Moodle 2: Activity Tool Guide for Instructors

Usually an activity is something that a student does that allows interaction/collaboration with other students and/or the instructor, depending on learning needs.
What you want to use (technology)

What you want to achieve (pedagogy)

Information Transfer

Assess learning
Will this tool allow you to assess your students learning?

Communication & interaction

Ease of use

Activity Type Add Activity:

How easy can this be set up by you?

Is it a tool for disseminating information from you to your students?

Can it be used for communication & interaction among participants (you & your students)? No. Very limited.
Short comments about specific assignment . Not designed for interaction

Co-create content

Blooms

Can you & your students collaborate & create content together?

Allows what thinking order? Remember Understand Apply Analyse Evaluate Create 6/6. Depends

Assignment
Individual assessment and feedback

4 types. Both online journal type and student upload of assignments available

Easy. Choose from

No. However, can

include contextual information/ instructions for students to complete

assignments online, grade and provide feedback to individual students

Yes. Collect

No. Individual

submissions. Consider using forum, wiki instead

entirely on your assignment design

Add Activity:
Synchronous (real time) text based communication

Chat

Medium.

Straightforward to set up. Difficulty comes in managing communications

Maybe. However, not best choice, conversation can be disjointed, may result in confusion No.

Maybe.

Depends on use, what you want to achieve (formative assessment?)

Yes.

Best used with small groups, drop in sessions

Maybe. Students

can collaborate or discuss topic in real time, in writing

Yes. Could do all of the above, depending on how you integrate information and design session 5/6.

Add Activity:
Poll students from choice of multiple responses

Choice

Define choice options. Limit student responses to one or more choices

Easy.

Better for assessing/checking for understanding

to check for understanding (example: term or theory)

Yes. Could be used

No.

Not the tool to use. Consider using Forum

No. Not a

collaboration tool. Consider Forums, Wiki, Glossary, Database

Possible, but must be creative

Add Activity:

Students can build, display and search a bank of entries

Database

training, and knowing what you want, prior to attempting build of activity

Hard. Need

used solely for instructor to present info, but better for students to build

Maybe. Could be

tool, but must be designed correctly to achieve

Yes. Very versatile

No. Not designed for

discussion. Students can comment or rate entries

share files of all types, create collections, and search entries

Yes. Students can

5/6.

Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create

External Tool
Connect to 3rd party activities

Add Activity:

external collaborative tool. External tool must be configured to allow access

Easy. Link to an

Maybe.

Depends on the external tool used

Yes. However, external tools are not linked to Moodle grades, so reporting more convoluted

Maybe.

Depends on external tool used

Maybe.

Depends if the external tool allows collaboration

Maybe.

Depends on the external tool

Add Activity:
Conduct instructor made surveys (non-graded)

Feedback

settings first, then add questions. Reporting/results feature for instructor

Easy. Configure

No. The feedback

tool is not for distributing information to students

Yes. Could be used as a pre and post topic tool to assess understanding

No.

No option for twoway interaction or communication.

No. This is an

individual activity, no collaboration available

Yes.

Ability to test all 6 depending on design and approach

Add Activity:
Students/instructors exchange ideas by posting comments

Forum

Easy. Decision is

Maybe. Can share

what forum type to use, and how you will monitor/contribute to discussions

links and files, however information could get lost amongst all the posts

Yes.

Forums can be used as a formative assessment activity depending on design

communicate asynchronously with peers, instructors, groups

Yes. Students can

Yes. A collaborative
activity to explore topic, theory, question, comment on posts

Yes.

Could apply all 6 via posts and direction of conversation

Add Activity:
Create lists, definitions, bibliography etc.

Glossary

settings to choose from. Use imagination to decide on usage

Easy. Variety of

present information or definitions in one place. Students could also build

Yes. A way to

Maybe.

You need to design the activity with this in mind

No.

Not a discussion tool. Students can comment and rate

No.

Student can edit own entry, not edit others entries

5/6.

Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create

Group Choice
Students choose own groups

Add Activity:

Medium.

No.

Instructor sets up groups first. Then students enrol. Max group # can be set

Just allows students to choose a group already created

No.

Just allows student to choose what group to belong to

No.

Just allows a student to make a group choice

Just allows a student to make a group choice

No.

As a stand alone, this is not a learning activity.

Great fit

How to use this guide

Can work with some learning design

Not best tool for the job

Use this guide to pick the right activitytool for the job. Know which tool you want to use? Follow its row across to see its strengths & weaknesses. Know what you want to achieve? Pick a column and follow it to see which tool will help you do it.

Where can instructors add activities? Activities are available to add once an Instructor Turns editing on within their course.

Need more Moodle help?

Moodle community at moodle.org Moodle News: (moodlenews.com)

Tweeters to Follow @moodlehound @moodlehelen @moodler

@catspyjamasnz @moodleman @ ghenrick

Adapted for Moodle 2 by Sue Harper @moodlehound from Joyce Seitzinger @catspyjamasnz, & Gavin Henrick @ghenrick

Moodle 2: Activity Tool Guide for Instructors

Continuation of activity/pedagogic analysis.
What you want to use (technology) What you want to achieve (pedagogy)

Information Transfer

Assess learning
Will this tool allow you to assess your students learning?

