Showing posts with label Moodle. Show all posts

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Moodle, OER, Teaching With Technology, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Open Educational Resources (OER)

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Monday, July 6, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 179

During an ELT Master’s Degree Program course at Universidad Latina (Costa Rica) labeled as Learning & Teaching Resources around June-July 2015, Prof. Fressy Aguilar asked participants, as part of the course goals, to design, develop, and assemble a complete module for a virtual course on Moodle. The task does not seem to be hard to achieve, but it does imply several steps that must be pursued to ensure quality.

Though Prof. Aguilar’s course does not exactly account for instructional design, some notions in this area are worthwhile having to get a quality product. Among those notions, comprehending the scope in use of Open Educational Resources is decisive and can help teaching staff to create more interactive and attractive learning tasks for students in a virtual environment such a Moodle. As soon as the assembly of the course module was over, the instructor presented us with the following task to reflect on what we had just built for our Moodle modules of the courses we had decided to virtualize.

Prof. Aguilar’s Reflective Task

On Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them.

In this context, "… OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge ….”

As part of my assembly of a module for a hybrid course on reading skills on Moodle, I actually created 3 weeks or modules for that course. And this is what my instructional design plan is:

Click Pictures to enlarge them!

However, as soon as all these pieces were put together is when, our instructor had us reflect on the OERs that were used for the assembling of the three weeks I produced. Here you have the OERs I utilized, the plan will tell you how they will be used, and you also had here the reason why they were chosen.

Resource used in the platform		Why I did choose it
http://www.scribd.com		It is a free hosting for documents that can be embedded and, consequently, displayed within the Moodle or other platforms or wikis.
http://www.myquizcreator.com		It is a website that allows users to create quizzes that can also be embedded and displayed in Moodle or other sites.
http://www.blogger.com		It is an extension part of the Google family that allows users to publish content on the web for free.
http://www.youtube.com		It is an extension of the Google family that allows users to spot tutorial that can be easily embedded in Moodle or wikis.
http://www.glogster.com		It is a site where users can create interactive posters that can be shown in class or embedded in blogs, Moodle, etc.

In brief, Prof. Aguilar had a very clear point in having us course participants to reflect upon the choice of OERs. If a resource is going to be used, there must be a good reason for doing so since it will contribute to the course success and the fostering of deep learning among students. Web 2.0 tools can indeed help the delivery of a course if used properly; the wrong and unscrupulous usage of OERs can lead course participants to failure if not planned thoroughly bearing in mind the plan’s objective to be accomplished.

Open Educational Resources (OER) by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, July 05, 2015

Minding Student Learning in Virtual Learning Scenarios

Education and Learning, Mindfulness, Moodle, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Minding Student Learning in Virtual Learning Scenarios

How Mindful Should Teachers be?

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 178

Since I confess myself as an inquisitive educator, some time ago, I started toying with the idea of getting rid of paper exams from my university courses at Universidad Latina (Costa Rica), but how? I had a lengthy conversation with my school director, Mr. Maynor Segura, about this assessment concern that was troubling my way of seeing student evaluation in higher education. In Mr. Segura’s office I simply asked him if the university summative evaluation on course outlines was written on stone or if I could modify the way that exams were administered in time as well as other course assignments to have the chance of grading learners on a weekly basis through small projects or segmented tests and learning tasks. I was told by the ELT Program Director that there was no problem at all in making those changes, and that was colossal news for me. From a mindfulness stance, grading students on single exams is just a way that does not provoke deep learning, and that is the one fault with this way of student grading in college; it is like if we are training them to fail in their deep learning and making them rely on surface learning as a survival mechanism.

Summatively assessing students is always something to be mindful of; but finding a suitable way to help them develop deep learning is a much more mindful act in education. Though Moodle is not exactly the perfect CMS (Content Management System) I wish I had to work with my learners, it is the one we have at the university that can help us work on summative assessment mindfully if combined with additional and vital ingredients to create the right learning virtual environment for higher education learners. If used creatively within its array of possible learning options, this multimedia learning resource can be of extensive use, thought-provoking, and helpful for learner assessment. On account of Moodle, many positive things can be stated to trigger student deep learning and, consequently, many different kinds of tasks can be employed to host hierarchical, critical thinking skills. Anyhow, no matter what multimedia learning resource a teacher gets to use, it must be kept in mind and well-explained to students what the instructor’s social and teaching presence roles are and what sort of cognitive presence is demanded from the pupil to successfully profit from their online experience in a Moodle virtual ambience.

