Moodle Project Report Bjorngjeld

EDTEC 700
Learning Management Systems Project Paper
Jesse Bjorngjeld

Administrative Features:
The Moodle course creation website had many useful administration functions. Because I have a hard time organizing paper as a teacher, I value all of the administrative functions. I love being able to do assessments in a way that does not include grading quizzes, as well as keeping track of grades.

Creation Functionality:
Because I spent less time reading the Moodle for teachers and more time trying things on my own, It probably took me longer to create the quiz module that was in day 2. Other than that, It was fairly easy to create modules and upload files and links. The drop down menu made it easy to add resources. It also helped me to think of other ways to present the material other than standard method like many online classes I have taken in the past. In college the online classes included reading and then writing and taking quizzes. Moodle seems to offer more opportunities to interact with other learners.

Editing Functionality:
I did not really find editing to be very efficient within Moodle. It was somewhat cumbersome to edit the quiz within the quiz module, along with not being able to format text as well. We also did not have the time to figure out how to change the module headings from the default, which is a date range (1 March - 7 March). We would like it to say the topic name of each module.

Pros & Cons
The pros of using the Moodle platform are test and student management systems. This is partially an assumption because I have never fully implemented a course within Moodle, however, with the ability to create quizzes and track the grades the students receive through their account pins, many of the headaches involved with grading can be relieved. The quizzes also can give immediate feedback to the students, helping it be a way for students to self-assess their learning. The student rather than the teacher can feel the cons of the Moodle platform most heavily. I believe this can happen because the platform is very text driven. Sometimes the modules can look overwhelming and unorganized. Though this may be the case, a standardized job-aid that accompanied each day may mitigate the overwhelmed student. Another con that I see may be that it is not able to process data that is given from all outside sources, however, I have not tried to feed it data from any other source than the internally designed quiz. I look forward to investigating further into these issues as my LMS analysis continues.

Course Description:
Our Moodle course is a 3 module series about electrical circuits as part of the 4th grade science curriculum. The course starts with an introduction to conductivity where students explore things around them that conduct and don’t conduct electricity. They post their findings in a forum and complete a homework piece along with an online activity. The second and third modules involve students working collaboratively on constructing a simple and series circuits. They watch branching YouTube videos and complete an online group activity.

Feedback:
The feedback from our course was generally positive. Because the user had never used Moodle before, the layout seemed confusing. The user was very surprised at the quiz module, because it was able to have images rather than only text. Within the rubric, the user mentioned that it was too text based and lacked the tools needed to contact the instructor. This is something that we would want to change if we were to implement the course in a blended learning environment or online class.

Aspect of VDILS:
One aspect of the VDILS model that is included in our course is that of Dynamic Dialogue. Students post in forums and work collaboratively to complete tasks, such as working together to draw circuits on a collaborative whiteboard. Learner Autonomy is also present in that students traverse the activities within the modules at their own pace, except when required by collaborative activities.