Developing Confident Futures Online using Moodle Jenny Westwood, Gareth Peevers Presented at Moodlemoot Edinburgh 2014 www.moodlemoot.ie

1. The Development of
Confident Futures Online
using Moodle
Mo Andrew
& Gareth Peevers
Edinburgh Napier University
April 2014

2. Outline
• What is Confident Futures?
• Why online?
• Underpinning principles
• Why Moodle?
• What does Confident Futures Online look like?
• What do students say about the courses?
• Key lessons learned
• Moving forward

3. What is Confident Futures?
A stimulating menu of personal development workshops
that are designed and delivered (by specialised facilitators)
to students within the professional context in which the
skills, attributes and approaches will be used – as part of
their academic studies.
The workshops aim to equip students to:
• Be more successful in their academic studies
• Increase their competitive edge with employers
• Reach their full potential, both now & in future

4. Confident Futures Wheel

5. Why online?
• To offer workshops to student cohorts off-
campus & off-shore – in order to provide the
same learning opportunities as on-campus
students
• To increase the range of opportunities for
designing/delivering Confident Futures
workshops as part of blended learning models
– including ‘flip training’

6. Underpinning principles
• Replicate interactivity of Confident Futures workshops
• Provide opportunities for:
– reflecting on own practice &/or performance
– receiving feedback on practice &/or performance
• Offer to cohorts of students as part of academic studies
• Would be tested and piloted with students
C F

7. Why Moodle?
• As Edinburgh Napier’s VLE, it would allow a
controlled environment
• Allows tracking of student progress
• Its text editor enables all staff to update/edit
course content
• To ‘future-proof’ the courses
• The challenge of using Moodle was to customise
the courses to have a unique style, look & feel

8. What does Confident Futures Online
look like?
Making Feedback Work For You

9. What does Confident Futures Online
look like?
Building Resilience

10. What do students say?
Effective Communication course
“The activities are very good examples of the
ideas presented in the workshop”
Manage Yourself, Manage Your Time course
“Liked the option to hear/download and get
written intro/podcast”

11. Key lessons learned
• Administration and enrolment
• Engaging students
• Format & content of online courses
• Monitoring activity and completion
• Collecting feedback

12. Moving Forward
• Continued development of non-Flash-based activities
• Development of ‘white label’ version of Making
Feedback Work for You to other HEIs
• Continued testing with off-shore international student
cohorts
• Extend models for blended learning delivery
• Enhance promotion of features & benefits of Confident
Futures Online to academic staff
• Further refinement & modification