Category: E-learning Toolkit

My first experience with web design came with ETEC 565A, and the software of choice for me was Amaya. I watched some tutorials on YouTube for Amaya and for NVU and I felt that Amaya would suite my needs the best. I downloaded the software and played around a bit with creating pages and then linking them. It didn’t take long to realize that I needed some structure. It was like I had a bobcat and was just moving dirt around, from pile to pile, without any plan. That is ok as I was just learning but a storyline was needed to make any real progress. So, I mapped up a basic storyline for what I wanted to accomplish in Moodle and began to build some pages. First I referred to the “Web Pages that Suck” checklist and checked out a number of web pages so that I knew what NOT to do. I put in some content and images with links to other pages. Things were working quite well. I then zipped all my files to a zip file and uploaded it into Moodle. Then I unzipped and placed the pages into Moodle.

The process was fairly straight forward and I didn’t really run into problems. That is until I wanted to make changes on a created page. I went back to Amaya to make changes and then reloaded it into Moodle. Moodle, however, had problems with the new page, so I had to rename the page with a number (2, then 3, then 4, etc…). Then a fellow student suggested that I just edit the page in Moodle with HTML code. I am a rookie at HTML but I thought I would give it a try. I managed to do a pretty good job and my edits worked. However, I still had problems with Moodle accepting my changes. I had to do the same thing with saving as a new name. This was all very frustrating. I tested out my Moodle site with Firefox, Explorer, and Safari and I did not notice any noticeable difference in each.

Believe it or not, this was the first time I used a hand held device to browse the internet. So, I can thank this course for giving me motivation to do this, as well as my brother-in-law for lending his Blackberry.

End user experience

• Try accessing both the ETEC 565 WebCT Vista course site and your own Moodle course site via a hand-held device via its browser.
• Try: accessing a learning module and replying to a discussion forum
• Analyze performance, including load times, page rendering, tool access
• Is there an app for it? Could you find any apps for either LMS? If so, did having an app affect the end user experience? How?
• Reflect on your experience as an end user: to what extent are these sites accessible via your hand-held?

I loaded my Moodle page and Webct Vista. Since I am not used to a hand held device, the first thing I noticed was the difficulty in typing. I am sure that once done many times, typing would become easier. The other thing I noticed was the small screen size. I was wondering how my Moodle page would appear on such a small screen. The images were pretty much the same size so scrolling down and down was the only way to see the whole page. It did not allow me to scroll left and right. Loading times were slower than I am used to. I did not notice an app, but that could be my inexperience. I had the same experience with Webct Vista.

Course designer experience

• Using your hand-held device, capture some photos, audio or video
• Try adding some of this content to your Moodle site via the device
• Analyze performance, including load times, page rendering, tool access
• Is there an app for it? Could you find any apps for either LMS? If so, how easy was it to create/modify a course site (in this instance, Moodle)?
• Reflect on your experience as a course designer: how successful were you in creating LMS content via your hand-held?

Similar to my experience as a user, I noticed that typing and screen viewing are not as easily done as on my laptop. I was, however, able to modify my Moodle site in much the same way as on my laptop. I could turn editing on and upload images quite easily. Being able to add content to the Moodle page would make life easy in that I could work on my project when and where I wanted. It is much more portable than a laptop. Once again, I am not sure if there is an app for this.

I don’t think I would want to construct pages this way because it is awkward. I would probably use it as a way to stay more connected and make small changes when needed. I should say that from a more philosophical point of view, I don’t really want the ability to stay connected so easily. I would rather not have the ability in my life, as I think it is healthier to focus on other things in life. Being offline is very important too.

Now that I have been exposed to RSS and weblogs in a much deeper way I feel that I can stand back and ponder what I feel about everything. I really like the RSS as it finds me and that can save a lot of time in my day. Quite frankly, the time commitment was the reason I stayed away from blogs in the first place. Now I enjoy looking at our UBC RSS once a day just to see who has posted something new. It really is quick.

John said something in his last weblog post about feeling like a blog is just someone writing to themselves. What is the point of that. If a blog is not a community then I do think it is a waste of time. I tend to think that for me the best use of a blog is for my e-portfolio. It is a great way to organize artifacts. If someone comments on it then great, but that is not the primary point of it.

References

Fisch, K. (2007) Blogging: In Their Own Words. The Fischbowl.  Accessed online 26 March 2009.
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/blogging-in-their-own-words.html

Tonight I played around with some synchronous communication tools and I reflected on my past experiences using some of these tools. One of my favorite synchronous tool is Skpye. I love the ability to have audio and video at the same time. I find that these features have been invaluable when working as groups in the MET program.

