Blended Learning with Moodle in an Out of School Adoption Education Program for

Youth

Sophia Barton-Bucknor

ETEC 511 Section 66 A

University of British Columbia
Dr. Franc Feng
August 19, 2012

Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

Introduction
The adoption circle often involves many constituents: the child/youth, prospective
adoptive parents, birth family, foster parents, and adoption professionals. The adults in the circle
receive extensive preparation through professional training, adoption agencies and associations,
and the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). British Columbias Adoption
Act requires prospective adoptive parents to undertake an adoption education program (AEP) or
course of study. There is no such requirement for the children and youth who are registered for
adoption.
At present, AEPs are offered within in a face-to-face (f2f) learning environment.
However, responding to feedback from prospective parents, especially those within the remote
regions in the North and the Interior, such as Prince George and Kamloops respectively, the
Adoptive Families Association of BC (AFABC) has partnered with the MCFD to develop and
offer an online version of AEP. Over the past eighteen months, I have been involved in this
online initiative that will be offered through Moodle, a learning or course management system
(LMS or CMS) that allows students to interact with course content online via the web. I have
been the manager of the youth program for the past five years and feedback from consultations
with AFABCs Speak-Out Youth, and youth from other organizations such as the Federation of
BC Youth in Care Networks indicate that youth want to have a better understanding and more
say in the process. This can happen if youth are as prepared as the adults through an adoption
education program for youth, ages 12 to 18.
Given the sensitive nature of the topic, it is advisable that f2f interactions occur between
the youth and the facilitator(s) who will be the education/youth program manager, youth worker,

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Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

social workers, and a clinical counsellor. However, as educators, it is incumbent on us to use the
best teaching strategies and exploit the affordances of educational technology that will best help
students construct meaning that will result in meaningful learning. These youth are often
described as digital natives. As Prensky (2001) points out todays students K through college
represent the first generation to grow up with this new technology. In fact as he continues it
is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their
interaction with it, todays students think and process information fundamentally differently from
their predecessors. Blended learning can be described as combining the best elements of online
and face-to-face education and is emerging as the predominant teaching model (Watson, 2008).
Research indicates that blended learning offers better results over face-to-face learning only
(Govender, 2010; cite Lowerison, Sclater, Schmid &Abrami, 2006, Milheim 2004, Broadbent,
2002). This paper posits that the pedagogical design and economic benefits of using the LMS
Moodle in a blended out of school adoption education program for youth outweigh the
challenges and therefore this is the approach that should be used.
Pedagogical Consideration: Effectiveness of Moodle as a LMS
The Benefits
Petrina and Feng (2008; cite Petrina 2002, 2003) point out that educational technology
(ET) is the use of any technology for teaching and learning, which includes administration,
counselling as well as curriculum and instruction. ET can be defined as the facilitation of
human learning through systematic identification, development, organization, and utilization of a
full range of learning resources and through the management of these processes, (Ely, 1992;

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Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

cited in Januszweski, 2001). The importance of educational technology lies within what we do
with it. Moodle as a LMS offers many potential for blended learning.
Digital immigrants often feel overwhelmed by seemingly plethora technology and feel
unsure and incompetent when faced with current technologies with which digital natives are so
comfortable. It is therefore very important that LMS are easy to use and for users to have access
to technology support. Moodles content is displayed in What You See Is What You Get
(WYSIWIG) format, so no knowledge of programming or HTML is required. This makes
Moodle is one of the easiest LMS platforms to use (McCall, 2009; Henderson, 2007; Maikish,
2006). In addition, "Moodle handles all the programming and database work in the background
so that teachers can focus on building the content" (McCall, 2009). For the teacher or facilitator
who feels intimidated by technology, Moodle comes with a lot of support via its site as well as a
large community of users and developers who are willing to share. Moodle is also very easy for
students to use. Anderson (2008) argues that designs should use learning-centred activities and
diagnostic tools that make evident what learners bring to the environment. The youth in this
program are already very comfortable in the internet connective rich Web 2.0 environment of
Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube; this mindset and skill set make transitioning to activities
within Moodle easier. As well, activities can be introduced and demonstrated in-class before the
youth are required to use them, whether in class or for homework.
Educational technology and pedagogy are integrated and complementary within a learning
environment. Educators often want to customize the technology for each class, premised on
factors such as students, resources, and layout. Moodle comes with an empty shell which enables
customization (McCall, 2009); the content is developed by the teacher/facilitator aided by the
activity tools within Moodle. The facilitators in this program can customize activities, whether
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Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

