During the last session of the day, I had the pleasure of sitting in on Michelle Moore’s presentation, Making the Most of Moodle! Moore shared a site with us to examine. I tested the site on my iPad and initially found the mobile theme impressive.
Moore began by explaining what Moodle was.
- Can make it your own.
- Open source
- Scorm compliant
- Can develop a variety of content
- Communication and collaboration tools
- Social constructionist underpinnings
- Can control roles to allow certain permissions.
What Does Moodle Look Like?
Moore displayed several themes that people have applied to Moodle. The different looks provide inspiration for sites I am developing.
Here are training issues Moore has identified that Moodle can assist with .
- Complex navigation
- Technical difficulties
- Low engagement
- Limited retention
- Collaborative test taking
During the rest of Moore’s presentation, she addresses these difficulties and how Moodle can help.
Fixing Navigation and Technology Issues
To address navigation and technology issues, Moore begins by recommending common design concerns such as not using over 3 font styles per page, maintaining consistency throughout the site, using topic summaries and labels, and don’t use the course page for content.
Additionally, Moore recommends using the course page as a launch pad; however, do not overwhelm your page with content. Instead, place the content in lessons, books, or other files. Also, beware of the bling, which will distract the learner rather than assist. Don’t be afraid of white space. You can add white space through indenting and adding spacing between items. Use images to enhance the course. Moore recommends aligning images to the right or left so that the text will wrap around the images. Additionally, control for a scroll of death. Placing too much content on the page forces learners to scroll to find the information. Finally, Moore recommends simplifying delivery. She recommends not using MS Word docs or PDFs. Instead, use books and lessons, and embed SlideShare presentations.
Organizing Content With Lessons and Books
Moore introduced the use of Lessons for delivering content. With lessons, you can provide content and assessments. You can create adaptive instruction by using branching within the lessons. Lessons can incorporate audio, video, image, and textual content. By using lessons, you can create lessons that adapt to the learner. For example, ask what type of MS Word they have and provide the correct solution.
Why use a lesson?
- Chunk content
- Simplify deliver
- Ease of access
- Ease of editing
- Increase learning engagement
Moore also introduced books. With books, each page is a static page and has a table of contents. Additionally, you can print out a book. However, you cannot print out a lesson. Moore offers the same reasons for using books as she did for lessons.
Helping Learners Navigate and Track Progress
Moore provides several other recommendations to help learners navigate.
- Do give your learners completion tracking. This basically turns the course into a checklist where learners can track their own progress. This capability has to be turned on at the admin level.
- Install plug-ins that will collapse topics or weeks. This makes it easier for the learner to hide unneeded content.
- Turn on auto linking at the admin level. This will automatically link to documents referenced throughout the site.
How to Fix Problems with Learning and Engagement
Moore offered expert advice for learning and engagement issues. First, don’t do all the work. Let learners do the work for you. For example, let students create quiz questions, and then you can pull them from the quiz bank. Create a glossary and let students add content. The administrator should turn auto-linking on. The glossary can also use text, audio, and video. You can use a glossary to collect best practices. Hold the glossary entries that students add until you approve them. You can rate glossary items. Finally, the system can randomly display glossary items on the course page using a block.
Moore also introduced the workshop module. The workshop module allows users to perform peer review and peer feedback. Within the Moodle site, you can create a grading form or rubric that everyone would fill out. This tool helps to automate reviews.
How to fix collaborative test taking
Moore provided great clues for managing collaborative activities and taking tests. She first emphasized all the tools available, for example, the logs. Don’t forget about the logs. The logs can show what someone completed, when they did it, and how long it took. She recommends you activate conditional activities at the admin level to take advantage of them. Finally, do not be afraid to experiment.
Overall, it was a great presentation. Although I knew most of what she was talking about, she provided great examples and ideas. You can catch more of Michelle Moore’s ideas at http://slideshare.net/michelledmoore
