Assessment Task 1
Please find below posts exploring and evaluating Moodle as a digital technology.
This blog will outline:
As you will see in the below posts Moodle is being implemented for our course in 2019. We are still on a huge learning curve as to what we can achieve within Moodle, but very excited so far on what it offers.
In 2019 future cohorts of my program are being transitioned from a USB where course material was provided to a Moodle platform. Hence, I feel by choosing Moodle as the selected technology for this blog will hopefully enhance my understanding and scope of exactly what it can do.
So sit back, relax and lets enjoy this journey of finding out what exactly Moodle can offer for student engagement, teaching and learning.
Given Moodle is the new platform that we will be implementing in 2019, I thought what do I need to know? Well the first stop must be to visit the Moodle site and see exactly how they promote this online learning environment. This short youtube clip developed by Moodle provides an overview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ORsUGVNxGs#action=share
For the past several months we have developed dummy test sites within Moodle to trial the functions and the appropriateness for our course context. We appreciate with any new platforms there will be teething problems however, we feel by taking the time to modify requirements to meet student engagement needs will be paramount.
Having the dummy sites has proven to be invaluable and allowed us to implement several changes and inclusions into this learning platform such as:
The beauty of Wisenet and Moodle working together is once students are enrolled in the course they are sent personal log on details directly by the systems without having to rely on human application. This is hopefully going to cut down on students being missed due to data entry (human) errors.
Touch wood things seems to be working well with Moodle, Wisenet and Turnitin. The tests undertaken with dummy students seems to show no issues with students being able to log in to access course material and upload assessments via Turnitin. One of the great things about Turnitin is it is able to send instant submission reports to the students, which will mitigate the risk of assessments not making the marking record. This issue has occurred many times when being entered manually.
Like with any system protecting privacy is paramount. We aim to ensure privacy and student details are protected at all times. Both Wisenet and Moodle seem to afford us this reassurance. Moodle has implemented the Privacy API Moodle plugin that incorporates the General Data Protection Regulation that came into play on the 25 May, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcVKzq2qimQ overall this Moodle plugin ensures that student data is protected.
Wisenet also has secure severs (SSL certificates) issued by Comodo, which also sees any data that is transferred being encrypted. https://www.wisenet.co/wisenet-cloud-computing-legal-information-privacy-statement-website-terms-of-use
These security measures are imperative in Moddle and Wisenet and it is something our team takes extremely seriously. We want our students to feel that there data is in no way compromised. Finally, we will also be stressing to the students at the commencement of the course the importance of protecting their password at all times. As protection of data is only as good as the passwords that protect it.
From my work unit Moodle is getting the bigs thumbs up and it is great that we are finally moving with the time into the world of digital technology for our course!
This blog will outline:
- Exploring how Moodle will impact our course
- Evaluating Moodle for our use
- Integrating Moodle into our learning and teaching practice
As you will see in the below posts Moodle is being implemented for our course in 2019. We are still on a huge learning curve as to what we can achieve within Moodle, but very excited so far on what it offers.
In 2019 future cohorts of my program are being transitioned from a USB where course material was provided to a Moodle platform. Hence, I feel by choosing Moodle as the selected technology for this blog will hopefully enhance my understanding and scope of exactly what it can do.
So sit back, relax and lets enjoy this journey of finding out what exactly Moodle can offer for student engagement, teaching and learning.
Given Moodle is the new platform that we will be implementing in 2019, I thought what do I need to know? Well the first stop must be to visit the Moodle site and see exactly how they promote this online learning environment. This short youtube clip developed by Moodle provides an overview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ORsUGVNxGs#action=share
For positive student experiences and engagement we need to ensure we provide a quality and reliable one stop learning shop. We want a mixture of pedagogical and theoretical strategies to enhance our students learning experience. We want to bridge the tyranny of distance for our students by providing equitable and engaging learning environments no matter where they are sitting. We want their learning experience to be enhanced by engagement with not only the teacher but also their peers.
We ultimately want a scaffolding approach to their learning. Meaning the students play a major role in their own learning process. Lev Vygotsky developed 'The Zone of Proximal Development' which explored the distances from the student undertaking a task with a teacher or peer guidance or independently. The outcome Vygotsky described was learning occurred in all the zones https://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html which only highlights the importance of using Moodle as a Learning Management System to engage with our students which encourages and fosters inclusion and interaction at all levels.
