Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques - Third Edition

Table of Contents

Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques Third Edition

Credits

About the Author

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book 

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Developing an Effective Online Course

The Moodle advantage

What will we accomplish with this book

Some Moodle requisites

Standard modules

Instructional principles and activities

What are we trying to do in an online course?

How does learning take place in an online course?

How people learn

Categories, classifications, and schemata

Social learning

Emulatory learning

Communities of practice

Social practices

Experiential learning

Conditions of learning

Behaviorism

Course-building components in Moodle

Resources

Book

Link to a file or website

Activities

Assignment

Choice

Database

Forum

Glossary

Quizzes

Journal

Lessons

Wiki

Course Timetable

Instructional principles and activities mapped to Moodle features

Access for everyone

Summary

2. Instructional Material

Selecting and organizing the material

Matching the material to the learning objectives

Using Forums to present your material

Incorporating social media and cloud-based resources

Creating a separate group for each student

Enrolling students

Creating a group for each student

Guiding and motivating students

Creating the learning environment

Asking permission and setting a policy

Types of forums

Single simple discussion forum

Standard forum

Keeping discussions on track

Using a custom scale to rate relevance

Splitting discussions

Will splitting move replies you want to keep in place?

Monitoring student participation in a forum

Determining who has posted to a forum

What postings has a student made

Summary

3. Collaborative Activities

Interaction involves collaboration

Uses of Chat

Test preparation and online study groups

Creating study groups

Groups carried over to other activities

Key settings for study groups in Chat

Assigning review topics

Kinds of questions

Reviewing papers and other assignments

Creating a one-on-one chat

Workaround 1 – Using groups

Workaround 2 - Restricting access

Guest speakers

Including chats from previous classes

Copying a transcript

Foreign language practice

Preparing for foreign language chat

Compiling and reviewing chat transcripts

Copying chat transcripts

Assigning a chat transcript as an editing exercise

Tips for a successful chat

Basic chat etiquette

Prepare for a definite starting and ending time

Limit the number of participants

Prepare a greeting for latecomers

Focus

Insert HTML

Summary

4. Assessment

The purpose of assessment

Assessment and your learning objectives

Types of assessments

Keys to successful assessment

Taking the fear out of assessment

Assessment with quizzes and distributed practice

Advantages and limitations of distributed practice

Opening and closing quizzes at predetermined times

Indicating that a quiz is closed

Using quizzes for frequent self-assessment

Making a quiz - a learning tool

Questions must be specific

Adding feedback to quiz questions

Feedback for a multiple choice question

Feedback for a numeric question

Reinforcing expertise with timed quizzes

Assessment and motivation

Frequent self-assessment

Self-generating certificates upon successful completion of assessment activities

Setting up the Gradebook

Badges

Summary

5. Lesson Solutions

Selecting and sequencing content for Lessons

Create conditions for learning

Employ scaffolding

Use chunking to help build concepts

Get students involved early

Keep it lively

Keep focused

Use media strategically

Diagnostic and developmental/remedial content

Reward practice

Build confidence for final graded performance

Getting started - a simple example

Moodling through a course

The need for sequential activities

Lesson settings

General settings

Grade options

Flow control

Lesson formatting

Access control

Other Lesson settings

Controlling the flow through a Lesson

Use a Lesson to create a deck of flash cards

Keep it moving

Lesson settings that help create a flash card experience

Use an ungraded Lesson to generate materials and strategies for real-world applications

A workaround

Summary

6. Wiki Solutions

Using wikis to achieve learning objectives

Why a wiki?

