Access to my site:
A link to my Moodle Site: http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=280#section-
Reflection on my Moodle Site:
Creating a course site using Moodle has been an interesting learning experience for me. When I used Moodle sites in the past, I realized that a lot of work must have gone into the creation of one of these sites but I never fully understood how much work this entails. Although this was a process that took time, patience, perseverance, and drive, I found it to be extremely rewarding. I found that I had to do a lot of extra research to find out how to make certain components work or to learn how to use certain functions but this was great because I learned so much more due to this process of discovery. As I saw my Moodle site come together, I felt happy to know that I was the one who was creating it. I liked the fact that I had control over what was included in the site, how it was included, and how it looked. I truly feel that this has been a very rewarding and beneficial experience because I have learned a lot and I believe the skills I have gained will help me to create more resources such as this site.
The main issue I had while creating this unit was technical problems. I found that Moodle was extremely slow at times. My screen would freeze and it would take a long time for the site to process changes. Factors such as these lead to a lot of time being put into it. Each task, no matter how small or big, was very slow at some points. For example, changing the font color of each heading needed to be done one-by-one and would take time for processing. Factors such as these may lead to a creator to become frustrated, or it may result in individuals creating sites that are not very aesthetically pleasing due to the amount of time needed to achieve such tasks.
Break Down of My Moodle Site:
My Moodle site is a unit for Elementary students on Space and Space Exploration. I am excited about the finished product because I would like to use this tool with my students in the future.
The Unit I created in Moodle consists of Three Modules. The first two Modules are two weeks long each and both end with a quiz. The quizzes are time released. Hence, the students would not be able to access them till they have worked on other components in the module. The quizzes can be taken more than once. I have added a third Module for students who have completed the first two modules. This module is a bonus module and is not open to all students. Hence, I have hidden the module from the students so it is not visible to them. I created a special group for this module. Students can be added to this group. Adding them to the group will give them access to the material in this bonus module as I have restricted it to only the students enrolled in that group.
I wanted my module to have some components in it that would be aesthetically pleasing and that would help with navigation. To do so, I added an image and titles for each module and color coded each module. I also used labels to separate each section. In module two, students are asked to work on a group project. Since they will be working in individual groups, I made separate grouping for each group and have discussion forums allocated to each of these groups. I also have a discussion forum for introductions, general inquires/discussions, inquires to the teacher and peer dialogue and assistance. The course contains other discussion forums that are linked to the material students will be learning about. There are a few online group chats that are scheduled in the course as well.
Summary of the tool created:
Overall I liked the fact that I could incorporate many different learning tools into this site. Students’ exposure to a site like this would not only allow them to learn content in an interactive and engaging manner but it would also allow them to work on skills such as team building, time management and would help to heighten their computer skills and abilities.