topics optional, to reduce the number of components (focus on quality not quantity in discussions, and collaborative work, etc.)

Building the Moodle Course Structure

I first build a “Mod X” in Dreamweaver (DW) – the folder and file structure of a typical online course module, with a Mod Intro folder, a Topic folder, and a Mod Wrap folder.  Within each of these folders, I create example screens, i.e., 6-9 different screens in the Mod Intro, 10-12 different types of screens in the Topic, and 5-6 example screens in the Mod Wrap.  Each of these examples screens will have placeholder text and will have an assigned DW template (for colour, fonts, location of images and icons); each screen will be saved with a file name that follows a naming convention.  (A strong, consistent folder/file structure is essential for building modules.)

Once a complete Mod X is developed that aligns with the types of screens and module-topic structure defined in our Instructional Strategy, I’ll generate a SCORM module and upload the SCORM, and test it within the context of Moodle.  For “proof of concept”, I then use this Mod X to develop one complete module in the course, and make adjustments to the Mod X, as necessary.

Once satisfied that the Mod X  is solid, I use it within Moodle to build the entire online course structure,  based on the off-line design documents list above (Mod-Topic Plan, Schedule of Course Events, etc.)  Labels, resources and activities are all added to the course shell, and linked to placeholder files or Mod X  SCORMs.

This way, I can quickly generate a model of the online course that will include the number of modules, the components that will make up each module, with specific link names to placeholders for each type of Moodle activity and resource that will comprise individual modules and weeks.

Developing the Content, Activities & Assessments & Synching the Course

Once the online course model is in place, it’s time to finalize the content for each of the modules, design instructions for activities and assessments, select media and interactivities – one module at a time.  During this process, I often rearrange things within the model course.  As I complete the design and writing of an element, i.e., screens, a discussion, learning activity, quiz questions, an assignment, etc., I upload the completed element to replace the placeholder content in the model course, update links, refresh the course, test the links in student mode, and backup the course.

This process continues until all components are designed, developed/authored, uploaded, linked, and tested in the Moodle course, and the course is then ready for a quality review, and prepped for a pilot delivery.

BTW:  I am trying to follow this same process for my ETEC565A Moodle Course (without the benefit of some of the tools, scripts and productivity tools available through my team, that vastly increase my productivity :>)

I’ve used Moodle since 2005 (although we use the latest version (Moodle 1.9.5+ and we will be moving to version 2, as soon as it is stable.).

So, I did not find the initial tasks of adding an ice-breaker discussion forum for introductions, nor adding a single web-page welcome, very difficulty nor time consuming.

Adding a Welcome Page

Since 2005, I have developed some shortcuts and some blank templates that are already set up in Dreamweaver with some templates that include a css and a gui folder.  So I can quickly create a new html page, based on a preferred colour scheme, with icons and fonts I’ve predefined.  All I have to do is add my text, apply some styles, spell check it, insert any desired media, save it, upload it and link it in Moodle.   This takes only as long as it takes me to write the content.

Adding a Discussion Page

The longest part of adding a discussion, is deciding which of the four formats is best suited to the type of communication and interaction desired.

Moodle discussion forums have several types from which you can choose:

1. Standard  Forum for General Use  – (two-way communication) for Introductions and General Discussion
2. Q & A format – (two-way communication) during each module – anyone can post a question and any one can post answers to the questions
3. Single Post Per Participant –  (one-way communication) for posting Learning Goals during week 1, the for Reflection on Learning during the last week, posting reports for discussion as in Module 7
   • Group Discussions – with any of the above three discussions for topic-level and module-level group activities, such as group summarization of chapters
4. Single Simple Discussion – (two-way communication) – single topic discussion developed on one page, which is useful for short focused discussions

Only negative for me was – wish we were using the latest version of Moodle, with all of the blocks and modules I’m used to having available, i.e., like spell check  and quickmail, etc.

This is the first time I’ve used a blogging system, such as WordPress.

It has been frustrating at times when the system locks and the AutoSave has not indeed saved anything, and I’ve had to re-create work from scratch (often losing motivation and creativity).

Then I tried first creating the content in Word, so I can spell check and grammar check and format content so it is aesthetically pleasing…and I’ve used the “Paste from Word” functionality in this blogging system – not always with success.  The system has either frozen (but at least I have my original work, still in Word), or the formatting is all messed up.

I find myself spending more time fiddling with trying to get consistent formatting and finding out after I think everything has good spacing and layout in the “Visual” mode of the Add New Post or Add New Page, that when I Publish my content, and view it (as not logged in)…the “true” formatting is quite different – with huge spacing gaps or weird indentation, or fonts from a heading drifting down to be inherited by sub-paragraphs, etc.

Overall, it’s nice to have a some-what wysiwyg building environment, but it has taken up too many hours of wasted time on unimportant aspects of assignments (the formatting is not what is marked)…which unfortunately has interfered with the quality of some postings or exaggerated the time-on-task.

Suggestions….write in Word, save in Word, and if cutting and pasting doesn’t work as well as expected, save your Word doc as a web page, view the source and copy into Dreamweaver, and then Clean Up Word html, and cut and past the html code into the HTML mode of the pages in this blogging system.

My initial thoughts and frustrations.