Moodle seems to be ticking all the boxes of what we require:
- Easy and streamlined access
- Online forums/discussion boards (Piazza) https://piazza.com
- Active learning (online and offline)
- Online exams/quizzes (Socrative) https://www.socrative.com
- Online grading
- Ability to submit assignments via turnitin https://www.turnitin.com
- The use of Echo 360 for live or recording streaming https://echo360.com
- Ability to talk to other programs or develop plug-ins to tailor individual course needs
A very quick internet search found several studies that highlighted the usability of Moodle in varying education areas:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212017312004689
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/379e/2db5099af1ddb5a7ba37065d8339e4de487c.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4359722_Evaluating_usability_in_learning_management_system_Moodle
So far I am only reading positive things about Moodle, so I think we are onto a good product for our students learning experience and our teaching experience.
As discussed in https://www.fondation-mines-telecom.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2014-higher-education-digital-age.pdf a digital leaning platform seems to change the transmission of knowledge and shift the teacher focus to a learning process. The students are learning to learn.
We ultimately want a scaffolding approach to their learning. Meaning the students play a major role in their own learning process. Lev Vygotsky developed 'The Zone of Proximal Development' which explored the distances from the student undertaking a task with a teacher or peer guidance or independently. The outcome Vygotsky described was learning occurred in all the zones https://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html which only highlights the importance of using Moodle as a Learning Management System to engage with our students which encourages and fosters inclusion and interaction at all levels.
Moodle seems to be ticking all the boxes of what we require:
- Easy and streamlined access
- Online forums/discussion boards (Piazza) https://piazza.com
- Active learning (online and offline)
- Online exams/quizzes (Socrative) https://www.socrative.com
- Online grading
- Ability to submit assignments via turnitin https://www.turnitin.com
- The use of Echo 360 for live or recording streaming https://echo360.com
- Ability to talk to other programs or develop plug-ins to tailor individual course needs
A very quick internet search found several studies that highlighted the usability of Moodle in varying education areas:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212017312004689
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/379e/2db5099af1ddb5a7ba37065d8339e4de487c.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4359722_Evaluating_usability_in_learning_management_system_Moodle
So far I am only reading positive things about Moodle, so I think we are onto a good product for our students learning experience and our teaching experience.
Ultimately, I see Moodle as a constructivist style of learning. The work by Ernst Von Glaserfeld and Jean Piaget highlights that digital learning focussing on students actively being involved in their learning. http://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1LGVGJY66-CCD5CZ-12G3/Learning%20Theory.cmap
The TPACK Framework (Technological, Pedagogical, Content, Knowledge) also highlights the importance of utilising current technologies to engage and continually adapt. http://tpack.org
For the past several months we have developed dummy test sites within Moodle to trial the functions and the appropriateness for our course context. We appreciate with any new platforms there will be teething problems however, we feel by taking the time to modify requirements to meet student engagement needs will be paramount.
Having the dummy sites has proven to be invaluable and allowed us to implement several changes and inclusions into this learning platform such as:
- Course content broken down into Modules with all study guides, readings and assessments in the one location
- Discussion board/forums
- Ability for students to upload their assessment via turnitin and for educators to mark directly
- Upload pre-recorded webinars
- Quizzes to test current knowledge
- Discussions with our Instructional Designer on how we can make the landing page and banners more engaging by including course branding
- Ensuring that Moodle (Learning Management System) can talk directly with Wisenet (Student Management System)
- Developing education video's for students to learn how to navigate Moodle
- Providing trouble shooting training for our Administration Officers to assist students who may be having issues using or navigating Moodle
Basically, Moodle has allowed us to have a one stop shop for our students. Previously we have been sending a USB of course content to students, using Yammer for a discussion board and GoToWebinar for pre-recorded and recorded education sessions and student engagement and students submitting their assessments to an course email address without using turnitin.
We will be going live with Moodle for our first Cohort in February 2019 and will have several months to iron out any issues before the next Cohort commences.
Overall all our current testing and evaluation of Moodle has been showing great results and all of the Educators and Administration Officers are excited to be moving with the technology times!
With the integration of Moodle into our course we are seeing a huge change to our digital connection with our students. This is a decision that has been in the making for a few years and through engagement with students and other key stakeholders we are finally seeing it become a reality.
A report by Mason, Fleming Paxton & Singh (2017) talks about the importance of engaging not only students and key stakeholders but also experts in digital technology. What this report highlighted to me was there are many positives and negatives to a digital approach. The issues raised in the report were also similar themes discovered when conducting our own needs assessment into the benefits of Moodle.
