Month: June 2009

Assessment Activity

Description

In addition to creating an exam for my LMS course site (see assessment page), I also chose to add a student survey to Module #4. The Constructivist On-line Learning Environment Survey (COLLES) in Moodle is a set of statements that allows learners to identify their preferred learning environment or their actual learning environment (Cole & Foster, 2008). I have elected to use a combination survey that covers both. In total, the students will respond to 50 survey items during class time.

Rationale

Timely and effective feedback is a vital component of any learning design (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004). In my experience, feedback is mostly given by instructors to students and  opportunities for students to provide feedback to instructors are often ignored. The COLLES survey provides an excellent chance for students to reflect on their learning needs and to share that information with their instructor. Feedback then, in the same way in which it can support student learning, may also promote instructor learning. Because my LMS course site is my first, I value the opportunity to illicit student feedback about the effectiveness of my course design. I want to know what is and is not working well and I want to know this early enough in the course so that I may make changes to improve the learning experience for my students. The COLLES survey, in my opinion, is also about getting to know my learners and assessing their learning styles and tastes. In my rather extensive experience as a student, I  have come across only a handful or two of teachers who were interesting and willing to give their learners a chance to give formal feedback to them for the purpose of improving a course. I’d love to give my learners this chance, which is why I’ve chosen to position the survey at the half-way point of my course. I foresee students willingly using the survey during class time and appreciating the opportunity to share their opinions. Moodle made it easy to add the survey tool and I’ll be able to view and download the responses.

This is, of course, not the only assessment activity I have designed in my LMS course. I have already included assessment tools for several other modules. I just wanted to take a chance and try something new here.

References

Cole, J. and Foster, H. (2008). Using moodle: Teaching with the popular course management system. Sebastopol: CA. O’Reilly Media Inc.

Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005).  “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 24 June 2009 http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf


Categories
Activity 4

Assessment Tools

moodleexamIntroduction

I was thrilled to learn that I had to develop an exam for my Moodle course. While I rarely give my students exams outside out mathematics, I usually cap off my novel studies with a written exam. Many of the questions I formatted into my Moodle course on The Outsiders (1967) are questions taken directly from my hard-copy exams that I use each year. My exam assesses general reading comprehension, characterization, literary themes, and symbolism. These are all foundational curriculum objectives at my grade level. In the end, I developed an exam that contained:

  • 25 Multiple Choice Questions
  • 10 Matching Questions
  • 2 Short Answer Questions
  • 2 Essay Questions

The exam is programed so that it will be automatically graded, save for the two essay questions which require manually grading. I have set a time limit of 90 minutes for students to complete the exam. I also took the time to pre-programme post-exam feedback for the students based on their overall performance. My final question included an embedded image.

A Few Thoughts

  • Formatting the exam was relatively easy, but could have been much easier. For example, although I consulted two Moodle guides and tried various approaches, I was unable to create more than one multiple choice question at a time. I was hoping to be able to edit many multiple choice questions on one page as opposed to formatting them one at a time-what a pain.
  • Moodle’s definition of a short answer question is at odds with mine. In order to take advantage of auto-grading, short answer questions need to be designed in an closed-structure, with designated accepted answers. In my opinion, a short answer question should require students two write two or three sentences as a response. An essay question should require several paragraphs. Therefore, if one is only looking for a one or two word response, perhaps a cloze procedure is a better choice.
  • Three cheers for auto-assess! This will save me a great deal of time. I’ll only have to manual grade a small number of questions before I provide additional feedback and send the marks to the grade book. This is certainly one of the benefits to using a Moodle exam over a hard-copy exam. No problems here!
  • I like the idea of shuffling the questions to discourage cheating. If my students complete the exam during class time like I had planned, I want o make sure they are providing an individual effort. Something else to consider is that my students know how to use Blue-tooth file transferring between Mac machines. I can just imagine some of them using Blue-tooth to collaborate on exam answers.

