Case Study
Boris has been teaching Chemistry 11 at a regional high school in the Bulkley Valley of northern BC for over a decade. He uses his school district’s Moodle server to disseminate lecture notes, lab forms and to answer student questions outside of class time.
Over the years he’s found a distinct gap between some students’ performance in laboratory exercises and their exams. In particular they seem to have difficulty transferring what they learn about the Periodic Table in their labs (and readings) to their exam work. Some students do well, but they are those who find it manageable to memorize the entire table: students who cannot, who comprise about half his students in any given year, are the ones who struggle.
There isn’t a single hour of extra time for Boris to spend on Periodic Table review in class. He does have some extra handouts to give students who want more practice, but knows these only scratch the surface – substantive review would require a more detailed and systematic approach.
Boris is trying to find some way to create a stand-alone, self-directed review tool for students learning the Periodic Table. It should allow students to review material, then test their knowledge. In a perfect world it would give students instant feedback that not only tells them if they’re right or wrong: it would give them formative feedback that helps them move towards the right answers.
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If I were Boris (and I had no life)… I would develop (build on his existing Moodle) a Moodle course that could be used as blended learning experience or be strictly for ‘extension’ purposes. Since he is already familiar with the LMS he is in a great position to utilize to further assist his students. He can use the assessment tools afforded in Moodle to develop a myriad of quizzes that provide instant feedback for the students about their answers. If he spends some time and really invests himself in this, Boris is quite capable of creating assessments that will not only tell the students what they have done right and wrong but will lead them in the right direction if they make an incorrect response and extend them further if they are correct. A great deal of time needs to be invested initially but could reap huge rewards in the students who use it because it will actually help them learn!