Introduction
Over the course of the last three weeks I have had the opportunity to use Moodle to design a course with my friend and partner Leigh Murrell. I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Leigh, as she has a considerable amount of Moodle experience, where I have none. I have learned a great deal about the functionality of the Moodle platform and we have designed an effective course for teaching AP Spanish.
To access our Moodle course please use the URL http://moodle.sandi.net/course/view.php?id=18862
Please make sure that you are logged in (you will not be able to access all features and you may get an error message if you are not logged in)
Teacher username: lmteacher
Teacher password: lmteacher
Student username: lmstudent
Student password: lmstudent
Administrative Functionality
The administrative functionality within Moodle allows a teacher to use a series of panels and menus to engage with your course in a variety of different ways. You are able to edit and manage the look and feel of a course, you are able to manage files and course resources, you are able to manage grades and other aspects of a course, and many other items.
For the purposes of this project the majority of our time was spent creating or uploading resources and managing the look and feel of the course. However there were also many settings that allowed us to control course enrollment, and availability as well the number of weeks in a course and the number of items that show in different fields, etc.
Course Creating Functionality
Moodle allows the teacher to set all of the basic parameters of a course during course creation. This includes enrollment, permissions, and other desired functionality such as grading. Once a course has been established the teacher can create resources and activities for each module within the course.
Creating resources and activities is done using drop down menus from the main Moodle page and then by using an editing panel for creation. Each type of resource of activity has an individualized panel with some standard elements (like title) where the teacher is guided through creation. There are a variety of different types of resources available to create including books and linked files. There are even more activities to create than resources. We utilized a glossary activity, quizzes, forums, external assignments and offline assignments for our course.
Editing Functionality
Content that is created within Moodle is highly editable. The teacher can easily change the color, size and format of most everything on the main Moodle page and within the items. It is possible to re-order items, and to change their appearance within the course.
Reflection on Functionality
Overall, Moodle seems to have a highly intuitive design. It allows the teacher a great deal of control over how things appear within the course site and on creation in general. I did not feel like I was lacking the ability to create any of the standard learning items I would tend to look for. There are also some elements that I was pleasantly surprised by, such as the targeted navigation question possibility on the quiz or the ability to create a book resource.
My main criticism of Moodle is that it can take several steps to make changes that should be easy. There is not a lot of drag and drop functionality as you might see in other WYSIWYG website editors. This can make the process of making changes a little bit cumbersome.
Course Description
Leigh and I created an AP Spanish course in Moodle. This course has been designed to hold modules that will be used in conjunction with class activities in the area of Spanish Language Development. At this level of Spanish Language learning students are using Spanish almost exclusively for learning and directions for learning. For this reason on viewing our site you will notice there are places where directions for an assignment only appear in Spanish, this is purposeful in our design.
This course includes three module that stand alone from one another. In an AP Spanish class things tend to be related on a topical basis. This Moodle site provides a look into 3 such topics and the activities that can be done around them.
In designing our course Leigh and I were truly collaborative. We each worked on a quiz and we each worked on other resources and activities on our own but we did spend a large amount of time working collaboratively. As a Spanish teach Leigh provided the content and I went through and repurposed some of it to meet the needs of this assignment.
Course Review
Leigh and I conducted the beta-testing and wrote this section together. This course was reviewed using the high quality online course rubric. We had hoped to be able to use AP Spanish students for this test however due to time constraints we instead used three Spanish speaking adults as reviewers. Their feedback is as follows:
Learner Support & Resources
Our beta testers gave us “effective” marks for learner support. They noted that we have a questions area in which to provide assistance and all of the necessary contact information and support resources are noted within the syllabus. One beta tester suggested noting the location of the contact information in the syllabus on the main page, and now we have done so.
Online Organization & Design
The beta testers all felt that our syllabus was very well constructed and easy to follow, they marked us at the exemplary level. All important information was covered and they felt like the understood the purpose of the Moodle site within the class structure.
Instructional Design & Delivery
We had exemplary on the interaction rating. With participants stating they had ample opportunities to engage in interaction.
Regarding objectives, or participants noted that they were very specific and related to the content being taught.
All participants were impressed by our use of a variety of different learning modalities in our modules. They appreciated the use of audio, and visual elements to them.
Assessment & Evaluation of Student Learning
We received effective marks on aligning assessment with objectives. This was mostly due to the fact that there was confusion on some of the items on one of the quizzes. These questions are being addressed.
The participants all felt that we were exemplary in the way we used out informal assessment activities throughout the course.
Innovative Teaching with Technology
Our participants felt like we were exemplary in our use of technology to facilitate learning.
VDILS Model Application
The VDILS model focuses on student centric activities which include a high degree of interaction amongst participants and instructors. We built a high degree of interaction into our Moodle content by including blogs, forums and telephone calls as media for our deliverables. We have provided the students with a variety of opportunities to connect directly with one another and with the content through auditory and visual interactions as well as reading. Additionally as our intended learner is in a hybrid environment where they are experiencing both an online and in-person component to their instruction they are getting an even larger diversity of interactions than can be represented in the Moodle site alone. Additionally, student expectations are being set by guiding students to the resources that they will need to be aware of to pass the AP Spanish test that they will be taking at the end of the school year. Students in this program are working towards a predefined goal in that they are hoping to get college credit for their time in this class. As such they are interested in interacting with the content in such a way that will get them to this goal.
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