Course Site
Spinning in the Moodleverse: A Reflection on Building my First Moodle Site
Until I was introduced to Moodle and ETEC 565A, I wasn’t aware that it was possible to run both the marathon and a sprint at the same time. But that is exactly how I would describe my final Moodle assignment: both a marathon and a sprint.
Previous to taking this course I had done some of my own basic LMS development work, particularly in Blackboard. Minor things, but certainly enough to create a functioning course site. My experience building those basic sites involved trying to do as much as I could as quickly as I could with my minimal skills in order to get a site live and functioning. Very little went into the overall design and development decision-making for those particular sites other than determining whether a) I could do something and b) if I could do it, how quickly I could get it done. As a result of my final Moodle project I can confidently say there’s been a significant shift in my own thinking around how to plan and develop websites in general and web sites for teaching and learning in particular.
During this project I’ve found myself forced to take some uncomfortably long pauses to reflect on what the teaching and learning impacts of each of my decisions might be. It’s not always time I’ve had, but it’s time I’ve had to make in order to balance the theory my learning experience in ETEC 565A has been built on, and the practical implications of having to complete a large number of assigned tasks in a short period. Is this a fair form of assessment? Will participants’ privacy rights be respected? Am I infringing on copyright? Are there any costs associated? Will students with low bandwidth be able to access this material? What questions does the SECTIONS framework ask about this piece of technology? And on and on went the wrestling match between what could be done and what should be done within my final Moodle project. It was very reflective of my overall experience within the course: balancing time and energy in order to complete a large amount of tasks deliberately and with as much thought as the short time would allow; a marathon and a sprint.
Final reflection on my Moodle project experience brought me back to the ETEC 565A Methodology Page and particularly the first two principles:
“First, we believe that knowledge is often best acquired through constructivist pedagogy: learning that is situated, relevant and engaging.”
“Second, we believe that in the realm of educational technology it’s education—and its aims—that takes precedence: learning technologies therefore, support teaching and learning.”
My experience with this project seems consistent with the outlined methodology. The exercise was most certainly constructivist: the process of building just the technical shell of a Moodle site, let alone the content to fit within it, was very relevant and certainly developed both the critical and technical skills required to build an effective online teaching and learning environment. For me, one of the main challenges is that I’m working on a project for which there is no set curriculum. In fact, little to none of the content was available before the start of the course. This meant I had to balance my time even more carefully, because I was concurrently doing technical web development, research related to First Nations teaching and learning projects, research within the community and designing curriculum. It means that I’ve been forced first think about what it is this project is trying to accomplish from a teaching and learning standpoint, and second about what tools will work to achieve that. Again, these findings seem consistent with the course methodology that states technology is only useful in so far as it supports teaching and learning.
I had to build in plenty of time to speak with, bounce ideas off and get approvals from the people in the community that will ultimately be affected by this project. It helped me make new connections and has generated a heightened level of interest in the project. One particularly interesting connection came as I sought out ways to make the site as visually appealing as possible, which is consistent with my research on First Nations online learning projects. Because there are a limited number of free photographs of the Kitlope available and because of the very visually sophisticated nature of the Haisla culture, I felt it very important to have rich imagery to present within the site. After a substantial amount of looking around I was able to locate one photographer who had done work in the region. I was eventually able to secure his permission to use his photos throughout the project. In a very interesting coincidence (if you believe in coincidence) this photographer was somebody who at one stage was a very close friend of Chief Ken Hall’s and the connection may have in fact helped rekindled their friendship and opened some further possibilities around funding and collaboration on our storytelling project. And for my purposes I think it has resulted in some excellent visual imagery for the site.
As far as utilizing Moodle in the long-term, I think I will need more time to digest my experience. As much as I like that it is open source, which is essential for my zero-funds project in particular, I really found myself questioning Moodle’s weaknesses, especially during the final crunch. Questions that arose for me included how come you can’t save and continue editing? And why do you have to click so incredibly much inside of Moodle?! Although it creates less need to have technical skills to develop inside of Moodle it can sometimes result in a very tedious workflow, much more tedious than it seemed to be when I worked in Blackboard. I am not sure I have ever clicked a mouse more times on one task and in such a short period of time in my whole life! It would be fascinating to click track just how many clicks it takes a novice Moodle developer to create a single course. Surely there were tens of thousands in my instance and I only created two modules. But in many ways this made for the type of rigour needed to stimulate substantial learning:
“Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one’s time well is critical for students and professionals alike. Students need help in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution determines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other professional staff can establish the basis of high performance for all.” (Chickering and Gamson, pg. 4)
Ultimately much of my site is built around the very early stages of what I envision this project with the Haisla will eventually look like. While there are some very interesting discussions to be had and definitely some technical components to work through, I feel like most of the tasks within the modules I’ve built should be achievable for participants and should also allow for a good number of ways for me to evaluate their skills and interests. By presenting easier early tasks, I hope to empower the participants as well as build a certain level of trust and confidence:
“Nonetheless, it is fair to say that assessing student preconditions and cultural prerequisites is often more challenging in an online learning context, because teachers are less able to interact transparently with students — especially in the critical early stages of learning community formation. It is for this reason that experienced online learning teachers must make time at the commencement of their learning interactions to provide incentive and opportunity for students to share their understandings, their culture, and the unique aspects of themselves.” (Anderson)
In terms of the time and energy I’ve had to invest in this effort, it would have been much easier if I had been utilized materials for courses that I taught in the past. However, the extra effort has been significant but feels well worth it in the end, even as the fatigue of the hard work lingers. I have accomplished much more than I thought I might within these 12 weeks. And although the course content is far from perfect, it is definitely a step in the right direction. I know this to be true because it has been reviewed by, discussed and met with enthusiasm by the people who live and work in the community. And that result alone made the project well worth the effort.
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an Online Learning Context. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.
Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7.