MOODLE Varndean

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MOODLE _at_ Varndean

• VLE (Virtual Learning Environment)

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What is Moodle?

• Moodle is an Open Sourced VLE (Virtual Learning
  Environment), and has been set up on the college
  servers, to aid students at Varndean College.
• Originally started by Martin Dougiamas
• Based on Social Constructionist Pedagogy

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What can Moodle do?

• Set up Online Courses
• Upload Associated Files
• Set up Activities
• and Run the Course

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Online Courses - formats

• Weekly
• Topic
• Social

• Note that the weekly and topics formats are very
  similar in structure. The main difference is that
  each box in the weekly format covers exactly one
  week, whereas in the topic format each box can
  cover whatever you like. The social format
  doesn't use much content at all and is based
  around just one forum - this is displayed on the
  main page.

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Associated Files

• You may have existing content that you want to
  add to your course, such as web pages, audio
  files, video files, word documents, or flash
  animations. Any type of file that exists can be
  uploaded into your course and stored on the
  server. While your files are on the server you
  can move, rename, edit or delete them.

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Activities

• There are a number of activities that can be
  added to your courses
• Assignment
• Choice
• Forum
• Journal
• Resource
• Quiz
• Survey

• Chat
• Glossary
• Hot Potatoes Quiz
• Label
• Lesson
• Scorm
• Workshop

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Run the Course

• Subscribe yourself to all the forums so you keep
  in touch with your class activity.
• Encourage all the students fill out their user
  profile (including photos) and read them all -
  this will help provide some context to their
  later writings and help you to respond in ways
  that are tailored to their own needs.
• Keep notes to yourself in the private "Teacher's
  Forum" (under Administration). This is especially
  useful when team teaching.
• Use the "Logs" link (under Administration) to get
  access to complete, raw logs. In there you'll see
  a link to a popup window that updates every sixty
  seconds and shows the last hour of activity. This
  is useful to keep open on your desktop all day so
  you can feel in touch with what's going on in the
  course.
• Use the "Activity Reports" (next to each name in
  the list of all people, or from any user profile
  page). These provide a great way to see what any
  particular person has been up to in the course.
• Respond quickly to students. Don't leave it for
  later - do it right away. Not only is it easy to
  become overwhelmed with the volume that can be
  generated, but it's a crucial part of building
  and maintaining a community feel in your course.

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Weekly Format
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Topics Format
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Social Format
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Assignment

• An assignment is where you set a task with a due
  date and a maximum grade. Students will be able
  to upload one file to satisfy the requirements.
  The date they upload their file is recorded.
  Afterwards, you will have a single page on which
  you can view each file (and how late or early it
  is), and then record a grade and a comment. Half
  an hour after you grade any particular student,
  Moodle will automatically email that student a
  notification.

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Choice

• A choice activity is very simple - you ask a
  question and specify a choice of responses.
  Students can make their choice, and you have a
  report screen where you can see the results. I
  use it to gather research consent from my
  students, but you could use it for quick polls or
  class votes.

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Forum

• This module is by far the most important - it is
  here that discussion takes place. When you add a
  new forum, you will presented with a choice of
  different types - a simple single-topic
  discussion, a free-for-all general forum, or a
  one-discussion-thread-per-user.

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Journal

• Each journal activity is an entry in the whole
  course journal. For each one you can specify an
  open-ended question that guides what students
  write, as well as a window of time in which the
  journal is open (weekly course format only). A
  general rule of thumb is to create one journal
  per week. Encourage students to write
  reflectively and critically in these journals, as
  they are only available to them and you.
  Afterwards, you will be able to grade and comment
  all the entries for that week or topic, and
  students will receive an automatic email
  informing them of your feedback. Journals are not
  designed to be continually added to - if you need
  to do that then add more journal activities.

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Resources

• Resources are content information the teacher
  wants to bring into the course. These can be
  prepared files uploaded to the course server
  pages edited directly in Moodle or external web
  pages made to appear part of this course.

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Quiz

• This module allows you to design and set quiz
  tests, consisting of multiple choice, true-false,
  and short answer questions. These questions are
  kept in a categorised database, and can be
  re-used within courses and even between courses.
  Quizzes can allow multiple attempts. Each attempt
  is automatically marked, and the teacher can
  choose whether to give feedback or to show
  correct answers. This module includes grading
  facilities.

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Survey

• The survey module provides a number of predefined
  survey instruments that are useful in evaluating
  and understanding your class. Currently they
  include the COLLES and the ATTLS instruments.
  They can be given to students early in the course
  as a diagnostic tool and at the end of the course
  as an evaluation tool.

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Chat

• The Chat module allows participants to have a
  real-time synchronous discussion via the web.
  This is a useful way to get a different
  understanding of each other and the topic being
  discussed - the mode of using a chat room is
  quite different from the asynchronous forums. The
  Chat module contains a number of features for
  managing and reviewing chat discussions.

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Glossary

• This activity allows participants to create and
  maintain a list of definitions, like a
  dictionary.
• The entries can be searched or browsed in many
  different formats.
• The glossary also allows teachers to export
  entries from one glossary to another (the main
  one) within the same course.
• Finally, it is possible to automatically create
  links to these entries from throughout the
  course.

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Hot Potatoes Quiz

• Moodle allows you to upload a quiz exercise
  created using Hot Potatoes
• Hot Potatoes enables you to create interactive
  Web-based teaching exercises for more
  information visit http//www.hotpotatoes.net

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Label

• This is a not a true activity - it is a "dummy"
  activity that allows you to insert text and
  graphics among the other activities on the course
  page.

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Lesson

• A lesson delivers content in an interesting and
  flexible way. It consists of a number of pages.
  Each page normally ends with a question and a
  number of possible answers. Depending on the
  student's choice of answer they either progress
  to the next page or are taken back to a previous
  page. Navigation through the lesson can be
  straight forward or complex, depending largely on
  the structure of the material being presented.

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Scorm

• Acronym for Sharable Content Object Reference
  Model. SCORM is a series of e-learning standards
  that specify ways to catalogue, launch and track
  course objects.

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Workshop

• A Workshop is a peer assessment activity with a
  huge array of options. It allows participants to
  assess each other's projects, as well as exemplar
  projects, in a number of ways. It also
  coordinates the collection and distribution of
  these assessments in a variety of ways.

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COLLES

• Constructivist On-Line Learning Environment
  Survey
• The COLLES comprises an economical 24 statements
  grouped into six scales, each of which helps us
  address a key question about the quality of the
  on-line learning environment Relevance,
  Reflection, Interactivity, Tutor Support, Peer
  Support, Interpretation

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ATTLS

• Attitudes to Thinking and Learning Survey
• The theory of 'ways of knowing', originally from
  the field of gender research provides us with a
  survey tool to examine the quality of discourse
  within a collaborative environment.
• People with higher CK scores tend to find
  learning more enjoyable, and are often more
  cooperative, congenial and more willing to build
  on the ideas of others, while those with higher
  SK scores tend to take a more critical and
  argumentative stance to learning.