In the Future

  • I’d like to find out more about how one could adapt a Moodle exam to meet the needs of all my learners. Each year, I have one or two students who require a scribe in order to complete a written exam. I wonder if I could use a text-to-speech tool in Moodle to faciltiate this.
  • What can one do about students who are absent from school during the exam? I suppose the student could take the exam from home if possible, but what if they can’t? I am concerned about this if the exam is set for a selective release and has a time limit. Can one simply edit the release date to accomodate one or two students who missed the first exam?
  • A with any learning technology, there is always a chance that it will fail us when we need it most. While I enjoy a certain degree of flexibility in my teaching environment, others do not. What a nightmare it would be to have an exam scheduled during a time when the server failed or a blackout occurred. I guess always having a back-up plan is a good idea.

References

Hinton, S.E. (1967). The Outsiders. New York, NY: Viking Books.

Categories
Activity 3

Communication Tools

The course readings and module content regarding synchronous and asynchronous communication tools helped influenced my decisions about which tools I would include in my Moodle course and how these tools will be used. I will include on this page a brief description of the activity and the tools I set up within the course shell and also a rationale of the decisions I made. The course instructions were to design two activities, but I got carried away, couldn’t help myself, and added a couple more. Hope this is okay. To set the context here, please recall that my Moodle course shells a novel study on The Outsiders (1967).

ACTIVITY # 1 forum

A Discussion forum where students have been instructed to post their personal reflections to the chapter readings. I will repeat this discussion forum for each of the course modules. I configured this forum to allow each person to post one discussion, but I require everyone to respond to at least two of their classmates’ posts. I have been clear about what content is to be included in the discussion posts, but students will have a great deal of personal choice because they are free to take up a wide range of topic. This is the nature of personal reading responses. To support my learners with this, I have included an assessment rubric in the course materials in response to Anderson’s (2008) assertions regarding effective online course design.

Why I chose it

Teaching students to write personal responses to literature is an accepted teaching strategy in language arts instruction. Traditionally, in face to face settings, students publish reading responses in notebooks or journals and these are submitted to instructors for assessment. What is lost here is the possibility for the students to learn through valuable social interactions that Anderson (2008) asserts should take place between teachers, students, and content. I was looking for a tool that would allow students to exchange and share their reading responses throughout the duration of the novel study. As the instructor of this course, I need to also be able to interact with my learners as they make connections with literature.

What this tools brings to the educational experience

My personal experience as a student has allowed me to recognize that there is much value in using forum discussions even in face to face settings. Posting reading responses to a forum for the learning community to see will encourage interactions between the instructor and his/her students. In a face to face discussion immediate responses to ideas are required;however, the asynchronous forum allows students time to think and reflect on content before posting a response. In my opinion, this increases the quality of the exchanges and alleviates some of the anxiety that learners sometime feel by being put on the spot when face to face. Of course, forums also support two-way communication making students active participants in the learning process.

The tool’s limitations

The danger of using discussion forums is a lack of participation by learners. If students are not participating in the discussions the potential benefits of the forum may never be realized. The forum in Moodle requires learners to read and write responses and offers little alternative for those who struggle with literacy. Students who have difficulty writing for example may not be willing, or capable, to publish posts.

Does it work?

Yes, I tested my forum and they all work.

ACTIVITY # 2wiki

A Wiki activity on characterization. Working in groups of four, students will design a wiki about the characters in the novel study. The idea is that this activity is on-going and edited as we progress through the course. The wiki will become a resource for my learners and a study guide for the final exam. I have already structured the wiki so that it includes the main characters of the book. I have also provided a resource to introduce students to wikis. The wiki will be assessed as part of each students’ participation mark.

Why I chose it

Characterization is an important element in literary works and is commonly taught in novel studies. The Outsiders (1967) introduces its readers to many characters in great detail. Keeping track of all the characters and what role they play in the plot is a difficult task, so I wanted students to create and maintain a document that could record their notes as we make our way through the novel. I don’t feel, however, that students should tackle this lengthy and difficult assignment individually, so I chose a wiki to enable student collaboration. This will help to divide the workload among learners. Again, with a few clicks of mouse, I added a wiki activity to my Moodle course. The ease of adding the tool factored into my decision regarding its selection.

What this tool brings to the educational experience

When I think wiki, I think fast, efficient collaboration. Providing students with a mechanism for working together towards a common goal will hopefully engage them in the task and make them active participants within a learning community. A wiki allows for asynchronous participation, so, like the discussion forum, provides a tool for interactions to take place over time. As the instructor, I will be able to track and evaluate individual contributions to the wiki to ensure the workload is being shared. The students will be able to develop their work under peer review, which is important.

