Moodle Basics
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This document discusses the benefits and uses of Moodle, an online learning platform. Moodle is described as really useful, important, and easy to use. It is useful as a virtual classroom assistant and for distance learning. It allows for centralized and incremental learning anywhere and anytime. Moodle has features like online tests, assignments, grading, and forums that facilitate online learning. It also supports social constructivist learning through social interaction and tools. Moodle helps meet the needs of a rapidly changing environment by expanding learners' digital literacy and meeting their expectations for online tools and resources while also promoting eSafety.
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Moodle Basics
- 1. 1.How do you use Moodle at the moment? Short discussionShort discussion Opinions on MoodleOpinions on Moodle 2.Short Community Video 3.Moodle is really useful: 1. Virtual Classroom Assistant 2. Distance Learning Classroom 4.Moodle is really important: 1. Rapidly changing work environment 2. Teacher/trainer responsibility 5.Moodle is really easy: 1. Let's look back a few years... 6.What are you going to do now?
- 2. A short 2 minute video: ● Click me for a ~3 mins video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4mmMeMDMic ● Important Note: Community resources, like the video, are made voluntarily.
- 3. So, what is ● Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Online learning/teaching ● Learning Management System (LMS) Controlled/managed/reported learning ..or.. ● Course Management System (CMS) Carefully guided/systematic courses ?
- 4. Moodle is really useful Virtual Classroom Assistant Distance Learning Classroom
- 5. Virtual Classroom Assistant “Cloud” toolkit to help aide and enhance classroom activities
- 6. Centralised & Incremental Learning
- 7. Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Centralised & Incremental Learning
- 8. The “Martini Principle” ● Anytime, anyplace, anywhere ● 24/7 ● Online (up in the cloud)
- 9. Moodle Gradebook ● Self-marking tests – Moodle Quiz ● Focus your tutor time with students who seem to be struggling ● Custom Scales (not just 0-100%) ● Online & Offline Assignments graded ● Storage and reporting grades
- 10. Formative Testing ● Moodle Lesson: ● Learning ● Checking and reviewing understanding ● Revisiting misunderstood materials ● Tailored to the student, tailored to learning styles
- 12. What is the difference? When learners are asked to say something in class? When learners are asked to answer a question online?
- 13. Social Constructivism ● Social interaction online ● Teacher-led tasks ● Intervening to help direct & provoke discussion ● Summarise discussion ● Moodle Forums ● Moodle WIKIs ● Moodle Chat ● Moodle Messages
- 14. Dr. Gilly Salmon 5 Stage eLearning Model
- 15. Shift Happens 21st Century information is constantly and rapidly changing ● “The amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years” ● “The U.S. Department of labor estimates today's learner will have 10-14 jobs … by age 38” ● “The top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn't exist in 2004” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q
- 16. You are responsible... 1) ...for sending your learners into the world with a expanding digital literacy a basis from which to learn constantly and rapidly 2) ...for meeting digital expectations of your learners forums/collaborative tools/video,audio etc. 3) … for providing and promoting eSafety walled garden, moderating tools
- 17. How Moodle can support it 1) ...for sending your learners into the world with a expanding digital literacy – Moodle has a wide and always expanding range of activities. – Provides social functionalities which are embedded in online social life (Facebook etc)
- 18. How Moodle can support it 2) ...for meeting digital expectations of your learners – Moodle is constantly evolving – Learner knowledge is always building – Everyday social tools and technologies are improving VERY rapidly. (Take mobile phones for example)
- 19. How Moodle can support it 3) … for providing and promoting eSafety – Walled garden aspect – Monitoring and controlling
- 20. Moodle is really easy! ● Finally, a brief overview of 10 social courses we have created ● http://wbl-online.org.uk/moodle
Editor's Notes
- I am going to show you the basics of Moodle and a little bit of the theory behind its creation and use. But first I'd like a few of you to tell me about how you use Moodle at the moment? STIMULATE ANSWER What do you think of Moodle? Opinions? Experiences? STIMULATE ANSWERMoodle is often seen as quite a boring platform, but, sorry to say it.. it is as boring as the teachers make it! It has a huge and ever expanding range of core activities and hundreds of additional modules you can download and install.
