Presented at Moodlemoot AU 2014, we look at how Australian College of Nursing uses Moodle to support Student Management purposes in the absence of a student management system.
2. If you’re from an organisation that’s transitioning to online learning;
If you’re from an organisation that doesn’t have access to a dedicated
Student Management System;
If you like seeing how Moodle can be stretched…
Then this presentation is for you!
Who is this presentation for?
8. Yes, at this point it
would have been great
to have had the option
of a Student
Management System!
Disclaimer…
By Cubmundo (Flickr: Frustration) [CC-BY-SA-2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons
10. What tools does Moodle have available for tracking
communication between a student and an educator?
Go to http://bit.ly/mdlcom to join in!
Pop Quiz
11. What tools does Moodle have available for tracking
communication between a student and an educator?
http://bit.ly/mdlcomresults to check out the results…
Pop Quiz - Results
16. Could be viewed by all students, or if not viewed by
all students, had to have a field for the student’s
name.
May still have been a viable option…
Database activity
17. Wiki activity
Pros
Individual mode = Page for each student enrolled
Groups mode visible = Each tutor could quickly see their
own students
History tab = Version control
Online = Accessible from phone, tablet or laptop
Cons
Exporting information – still unresolved (but can be printed)
Consistent data formatting – just not possible
19. Wiki activity – the tech setup
Image By I.Sáček, senior (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2013_03_30_Kom%C3%ADn_
9999_77u.JPG
20. Wiki activity – permissions
Subject coordinator (Teacher) Tutor (Non-editing teacher)
Course:
Delete comments Allowed Prevented
Post comments Allowed Prevented
Read comments Allowed Prevented
Activity: Wiki
Create new wiki pages Allowed Allowed
Add comments to pages Allowed Prevented
Save wiki pages Allowed Allowed
Manage wiki comments Allowed Prevented
Manage wiki files Allowed Allowed
Override wiki locks Prevented Prevented
View page comments Allowed Prevented
View wiki pages Allowed Allowed
Activities
Backup activities Allowed Prevented
Hide/show activities Prevented Prevented
Manage activities Prevented Prevented
View hidden activities Allowed Allowed
21. The Verdict
By Chris Potter (Flickr: 3D Judges Gavel) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
22. Three takeaways…
1. Permissions and roles in Moodle give you a ton of
flexibility – explore them!
2. Understand your purpose clearly as you start
brainstorming solutions – it will save you time and
pain in the long run!
3. Know that a solution is possible.
Australian College of Nursing offers a diverse range of courses, in face-to-face, distance and online formats – but we’re moving towards the majority of courses being online…
We’re made up of a core of course and subject coordinators, with a community of tutors that provide ongoing support to our students.
These people have facilitated our courses in both face-to-face and distance formats, and are now moving with us into the online learning space.
Our face-to-face and distance format courses were very much paper based, so we had a paper
Student Progress Record.
Essentially, the front page had the marks for each assessment task, and the back was a space for comments.
The front page of the paper based SPR was used to record grades and marking information
This has now been replaced with CNnect’s Grader Report.
In transitioning to Moodle, the function of the front page of our Student Progress Report was (almost inadvertently!) taken care of by the Grader report…
But how could we accommodate the function of the back page with an online tool?
A great tool, and our Moodle forces users to receive messages to their email accounts and as pop-ups (both logged out and logged in).
But…
Students (and tutors) were still emailing folks privately, and replying to messages from Moodle directly back to the sender’s email account.
Tracks times and dates, but not always the details of the interactions we were after.
Allows the educator to keep progress notes on a student, but also allowed fellow educators to edit those notes, with no version control path of what had been changed.
Rather a problem for auditing and student management purposes!
Being accessible online has meant our tutors can access the online SPR anytime, anywhere – including right after they’ve had a phone call with a student. We are seeing an increase in detail regarding student-tutor interactions, and positive feedback from tutors on ease of use.
Furthermore, because we’re not waiting until the end of the teaching period to receive the record, our subject and course coordinators have greater insight into when a student may be at risk of withdrawing, deferring or failing a subject – assisting us to be more supportive, sooner!
Previous experience had demonstrated a need for this tool to be rolled out in a uniform manner, and in such a way that educators could not edit it (in particular, accidentally show it to students!).
Permissions were pruned!!
The aim of these permissions was to give the tutors what they needed to write up progress on each student’s page, and the subject coordinators access to comment on the record if needed, in a space the tutors couldn’t access (comments). The subject coordinators also needed to be restricted from deleting or displaying the activity to students (common sense internet behaviour still applies for tutors).
We’ve been running this since February, and the first semester finished last week – however our short courses (month long) have been using it with improvement. Tutors are now giving more information, although there’s still a bit to be done to clarify purpose with them.
But test in a safe space so you don’t freak out your staff and students
Preferably write the purpose and requirements down clearly and concisely – short term, mid-term and long term if you can.
A No is sometimes a Maybe in disguise, and a Yes sometimes pretends to be a Maybe!