The tool’s limitations

Compared to other wiki authoring sites, the Moodle wiki interface is not as user-friendly. Wikispaces, for example, makes it much easier to navigate and edit wikis. This is important because it is quite possible that a lack of technical skills of a student might impede their ability to participate in the activity. Also, I do not like how the Moodle wiki does not have a space for groups to discuss the collaborative document. Most wiki services have a discussion tab to facilitate this.

Does it work?

Yes, tested and the wiki works.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Chat forums have been established to enable synchronous communication. I created private chat rooms for groups in order to facilitate group discourse. Here, students can collaborate and discuss group projects. Another chat room has been created to allow all students come together in order to discuss the course or simply to hang out and form community bonds.
  • Lastly, as a bonus, since I already downloaded SKYPE during the e-learning toolkit activity, I am planning on using this communication tool to “bring in” an outside expert to present to my learner. The expert who has agreed to visit us using SKYPE will present on the topic of “street gangs”, very relevant to the novel study of course.

Rationale:

The selection of these tools was made after careful consideration. In my opinion, and consistent with several of the course readings, proper selection of instructional tools is the key to effective course design (see Anderson, 2008; Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). Forums, chats, and wikis all encourage interactions on several levels: learner-learner;learner-knowledge;learner-teacher. These tools also help to establish the learning community.

Moodle made it very easy to add these activities to my course design and I’ll be able to track student progress with no problems. I’ve elected to assess the discussion forum activity by activating the grade option and using the “separate and connected ways of knowing” scale. I have also chosen to read the tracking highlights of unread posts. Regarding the chat rooms, I can view past chat activity at any time. Because I won’t be assessing chat, I need only be concerned with the appropriateness of content, although there might some value in reading the chat archives to follow progress and check for understanding. Moodle will allow me to monitor the wiki activity as well. I can also browse the wiki history to see who is contributing to the group effort.

Limitations

The problem with chat is that it requires all participants to participate at the same time. My students all live in the same time zone, so the physical distance that can be problematic in some settings does not apply here. Still, with conflicting personal schedules, it may be difficult to find a meeting time that works for everyone. Text chatting, is also very slow. It may be difficult to get my learners to buy into Moodle chat when so many other attractive options are around, such as cell phones.

In my experience, forums can be problematic for some learners who have difficulty expressing themselves in writing. This might discourage them to post written responses that are viewable to the entire class. Again, with the other online options available to teens, I’m not sure that they will be big on hanging out in Moodle as opposed to popular social-networking sites.

Concerns

I think my students will enjoy working with the communication tools that I designed into the course and they certainly have the skill set to do so. If I’m worried about anything, it’s the level of participation that will be seen. How will I encourage my students to take part at a level that will enhance the learning experience? I think I have already began to address this by providing clear participation expectations.

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. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.

Hinton, S.E. (1967). The Outsiders. New York, NY: Viking Books.

Weblogs

This week, I check out weblogs for the E-learning Toolkit activity. Although I do have some experience with weblogs, both as readers and as a publisher, I welcome the opportunity to learn more about them. I was most surprised and impressed to visit the link to the ETEC 522 course site, which appears to host and manage most or all of the course content. Makes sense, I suppose because weblogs are much more than personal journals, but I had never really stopped to think about how many people or agencies are using blogs to manage their content.

I’ve never used Blogger as a weblog application, so I created an account to check things out a little. This was pretty much the standard sign-up procedure for web services, no surprises here. The Blogger interface is very similar to that of WordPress, which I use quite often. Blogger makes publishing very easy and I was also able to change my template with no trouble at all.

While I understand that Blogger and WordPress are very popular in educational settings, I still prefer using Class Blogmeister with my students. I feel comfortable and in complete control over postings because I am able to preview and approve entries and comments before they are published. This is an important feature if you’re a grade eight teacher.

I did however try out Google Blog Search to locate some great NHL blogs that I added to my Google Reader. I want to teach my students how and why to do this during units of study. I’m also trying to locate a nice student blog evaluation rubric that I can use next school year. I suppose I could make one myself, but I’d prefer not to re-invent.