I have really appreciated the two live sessions that we have had in Wimba. Wimba is something that I have never used before and it affords all of the features of Skype, and so much more. The ability to see the presenters computer was extremely useful and having the audio turned off unless the control button was push really helped to eliminate chaos. I have had a similar experience using Elluminate Live in a different MET course.

At the end of the day, a good chat in Vista works quite nicely. Granted, the missing audio slows down the communication process a bit, but I feel that it does the job.

Develop an Activity and Provide a Rationale

My Moodle site will be used for the purpose of blended instruction.  I have chosen a unit in the Physics 11 curriculum call Special Relativity.  This topic has many weird and wonderful anomalies that are very tough for the human mind to wrap itself around.  It is because this topic lends itself to more discussion than the other Physics 11 units that I have chosen it. The forums I have put in my Moodle site are asynchronous in nature.  I want my students to be able to really think about their posts and they can do them at any time in the day or night.  However, I will release my modules one at a time to prevent anyone from working too far ahead.  This will better allow the class to create a healthy online community.  We will continue to discuss topics in a f2f setting during class.

I have chosen the “Standard” forum for my announcements so that everyone can view all of it at any time. I will use the forum to give instruction and feedback as is necessary. My icebreaker forum is “A single simple discussion,” which will allow students to post once.  This means they will have to carefully think of their response. It will be our first chance at building our online community and will happen at the end of the Physics 11 course, so we will all know each other. In addition, I have made a Q&A forum to discuss the effects of time dilation.  Students will only be able to view other posts after they have done theirs.  This will prevent copying and promote quality. Finally, I have created a class wiki called “Key Terms” where each student will be required to put up one term and then define it.

To assess these posts, I plan on giving a mark of one if a satisfactory post has been given.  In this way, the grade book will allow me to see who is posting and I will be able to tally the amount of participation.  There will be a maximum number of marks for each forum. This approach is simple and will be easy for me to get results.

I’m not sure if I will use a synchronous chat session, but I feel as though I would love to try it.  I wonder if allowing a chat session during class in a computer lab will work.  The students would be in the same room so I suspect that they wouldn’t take the chat very seriously.

In the last 12 hours I have spent about 4 hours on my Moodle page.  It is very time consuming but very rewarding as I can see it progressing quite nicely.  I have determined my topic and laid out my shell and I have put in a variety of forums for asynchronous discussion.  I have also put in wiki titled “Key Terms” where students will be required to put in at least one key term in Special Relativity, complete with a definition.  I am fairly familiar with wikis (thanks to the MET program) and I see the value in having to contribute to a public location.  I think it helps develop a sense of community among the students.

My time tonight on Wimba was great.  It reminded me of a few of my experiences on Elluminate Live.  John hosted and lead using a screen shot of his computer with voice.  It was very helpful to see how to use some of the more in-depth features of Moodle settings.  I definitely got a better sense of what is expected in ETEC 565A and I now know how to go about starting Moodle site.  One thing that I did not know about was editing my HTML pages with free software like Amaya.  John said that using Word may not work very well so I played around with Amaya a bit and I seemed to get the hang of it a bit.  Time will tell how it goes from here.

I have spent the better part of today doing something that was not planned.  I began by playing around with my UBC blog and trying to organize my entries into categories.  Once I figured out how categories work I began to get a better sense of how I can keep everything streamlined.  I guess you could call it a bit of an AHA moment.  I then spent a while trying to find and theme that I actually liked, which meant understanding ‘widgets’ and how to use them.  Finally, I played around with a header picture that suited me more than just the default ones provided in the themes.  All in all, I spent WAY too much time I’m sure on this but I am quite happy with what I have done.  That is just what happens I guess -time always seems to be underestimated.  Well, I now understand more about Weblog =).

References

Fisch, K. (2007) Blogging: In Their Own Words. The Fischbowl.  Accessed online 26 March 2009.
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/blogging-in-their-own-words.html

My experience working through the Moodle toolkit assignment was very positive.  I don’t have very much experience at all with Moodle so I was looking forward to this first step.  I have heard how easy Moodle is to work with, so I am not surprised at how effortless it was for me to create my Welcome Page and Icebreaker.  Having clear directions that were accurate was a big help as well.  I should say that I met with a colleague of mine on Thursday to get a few pointers on Moodle.  He has quite a bit of experience working with Moodle and I found his input quite beneficial.  He actually took ETEC 565A back when it was first introduced as a course.  I look forward to investigating the many other features of Moodle in the coming days, as well as how to efficiently set up a well organized Moodle site.