for an individual youth or groups. The shell also comes with many templates and free plug-ins or
additional software that can also be included, as needed.
Tapscott (2004) describes todays youth as active users who are and want to be engaged;
they inquire, discuss, argue, play, shop, critique, investigate, ridicule, fantasize, seek, and
inform. In fact, and in particular this group that has been disempowered, they want to be
collaborator or partners with the facilitators. However, while some are comfortable sharing in a
large group environment, some prefer to do so online. Therefore, by engaging youth in a blended
learning environment through Moodle, they can share their ideas, individually as within a group,
while guided by face-to-face interactions with facilitators and peers. Moodle allows the teacher
or facilitator to design in class activities where youth can be working together while s/he
provides individual help, as needed. Activities can be designed using tools such as wikis, chat,
blog, forum, or the facilitator could have a link to a group write tool such as Google Docs for an
individual youth, groups, or the class. Quizzes can be given within Moodle with instant results
and feedback. A glossary to explain unfamiliar words can be provided. Assignments can be
crafted to include multimedia elements such as videos and audios along with the static text
element. Youth can interact with the lessons and respond to questions. Activities can also be
designed around youth experimenting and creating their own activities.
The online learning environment affords us the possibility of extending parts or all beyond
the classroom space or boundary. Anderson (2008) states that we should exploit the twoness of
Learn 2.0 or online learning to develop, encourage, and support collaboration through a
community of learning that can be extended beyond the classroom. Facilitators can use Moodle
to extend the classroom to the youths homes. Many of these youth have access to computers
through their foster parents. In addition, if mandated by the MCFD, social workers will ensure
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Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

that computers and access are provided. Activities can be crafted where youth can log on from
anywhere to research, respond, collaborate, upload assignments, create and publish. Youth can
also use Moodle communication tools like forums and messenger to contact facilitators outside
of class time if they have difficulties.
The Challenges
As marvelous as the potential of Moodle may be for the classroom teacher, it may seem
like a muddle upon initial explorations. He or she may be confused as to how to navigate or
utilize the site. This muddle can seem less intuitive to the digital immigrant who will require
some training.
Many teachers have limited computer technology skills and as a result may balk at using a
LMS such a Moodle in the classrooms. However, with training teachers competence and
willingness may increase. Access to technical support in schools may also alleviate fears. This
technical support may prove costly for some schools.
Linked to the previous point, the Moodle design icons and templates may seem less
intuitive for some teachers. It may not be clear what each icon represents, how to edit, how to
add a page, how to create a quiz or how to track progress. Training will help to address these
issues.
Economic Considerations
Design decisions are impacted by and impact economic considerations. Using Moodle as a
the LMS for blended learning in this program is impacted by a number of individual items of
expenditure and drivers of costs (Bates & Poole, 2003; Lerner & Tirole, 2002; Puryear, 1999),

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Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

Whether we identify a couple or many factors, this question of cost is a bottom line decision
maker or breaker and many LMS can be very expensive. Moodle is an open source LMS and its
economics can be examined through this perspective and why it is so attractive an option for this
program.
Puryear (1999) identifies costs as being fixed or variable. Drivers of costs include the
production of materials, costs in training facilitators and providing ongoing technical support,
costs of technology or media chosen (Bates & Poole, 2003). As indicated, the AFABC is already
developing an online course within Moodle. Moodle is an open source LMS and as a result there
is no associated licencing fee for the software and most plug-ins. There might however be
associated costs to some plug-ins. The associations fixed costs already include computer and the
internet. Other individual items of expenditure such as such Moodle hosting and technical
support fees as video licensing and copyright have already been taken care of. A lot of the
resource materials have already been developed. In fact, some of these materials were developed
by the youth program and this will offset some of this costs. Additional materials can be
developed by the youth and their facilitators using the free plug-in from the Moodle community
or media technology already purchased by the association.
Other drivers of costs are related to staff and contractor expenditures. It is anticipated that
facilitators will be members of staff, and while there will be an increase in hours or number of
persons contracted; this too will be offset by staff salary. There is a very real cost of training
staff, however, this could be a one-time or at least an occasional cost if there is limited staff
turnover for this program and for staff to keep abreast of current developments.

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Blended Learning with Moodle in an Adoption Education Program for Youth

Conclusion
Moodle presents many benefits and possibilities for blended learning for an adoption
education program for youth; digital natives, who are already Web 2.0 savvy, use a variety of
internet tools to connect and share their opinions. It affords the use of a relatively inexpensive
system that can be customized for individual or group activities using a number of interactive
tools. It is anticipated that fixed and variable drivers of costs will be low; the program will
benefit from offset expenditures due to current Moodle initiatives and the economics of scale
from association wide expenditures. It may seem like a foreign landscape for some teachers or
facilitators, and so training and support will be needed provide them will the skills navigate this
landscape and to help create optimal surrounding conditions (Puryear, 1999) for learning.

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References
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Youth in and From Care. Retrieved from
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Govender, D. (2010). Attitudes of students towards the use of a Learning Management System
(LMS) in a face-to-face learning mode of instruction. Africa Education Review, 7 (2), 244 262.
Henderson, S. (2007). Using Moodle to create a virtual learning environment. Teaching Business
& Economics, 11(2), 31-32. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Lerner, J. & Tirole, J. (2002). Some simple economics of open source. The Journal of Industrial
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1. Vancouver, BC: Tech no-Printing Press.
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