Can Moodle Do it All? Peter Wilkinson (FE)
What is “it all?”
Most of us are going to have to more with less, administration and non-contact time will, at best, remain static. So Peter applied a triage analogy and suggested we focus on those individuals who will respond to treatment, the late majority. The “it’s just another thing to do,” and “I haven’t been trained to,” brigade.
Peter advocates that the Moodle course is the SoW, the topics, the learning resources, embelish to planing. Assessment is perhaps his only concern, as in Peter opinion the Gradebook is a little cumbersome (he may have a point). Other than that, as an exam board verifier, Peter definitely presented a strong case for Moodle, being able to “do it all.” You can find out more on Quanglewangle.com.
Best Course Design – Michelle Moore, Remote Learner
- Do not exceed THREE fonts
- Try and keep the topic your studying on the screen (avoid a scroll)
- Share the work – quiz question role for students
- Avoid horizontal scrolling – remember the screen width of the user.
- Avoid hyperlinking resources, its negates the logs capabilities
- Use labels and not be scared of white space, but don’t use too much
- Books and Lesson housed content effectively
- Branch out, the Sainsbury effect, ‘try something new today.’
Moodle 2
- Do dock certain essential blocks
- Do offer your studnets completion tracking
- Use conditional activities when and where it ADDS value.
Monitoring Student Progress and Annotation Assignments Online – Dave Smith (FE)
Finally, I add a review of the stella presentation of the day. David Smith, who many of you may know from Twitter and Moodle.org as @Davosmith showcased his UploadPDF Assignment type and Checklist module plugins. I highly recommend you take a look at the two plugins which significantly improve assessment options for Moodle, particularly for courses where resubmission is common practice or where objective lead outcomes must be assessed. Of course, his Realtime Quiz module, not covered in his presentation also deserves a mention as does the recently released lesson objectives block.
David, a part-time teacher and part-time developer is looking to tip the balance in favour of more development, are you in the market for plugin development of Moodle customisation, then definitely take at look at Davodev.co.uk.
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Thanks for the write-up of “Can Moodle do it all?”
One point I don’t think I made strongly enough (or at all!) is the linkage between Moodle “doing it all” and encouraging take up by the Late majority. A key reason for doing the first is as a mechanism for achieving the second.
Peter, thanks for dropping by. Having worked in both a Sixth Form College and a school I recognised the direction you were advocating; the course as the SoW, the content host and learning stimulation, the conduit to student interaction, possibly even the teaching-student interactions, assessment and feedback. It is not inconceivable that Moodle could do it all. From my point of view there is a growing practitioner divide, between traditional (separated components, SoW, Course resources, assessment practice) working practice and those practitioners delivers an integrated learning experience, where learners are a part of the process. Will the ‘late majority’ recognise this opportunity, like you I doubt it?
I thought your presentation raised significant institutional leadership questions and perhaps the answer can be found in some of the other workshops? I thought you handled my challenge, and others from within the workshop admirably. The Moodle, ‘one-stop-shop’ approach to course design, where the topic and content infrastructure is the SoW one I will be advocating.