Communication & interaction

Ease of use

Activity Type Add Activity:

Create adaptive learning through branches and choices

How easy can this be set up by you?

Is it a tool for disseminating information from you to your students?

Can it be used for communication & interaction among participants (you & your students)? No.

Co-create content

Blooms

Can you & your students collaborate & create content together?

Allows what thinking order? Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create Yes.

Lesson

Medium. Design
lesson branches first before building. Avoid complicated structure

Yes. Great way to present branched (adaptive learning) information in guided way

Yes. Does allow grading. Use examples: branched quiz, role play, case study, check understanding Maybe.

Individual activity

No.

Individual activity

All six, depending on lesson design.

Add Activity:
Provides Student and course specific shared blogs

OU Blog

straight forward. Decision lies in use and how you would assess

Easy. Set up

No. Blogging is

primarily a reflective tool for students

Depends on design of blog activity

Maybe. Can allow for comments on entries, also group, individual, or course (everyone) blog No. While

Maybe. Can allow

for comments on entries, also group, individual or course (collective) blog

Yes.

Can do all of the above, depending on how you design blog activity

Add Activity:
Upload podcast episodes

Pcast

Set up a little tricky. Episodes can be approved and rated

Hard.

Maybe. Could

create episodes of lectures and post to students

Maybe.

If students allowed to upload media, can allow for ratings

comments can be allowed, not a good communication avenue

students to upload episodes and short comments on others uploads

Maybe. Can allow

5/6.

Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create

Questionaire
Create range of survey questions (Can be graded)

Add Activity:

than Feedback activity. Variety of Q types. Can create template

Easy. More robust

No.

Not an information distribution channel

Maybe. Allows
grading. More a survey tool Example: feedback on activity. Quiz an alternative

No.

Not a communication or interaction tool

No.

Not a collaborative content creation tool

Maybe.

Could be used to check for understanding.

Add Activity:
Assess learning formative or summative

Quiz

takes time to set up. Create quiz then questions. Consider using categories

Hard. Tricky and

No. Assessment

tool, great for self assessments. Not information distribution

timed and secure. Can extend quiz time for individuals. Many question types

Yes. Quiz can be

No.

For individual assessment. Could use forum activity instead

No.

For individual assessment, consider wiki or forum instead

6/6

Requires development of quiz questions to meet need

Scorm Package
Upload Scorm

Add Activity:

how to create Scorm package first, using 3rd party application

Hard. Must know

Yes.

Can create information packages that includes multimedia

Yes.

Can allow grading and create interactive components

No.

Usually an individual activity

No.

Usually an individual activity

above, depending on how you integrate and design learning package.

6/6 Can do all of the

Add Activity:
Collaborative page creation

Wiki

Medium. Can be
hard to master and set up. Training required, understand limitations

Yes. Could be an information site, if Instructors change permissions so students cannot edit No.

Yes. Wiki can allow this. Could drive instruction

No. Not the tool for

discussions. Use examples: planning, collaborative writing, brainstorming

Yes. Students can collaborate. Note: only one person can edit page at a time

5/6.

Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create

Peer assessment activity with many options

Workshop

Add Activity:

to understand and set up. 4 stages to follow for implementation

Hard. Takes time

Not designed for this purpose

assessed on contributions and review of peers work.

Yes. Students can be

No.

Allows for feedback but no discussion interaction

No.

Does not allow for group assignments. Use Wiki, Forum instead

6/6

Depends on design of learning activity.

New Functionality: Conditional Activities

When creating an activity Instructors now have the opportunity to engage Conditional settings. This function enables Instructors to restrict the availability of any activity or resource according to certain conditions. Two examples are: viewing documents in a certain order, or restricting access to a resource until a certain grade is obtained on a quiz. Adaptive Learning Path Example: Using Conditional Activities, an Instructor may separate students learning paths by the range of performance they have achieved. For example, after a quiz any one of two different resources might appear to a student, depending upon their score. The instructor can have one resource available for low scores, and another resource available for high scores.

Great fit

How to use this guide

Can work with some learning design

Not best tool for the job

Use this guide to pick the right activity tool for the job. Know which tool you want to use? Follow its row across to see its strengths & weaknesses. Know what you want to achieve? Pick a column and follow it to see which tool will help you do it.

Where can instructors add activities? Activities are available to add once an Instructor Turns editing on within their course.

Need more Moodle help?

Moodle community: moodle.org Moodle News: moodlenews.com

Tweeters to Follow @moodlehound @moodlehelen @moodler

@catspyjamasnz @moodleman @ ghenrick

Adapted for Moodle 2 by Sue Harper @moodlehound from Joyce Seitzinger @catspyjamasnz & Gavin Henrick @ghenrick