Key themes included:
Moodle hands down was able to offer us the complete one stop shop learning management system. As discussed in previous posts we wanted our students to be able to have access to course materials, upload assessments via Turnitin, have discussions with other students, quizzes, access to webinars both live and pre-recorded all in the one location. Moodle has afforded us this and so far seems extremely user friendly to navigate.
What Moodle has provided is not only cost effective and time effective for us as a Unit and Educators, but overall it has allowed us to redesign the learning space for our students which is contemporary and far more engaging to this day and age in the education and learning environment.
References
Mason, C., Fleming, A., Paxton, G., & Singh, J. (2017). Lifelong Participation Through Digital Technology. Melbourne: CSIRO.
Morrison, G.R., & Ross, S.M. (2013). Designing Effective Instruction (7th ed.). USA: John Wiley & Sons.
So far, Moodle has been accommodating of this and working well integrating with our current Student Management System 'Wisenet'. We have recently upgraded to Windows 365 and have seen some delays with systems responding, however our I.T. Department seems to be ironing out a few of the issues.With the integration of Moodle into our course we are seeing a huge change to our digital connection with our students. This is a decision that has been in the making for a few years and through engagement with students and other key stakeholders we are finally seeing it become a reality.
A report by Mason, Fleming Paxton & Singh (2017) talks about the importance of engaging not only students and key stakeholders but also experts in digital technology. What this report highlighted to me was there are many positives and negatives to a digital approach. The issues raised in the report were also similar themes discovered when conducting our own needs assessment into the benefits of Moodle.
Key themes included:
- Reducing the geographic distances of our students
- The ability for digital technologies to limit physical and cognitive barriers
- The ability for students to have instant information and education with a click of a button
- Issues with internet connectiveness due to remote and isolated locations
We worked extremely close with our Instructional Design Team using the ADDIE Model. The ADDIE Model follows the following principles:
- Analysis
- Design
- Development
- Implementation
- Evaluation
ADDIE as discussed by Morrison and Ross (2013) and highlights the constructivism theory which resonates with styles of learning for our students. Currently we are sitting in the Development and soon to be Implementation phases of ADDIE. Evaluation has been ongoing since the inception of this project and will remain an integral part of our course.
Moodle hands down was able to offer us the complete one stop shop learning management system. As discussed in previous posts we wanted our students to be able to have access to course materials, upload assessments via Turnitin, have discussions with other students, quizzes, access to webinars both live and pre-recorded all in the one location. Moodle has afforded us this and so far seems extremely user friendly to navigate.
What Moodle has provided is not only cost effective and time effective for us as a Unit and Educators, but overall it has allowed us to redesign the learning space for our students which is contemporary and far more engaging to this day and age in the education and learning environment.
References
Mason, C., Fleming, A., Paxton, G., & Singh, J. (2017). Lifelong Participation Through Digital Technology. Melbourne: CSIRO.
Morrison, G.R., & Ross, S.M. (2013). Designing Effective Instruction (7th ed.). USA: John Wiley & Sons.
The beauty of Wisenet and Moodle working together is once students are enrolled in the course they are sent personal log on details directly by the systems without having to rely on human application. This is hopefully going to cut down on students being missed due to data entry (human) errors.
Touch wood things seems to be working well with Moodle, Wisenet and Turnitin. The tests undertaken with dummy students seems to show no issues with students being able to log in to access course material and upload assessments via Turnitin. One of the great things about Turnitin is it is able to send instant submission reports to the students, which will mitigate the risk of assessments not making the marking record. This issue has occurred many times when being entered manually.
Like with any system protecting privacy is paramount. We aim to ensure privacy and student details are protected at all times. Both Wisenet and Moodle seem to afford us this reassurance. Moodle has implemented the Privacy API Moodle plugin that incorporates the General Data Protection Regulation that came into play on the 25 May, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcVKzq2qimQ overall this Moodle plugin ensures that student data is protected.
Wisenet also has secure severs (SSL certificates) issued by Comodo, which also sees any data that is transferred being encrypted. https://www.wisenet.co/wisenet-cloud-computing-legal-information-privacy-statement-website-terms-of-use
These security measures are imperative in Moddle and Wisenet and it is something our team takes extremely seriously. We want our students to feel that there data is in no way compromised. Finally, we will also be stressing to the students at the commencement of the course the importance of protecting their password at all times. As protection of data is only as good as the passwords that protect it.
From my work unit Moodle is getting the bigs thumbs up and it is great that we are finally moving with the time into the world of digital technology for our course!
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