'Mooting Moodle' A panacea for blended learning, or a problematic proposal?

Presentation Name December 05

“Mooting MoodleA panacea for blended learning, or a

problematic proposal?”

Clare DenholmDebbie Reynolds

Drivers for change

Issues and challenges

Lack of student engagement observed (large cohort & inherent problems / continuity etc.)

Lectures and seminars not linking well

Students failing / Academics failing students ?

Institutional drive towards embracing technology


Drivers for changeDeveloping the use of Moodle

Envisaged Opportunities

Enhance student engagement & use Moodle tools to closely monitor student understanding and progress

Provide opportunity to “respond” quickly where students require further support

Exploit the dynamic and responsive nature of the Moodle environment and its functions

Opportunity to meet perceptions that students enter HE “techno savvy mode” and ready to “learn on line”

Develop understanding and inform best practice in teaching


Moodle Tool Box

WikiForums

Assessment Feedback

Resources

Audio

Quizzes

Blog

Scheduler

Context

Implementation

Traditional Teaching Model

Year 1Introduction

2009-10

Year 2Development

2010-11

Year 3Feeding Forward

2011-12

Basic Moodle

Resource dump

Formal lecture plus seminar

Assignments submitted on paper

Resource Centre

Narrated Power-points (4/12) using Camtasia

On line survey

Non-integrated quiz

VLE replaces formal lecture + BL concept

adopted with 2 hr. workshop style

replacing seminar, plus 1-1 support tutorials.

Resource Centre + integration into range

of SSU on line resources

Full adoption of narrated power-points with integrated quizzes

using iSpring

Post workshop formative activities

On line submission for assessment adopted

via Turnitin

Tracking engagement - dynamic and flexible responses to learners

needs

Utilise integration of other media to include

learning guide

On line submission AND marking

Introduce WIKI’s for group project development

Introduce e-portfolio Mahara


What we have learned

Panacea for some

Problematic for others



Importance of collaboration and partnerships between academics and learning

technologists



Making assumptions:Homogenous learners?

Student Perspectives

They did engage – 54,000 hits from 500 studentsThe feedback and experience was varied but overall positiveThey like the flexibility of online learning and generally it helps them feel engagedParticularly like the powerpoints & quizzes

*Good contact with tutors*


Student QuotesWhat do you like about the unit?

“the combination of online study and seminar is excellent. I can have a basic knowledge through online study first because i attend the workshop. The advantage is that I can do my online study whenever I want, rather than doing it together in the class. This measure gives me more flexibility in time management. I support this arrangement.”What are you finding challenging?

“Keeping up with what to do prior to each lecture, can at times feel slightly overwhelming, although the work is not hard nor is it lengthy, it just feels like there are lots of tiny deadlines for work,(rather than one large piece of work) although I do see the bigger picture.”How do you think this unit could be improved?

“lessons should be about the powerpoint on mycourse. our lessons are often nothing to do with what is on mycourse.”

“more quizs and assessments in the virtual learning tasks for the students to prove and apply what they learn in the virtual learning tasks.” Presentation Name December 05


Lecturer Perceptions and ChallengesDeveloping academic engagement

“why do we have to keep changing everything every year, we are doing ok aren’t we?”

“they [students] won’t do the on line stuff before coming to my workshop so what can I do!!?”

“only half of them [students] have ever watched the on line lectures, or done the quizzes so I do it in the

lesson with them”



Feeding ForwardWhere do we go from here?


Developing and supporting academics on the journey

Traditional preferences (tricky)

Developing competency

Building technical confidence

Implementing policies and management structures to support development of staff competency

Building on the Blend

Scaffolding students in online learning

Developing the relationship between course developers, tutors and learning technologists

Incremental change

Develop use of Moodle functionality


Dicussion

'Mooting Moodle' A panacea for blended learning, or a problematic proposal?

Education

Transcript of 'Mooting Moodle' A panacea for blended learning, or a problematic proposal?