Project Format Repositories for

Teacher Collaboration

Don Hinkelman & Andrew Johnson

Sapporo Gakuin University

JALTCALL 2008 Conference, June 1

“A Moodle Repository for Quick Sharing

of Paper/Online Packages”

Teaching ProgramA General English program at a Japanese

University (Sapporo Gakuin University)

• 2000 students – 4 required semesters of oral communication– 8 majors, grouped by English placement test level

• 70 general English classes/week– Each class has a Moodle course for attendance– Over half of classes taught in blended learning

rooms or computer laboratories– 20-25 classes use Moodle LMS for various learning

activities

Typical Teaching Scenario

• A teacher of general English classes at SGU– 5 freshman classes / week– 5 sophomore classes / week – All in blended learning rooms (as of 2008)– Generally same content in classes (some variations

for level)– So a teacher might have 5 Moodle courses with the

same content (need to duplicate/transfer online and paper materials among 5 courses)

– No textbooks, teacher creates content• Paper booklets on themes• Online Moodle activities

Booklet Picture

Moodle Picture

• Get better picture

Questions• How do I move and copy materials

across my own courses?

• How do I share my materials with colleagues?

• How do I get materials from colleagues?

• How do I “package” pieces of lessons to put together in my own way?

• How do I “unpackage” whole courses that I can adapt, cut, paste, rearrange?

Answer?

What is a Repository?

• A Broad Definition“A place where materials are stored in

sufficient quantity; a store of information”

• Metaphor:

Problem with the iTunes Metaphor of a Repository

• Single file sharing;

pieces of a lesson – Sound file: iTunes – Text file: EFL Handout sites– Image file: Flickr– Video file: YouTube

New Metaphor:

“Project” Repository

Our needs: 1. Single theme package:

• “Cooking”, “Introductions”, “Japanese Culture”

2. Multi-media packages:• Video, sound, text, image together

3. Blended packages• Combine online and offline activities• Online: quizzes, surveys, assignments• Offline: booklets, handouts, games

Macro

Micro

File

Project

Course

Repository Stages

1.Making do with Moodle (2006-2007)

2.Project Format (2008)

3.Public (2009 - )

Stage 1 Repository:

Making Do With Moodle

We uploaded Word files of project booklets in our teacher sharing area – one course.Students could not access this area.

In addition, we had another course to store online activities. For example, I did a unit on Japanese culture. I made these activities (many contain media files).

Problem: I want to duplicate them into my 5 courses. With Moodle 1.8, how can we do this? We tried to use standard Moodle to duplicate in four ways.

Duplicating Approaches

1. Import Function

2. Backup / Restore Function

3. Site Files

4. Media Files Course

Course Files are all-or-nothing. No way to bring along just the files needed for the activities selected.

1. Import 2. Back-up & Restore

More Problems with Import

• All Course files duplicated—huge size

• Activities and resources are ordered by type—not the teaching topic

• Browsing teachers will not know which activities go together for the topic

More Problems with Import

• After import/restore, the activities and resources are scattered around the course page.

• Permissions – if a media file a quiz uses is in another course, only people with permissions can see it

3. Site Files

Moodle

A major limitation to using “Site Files” is that only administrators have access. Teachers do not.

4. Media Files Course

Stage 2 Repository:

Project Format

The Project Format

What is the “Project Format”?

• The sections in a Moodle course (topic format or weekly format) are separated.

• Think in terms of ‘topic boxes’ (we refer to them as ‘project boxes’)

• Collect activities revolving around a theme in a single project box

• You can duplicate all the activities in a project box to any other project box on your Moodle site

Features of the Project Format

• Resource Upload – Saves time, auto-naming

• Course File Upload– Saves time, bulk selection

• Backup of a single section– Move/share to another site

• Import of a single section– Anywhere in the site

Each project box has an associated directory. All media files used in activities are stored in this directory.

•Resource Upload: Quick way to upload a file and it automatically becomes a “resource”•Course File Upload: Quick way to upload files you want to use in your quizzes, etc.

Import / Export

How to Install Project Format

Hands-on:Try the Project Format

• Open the browser on your screen

• Go to: http://ept2.sgu.ac.jp

• Select the category: JALTCALL 2008

• Take a paper with your assigned course – Eg: Course: teacher01– User ID: teacher01– Password: teacher01

Stage 3 Repository:

Public

Stage 3 Features• Version control• Multi-level ratings and commenting• Moderation and approval• Incentives: contribution-based

– Download only with contribution—barter economy

– Receive points for contributions• Standard format: Moodle format, 1.9?

– Project format required?

Stage 3 Incentives

Amount of points may depend on:

• Quality of uploaded files• Popularity of uploaded files (download

“purchases”)• Standard format• Labor contributed for reviews, moderation• Labor contributed for site management

Stage 3 Focus• Platform connection?

– Independent server?– Moodle Hub server with moodle.org?– MoodleNet with partner schools?

• Content speciality-based? – English for engineers?– English for …?.

• Regionally based? – Japan teachers?

• Pedagogically-based – project-based learning?

Summary

• Repositories can be– For an individual teacher– For a group of teachers at a school using a

common LMS– Global

• The Project Format allows– Quick sharing of projects

Project Format Repositories for

Teacher Collaboration

Don Hinkelman & Andrew Johnson

Sapporo Gakuin University

JALTCALL 2008 Conference, June 1

“A Moodle Repository for Quick Sharing

of Paper/Online Packages”