Good day everyone:
Well, I suspect like many of you, there is much to say about this experience of building a unit online using Moodle. My site can be found here.
When we began this process, I was still teaching grade six and had just finished the unit on space. I thought this would be a good place to begin, as that information was fresh in my mind. I also liked how the unit was broken down into two streams (or modules), being space technology and space exploration. I figured this would work really well in the Moodle environment.
Development Stage
Having developed webpages in the past, I knew how important it was to have lots of content and an idea of how it should be framed. I made use of the topics that were taught in my grade six class and simply created a hand sketched graphic organizer (or tree diagram) of how the lessons would be deployed along with activities and tasks. I had hoped to use some content from my classroom, but after jumping through three hoops of correspondence, taking some 3 weeks, I decided to support my lessons with web acquired content. A great relief was that both NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have no to little requirements for using their developed material. They ask that you simply acknowledge the source of where it came from. While I was able to develop some of my HTML pages from my own knowledge, I found these two sites to be extremely valuable in terms of media and content.
Building the Moodle Site
Having never created something like this online, I had a false start as to how I wanted the content to be displayed. At first, I wanted to use frames within the HTML page(s) to display the modules and their respective lessons. Well, after trying this out, I discovered that Firefox browser did not accept frames very well. As such, I resorted back to simple pages with text and media. I did not want to invest a bunch of time again to only find it would not work with one of the popular browsers.
As I had already mapped out how the modules would deploy, all I needed to do was build the pages and corresponding Moodle activities. I found using Adobe Dreamweaver to be a great asset and functional piece of software. Using the divided window of WYSIWYG and HTML coding, was great, especially when embedding videos. On the other side, I wish that Moodle provided a little more in assessment and evaluation options. Though I feel this stems more from trying to replicate what happens in the classroom with what could happen online.
Looking Back
I had a few thoughts about what I would redo or change again if I were to approach this task with the knowledge I have now. I somewhat wish I had done something more dynamic in the lessons via HTML. Maybe Flash or even Adobe Director. I think back to what Robert shared with me that we shouldn’t be just replicating what we do in classroom in an online LMS. I suspect if I had more experience with Moodle (and more time!) I could have created a more engaging learning experience.
My overall general experience with Moodle has been rewarding. While at first I found the interface to be somewhat limited, I did come to appreciate how much control you can assert over this LMS. From my experience, Moodle just becomes the foundation of how to deploy a course online. Much of what is seen and done can be controlled by the author of the site, particularly with developed web pages and interactive elements if the need be. I was not too sure about my use of task based formatting for my site, but it proved effective in building my modules. From my readings online, this may not be the best approach if using Moodle 2.0, as it may be tricky to assign selective release criteria for tasks. I somewhat wish that I would be teaching Grade Six again because this would be a wonderful thing to try with my students.
In closing, a great learning experience for me.
RM