The characteristics of Moodle that I found most beneficial in creating our course on nutrition was the ability to have all the resources such as agendas, forums, links, syllabus, and assessments all in one platform. In essence, Moodle is a "one stop shop" for the instructor and the learner. One feature that I found very useful was the ability to create or import assessments and then have it graded automatically. In addition, the scores can be accessed by the learner immediately after the assessments. Another feature that was beneficial was the ease of use of the Moodle interface. Once I figured out the basics through the tutorials and dabbling with the interface, I was able to help create our Moodle page very quickly. Although, it did take a little time to learn the terminology and nuances specific to Moodle. I believe one of the reasons for the delay is that we as a cohort have learned a variety of Web 2.0 tools in the past two years. Every Web 2.0 tool we learned such as Weebly, Wikispaces, Google Sites, Web Quests, etc. has a different type of interface and terminology. However, once you play around with it and use the tutorials, it becomes second nature.
I showed the Moodle page to my wife who is a middle school English teacher and a good friend who teaches graphic design through the ROP program at a high school for the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD). My wife is new to Moodle but my friend uses Moodle for all his classes and could be considered a subject matter expert (SME).
My wife liked the Moodle page and how the content was divided by topic. She felt it was very easy to follow from a teacher and parent perspective. Not using a lot of technology in her classes, she wasn’t too sure if the Moodle page was student -friendly or not. Although, she did say that it was very similar to navigating through a regular website and if she spent a class period navigating through the Moodle page with an overhead projector, most of her seventh and eighth grade students would most likely be able to follow it proficiently.
My friend who uses Moodle for all his graphic design classes for the SDUSD raved about the ease of use about the Moodle interface when I told him about this course. He liked the Moodle page and asked me if I created any quizzes. I told him I played around with that feature and liked how Moodle would grade the quiz for you and allow you to give feedback for a correct or incorrect answer. He then showed me his class Moodle page and showed me how his quiz grades went right to a spreadsheet with each student listed and their score. He also told me how I just reached the tip of the iceberg and that there were a lot more things I could do with Moodle such as the glossary and blog options.
In our nutrition course, Exercise Your Options, we implemented a collaboration activity for each session. For example, during the first session, students worked together in groups via Skype to create a PowerPoint presentation of a particular food group they were assigned to. We also implemented forums and a class Wiki where students had to evaluate their partner’s menu choices at a fast food restaurant and analyze their partner’s seven day food diary. Each session had the objectives posted as well as the session’s agenda. Resources, assignments and were posted and images were used in each session to enhance understanding. Instead of a quiz or an exam, students were assessed on their fast food restaurant menu selection and food diary as well as evaluating their peers on the same assignments using the class forums.
I was responsible for learning the Moodle interface and teaching my group members how to use it. In addition, I created the course goals and course policies in the course syllabus, the topic outline page which included the course objectives and session three of the Moodle course which included the assignment, image, and forum. I added a couple of nutrition resources as well as the extra credit assignment.
Robert created the course description and instructor profile in the course syllabus, the course agenda, session one of the Moodle course, provided the links to the fast food restaurant nutrition guides, supplied the images and added nutrition resources.
Matt created the course technologies, learning materials, assessments, and grading scheme in the course syllabus, session two and session four of the course, the class Wiki page, the food diary rubric, and the nutrition label PowerPoint presentation, and provided nutrition resources. We collaborated together via Skype and worked on the course being user-friendly for students and ensure that we met the requirements for the Moodle Project Check Off Sheet.
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