The continuous cycle of Moodle evolution at Australian College of Nursing Drew Burgess

Manager, Education Support

MoodleMoot – July 1st 2014

Outcomes of this presentation

• Understand ACN’s

journey/evolution from a simple

thread discussion to Moodle 2.4.

• Highlight the successes, pitfalls,

failures of the evolution

Australian College of Nursing

• Two offices – Burwood, Sydney and Canberra

• Dual sector –

o Higher Education – accredited with TEQSA

o Registered Training Organisation (RTO) – accredited with ASQA

Australian College of Nursing

o Also have to comply with ANMAC (Australian Nursing and Midwifery

Accreditation Council) when the courses ensure registration of change of

duties of an already registered nursing practitioner

o Approx. 4000 students enrolled each financial year

Australian College of Nursing

• Graduate Certificates

o Accredited for 16 specialty Graduate Certificates

o Usually 12 months in length

o 4 subjects in total – 2 subjects each semester

o 20 weeks semesters

o 150 hours per subject – 120 course work / 30 assessments

o Expectation: 7.5 hours per week per subject

o Students can commence either February or July semester

o Around 80 separate subjects available

Australian College of Nursing

• RTO

o Immunisation – monthly – up to 100 students

o Runs for 3 months

o Lots of overlap

o Advanced Diploma

o Medication management

o Principles of Emergency Care

Australian College of Nursing

• Our website:

• http://cnnect.acn.edu.au

• My email:

• drew.burgess@acn.edu.au

Which do you prefer?

Or

A student’s perspective

• Students are in the system for a short period of time – they want it

to be as simple as user friendly as possible.

• Therefore, we to aim for the structured garden.

Timeline

Our Evolution

• 3 P’s

• Positive

• Passionate

• Patient

A simple ‘thread’

• A very primitive ‘thread’ online discussion with paper based study

guides and resources.

• Costly

• Heavy

• Not practical for a nurse

Moodle 1.9

• Start date - June 2009

• My manager at the time thought I might enjoy this new online

learning…..and a whole new world opened.

• Previously, I had passion, but no knowledge

Moodle 1.9

•Was a very very steep learning curve for all

•We didn’t have any outside support, I quickly became the expert.

•Sat on internal server – started causing issues

Moodle 1.9

• Quickly became ‘out of control’

• I was the administrator but didn’t have time to ‘monitor’ everything.

• Started to break

• Was embarrassing

• Educators disengaged

Decision time

• When is the right time?

• When have we got time?

Moodle 2.4 – the evolution

• As stated, decided in January 2013

• Launched in July 2013

• Pukunui

Moodle 2.4 – the evolution – educators and tutors

• Executive management support – even if they don’t know exactly

what you are talking about – convince them that it will be ok.

• Presented to internal staff

• Had key dates in place and made everyone aware of these

• Lots of training sessions/drop in sessions/sand pits/encouraged self

development/

• Remain super enthusiastic

Moodle 2.4 – the evolution – educators and tutors

• Demonstrated how good it will be

• Dragged them ‘kicking and screaming and moaning etc.’

• Some needed to be told ‘this is the way it is’

• Bought everyone a Moodle 2.0 Course Development book

• Discussed at every meeting on every level of staff

• Created ‘how to’ guides

• Champions

3 P’s

• Be Positive, Passionate and Patient

o Almost to the point of insanity / ability to ‘lose yourself’ within the project

o Share your passion and enthusiasm – it’s infective

o Be willing to answer questions / listen to problems etc.

o Acknowledge the problems or issue, but remain openly positive that it can

be sorted – even if inside….

o Keep engaged with like minded people – who wont bring you down

What else?

Maybe???

Time

• Time is needed:

o To set up

o To explain/educate

o To explain/educate AGAIN

o To fix

Energy

• Your own energy levels need to remain high

• Be open to criticism / ‘helpful’ suggestions

Love

• Love Moodle and all its idiosyncrasies

• Love ‘where you are’ – it may not be perfect but it’s the best it can be

at this point in time

• Love and get excited by what you can see in ‘the future’ – share this

vision

Weeds / Pitfalls

• Rogue educators/tutors

• Rogue system issues – e.g. – Gradebook

• Disinterest

• Cheating the system

• Planning issues – ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men/Often go

awry’

Weeds / Pitfalls

• Poor instruction

• Poor lay out

• Poor educator / tutor engagement

• Set and forget mentality

• Forgetting the Pedagogy

• Firewalls / IE

Fruits and Flowers / Successes

• Students can access their material anywhere

• Educators/tutors loving it

• Students loving it

• Demonstrated learning and engagement

• Branching out

• Passion / Enthusiasm

Garden surprises

• Educators loving it – I mean REALLY loving it

• People thinking you know everything

• People thinking you know nothing

Failures

• Tutor education

• Support staff

• Grade book

• Poor design / technology issues

• TIME

Summary

• ‘key’ staff on your side

• Lead by example

• Remain positive, passionate and patient (3 P’s)

• Involvement with the Moodle Community

• Seek Professional Help

• Constantly Evolving

Just Remember