My Moodle site and rationale for why I built it the way I did…
Below you will find an image that is linked to my Moodle Site.  Be sure to toggle between the Teacher Version and the Student Version so you can see the difference in appearance.  In case you are unaware, anything that is hi-lighted in light gray font is hidden from students and only visible by the teacher.  The Teacher Version allows you to see everything (including hidden activities that have not yet been released for student viewing) while the Student Version only displays those activities that are currently available.  I have hidden certain units that are not complete yet (to be further developed this summer) as well as certain activities that would be released as the course goes live.  Also some of my forums are “general” forums for all users while other forums (activity specific forums) were created for groups or teams.  I believe that anyone that toggles between Student and Teacher Roles (as well as turning the editor on and off) will be able to easily identify the differences.  Remember, click on the following image to be redirected to my site.

(Note: For whatever reason, if the above image does not link to my site try this address http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=138&sesskey=8Orb0uqNVn&switchrole=5 You may need to login to the MET Moodle page to access my site)

I have developed my site for a course that I currently teach – Engineering Technology 10.  When I was developing materials and resources for my site I not-so-quickly realized I was faced with a dilemma – create a site that mimics our ETEC 565 site (ie: all materials, resources, activities, etc. completely web-based) or create a site that is meant to supplement my f2f teaching environment.  I decided to go with the later.  The reason I went this way was because part way through the process of producing material I realized that my expectations were not based in reality.  Our school has five computer labs.  Four of those labs are utilized 100% of the time for other courses.  The only other lab (if you call it that) is in the library.  The problem is it is available for class bookings on a first-come-first-serve basis.  Needless to say, finding time in that lab is next to impossible.  Therefore I didn’t see the value in creating many quizzes or tests as I wouldn’t be able to secure time to administer them.  Although most students have access to computers and the internet at home we are still not at the point where I can assume that every student has access to a computer.  The “company line” is that we can not force students to do work from home… all work that is assigned must be able to be completed in a reasonable period of time in class.

I felt that it was important for me to create something that I could take away from this course and use right away (actually it won’t be until September that I implement my Moodle site).  Although some activities will be done through my site, much of it is designed as a supplement to my teachings.  Many of the activities on my site are exactly what I will be doing in my f2f environment.  The site will allow students to access class resources from home and even provide parents the opportunity to follow along – no one (student or parents) will be able to claim ignorance as everything is laid out for all to see.  Therefore I created several word documents, converted them to PDF format (to protect them) and uploaded those rather than creating activities or web pages.  The PDFs will be exactly what they get in class so not to confuse anyone with different formats and layouts.

Some activities, all Discussion Forums, the Wiki Activities and Research Assignment, are examples of Moodle-specific activities that are to take place either at home or on or through my Moodle site when I can secure computer-lab access at school.

About my overall Moodle experience…
My Moodle experience was an interesting one.  As I have mentioned some time previously, I am a relative neophyte when it comes to this technology.  I was a bit apprehensive when I learned I would be faced with not only the challenge of creating a Moodle Site, but also sharing my creation with my peers.  The thought of being judged by those that have more experience and skill than I do left an uneasy feeling in my stomach.  I have to be honest, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.  Once I got “my feet wet” the learning curve was relatively steep.

Creating a site for me would and did take a lot of time.  Personally, I didn’t mind the extra effort because I viewed this as an exercise that could be described as short-term pain for long-term gain.  Creating a Moodle site did take a lot of my time initially, but after creating all of this work I know I will be able to use it for long periods of time in the future.  I also noticed that as I got more comfortable with Moodle, creating documentation became far less time consuming.  For me, the pros FAR OUT-WEIGHED the cons.  I can say for certain that I will be using Moodle in the very near future.  I will continue to build my site over the next few months and will launch it in September at the start of the next school year (I better be teaching Engineering again!).

Perhaps my single-most memorable Moodle experience occurred this afternoon at school.  I was putting the finishing touches on my site at lunch today at school.  I was checking to make sure that all of the pages loaded properly when a couple of colleagues dropped by to have a chat.  They looked in at what I was doing so I asked them to navigate the site and give me their impressions.  They were so impressed that they asked if I would lead them in a Professional Development session on Moodle next month.  I have to admit that it felt pretty darn good to have fellow teachers (that teach Info Tech) to ask me for help – until now it has been the other way around!  At a time or nervousness (about to submit my site for evaluation) this was the best possible compliment I could receive.  Some may like what I have done and some may think it is rather elementary.  But for me, it is pretty much exactly what I was looking to create.

So that is my Moodle site, my rationale for why I built it the way I did and an explanation of my overall Moodle experiences.  Please, take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers
~ Ryan
PS – After building my first site, I think my response to the LMS creation scenario we were given early on in the course would definitely change.  It takes longer than I thought… especially the “beautification” of the site.  I ultimately decided to submit it tonight rather than take the extra few days that we were afforded because I think I would spend countless hours making very subtle (and perhaps) insignificant changes.  There is never enough time… there is always something that could be added, subtracted or changed.  The site will continue to evolve as I do.