- This video is available on YouTube for those who want to watch it later. It is a great basic intro to Moodle and fitting for those of you who need to catch up on the basics of what Moodle is.
- So, I am hoping that maybe clarified some things about Moodle and showed you the amazing support it has world wide. Online Learning AND teaching. It provides a platform for you to provide support and guidance without some of the learner hassles such as embarrassment, nervousness, inability to communicate fears or lack of knowledge. It also provides you a tool to provide STRUCTURED learning to a specification you have. It allows your courses to be CAREFULLY GUIDED to monitor and help learners.
- So, we see there being two defined ways of using Moodle: And these are two methods we actually practice at TDM. Virtual Classroom AssistantUsed alongside and complimenting your face-to-face lessons. Distance Learning Classroom Used as an online environment where the majority of work is taught and completed online.
- Virtual Assistant: In this situation Moodle becomes a 'Cloud' toolkit. Basically, by this, I mean that it is software online (in the air, in the cloud) accesible through the internet. The software has loads of modules that you can use. You have your face-to-face sessions and you provide classroom teaching and you DIP INTO your toolkit to ENHANCE your students learning experience, maybe extended reading, provide support for struggling learners. You also use tools from your toolkit to make sure your students understood what you have been teaching them!
- First of all, all of the resources that you put onto Moodle for your learners are accesible by all your learners AND teachers. No repeating! - Next year, all of the resources are there again. And again the year after. Always editable – If you put your resources up onto Moodle in the form of Moodle web pages and other more interactive tools, your resources are ALWAYS editable. If you simply upload pdf's/word docs, you have to download them from Moodle when changes are needed and UPLOAD them again to the Moodle.
- The next thing is that YOU have the CONTROL over when your learners receive their assignments resources and quizzes. Example: You teach Bakery for example in week 1 and after the classroom session, you have automatically given them access to the resources for checking understanding, extended reading etc. But you don't want them to have access to next weeks Stone-masonry materials just yet (maybe you do).etc etc etc This incremental provision of resources and assignments provides a great structure to enhance your classroom sessions.
- This is a good one. I actually have never seen the advert that this relates to. I've been told there is an advert with a song by some of my colleagues.. no names. For those of you like me... Moodle is available anytime. You don't have to be on your own computer You can access it from anything with internet access.. so a mobile (yes, the chunky old ones with WAP)
- The gradebook is one of the best features of Moodle. Developed with 6 million pounds funding from the Open University, it is feature rich, and totally flexible to your needs. Something up until recently we didn't have the luxury of in the classroom is the Self-marking quiz. Again with the martini princple, where it is online therefore accessible anywhere. By checking understanding this way, you can spend time with students which appear to be struggling. The flexibility of the gradebook allows custom scales, so that if you use Fail, Pass, Merit or Distinction OR 0-100% or bluntly pass or fail YOU choose. We used a star rating system which works well in social settings such as forums We really have to remember that the tools that we have were simply not available to everyone as recent as 10 years ago and certainly not for free.
- So, that was summative testing with Quizzes and automatic grading . We can also tailor the learning resources to the student in the way they are delivered. All automatically again. Moodle Lessons allow you to show the student content on a slide-by-slide basis. You ask the student questions and they will JUMP to additional pages based on their decisions. USE EXAMPLE HERE If you've dabbled in Moodle Lessons you will know that they require a lot of effort to get to work properly. We plan our Lessons out with paper storyboards first to work out the structure and the learner journeys. Properly planned Moodle Lessons can take as long to prepare as face-to-face lessons. They are much more interactive and individual focused though.
- The picture is irrelevant. The students either take part completely from behind their computer or in a blended environment where they attend focus groups/workshops in-between online learning.
