Characteristics of Moodle
The course we created in Moodle was “Cells”. It is a comprehensive three-session course to instruct and give collaborative, “hands-on” opportunities for students to learn about plant and animal cells. Moodle is a great LMS that has many functions that are useful and allow the course to be comprehensive.
I found many characteristics of Moodle to be beneficial in creating my course. The blocks that were added on the sides of the page to show updates and course descriptions gave clarity to administrators and learners alike with what the course is and the activity that was happening. The breakdown of the course into modules or topics allowed for organization and clarity of what was expected each week. Splitting the course up also gave opportunities to only show students certain weeks at a time which would help so students couldn’t work ahead or see anything we didn’t want them to see just yet.
Adding resources to the Moodle was a very easy and important function. I really liked the option to add a summary about the resource so you can communicate with your learners what each resource has or what it is used for to complete certain assignments. The forums are also a nice feature to help students communicate and collaborate with each other using the discussions, chat and Q&A sessions.
The editing function within Moodle was easy to use and understandable. This may be because I have used it in the past and am used to the icons available and what they mean. I do wish that there were a short description of what each resource and activity allowed the administrator or learner to do that made it different. It took some trial and error to understand which resource or activity we wanted to use.
Feedback
The feedback we received from our participants was very positive. They really enjoyed the layout of the course and said it was very simple and straightforward. The one part of the course I would like to change would be the online virtual lab. I would need to complete more in-depth research to find a virtual lab that is meant for 7th grade students. The virtual lab is slightly advanced for them in my opinion but there were no complaints from our participants on the lab.
VDILS
In each session we listed goals, objectives and the deliverables that the students were expected to reach and complete in that session. Each part was explained in detail in case they didn’t understand the discussion during the synchronous session of the class. We explained what the learning activity entailed and what was expected of them through the activity. We also explained exactly what the deliverable needed to be and look like for them to receive credit.
My Contribution
In order to begin our collaboration on our Moodle project I created the googledoc to complete our project proposal together and when we were done with the proposal I posted it on the drupal site. On the Moodle page, I determined the theme and layout; I created the course overview section on the top as well as sessions 2 and 3 except for the quiz on session 3. I added the blocks on the side of the Moodle containing the Course Summary and all images on the Moodle site. Finally I completed half of the syllabus.
Partner Contribution
Krista Ferguson was my partner in completing the Moodle project and she is the SME (subject matter expert). She collaborated with the completion of the project proposal and had the subject material with the cell diagrams and creating analogies with cell parts and city structures. On the Moodle she created session 1 as well as the quiz in session 3. She also found the virtual lab on session 2. Krista completed half of the syllabus as well that is posted in the top section of Moodle. Our feedback came from Krista’s nieces and nephews that are at the age level of our projected audience.
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