Introduction to Online Course Design with Moodle 9th JALTCALL International Conference Tokiwa University, 4 June 2004 Don Hinkelman Sapporo Gakuin University

Introduction to Online Course

Design with Moodle

9th JALTCALL International ConferenceTokiwa University, 4 June 2004

Don HinkelmanSapporo Gakuin University

What is the future of CALL?

21st Century Schools and e-Learning

Computer-mediated Communication…

Course Management System

Requirements for a “virtual learning environment”

It should be easy to create an online course from existinglearner resources, people are busy today!

Courses should organize into intuitive categories, with abackup and restore procedure that makes it simple to setup a new course with different learners.

Course enrolment and user authenticationmust not be complicated, yet be secure.

Managing online user activity should resemblehow you currently manage learners.

There must be an active online supportcommunity of educators and trainers that canhelp solve problems and spark new ideas.


An Open Source Option -- MoodleModular Object-Oriented Distributed Learning Environment

Open-source course management system software

Guided by strong pedagogical principles

Simple intuitive browser interface

International focus (supports 34 languages)

Cross-platform server and user support

Modular design allows third-party development

Vibrant learning community of users and developers

Free, distribution under GPL


Philosophy of Online Learning

Activities are at the heart of a course management system. Moodle was designed by an educator and computer scientist, with “social constructionist” principles in mind. Constructionism asserts that learning is particularly effective when constructing something for others to experience. This can be anything from a spoken sentence or an internet posting, to more complex artifacts like a painting, a house or a software package.

The concept of social constructivism extends the above ideas into a social group constructing things for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels.

Martin DougiamasCreator & Lead Developer


Course Management Features

To use Moodle, you think like a teacher, not a programmer. You see topics and activities, not tools. A student can immediately see where to start, and take a global view to see where it will end. A sequential, topic based approach unique to Moodle.

Moodle has a “modular” architecture that makes adding new Activities during course creation a very simple process. Course creators can select from three different formats for presenting their learning syllabus; Topic, Weekly or Social format. The magic begins when you click “Turn editing on” within the blank course template.

With editing turned on, the course creator can now Add activities from an intuitive drop-down list of module plug-in features.


Course Management Features ...cont.

Assignment ModuleUsed to assign online or offline tasks; participants can submit these tasks in any file format (MS Office, PDF, image, a/v etc.)

Chat ModuleAllows real-time synchronous communication by learners

Choice ModuleInstructors create a question and a numberof choices for students; results are postedfor partipants to view. Use this module todo quick surveys on subject matter.

Dialogue ModuleAllows for one-to-one private asynchronousmessage exchange between instructor andstudent, or student to student. Dialoguesare private consultation workspaces.

Module property screens guide you through setup



Forums ModuleThreaded discussion boards for asynchronous group exchange on shared subject matter (see user Community Forums at http://moodle.org/ on various topics and disciplines)

Glossary ModuleInstructors can create dictionary's of terms used in a course, and import or export terms for re-use in other courses.

Journal ModuleUsed to allow learners to reflect, then write and revise ideas

Label ModuleAdd descriptions with images in any area of the course homepage


Glossary terms appear in highlight within all activity module resources. Moodle includes its own site search engine.


Lesson ModuleAllows instructor to create and manage a set of linked "Pages". Each page can end with a question. The student chooses one answer from a set of answers and either goes forward, backward or stays in the same place in the lesson. Learner is graded upon completion.

Quiz ModuleCreate all the familiar forms of assessment including true-false, multiple choice, short answer, matching question, random questions, numerical questions, embedded answer questions with descriptive text and graphics.

Moodle supports embedding audio into a quiz,enhancing language arts and other course content syllabus requirements.



Resource ModuleThe primary tool for bringing content into a course; may be plain text, uploaded files, links to the web, Wiki or Rich Text (Moodle has built-in editors) or a bibliography type reference. Moodle users have even linked local drive DVD courseware with online Moodle Resource activities.

Survey ModuleThis module aids an instructor in making online classes more effective by offering a variety of suveys (COLLES, ATTLS), including critical incident sampling.

A Resource activity delivers syllabus content to the learner, while a course Assignment activity can require the learner to upload a completed project.


Learner Management Features

Creating learning content is only part of what a good course management system (CMS) is designed to do. The CMS must also be able to manage learners in a variety of ways. Learner management includes:

Easy access to a list of participants in your course

Being able to segment participants into groups

Site, course and user calendar event scheduling

Intuitive course administration features for; changing course settings, manually enrolling or removing teachers and learners from the course, backing up and restoring course content, applying scales to different learner activities, managing grades, tracking user access logs and uploading external files for use within the course.


Learner Management Features ... cont.


ParticipantsOne click and you can view activity from all participants enrolled in the course. Learners create a personal profile that can include a picture, helping connect students socially in the online learning community.



GroupsAssigning learners to a group is a common practice for both educators and business trainers. Moodle allows the course instructor to easily create group catagories. Once assigned, group members can only interact with other members in their group within the course.

Creating distinct group names is easy.Learners and teachers are assigned toa group by clicking a single button.



