Moodle @ Purchase

Keith Landa Purchase College http://www.slideshare.net/keith.landa

Focus on teaching & learning

- Robust set of activities & resources - Add-on modules from the community - Moodle development pathway Integration - Other systems - Web 2.0 world Flexible open architecture

Why Moodle @ Purchase?

Costs - No licensing costs - Similar support costs Risk management - Risks of open source - Commercial products have different risks

Background – Purchase – 2008

Liberal Arts and Sciences plus Arts Conservatories ~4200 FTE ERes electronic reserves Web enhancement of F2F courses

LMS review @ Purchase

Context: faculty dissatisfaction with Blackboard; superficial use of LMS; escalating costs Fall 2008: faculty task force established; faculty survey; discussion of selection criteria (functionality, technical requirements, costs) Spring 2009: Moodle production system established; pilot Moodle courses (~20); student survey (key driver); ongoing communication; development of general sense among faculty that ‘we’re going with Moodle’….

Summer 2009: summer faculty workshop series (new); course conversion and course prep; consolidation of electronic reserves into Moodle courses Fall 2009/Spring 2010: transition year; immediate termination of ERes; one more year of Blackboard; faculty assisted to move courses to Moodle; ongoing Moodle workshops; termination of Blackboard at end of year

Faculty Blackboard uses LMS desired features Course documents Syllabus Assignments Announcements Course info Grade center External links Discussion board Send email Staff information Course statistics Digital dropbox Course calendar Test manager Groups Early warning system Collaboration Messages Tasks Survey manager Safeassign Glossary manager 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 1.

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Distribute materials Library services Integration with SIS Course communications Links to external web sites One stop shopping for students Discussion forum Gradebook New media (blogs, wikis, podcasts) Drop boxes Student collaboration tools Course reports Self-directed lessons Online quizzing Real-time tools (chat, etc) Clickers No “killer app” tying us to Blackboard

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Accessing resources Ease of use Better function Course communications Ease of use Better function Schedule tracking Ease of use Better function

Moodle Equal Blackboard Moodle Equal Blackboard Moodle Equal Blackboard

Assignments

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Moodle Equal Blackboard 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Ease of use Better function Keeping track of grades

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Ease of use Better function Which system preferred?

Moodle Equal Blackboard Moodle Equal Blackboard 1

Implementation – course migration

• • • • • Blackboard - ~1000 courses; ERes – substantially more ERes – document download, upload to Moodle Blackboard – Moodle can import Blackboard course archives (zip files), but…. (problems with the Bb archives) Temp services staff - ~300 hours from May to Aug 2009, primarily ERes migration Bb course migration on request during 2009/2010 year

Implementation – faculty development

• • • Spring 2009 workshops: hour long sessions, various topics; early adopters; 28 faculty 2009 Summer Faculty Workshop Series: new programming, not just Moodle; half- and full day workshops; stipends; 36 faculty at Moodle sessions Fall 2009: Moodle Kickoff workshops; Getting Started, Gradebook, Learning Activity; 98 faculty

Implementation – server config

• • • • • • Virtual servers for production and for test/dev – More control over test environment Windows Server 2008 x64 4 CPUs 4 GB RAM 30 GB C: drive; 100 GB E: drive MS SQL and PHP

Cost comparisons

Licensing Server Staff Course migration Faculty development

Blackboard

$40K VM Fraction FTE server admin 1 FTE instructional tech NA ??

Moodle

$0K VM Fraction FTE server admin 1 FTE instructional tech $3K onetime (ERes, mostly) $3.6K summer 2009 Switch to Moodle saves us over $50K each year (Blackboard and ERes licensing costs) Risk management: self-host vs vendor host http://goo.gl/tQ5uX

Community contributed modules

Lightbox Gallery resource Map activity Community Modules and Plugins page http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6009

Bringing the cloud into the course

Open advantages

Enrollment automation Student Information System Academic Analytics Library Information Systems Campus Repository Senior projects Library integration -Reserve requests -Electronic resources

Focus on teaching & learning

- Robust set of activities & resources - Add-on modules from the community - Moodle development pathway

Why @ Purchase?

Costs

- No licensing costs - Similar support costs

Risk management

- Risks of open source - Commercial products have different risks

Integration

- Other systems - Web 2.0 world

Flexible open architecture

Campus lessons - Moodle

• • • • • LMS focus should be learning – Faculty AND student perspectives Change is hard, and exhilarating Choose the risk you’re comfortable with Importance of community critical mass for open source apps Clear roadmap for product development

Student Information System Academic Analytics Library Information Systems Campus Repository The View from 30,000 Feet

Community of Inquiry model

• • • Student engagement with content with instructor with each other http://communitiesofinquiry.com/

7 Principles of Good Practice

1. Encourages contact between students and faculty 2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.

3. Encourages active learning.

4. Gives prompt feedback.

5. Emphasizes time on task.

6. Communicates high expectations.

7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

LMS orientations

• • Example Blackboard course Example Moodle course – Main page sections – Blocks – Moodle navigation – Course page mirrors class, integrated resources and learning activities – “Scroll of death”

Setting up a learning module

• • • Defining the module – Using the section summary Module learning objectives – Add a resource -> Compose a web page – Name and Full text fields – Window options Creating organization: use of Labels

Student engagement w/ content

• • • • Context & student engagement w/ the content Files: your private staging area – Linking to specific files – – Displaying a directory (folder) / image gallery File links in Moodle text – Media filters Linking to web sites Integrating with Web 2.0 resources – Repositories in Moodle 2.0

– YouTube, Vimeo, VoiceThread, Google Docs

Discussion forums

• • • • Student engagement with peers & instructor Student-faculty contact; feedback; active learning 4 forum types in Moodle (now 5 in 2.0) – Ex: single topic format; YouTube discussion – Q&A forum; reading reflection example Rating discussion forums

Student collaboration

• • • Reciprocity and active learning Wiki activity – Configuration and use – Pedagogical considerations: combined use of group forum and wiki project Database activity – Structured contributions; activity configuration – Commenting and rating – Glossary activity

Communication tools

• • • • Course announcements (News Forum) – Tie to Latest News block – Forum archive and email to class members Moodle messaging – IM functionality within Moodle – Email notices – Permanent archive Chat activity (eg, office hours) Calendar and Upcoming Events

Assignments in Moodle

• • • • Feedback; student/faculty engagement/contact Assignment types; configuration Student and faculty views Grading and providing feedback

Quizzes / Assessments

• • Question bank – Question types – Organizing questions – Question import Configuring quizzes – Formative vs summative – Question selection – Feedback options

Course reports

• • • • • Course logs Participation reports Activity reports Student activity reports Connection between reports and messaging

Questions?

Keith Landa Purchase College SUNY 914-251-6450 [email protected]