Not knowing the possibilities I have by using Moodle, from a mere empirical point of view, I started using Google Sites as my unanimous choice to work with student deep learning (critical thinking). PBL, something I was introduced to while studying through the University of Oregon distant education program, came to help me design and develop learning tasks for students on a Google Sites environment. And though Google Sites is a good option to create a wiki where learners can visualize learning projects, Moodle can do that much easier especially because it allows the instructor to create many different kinds of learning exercises. With some basic instructional design training and the Moodle guide for novice users, educators can create robust learning exercises in various Moodle scenarios: from assignments, chats, databases, forums, lessons, and glossaries to quizzes, Scorm packages, wikis, and so on. And if you spice all these kinds of Moodle scenarios up with some PBL orientation, the product can be much more rewarding for the instructor and for the learners; assessment can be fun and highly fulfilling for the students and no need to have paper tests any more to see how much students are really achieving from a surface learning viewpoint.

How can Moodle be improved to account for real deep learning and fulfill students’ expectations in the creation of their own knowledge? Let’s be mindful for some time and think of how much we have learned in the field of education that can assist us in the design and development of learning tasks for our students. First thing that pops up in my mind is Bloom’s Taxonomy since I want to create activities that can accommodate different levels of difficulty in terms of critical and hierarchical thinking. Second thing that comes into my mind is the right encasements for a PBL (Project-Based Learning) task that can have students produce a deliverable that suits the learning objectives in the course outline and that can help them construct their own knowledge. Finally, pupil training on the usage of the platform is a must. If learners are not trained, they are bound to fail. Training is indeed important, so take advantage of the F2F contact with them during class time.

To sum up, any kind of multimedia learning resource that can come into our design and development of virtual lessons needs to be considered from all angles to envision what can happen and unscrupulously leave learners to their own fate. A mindful professional with a bit of instructional design over his/her shoulders will find the right way of working with students to help them build their knowledge, achieve course learning goals, assist them when having trouble with the CMS/Moodle, walk them through PBL tasks that summatively aids the teacher to evaluate the accomplishment of course objective, etc.

Minding Student Learning in Virtual Learning Scenarios by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, July 05, 2015

Quenching My Thirst to Understand the Moodle LMS Platform

LMS, Moodle, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLEs 1comments

Quenching My Thirst to Understand the Moodle LMS Platform

Reflecting upon my intense training on Moodle LMSs in the last few months of 2013, I have been examining ways to implement tools in my current and future courses at the university where I work. The whole experience has been extremely enriching since –through the pass of weeks- I have come to better understand the use of several tools that were not fully comprehended by me with the succinct information provided by out IT Department. However, I still have not quenched my curiosity on how to get started with Moodle on my own and how to better understand the whole potential a platform like this provides instructors and learners.

The reason why this thirst or curiosity of mine has not yet been quenched is due to the limitations imposed by Moodle administrators at my workplace. These restrictions have been set because of a good reason, no doubt, by university authorities following policies of use. However, you get to experience some sort of frustration when dealing with them –up to certain extend-. To give you an example of what I am talking about, I must start by a tool explained on our online training: Rubrics. These were disabled within our LMS platform. Why? It is one of those unknown things that you question but no solid, resounding answer is provided. I am not into questioning policies, but it is kind of contradictory why tools are shown to Moodle users, and then the chances of using them are beyond one’s reach due to these policies.

I also feel that my Moodle command is still defective in terms of a teacher using the system, and I am in the way to try to quench my thirst for really knowing how to use it at its best of its capabilities within my user’s profile from a non-IT standpoint. For this reason I started surfing the Web to try to find a site [blog, wiki, etc.] that could give me a hand in trying to self-teach myself in those areas that I feel I must work harder to master the use of all Moodle tools but from a non-IT position.

Matbury.Com	Although I am not an IT engineer, from my curriculum development standpoint I always try to see from the academic point of view and visualize its potential learning extension for students and instructors. At this site, you can learn how to start your own course by downloading a localhost server to launch Moodle on your PC or laptop. With this instructors can see the engineering behind the program and how it can be used by the academia in terms of the student learning process.
*Do you want to get started with Moodle?* Retrieved from http://blog.matbury.com/2012/01/02/do-you-want-to-get-started-with-moodle/#Useful_links
Moodle Courses	Moodle.Org also gives a free training course called “Using Moodle” to gain expertise in the use of all tools within this LMS platform. The amount of information provided by this page ranges from installation help all the way down to activities, resources to other components and Moodle development.
*Using Moodle.* Retrieved from https://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 Requires users to sign for an account.