Wiki versus forum

Wiki versus blog

An assignment

Let's agree to disagree

Individual student wikis

Creating individual wikis

Active reading strategies with individual student wikis

Creating a text file for the wiki's starting page

Creating multiple starting pages

Multiple text files create multiple starting pages

Creating links to other starting pages

Creating an individual student wiki in your course

Test the wiki as a student

Leveraging guided notes created by students

Suggested wiki etiquette

Summary

7. Glossary Solutions

Helping students learn - schema building

Moodle's glossary functions

Automatic linking to a glossary

Course versus site glossaries

Wiki versus site glossaries

Main versus secondary glossaries

Managing students' contributions to a glossary

Ratings and comments

Adding memory aids to glossary entries

Student-created class directory

Student-created test questions

Student-created extended definitions

Summary

8. The Choice Activity

Moodle's choice activity

A look at the choice activity

Students' point of view

Teachers' point of view

Number of choices

Limit

Publishing results

Privacy

Allowing students to change their minds

Student polls

Learning styles

Self-regulation

Choosing teams

Students' consent

Students' performance

Preview the final

Summary

9. Course Solutions

Building the course design document

Prioritizing and selecting based on learning objectives

Understanding your students, their technologies and their access

Overcoming course anxiety

Important announcements

Moving blocks to the main course area

The goal

Course blogs

Notes

General news and announcements - learning objectives

Using this workaround with other blocks

Section Links

Activities

The syllabus

Printer-friendly for letter and A4 sizes

Online calendar with event reminders

Encouraging course completion

Creating certificates

Creating Badges

Motivating interaction via webinars and web conferencing

Summary

10. Workshop Solution

Workshop overview and use

Workshops and collaborative solutions

Workshop basics

Listing your learning objectives

Planning your strategy

Grading peer assessment

Getting started - setting up the Workshop

Step-by-step example - submissions

Setting up a task

Assessing student peer assessment

Student grade - peer assessment and student work

What are the criteria for assessing the work?

What submissions will the student assess

Anonymous assessments

Classmate agreement on grades

Schedule for submitting the work and assessments

Summary

11. Portfolio/Gallery Solution

Learning objectives and outcomes

Advantages of collaborative activities

Project-based assessment

The best uses of project-based assessment

Learning objectives and projects

Collaboration and cooperation

Examples of portfolios and galleries

Multimedia presentations

Student presentations

Student image galleries

Student creative writing projects

Student research projects

Encouraging creativity – A sample Workshop

The creative writing e-portfolio – My Hometown

Instructions to students

Procedures for collaboration

Our hometowns – A collective conversation

Supportive environments and intellectual risk taking

Tips for a successful experience

Summary

Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques Third Edition

Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques Third Edition

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: September 2007

Second edition: January 2010

Third edition: May 2016

Production reference: 1200516

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78646-229-9

www.packtpub.com

Credits

About the Author

Susan Smith Nash has been designing and developing online courses and programs for more than 15 years for education, training, and personal development.

In addition to Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques, she is the author of a number of Moodle books and training videos, including Moodle Course Design Best Practices and Moodle for Training and Professional Development. She has also authored Video-Assisted Mobile Learning for Writing Courses.

I would like to thank my online students and a very special thanks and appreciation to Lic. Miguel Hermosillo and Dr. Jeff Kissinger, director of the Rollins College, Instructional Design Certificate Program.

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at customercare@packtpub.com for more details.

At www.PacktPub.com , you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks.

https://www2.packtpub.com/books/subscription/packtlib

Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital book library. Here, you can search, access, and read Packt's entire library of books.

Why subscribe?

Fully searchable across every book published by Packt

Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content

On demand and accessible via a web browser

Preface

Welcome to Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques!  I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with you and help you unlock new potential using the world's most popular online learning management system program, Moodle. It has been a favorite of many of the world's most distinguished and forward-looking online programs, and now that Moodle accommodates mobile learning, as well as social media, while maintaining its intuitive, easy-to-use and easy-to-manage interface, it is appealing to students who approach the course from a wide range of devices. In addition to its convenience and ease of implementation, Moodle's cloud-based interface, Moodle has developed a solution for small users. 