- ASK THE QUESTIONS & STEER THE ANSWERS: In class: Perhaps feel put on the spot, ability to use gesture/emotion a lot (maybe too much), feel embarrassed so not answer, not everyone gets involved (participation is low) ← this is a fact according to eLearning studies from the past 10 years. Online: Simply - Have the time to compose an answer. It is thought provoking sitting in-front of a text box and converting what your brain is saying to a sentence which you know others have to read and understand. More people WILL get involved, especially those who maybe felt uneasy putting their hand up. How many people offered an answer here today? PROBABLY, in an online environment, you would have all contributed at some point. Whether it was an agreement, acknowledgement or an addition to someone’s opinion, you would have discussed the question.
- A long word, can anyone BRIEFLY summarise it? GET ANSWER HOPEFULLY Yes, essentially, your view of something, anything is shaped by the input of those around you. The interaction with others allows you to build or CONSTRUCT your knowledge. This interaction constructs a group knowlesdge. In Moodle, your role is to create provoking tasks that are led by you, but where the answers are built by the students. You intervene where necessary, but not too often. You summarise their discussions every now and again and initiate/provoke new thoughts.
- Leading on quite nicely to Gilly Salmon's 5 stage model for eLearning and eModerating. We create and design our online courses around this model and the 10 courses I will show you later on are a good example. 1. Raise motivation about course. Make sure they can get in easily! Login and enrolment credentials etc. None of this can quite easily stop the next 4 stages from happening at all. 2. Get them used to the software. Icebreaker activities: forums/wikis/glossaries based on trivial things. Send and receive messages with your students to familiarise them with the software. 3. Information Exchange. Give them the resources needed, but on the other side of the coin... get them to give you assignments back, make sure they are comfortable using the learning resources. It is as much giving them resources as them spitting the information back at you. 4. Stage 4 describes them building a personal experience of the learning journey and at this stage the students will hopefully be discussing different opinions and experiences with the learning materials. It is your role to facilitate the discussions, steering arguments into constructive discussions etc. 5. The student, at this stage, should have reached a level of understanding where they want to learn more. Your role here is to provide routes to additional learning (advanced courses, web info etc.
- If you google Gilly Salmon you will find her website and this image pretty quickly. 10 years ago, would I have told you to do that? Go google some lady? We have SUCH a rapidly changing information environment and such easy access to a lot of information that this is possible. Either watch video.. or... move on The video is a little bit dramatic but very relevant. In terms of our role as teachers and trainers providing a platform that is created and forged from these rapidly changing environments is key.
- You are responsible for sending learners in with a basis from which to learn various skills quickly. Being able to do things on the move, on your phone, laptop or desktop computer is a great example and providing a space ONLINe WITH THEIR TUTOR is key. Using tools that are perhaps different to the way you learned things.. Social constructivism/5 stage model etc. Promote the eSafety principles and moderate with care. Moodle IS a WALLED GARDEN, which means, there shouldn't be anyone in there that you haven't allowed.
- Moodle itself is constantly evolving and expanding. There are core activities to Moodle: Forums, wikis, glossaries and assignments, quizzes and lessons. But there are hundreds more that you can add to your moodle (or get an admin to add) which can extend your teaching and learning. Just last week a new version of moodle came out. Moodle 2.0! and it brings new features which again extend the social aspects that I talked about just a minute ago.
- Your students WILL undoubtedly have expectations of what their learning environment should be like. A colleague of mine was enrolled on a course and she went expecting to build a portfolio of her work. It was a portfolio of IT work therefore she EXPECTED to build an ePortfolio online. When asked to build a paper based portfolio, her motivation was immediately brought down. Meeting those expectations is really important for the continual evolution of your teaching and learning.
- Esafety will probably be VERY important to you as teachers. You are probably aware of it more than how to actually use the software? ASK THE QUESTION Moodle provides a “walled garden”. You can monitor and control activity.