Synchronous Communication Tools

I’m really liking the E-learning toolkit activities. This week, I’ve spent several hours tinkering with various synchronous communication tools including Skype and Wimba. It is quite easy to recognize the value of these tools, especially in light of this week’s Anderson (2008) reading where the key attributes of online learning were discussed. As a learner in the MET program, I can attest that a good online learning design needs to incorporate synchronous communication tools in order to foster appropriate interactions between teacher-learner, learner-learner, learner-knowledge, and learner-community. Selfishly, I am most interested in using these tools to increase interactions between learners and the community outside of my school. One of my professional goals is to go outside the confines of the school walls in order to tap into the vast network of outside expertise and knowledge. I had planned on using synchronous tools to enable me to do so. I just think it’s silly to try to be a teacher know it all these days when there are others who are more capable and who don’t mind helping out. For example, recently my class and I started to study about the Holocaust. I know very little about the Holocaust, but managed to put a decent unit together. This is fine, but I can’t help but think that I could have been joined by an expert in the field. Bringing an expert in by Skype or Wimba might just be what the doctor ordered.

And so I tried out Skype…..

The download was quick and it installed on my Mac with no trouble at all. After that the sign-up process took minutes and I was all set to test things out. With no contacts, or no knowledge of Skype etiquette, I was hesitant to make a call. I used the search function to locate a number of a pizza delivery service in Brazil that guaranteed delivery in 45 minutes or less. I clicked on the green phone icon, and heard the call going through. The following transcribes my call:

Pizza Guy : something in Portugese

Me: Hi, can I make a delievery order?

Pizza Guy: What?

Me: I want to order a pizza and I wonder if your 45 minute guarantee applies to me?

Pizza Guy: You have to be kidding me

Pizza Guy: hangs up

The point is that the call worked and it was free, opening up a huge world of possibilities for my teaching practices. What I do worry about, however, is how to support my guest experts who may not be familiar with Skype. Perhaps they aren’t skilled with technology at all. I wonder if someone has designed a tutorial for this purpose. I’m going to check!

Erik

Categories
Activity 2

LMS Proposal

Mr. Smith
Superintendent
Regina Public Schools
1600 4th Avenue
Regina, SK
S4X 4S5

Dear Mr. Smith,

Please find enclosed a proposal for an exciting and innovative project that has the potential to transform learning and keep our school division on the cutting edge of instruction.

I respectfully ask you to read my project proposal and consider the possibility of giving your support. I have included a brief description of the project goal, a rationale, the method used to select the required technology tools, and the resources I will need.

I am available and willing to expand on or answer further questions about any components of the project proposal. Please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Yours truly,

Erik Van Dusen
Teacher
Regina Public Schools

Background and Rationale

Each year, middle years students in our division are treated to novel The Outsiders, a timeless classic by S.E. Hinton. The novel supports many of the learning objectives found in the provincial curriculum and is usually enjoyed by students. Traditionally, teachers use a variety of activities and assessment tools with the novel study. The emergence of the Internet, however, has provided new opportunities for teaching and learning and I am confident that technology can be used to enhance The Outsiders novel study.

To be more specific, the use Learning Management Systems (LMS), are becoming a popular way to deliver units of study because they can improve and enhance student performance through better communication and the incorporation of online learning activities (Perkins & Pfaffmen, 2006).

Goal

Harness and exploit the affordances of the LMS Moodle to enhance teaching, learning and communication during The Outsiders novel study.

Method of Selection

Moodle is certainly not the only LMS platform that can used to deliver the novel study. For example, Blackboard and WebCT are also popular options. My decision to choose Moodle as my project’s LMS was made after great consideration. First, I reviewed sources of academic literature to gain a broader understanding of LMS and what they have to offer. I also had the opportunity to experiment with Moodle, Blackboard, and WebCT platforms. Additionally, as part of a grad class I’m taking (ETEC 565 – UBC), I helped to develop a rubric that aids in the evaluation and selection of LMS.