Moodle Cloud (https://moodle.com/cloud/) offers small users the ability to use Moodle via Moodle Cloud for free. You have webspace and up to 50 users, along with 200 MB storage space provided for free. It is a great opportunity for instructors, students, and administrators to create an exemplary course, which satisfies users on many different levels.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Developing an Effective Online Course, covers how Moodle has kept up with best practices in online course development. Topics include the Moodle advantage, Moodle in a mobile world, instructional principles and activities, Bloom's taxonomy, and Universal Design. You will learn how to determine course objectives, write learning outcomes that align with Bloom's taxonomy, and map out an assessment strategy.

Chapter 2, Instructional Material, talks about how to create effective instructional material and how to organize it.  Topics include selecting and organizing instructional material, guiding and motivating students, and incorporating social media and cloud-based resources. You will learn how to select materials, organize them, set up a discussion, and incorporate video, audio, and images from cloud-based sources or social media.

Chapter 3, Collaborative Activities, deals with the different types of forums and how best to set them up and use them. Topics include a discussion of productive online interaction, types of interaction, tying collaborative activities to learning outcomes, common pitfalls, and chat. You will learn how to set up Forums for discussions, select the right kinds of forums, and set up forums for different purposes.

Chapter 4, Assessment, talks about how to create different types of assessments and to match them with learning outcomes. Topics include the purpose of assessment, as it relates to learning objectives, motivation, and the automatic generation of badges and certificates. You will learn how to develop assessments and an assessment strategy, and you will also learn how to created automatically generated certificates and badges.

Chapter 5, Lesson Solutions, covers developing and sequencing content for Lessons, and building Lessons step by step.  Topics include building Lessons step-by-step, selecting the elements, and controlling the flow through a Lesson. Students will learn how to build a Lesson and to sequence it for ideal performance. They will also learn how to develop a Lesson and then how to control flow through it.

Chapter 6, Wiki Solutions, deals with how to create different types of wikis and how and why to use them. Topics include using a wiki to achieve learning objectives, and using social media and cloud resources.  You will learn how to build different types of wikis and control student input.

Chapter 7, Glossary Solutions, talks about creating glossaries for activities, collaborative interaction, and assessments. Topics include helping students learn via schema building, glossaries and learning objectives, and the functions of the glossary. You will learn to build a glossary and to use it to create test questions, technical terms, and a class directory.

Chapter 8, The Choice Activity, deal with using the Choice activity to create polls and quizzes to engage students. Topics include polls, learning styles, using a quiz. You will learn how to create quizzes and polls.

Chapter 9, Course Solutions, covers creating a template for a full course. Topics include creating a course template and a course design document, and then prioritizing and selecting based on learning objectives. You will learn how to map out the steps to build a course from start to finish, create a syllabus, engagers, quizzes, assessment, and develop automatically generated certificates and badges.

Chapter 10, Workshop Solutions, talks about creating a Workshop to encourage collaborative development of material and to use peer review to learn from each other. Topics include Workshops and collaborative learning, creating the Workshop that allows peer assessment. You will learn how to build a Workshop and to create examples.

Chapter 11, Portfolio/Gallery Solutions, covers the design and development of portfolios which encourage engagement and collaboration, with results displayed in a gallery in Moodle. Topics include the advantages of collaborative activities, the design of project-based assessment, the benefits of creative capstones, the analysis of an example (Our Hometowns), and tips for success. You will learn how to build an effective portfolio assignment, create examples/sample portfolios, and build a gallery of examples.

What you need for this book

Make sure that you have Moodle 3.0 or later, and a good Internet connection.

Who this book is for

This book is intended for instructional designers, teachers, teaching assistants, Moodle administrators, program administrators, and instructional technologists who have an interest in highly effective, high-quality online courses, and in learning how to most effectively deploy a Moodle solution.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: You can name it Ancient Humanities.

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: Click Add an activity or resource and then Add a Forum.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply e-mail feedback@packtpub.com, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and