This document discusses best practices for using the learning management system Moodle in higher education settings. It provides an overview of the author's background and experience with Moodle. A literature review found over 150 relevant articles on Moodle use in higher education spanning various disciplines. The document outlines some basic best practices for Moodle like consistency, variety in content sources, and visual design. It also discusses elements of engaged learning using technology and specific tools the author has found effective like videos and flipped classrooms. Areas that were less successful are also mentioned. Finally, some of the author's unpublished research findings on student and staff perceptions of Moodle are summarized.

1. Business and Economics
Making the most of MOODLE
Dr Andrea North-Samardzic
Department of Management

2. My background
 Arrived at Monash in 2012.
 Chief Examiner of 8 units in 2013 academic year, now 4.
 Department of Management distance education coordinator.
 Satellite member of Centro di Ricerca sui Sistemi Informativi at LUISS
Guido Carli University in Rome.
 Taught for 5 years in distance education for MBT program at UNSW.
 I research Moodle and learning technologies as well as using it to
teach, both face-to-face and on campus, undergrads and Masters.
 My PhD was on gender and leadership. Technology is something I’ve
picked up along the way and turned into an area of ‘expertise’ but more
importantly, a research pipeline.

3. A quick literature review of Moodle
 Search for terms ‘MOODLE’ and ‘higher education’ in Science Direct
 Result of 469 articles
 65 used MOODLE in title or in abstract
 152 fit criteria for inclusion
– Parameters:
• Article addresses the Higher Education context
• MOODLE must either be a primary research interest or be
used in the methodology, i.e. simply referring to MOODLE is
insufficient

4. Discipline No.
General 105 68.6%
Education 10 6.5%
Health and Medical Sciences 7 4.5%
Nursing 7 4.5%
Engineering 6 4%
Science 6 4%
Computer Science 5 3.2%
Arts, Humanities and Social Science 3 2%
Business Admin and Management 2 1.3%
Librarianship 1 0.6%
Cross-disciplinary 1 0.6%

5. What is MOODLE ‘best practice’ ?
 Findings from the literature indicate there is no ‘one best way.’
 Discipline specific case studies are particularly useful tools to learn
from the experience of others.
 There is nothing to suggest that MOODLE should be treated differently
from any other learning management system. Learning principles and
e-learning models appear to be transferrable.
 You do not need to reinvent the wheel with MOODLE.
 However research is still quite inconsistent with very little research on
MOODLE use in the Australian context.

6. The basics
 Be consistent: keep fonts and pictures the same size. Do not use more than 3
font types but do use images.
 You should not be the only one responsible for content. Share it with the
students through Question Creator Role, wikis, workshop mode etc. Vary the
approach to keep it interesting.
 Don’t make the students scroll from side to side. Also avoid making it too long
so students have to scroll and scroll.
 Use logs to gauge and even assess student participation.
 Be consistent with the names and labels of activities.
 Keep it visually neat and tidy, like a newspaper.
 Keep titles short so the jump to menu is not over-crowded.
 Give students a completion track so they can monitor their own learning.

7. Want to take it further?
 Elements of engaged learning using technology:
– Focused goals
– Challenging tasks
– Clear and compelling standard (e.g. Have your learning objectives
clear and visible)
– Protection from adverse consequences for initial failures
– Affirmative of performance
– Affiliation with others (other students as well as characters you
can create)
– Novelty and variety
– Choice
– Authenticity

8. Tools I have embraced
 Videos – extremely effective for student engagement
 Conversation Sims using the lesson function
 Separating out student cohorts (on-campus and off-campus) using
group functions
 Forced grouping tool for group projects
 Flipped classroom with links to my YouTube site
 The lesson function for problem-based learning (I will return to this
example)

9. What hasn’t worked for me (but may work
for you)
 None of my discussion boards have been used even by distance
students so I have abandoned them for the time being.
 Multiple choice questions are tough in my discipline given that
management can be quite a grey area at times.
 Quizzes in general received little attention from my students unless
they were being assessed.
 Too many bells and whistles – too many activities made it
overwhelming.

10. Some of my (unpublished) research
findings on MOODLE
1. In a survey of 316 Monash students and staff, the students liked it
more than staff but the vast majority of both groups had strong
positive feelings towards the LMS.
2. Academics act as both mediators and moderators of technology for
students.
3. It has the functionality to mimic more sophisticated software. Content
still remains king – functionality and tools merely facilitate content
delivery.
4. Students really enjoy it when we provide new and different ways to
deliver content, so experiment. Novelty is a key was to engage
students.