Above all, however, I used a trusted framework and a set of criteria to facilitate my decision regarding LMS platforms. The SECTIONS model (Bates and Poole, 2003) considers many of the factors associated in the selection and use of technology in student learning. I have included below a snapshot of the SECTIONS model and some of the factors, integral to my proposed project, that I had to consider. I hope this also helps to shed some light on the project’s objectives as well.

S (Students)

My students spend a great deal of time on the Internet, mostly playing online games and connecting to their friends via social-networking sites. Engaging these students in traditional learning activities is a difficult task because they crave social experiences and opportunities to use the same types of technology they are using away from school. An opportunity to integrate some technology into a novel study would likely interest my students and they certainly possess the required skills to participate in online activities.

E (Ease of use and reliability)

With very little training a user new to Moodle will find it easy to navigate and post content to its interface. Students or instructors do not need knowledge of sophisticated programming code. Additionally, students need not be at school in order to access the Moodle course as long as they have access to an Internet browser. I am not aware of glaring deficiencies in Moodle’s reliability, but, as with any forms of technology, there is always a possibility for issues to arise. While I can’t foresee running into an issue that would delay the project for a significant amount of time, I have planned for some flexibility to be built into the course should I encounter difficulties.

C (Costs)

One of the more attractive benefits to Moodle is that it is a free, open source, web-based application with no licenses or fees (Perkins & Pfaffmen, 2006). The existing division server is all that is needed to host the Moodle platform. The computer hardware and Internet access needed to use Moodle is already in our school and will not require any upgrades or further costs.

T (Teaching and learning)

Constructivist learning designs are being encouraged by the ministry and by our school division. Moodle was designed and created in order to facilitate constructivist teaching and learning. An opportunity to discover how Moodle can be used as a mechanism for delivering constructivist-based learning designs would many of our teachers and students. Moodle appears to be the correct tool for the job.

I (Interactivity)

Moodle provides several tools to facilitate interactivity on various levels. (Ex. Learner to learner; Learner to instructor).

• Chat rooms and discussion forums
• Surveys
• Calendar of events
• Wikis and glossary pages
• Evaluation tools and instructor feedback
• Lessons and resources
• Assignments

Moodle also has the ability to use tools and resources from outside the platform.

O (Organizational issues)

Regarding my project, I don’t foresee any organizational changes that need to be made. Having one of the division’s IT technician assigned as a support would be a huge bonus, especially if others plan to use Moodle for future projects.

N (Novelty)

Moodle has been a stable platform for nearly a decade. Updates and new versions are readily available. LMS are widely used in a variety of educational settings and appear to be gaining in popularity (Panettieri, 2007).

S (Speed)

Moodle can be downloaded and hosted on a server within minutes by one of our experienced IT technicians. Course content can be added with a click of a button, although sound instructional course design does take time. New courses can added within seconds and materials can easily be changed by the course instructor himself and does not require the help of a webmaster/IT technician.

Resources Needed

While it is possible to complete the project at no cost, experience tells me that certain obstacles impeding progress can be avoided through proper training. Two of the most prevalent barriers to technology integration are lack of time and lack of skills (Cuban, 2001; Groff & Mouza, 2008). In order to overcome these barriers and for my project to be a success I am respectfully requesting the following:

• Substitute teacher coverage for my regular classroom duties to allow for some time to design and develop my Moodle course. 1 day of coverage/week for a total of 12 weeks = 12 days of coverage x $220 = $2640
• Funds to attend a Moodle workshop for professional development = $500
• Funds to purchase resource materials if needed = $200

Total Funding Requested = $3340

Additional Caveats

• Once the course has been developed, other teachers are free to become instructors of the course and use the learning design in their own classrooms.
• I am willing to share my resources and expertise with other professionals within our division.
• The project supports our division’s goals to increase achievement in literacy.

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). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Cuban, L. (2001). Oversold and underused: computers in the classroom. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

Groff, J. & Mouza, C. (2008). A Framework for Addressing Challenges to Classroom Technology Use. AACE Journal. 16 (1), pp. 21-46. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Panettieri, J. (2007). Addition by subtraction. University Business, August 58-62. Accessed online 11 March 2009 http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=845

Perkins, M., Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a Course Management System to Improve Classroom Communication. Science Teacher, 73(7), 33-37.

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