CalendarKeeping a calendar of events is important to both the learner and course instructor. Events can be created for different categories, including:

Global events that appear in all courses (system admin)

Course events set by an instructor

Group events set by instructor relative only to a group

User events set by learner (e.g. due dates, personal etc.)

Calendar Upcoming Events appear on the course homepage, and alert the learner across all courses they are enrolled in of different category events using an intuitive color scheme.



AdministrationThe Administration control panel puts all important learner management functions a single click away. Teachers and Students can be manually enrolled or removed from a course.

Backup and Restore of a course is easy and presents options that allow you to select which information to save or import.

Restoring an existing course or Uploading a file archive from storage is accomplished with a single mouse click

Backup can include or exclude student files and course data



AdministrationTeachers and trainers can define their own Scales to be used for grading Forums, Assignments and Journals. Standard scales include assigning a value from 1-100% for each submission (or no grade), and indicating whether the learner was demonstrating one of three characteristics in the activity:

Shows mostly CONNECTED knowing

Shows mostly SEPARATE knowing

Equally separate and connected

Custom scales allow the instructor tofine tune their grading for specific content.Easily create several types of scales, and connect them with different activities you Add to the course.



AdministrationThe Grades feature in Moodle provides a quick view of all Forum, Assignment, Journal, Quiz, Lesson and Workshop activity. The grading scale value applied to a learners submission is shown, along with a cumulative total, on a single page.

Grades can be downloaded in Excel or text format for inclusion into an existing electronic gradebook



AdministrationViewing Assignment and Journal entry submissions, and adding Grades and comments, are done from a single page that displays all enrolled students

Managing student course Assignment uploads and Journal entry submissions are done from one central screen. This cuts down on the time it takes to assess many students work.



AdministrationKnowing when and what course resources the learner has accessed will tell an instructor where the student is at in their online learning experience, and may effect grading. Moodle's Logs provide detailed learner information.

Easily locate specific course, student, date and module activity access information

Logs pin-point where a student is within coursework



AdministrationInstructors can centrally locate all resources used when creating course content, within the Files storage area of Moodle. These resources are available when using the HTML rich text editor, allowing you to easily insert content into an activity module.

Moodle's built-in HTML editor allows you to add Files from your storage area, creating rich text activity resources.

Files storage area resembles your computer, making it easy to add, move, zip and delete resources.



AdministrationWhen a teacher or trainer is logged in to their course, an extensive Moodle Help file is a button click away. Additionally, each course includes a special Teacher forum, where course instructors can collaborate on ideas and share certain tasks.

Moodle's built in Teacher Manual provides hand-holding instructionson all aspects of course and learner management

Student User Experience


Learners find it easy to navigate a Moodle course homepage in their browser, intuitive links are always present. Login occurs on a familiar screen, with initial account setup being handled by the student.

Moodle's has its own authentication system, but will integrate with an external database, POP3, IMAP, LDAP or NNTP, allowing domain wide login.

Navigation bar is always present

Student User Experience ... cont.


Instructors can require an “enrollment key” to enter a course, limiting entry and class size. After enrollment an instructor will e-mail the enrollment key password to students that are accepted. Courses requiring an enrollment key are indicated in “Course categories” description. Instructors can also allow Guest login.

Course category displays descriptions of each course listed, and whether they require an enrollment key. Instructors can allow “Guest” login. Guests can view activities only. Symbols on description page indicate when a course requires an enrollment key and allows Guest entry.

Learners see their courses on site homepage at Login

Student User Experience ... cont.


Learners can login any time, anywhere to interact with coursework. Each user can specify the Time Zone they are in, and the Language they wish to use. Moodle has interface support for 34 languages. Students can be notified by E-mail each time a Forum, which they are “subscribed” to, has a new posting. Additionally, instructors can set e-mail notification for Dialogues.

Rich text e-mail is sent to each learner “subscribed” to different Forums. Instructors can set private Dialogues to e-mail notification that comments have been added.

Learners can select from 34 languages at Login

Who is Using Moodle?


About 1000 organizations in 74 countries had registered Moodle sites at http://moodle.org/sites/ by March 2004. This number is growning by about 10% each month as educators and trainers learn of the value proposition that open source Moodle offers. Moodle is an ideal solution for:

Public and Private Schools

Community Colleges and Universities

Governmental Agencies

Business and Training Organizations

Hospitals and Libraries

Who Will Help You Use Moodle?


Hundreds of knowledgeable open-source users have joined with Moodle developers in a community of learners. Meet a few new friends!

Why Not Try Moodle Right Now?


If your organization is ready or needs to support an online learning population, here is an opportunity to take your research to the next level. These Moodle sites are open for to explore either as a learner or with permissions, as a course creator.

Moodle For Language Teaching: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=31What is Open Source Software: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=30Using Moodle: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5remote-Learner.net for Educators: http://remote-learner.net/hsonlineremoter-Learner.net for Trainers: http://remote-learner.net/moodle

Created by Bryan Williams, modified by Don Hinkelman, 2004.6.4

Documents

Introduction to Online Course Design with Moodle 9th JALTCALL International Conference Tokiwa University, 4 June 2004 Don Hinkelman Sapporo Gakuin University