1) Characteristics of Moodle that you found most beneficial in creating your course
I found Moodle to be a great place to post information. It was so easy to create a forum or discussion board or to post a resource. In our project, we used a lot of forums and blog boards. When it comes to writing and analyzing writing, it is nice to have a location where students can view each others writing samples relatively easily. It was so easy to create and post a syllabus for the course. We used the quiz feature and the wiki feature. The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of personal freedom on how the material was displayed. Every Moodle course looks the same and it would nice to have a little personalization.
2) Feedback you received from your participants - aspects of the course that participants liked and any aspects of the course that you would change
Unfortunately I did not have much availablility to 4th grade students. As a middle school teacher, I could only try and think about what 4th grade was like, and I must say it seems to have changed a lot. We were able to get a few students to look over our project though by logging on to our accounts. I must say that when I heard some of the feedback I felt almost foolish that we had not thought of some of the concerns ahead of time.
Likes – Students really liked the number of resources that were available to them. They mentioned liking the online games. The concept of an on-line course was new to the students, so I think they were very excited at the thought of getting to use the computer to learn and submit work.
Dislikes – Most of the student concerns were so valid we used them in creating our finished product. The first was our choice of vocabulary. I was responsible for the syllabus, and without thinking I created a syllabus that was written for an adult to read rather than a student. Many of the 4th graders questioned the word choice – they were unsure what some of the words even meant. When we looked the syllabus with this in mind, we realized there were a lot of places we had slipped away from who our learners were and were writing with our professors in mind instead.
They were concerned about a few of the assignments. They did not know what was expected of them when it came to wikis and glossaries. Again, we forgot that we were writing for 4th graders who had no real experience in distance learning. We take for granted that a lot of us are familiar with the terminology used frequently in distance learning. We tried to go back and include some examples. There are probably even a few more places that could be changed before this was used as a finished course.
They mentioned concerns about knowing what was due and when. These are kids that are use to being told daily and weekly tasks. The Moodle requires a little more self-pacing. Before we implemented the course with 4th graders we would have to make sure there were calendars available that clarified when assignments were due. Some students complained that the workload was too much. My initial thought was that it was a little intensive, but Mechelle was serving as the SME and stated this was the amount of work expected out of a 4th grade student. You will never please everyone though, so it is very possible that students will claim it is too much work when it is not.
3) Any aspects of VDILS you used within your course
Learner involvement - there is a lot of learner involvement in our Moodle. Students work collaboratively in a wiki and are responsible for forum posts and blogs – all encouraging them to think and share their opinions with each other.
Individualized instruction – students are self paced through a lot of the Moodle having to read short stories on their own and contribute at a later time.
Non-linear – there are several things happening all at once. So even though a student has moved on to another reading, they must go back and comment on it at a later time. This causes them to have to think about the old things while learning the new.
Dialog – students are asked to read each others work and to comment on it. So there is encouraged dialog throughout. The group Wiki is one place where students must dialog with each other in order to create the final product.
4) State in detail the contribution you made to the total effort in completing the project
As a middle school teacher with relatively little knowledge of the 4th grade curriculum, I did have to concede a lot of the subject matter work to my partner. I did a good portion of the pre-planning. I researched the standards for the 4th grade curriculum and came up with the general proposal for the Moodle. After we had an agreed upon proposal, I was responsible for the syllabus and the editing for the Moodle. I went through the resources added by Mechelle and looked for places were we needed to edit. After the students mentioned the vocabulary, I went back and edited places where we had stopped talking to the students and started talking to our peers. I added the objectives to the weekly moodle sessions, and I checked the final product against the rubric for completeness.
5) State in detail the contribution that other group member(s) made to the total effort in completing the project
Mechelle was the subject matter expert (and a great one at that). She had the resources that needed to be placed onto the Moodle and worked on the pacing of the course. She also checked my general proposal for feasibility, and then made it happen with all of her resources. When I had a concern about the wording or what was being asked, I sent her the general concern and she was quick at either explaining away my concern (since I know so little about 4th graders) or made modifications to improve the Moodle. She was a great team member and her resources I think made for a great Moodle for 4th grade students.
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