More tasks not information

It is good to have lots of information, but I feel there is the danger that Moodle will be used only as a repository for resources.

I think it is more important that the information is used only for the support of tasks. This may sound obvious but it easy to loose sight of this. I am finding that I am telling the students about the resources, but they seem to find it difficult to contextualise the relevance because there is no task relating to the resource. It is usually the case that, after telling them the relevance there is the ‘oh yeah’ comment. In other words they get it now.

In a visual sense the student is standing at point and it is taking that leap or step into the new information to build new learnings.

It would be good to have time to develop more tasks that are invigorating and relevant.

Support for students

Again I am addressing this issue.

Most students are capable of navigating through Moodle. Those that aren’t can be severely disadvantaged. I have sent or advised some students to go the Learning Centre for help. The issue is being able to use and navigate through Moodle. One suggestion is for the students to buddy up with more competent students. This can be hard in some of the labs due to their layout. Another suggestion is to issue the students with laptops and increase our WiFi coverage. This model is appealing due to its flexibility for the student, which in turn may be helpful for their digital literacy. The key issues are digital literacy and student support. These issues also are valid for the more capable students.

I would identify these issues as critical to the whole concept of flexible and on line learning. I am surprised that Unitec has no obvious support for this, or is it the case that the lecturer embed this support into their courses. I know from my own experiences that the support is critical, because in its absence,  frustration and demoralisation ensue.

Moodle Sem2 2009

I have just signed up my students for both courses. It was much easier this semester as I have control of adding students and I was able to troubleshoot problems in the lab with the students. I have also got the same course loaded from last semester, but I have hidden it and I am able to edit it as I go and then make it visible.

I have given my structures students a task for next week and hope to add their answers to the glossary which I want to use more this semester.

I have also encouraged the students to set up their own blog sites (Vox) and use them for reflective writing.  I have shown them my Vox site with the pattern staining entry as an example. Not a great example, but it is the idea that is important and it is something that they own and can take with them. It is also a good resource in terms of applying for jobs as it can display their critical thinking to prospective employers.

I am trying to insert more Web 2.0 into the course. It is not yet part of the assessment. What I am doing at this stage is more of a gentle introduction for the students and myself.

So far I am feeling much more ontop of things with Moodle this semester. It will be interesting this semester as well due to the fact that I have been landed with a bigger workload. I am also teching practical on the Certificate program. I will, if I have time, try and incorporate some Web 2.0 technology into the practical. The Certificate is now also set up on Moodle.

There is also the idea at the moment of setting up a CoP within UATI for using Moodle. I am keen to be involved in this and share my experiences and get feedback from other staff using the technology.

Moodle Administration

I have just completed a GDHE course on online learning. The course had some confusions for me which I am looking on positively. I have actually learned a lot because of this. it has forced me to reflect by usually asking the question – this is confusing, why? (and) how would I do this to make it less confusing? I am not talking about content, but structure or design.

One of the guest lecturers on the course used the course she was delivering in her discussion. I thought she had a good idea of providing the ‘panic room’ (discussion forum). She was able to show empirical evidence that it was used and function as it was designed to.

One theme that re-occurs is being concise and offering templates or as Paul Left discussed, the  need for embedded support.I have tried to do this on my course, not by design, but by request from the students for clarification. I have posted exemplars for the students to refer to in relation to a specific response I am looking for. I am in the middle of marking their papers, and on the whole it appears they are using the format I gave in the exemplar.

Another frustration I have as an administrator is that of control over the course. It would be great if I could reset passwords instead of going through a third party. I think as I use Moodle more think this frustration will be compounded.

Moodle as a student

I am currently on the Online and Flexible Learning course, which of course is very relevant. I am now viewing moodle as a student. After the first day I can see the potential for confusion. This is a new means of delivery and their are new skills to master for the student. Firstly for the student there is no overview (framework) of moodle that has been clearly outlined. I am thinking a diagrammatic representation would be good and secondly how we are to use it needs to be clearer (have examples). This is not only my opinion, but the opinion of others I have talked to. Of course I am at an advantage as a previous user. Pat sent me a instruction sheet she had written for using blogs, this sort of resource is incredibly helpful. I entered a blog as a student which was a copy and paste from a word document. I cleared the formatting before copying, then pasted. All looked good until I saved changes and viewed the blog. A whole lot of code had come through. I then deleted and repeated the process three times and the code just kept accumulating…grrrr. I gave up in the end. What a time waster. Luckily I know people such as Pat and Yong to talk to. In other words there is good support for me. This event was frustrating for me and I can see how it would taint the whole experience for a student.
On the upside I entered a term in the glossary (wwilfing). This was good as I felt as if I was helping to build something. The process went smoothly which left me feeling positive. The community of practice idea at work and functioning successfully with in the software. This being the case I still have high hopes for moodle.
One final concern with the glossary is that there needs to be some sort of message sent to the administrator that the glossary has been updated to prevent mis-information and possible malicious entries. On the other hand if the information is incorrect it would be good for the administrator to offer feed back and use the mistakes as formative assessment

