Smith- Moodle Paper

Moodle: An Experience in Virtual Learning Environments

I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to use Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS) because I have only had access to Blackboard up to this point. I wanted to discover the differences between an open source system like Moodle in comparison to a proprietary system like Blackboard. While tinkering with Moodle I did notice some limitations and a less intuitive system which for the price had most of the same features as an expensive LMS.

Introduction to the Course
The course I created was built for high school chemistry students and focused on content regarding nuclear chemistry. The course was built to be taught with synchronous lecture (online) with activities to expand student learning through the LMS. The course included a laboratory component, guided practice problems and interaction with peers in the class using a forum (blog) and wiki for posting information collected during the laboratory activity. I tried to incorporate as much interaction into the course using the forum, wiki and making sure to include a synchronous portion with the lecture.

Administrative Function
Moodle has many different administrative features which can be useful for an LMS. Moodle has the ability to run reports to determine usage of the materials located in database to track participation within the course. To coincide with the ability to track student participation it has a fully functioning gradebook which can include a weighted grade system.

Another great feature of Moodle is its ability to allow students to self-enroll into the course using a passcode or it can be open access for anyone to join in. Limiting the access of students is a very important function because you do not want to have random students entering a class and submitting materials to your database system.

I particularly like the idea of being able to back-up, import, or upload files to the Moodle database. Once the files are uploaded to the file database they can then be linked with the course for student access. These files can be backed up to a zip file for import to other Moodle database systems.

Course Creation Functionality
Moodle contains some unique features for course creation such as:

• Wikis
• Forums (Blogs)
• Surveys
• Lessons

These features can increase interaction for the students enrolled in the class. There is also a feature which allows the student to choose which direction they want to go with regard to a project. The Lesson feature allows the instructor the opportunity to create a lesson using a template to have student learn and walk through at their own pace. Another feature I would like to learn more about is the ability to upload SCORM packages to have interactive learning modules which can be scored and recorded in a database.

Editing Functions
The background and widgets can be added or removed very easily on the Moodle platform. There is a dropdown menu which allows for the addition of calendars, message postings, mortgage calculators, etc. You can also edit the background color of the whole Moodle page and upload images to customize the look of the main page.

Along with these features you do have the ability to view the page from the student’s perspective with a simple dropdown menu. This feature gives you another perspective for development of the Moodle LMS.

Pros and Cons
I feel there are many pros with Moodle. The first one is price…free is a great price and it offers most of the same functionality of an expensive LMS like Blackboard. I do not like the inability to change the three column structure within Moodle main page. I know I can move all the widgets to one side, but it does not allow for size constraints.

My biggest disappointment with Moodle was the quiz feature. I had developed a quiz in Blackboard I wanted to transfer into Moodle. I knew I would need to re-type the information, but when I had to enter in an equation such as (_6^14)C I was unable to perform this task. As a chemistry teacher this makes it difficult to create quizzes with equations.

Another issue with Moodle was the fact it is sn open source platform. With open source there is no necessarily a definitive standard for all of the features. If you have an administrator who knows PHP they can probably develop work arounds for some issues but if the administrator does not know or have the time to help develop work a solution you will be waiting a very long time. With proprietary software you have a say and most of bugs and problems have been worked out because of the money and resources available to the staff.

Feedback from “Students”
I did not have any feedback from the people I requested to enter into the Moodle site. It was very disappointing not being able to try it out on a specific population. However I do have changes I would perform to make the course more interactive.

• Create the lessons as a learning module such that students could not move forward until there was a level of proficiency achieved.
• Increase the interactivity within the course by offering other forums to post questions about the course.

The items I would like to keep the same would be the synchronous lecture. I truly believe high school students need the interaction with a teacher to answer the questions to be successful. This allows for questions to be answered immediately at the time of conception by the student.

VDILS Incorporation
I used mostly the implementation principles as stated in the VDILS. I was very clear with the assignment due dates and the objectives for each lesson. I feel these are some of the most important aspects of creating an online learning environment because there needs to be a clear set of expectations for the students. The final piece I used was a clear avenue of communication for the contacting me through e-mail. Making sure there is a clear line of communication is very important when students have to perform tasks on their own for a learning experience.

The one item my lessons are missing is the individualization needed to make each student successful in their own way. I feel my lessons lacked the tailoring needed to meet the need of each student. The planning it takes to meet the need of every type of student is difficult and time consuming. However if I had taught this class many times over I would eventually be able to build it to each and every learning style to accommodate the student’s needs to be successful.