Learning Technologies: Design and Application

Project Proposal: The Moodle Initiative

The purpose of this correspondence is to propose a new option for The Halton Catholic District School Board with regards to e-learning and the possibilities it can afford staff and students of the board.  With the movement of technology into the classroom becoming more and more prominent in today’s 21^st century learning environment we need to as a collective group of professionals consider new ways to present our curriculum to learners.  Failure to do that will leave us behind the times and leave our students in an unfortunate situation as our graduates look to move into the workforce.   The board must consider the following as an option for moving forward and offering online learning opportunities for all students in the region.  Considering there is already an option for teachers to have a class portal for information distribution purposes it could be reasonable for all information available on a class portal to be made available on a Moodle site.  This could transfer the need for board IT from class portal support to Moodle support yet also afford the greater options for whole virtual classrooms to be available.  The movement titled The Moodle Initiative will be outlined in the following proposal.

Why Online Learning

With the options that online learning affords to students it is a necessity to begin offering these options to students.  Online learning and communication facilitates opportunities to students that were previously unavailable in an affordable way.  By offering these solutions students have options for taking courses that may not be available at their home school and for those interested in continuing education in night school or summer school the option of being able to study in a flexible manner can be a valuable tool for those students who lead busy lives.  Considering only certain schools can accommodate class offerings for continuing education it can alleviate the need for busing and therefore eliminate those costs associated with the running of continuing education classes.  Outside of the continuing education offerings online learning can also become a component of regular day school classes as fully online courses, blended learning options or a communication tool for students and teachers.

What is Moodle

Moodle is a learning management system (LMS) which allows courses to be fully administered online by instructors and administrators.  Moodle is an open source software which has the ability to be customized by the user to become very personalized or used by the least tech savvy individual to provide online content in a meaningful way to students.  It has been used successfully by universities, companies and schools in many areas of the world (Perkins & Pfaffman, 2006).  Moodle can enhance classes offered at all levels of education from a fully online, blended learning and communication tool perspective.

Why Moodle

Moodle affords its users opportunities for activity modules which include forums, databases and wikis that support a constructivist learning style and collaboration between peers and instructors.  The set up of many of the options available in a Moodle course shell including pages, forums and assessment tools is fairly effortless even for an individual with little technological experience.  Instructors will find that the possibilities for them to administrate their classes using the variety of reports and logs of student engagement can help make transparent the efforts of the students in their courses.  With Moodle there are options to create meaningful learning for students with the plethora of multimedia and social applications available as well as satisfying many of the SECTIONS criteria outlined by Bates and Poole (2003) including ease of use and reliability and diverse opportunities for teaching and learning.  By using these online tools it is possible for students to become more motivated to learn as well as engage and take pride in their learning.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure for the use of Moodle LMS systems can be worked out using one of two scenarios.  The Moodle server can be hosted by the school board and be under the responsibility of the IT department.  This may be found to be a more cost effective solution as there will be no third party involved.  With courses hosted in house the IT department will be responsible for the administration and support of the Moodle course sites.  This could be reasonably cost effective as their will no longer be support needed for the class portal system therefore the IT department support time from that initiative can be transferred to the Moodle initiative. Should the decision of the school board be to have the Moodle initiative hosted and supported by a third party then options would include the use of Lambda solutions which can be hosted for as little as $2100 for about 2500 user accounts (Lambda Solutions Inc, 2011) and Moodle support available for as little as $1500 per year (Lambda Solutions Inc, 2010).  Professional development sessions can be available every year to both teachers and IT department workers alike.  PD sessions can take place within a Moodle shell in order to allow professionals the option of attending and working on PD at the time of their choosing through online learning sessions.

In Review

There is no question that the online learning opportunities available for students are also of great interest to teachers and administrators.  The Moodle initiative is the most cost effective option for a learning management system to provide quality educational options for our students.  With its user friendliness and open source platform Moodle is a wonderful option for both the new and technologically savvy instructor.

References

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A framework for selecting and using technology.

In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success

(pp. 77-105). New York:  Wiley, John and Sons, Incorporated.

Lambda Solutions Inc. (2010). Moodle Hosting. Retrieved from: http://www.lambdasolutions.net/files/u1/moodleServices_HOSTING.pdf [June 11, 2011].

Lambda Solutions Inc. (2011). Moodle LMS Services. Retrieved from: http://www.lambdasolutions.net/moodle-support [June 11, 2011].
Perkins, M., Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a Course Management System to improve classroom

communication. Science Teacher, 73(7), 33-37.