Frustration with uploading

Part of what I expect from moodle is to be able to post information as soon as possible after an event. Such an event would be taking a class and recording all the session notes on smartboard. I then convert these notes into a pdf. format and post them to the moodle site, thereby giving the students an opportunity after the event to go over the days discussions. Another concern is the students reporting that they try to view class notes from previous sessions and they are no longer there. I have seen the link on the moodle page is still functioning, but the file retrieval path has been corrupted in some way. I have gone back and relinked the file to the moodle main page.
An issue that I find frustrating with software is the ability for it to maintain its integrity. That is that once something is created you would expect it to be stable. Maybe the issues I am experiencing are around the set up phase and the period of ironing out the glitches.
Because moodle is open source, does this mean we (programmers) can write software code that would help moodle deal with unique situations and possibly iron out problems. I know that from my use of Sketchup the availabilty of plugins certainly help with tailoring its functionality to suit my needs.
‘Ownership of learning’ is also something I have been thinking about. I know from my own experiences that when I enter a new learning environment there is a stress or pressure to understand all the relevant signifiers. When I first opened moodle it was of course not totally familiar. I soon found some signifiers that were familiar but the navigation through the site as an administrator was still clumsy. This makes me think what the students see as a comfortable environment to navigate through. Maybe we should be looking at the environments they are comfortable with.

Plateau in Moodle

I have got the hang of entering resources now. Last night I transferred a folder over from one course to another using the import option. There was a barrage of screen information during this process. I just kept pressing next and I saw the folder amongst the barrage. I just assumed it was other guff needed for the transfer. Today in class the course had a key for enrolment that was my password. I don’t remember doing this.

Now that I have got more skills with moodle I would like to add more, but it’s just a matter of time. Today I taught part of the course that is always difficult (bracing plans). Using moodle to direct the students to an important download was great as it cut out what is sometimes a confusing step and left some brain space for the important stuff. Compared to last year the students achieved results much quicker this year as they were able to sit in the lab and individually interact with the task instead of in a group as in previous years. Pat and I introduced the blog function to suggest it be used for reflective logs. I think it works best to introduce Moodle in parts to prevent the student being overwhelmed. I noticed one student in particular who was struggling last year was picking up the process well in the lab and had a result by the end.

Look forward to expanding the learning experience

Moodle set up with the Second class

There were 38 students to enter and set up. Pat assures me that using People soft will be a quicker way of setting up the students. What a day!
At the moment I feel there is so much more potential for using moodle, for instance using quizes, and expanding the glossary of terms. Also I want to look at the forums where I could be answering questions. The students have to do a reflective log. It would be good if this could be handled entirely on Moodle. Of course there is the issue of confidentiality. Also there is the students who don’t have computer access at home or work. Is their something the institution could do to give them the opportunity of participation. I think if I was in their shoes I would feel alienated or excluded by my lack of resource. I think this fact renders the project undemocratic. In the second class we set up this week there is a good portion of students from the scholarship programme (Maori and PI). The scholarship programme supported these students through their certificate, now they are in the diploma where is the support? I have contact with their previous tutor who continues his supportive role (unofficially). I will have to talk to him about the Moodle project and see if he has any advice on making it work for them.
I am still positive and optimistic about the potential of the project

Day 1 with the students.

Today we launched the course on Moodle (Structures 2). It was great to be in the lab and see them taking to it straight away. Some of them starting communicating straight away others were into the resources. They seemed on the whole comfortable with the software. Another good thing was that when I was giving instructions to one student other students were exploring at there own pace. Some students were mucking around on the internet, but it was good that I could approach them and they were able to click back into the site straight away. Probably they do this in class anyway in terms of drifting off or being distracted. Because the course was still in loaded on the computer it made it easy to snap there focus back to the course. It was also good having the visual elements, such as drawings and plans, loaded for them to access. The movies I want loaded were accessed from elsewhere, but they seemed to be interacting with the medium well. For me watching them, it was exciting to see them all ‘shooting off’ into the course material and exploring and playing. At this stage of the process I would say that I am excited and optimistic about this new dimension to the course. Where to from here? The students still have to see if they can open moodle from home. I need some more instruction and training from Pat to expand the usefulness of the software. It was great to have Pat there in support for the launch, thanks Pat.

Uploading Courses

Had some good time with moodle today. 30 minutes. Starting to understand its syntax and options. I couldn’t upload files for some reason. Possible technical glitch. I could not adjust the calendar to show only one a week. Despite the glitches I found quiet time with the software valuable (it’s Sunday and I’m at work). I can see that it will be a good tool for the students if I can key in information in different areas, such as the calendar, resources and announcements. This linking works well as an idea. Another critique of the setting is that sometimes it is unclear how to return to the course window. When i was altering the calender there are prompt icons to lead you to the next window and at the end of the process there was only an icon for export. Is export the same as save? As with other set ups it is important to click on save changes. The calendar does not have this option. In summary, inconsistency can be frustrating when using software when you are trying to establish patterns.