That I have not learned lots of new tricks and uses of tools in my Moodle training is something I cannot state; that would be too untruthful on my part. Laureate International Universities –by giving me that chance to take an online certificate in Online Hybrid and Blended Learning Education- has opened a lot of new doors for me to explore and exploit with the guidance of my instructor, Mr. Herbert Soriano from UNITEC, Honduras. Let’s hope I can fully become a topnotch instructor who can better assist learners in their search and building of knowledge.

? To fully comprehend the scope of this teaching issue, it is highly advisable that the following topics must be expanded further:

· IT LMS platform uses and policies

· Limitations in Moodle use by IT authorities

· How to use rubrics in Moodle

· Moodle teacher training

· How to start a Moodle localhost server

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Trainer, Instructor & Curriculum Developer based in Costa Rica

NCTE – Costa Rica Member

Resource Teacher and Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina, Costa Rica, since 1998

Contact Information:

Twitter @jonacuso

Email jonacuso@gmail.com

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Article published on Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Quenching My Thirst to Understand the Moodle LMS Platform by Jonathan Acuña

How to quote this entry: Acuña, J. (January 1, 2014) Quenching My Thirst to Understand the Moodle LMS Platform, from Reflective Online Teaching, Website: http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/2014/01/quenching-my-thirst-to-understand.html

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Resource Tools in Moodle

Hybrid and Blended Learning, Moodle, Online Teaching Practices, Reflective Teaching, Teacher Development, VLE 0 comments

Resource Tools in Moodle

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña

Sharing and analyzing content is indeed a crucial part of any teaching and learning experience and scenario [F2F, Blended, VLE, etc.]. In an online setting, selecting and implementing tools that support these educational processes is vital, but it is also necessary to assess teacher and student needs and abilities prior to the implementation of any chosen tool. While cautious gathering of such tools can enhance student learning experiences, the selection may imply that instructors can face challenges and potential failure.

Let’s now analyze three Moodle resource tools in terms of their potential uses within an online or blende learning course and the challenges instructors may encounter when deciding on the best use of each one. All changes made to improve student learning experiences may imply that instructor have to face with a variety of challenges to be successful.

Moodle Resource Tools	Uses	Challenges
*Wikis*	· Sharing of web links with relevant and updated information regarding class content: Vocabulary sites, grammar practices, etc. · Collaborative writing or assignments in EFL/ESL contexts · Sharing of documents among students or with the instructor	· The organization of different pages in the wiki seems to be not very user friendly for a first timer or an amateur student or instructor. · Some sort of training on the use of the tool is a must to ensure proper and effective use of it.
Once both types of participants get the knack of how to use the *wiki* option in Moodle, they won’t have much trouble making it work. It just takes a bit of patience to get confident on the use of the tool.
*Blogs*	· If used as a journal, they can be a great tool to encourage and foster reflective thinking among students. · In ELT contexts, they can also be used to ensure reflective teaching and critical thinking in the search of answers to their teaching queries. · They provide some room for students who barely voice opinions or comments in a F2F class setting.	· For the first timer, keeping a blog can be a bit of a problem. As in any kind of Moodle tool, some sort of modeling by the instructor is a need. This might subtract some teaching time for class but can be the solution to potential arising problems. · Many times students have claimed that their blog entries cannot be accessed or “reutilized” after a course is over. It’s always smart to ask them to keep a copy of their entries for themselves.
*Blogs* are great tools for reflection, voicing opinions and thoughts, commenting, etc. It is indispensable that instructors take some time off their regular teaching to train students on the correct, optimal use of the tool to be successful and profit from the blogging experience for their own learning.
*Media embedding*	· With some basic knowledge of *html* teachers and learners can contribute greatly to course content along with their blog entries, wiki contributions, glossaries, and the like. · Sample media that can be displayed with this Moodle tool are: o Videos from Youtube, Vimeo, TeacherTube, etc. o Docs from Scribd, SlideShare, etc. o Widgets	· Training is a must. Students and instructors lacking the basic notions of *html* use will find themselves incapable of using this tool to enhance content within their lessons, homework assignments, forums, etc. · This tool for the neophyte is or can be a headache.
From the many options that Moodle provides educators, *media embedding* is the one that really does need some sort of training to assess instructors’ understanding.

Training oneself as an instructor, whether that is by self-instructing yourself or by being trained by one’s school is the first step to get really acquainted with a learning platform. The second step is to take some time off one’s class to train students who are new to the system and need some extra assistance. After all this you online or blended learning scenario is going to be easy and highly productive for both the instructor and the learners.