Transcript What is the future of CALL?

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Introduction to
Online Course Design
with Moodle
9th JALTCALL International Conference
Tokiwa University, 4 June 2004
Don Hinkelman
Sapporo Gakuin University
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What is the future of CALL?
21st Century Schools
and e-Learning
Computer-mediated
Communication…
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Requirements for a
“virtual learning environment”
It should be easy to create an online course from existing
learner resources, people are busy today!
Courses should organize into intuitive categories, with a
backup and restore procedure that makes it simple to set
up a new course with different learners.
Course enrolment and user authentication
must not be complicated, yet be secure.
Managing online user activity should resemble
how you currently manage learners.
There must be an active online support
community of educators and trainers that can
help solve problems and spark new ideas.
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An Open Source Option -- Moodle
Modular Object-Oriented Distributed Learning Environment
Open-source course management system software
Guided by strong pedagogical principles
Simple intuitive browser interface
International focus (supports 34 languages)
Cross-platform server and user support
Modular design allows third-party development
Vibrant learning community of users and developers
Free, distribution under GPL
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Philosophy of Online Learning
Activities are at the heart of a course management
system. Moodle was designed by an educator and
computer scientist, with “social constructionist”
principles in mind. Constructionism asserts that
learning is particularly effective when constructing
something for others to experience. This can be
anything from a spoken sentence or an internet
posting, to more complex artifacts like a painting, a
house or a software package.
Martin Dougiamas
Creator & Lead Developer
The concept of social constructivism extends the
above ideas into a social group constructing things
for one another, collaboratively creating a small
culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings.
When one is immersed within a culture like this,
one is learning all the time about how to be a part
of that culture, on many levels.
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Course Management Features
To use Moodle, you think like a teacher, not a
programmer. You see topics and activities, not tools. A
student can immediately see where to start, and take a
global view to see where it will end. A sequential, topic
based approach unique to Moodle.
Moodle has a “modular” architecture that makes adding
new Activities during course creation a very simple
process. Course creators can select from three different
formats for presenting their learning syllabus; Topic,
Weekly or Social format. The magic begins when you
click “Turn editing on” within the blank course template.
With editing turned on, the course creator can now Add activities from an
intuitive drop-down list of module plug-in features.
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Course Management Features ...cont.
Assignment Module
Used to assign online or offline tasks; participants can submit
these tasks in any file format (MS Office, PDF, image, a/v etc.)
Chat Module
Allows real-time synchronous communication by learners
Choice Module
Instructors create a question and a number
of choices for students; results are posted
for partipants to view. Use this module to
do quick surveys on subject matter.
Dialogue Module
Allows for one-to-one private asynchronous
message exchange between instructor and
student, or student to student. Dialogues
are private consultation workspaces.
Module property screens guide you through setup
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Course Management Features ...cont.
Forums Module
Threaded discussion boards for asynchronous
group exchange on shared subject matter (see
user Community Forums at http://moodle.org/ on various
topics and disciplines)
Glossary Module
Instructors can create dictionary's of terms
used in a course, and import or export terms
for re-use in other courses.
Journal Module
Used to allow learners to reflect, then write and
revise ideas
Glossary terms appear in highlight within all
activity module resources. Moodle includes its
own site search engine.
Label Module
Add descriptions with images in any area of
the course homepage
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Course Management Features ...cont.
Lesson Module
Allows instructor to create and manage a set of linked "Pages".
Each page can end with a question. The student chooses one
answer from a set of answers and either goes forward, backward or
stays in the same place in the lesson. Learner is graded upon
completion.
Quiz Module
Create all the familiar forms of assessment including true-false,
multiple choice, short answer, matching question, random
questions, numerical questions, embedded answer questions with
descriptive text and graphics.
Moodle supports embedding audio into a quiz,
enhancing language arts and other course
content syllabus requirements.
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Course Management Features ...cont.
Resource Module
The primary tool for bringing content into a course; may be
plain text, uploaded files, links to the web, Wiki or Rich Text
(Moodle has built-in editors) or a bibliography type reference.
Moodle users have even linked local drive DVD courseware
with online Moodle Resource activities.
Survey Module
This module aids an instructor in making online classes more
effective by offering a variety of suveys (COLLES, ATTLS),
including critical incident sampling.
A Resource activity delivers syllabus content to the learner, while a course
Assignment activity can require the learner to upload a completed project.
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Learner Management Features
Creating learning content is only part of what a good
course management system (CMS) is designed to do.
The CMS must also be able to manage learners in a
variety of ways. Learner management includes:
Easy access to a list of participants in your course
Being able to segment participants into groups
Site, course and user calendar event scheduling
Intuitive course administration features for; changing
course settings, manually enrolling or removing
teachers and learners from the course, backing up
and restoring course content, applying scales to
different learner activities, managing grades, tracking
user access logs and uploading external files for use
within the course.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Participants
One click and you can view activity from all participants
enrolled in the course. Learners create a personal profile
that can include a picture, helping connect students socially
in the online learning community.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Groups
Assigning learners to a group is a common practice for both
educators and business trainers. Moodle allows the course
instructor to easily create group catagories. Once assigned,
group members can only interact with other members in their
group within the course.
Creating distinct group names is easy.
Learners and teachers are assigned to
a group by clicking a single button.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Calendar
Keeping a calendar of events is important to both the learner
and course instructor. Events can be created for different
categories, including:
Global events that appear in all courses (system admin)
Course events set by an instructor
Group events set by instructor relative only to a group
User events set by learner (e.g. due dates, personal etc.)
Calendar Upcoming Events appear on the course homepage,
and alert the learner across all courses they are enrolled in of
different category events using an intuitive color scheme.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
The Administration control panel puts all important learner
management functions a single click away. Teachers and
Students can be manually enrolled or removed from a course.
Backup and Restore of a course is easy and presents options
that allow you to select which information to save or import.
Restoring an existing course or Uploading a file archive
from storage is accomplished with a single mouse click
Backup can include or exclude
student files and course data
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
Teachers and trainers can define their own Scales to be used
for grading Forums, Assignments and Journals. Standard
scales include assigning a value from 1-100% for each
submission (or no grade), and indicating whether the learner
was demonstrating one of three characteristics in the activity:
Shows mostly CONNECTED knowing
Shows mostly SEPARATE knowing
Equally separate and connected
Custom scales allow the instructor to
fine tune their grading for specific
content.
Easily create several types of scales, and
connect them with different activities you
Add to the course.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
The Grades feature in Moodle provides a quick view of all
Forum, Assignment, Journal, Quiz, Lesson and Workshop
activity. The grading scale value applied to a learners
submission is shown, along with a cumulative total, on a single
page.
Grades can be downloaded in Excel or text format for
inclusion into an existing electronic gradebook
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
Viewing Assignment and Journal entry submissions, and
adding Grades and comments, are done from a single page
that displays all enrolled students
Managing student course Assignment uploads and Journal entry
submissions are done from one central screen. This cuts down
on the time it takes to assess many students work.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
Knowing when and what course resources the learner has
accessed will tell an instructor where the student is at in
their online learning experience, and may effect grading.
Moodle's Logs provide detailed learner information.
Easily locate specific course, student, date and module activity access information
Logs pin-point where a student is within coursework
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
Instructors can centrally locate all resources used when
creating course content, within the Files storage area of
Moodle. These resources are available when using the
HTML rich text editor, allowing you to easily insert content
into an activity module.
Files storage area resembles your computer, making
it easy to add, move, zip and delete resources.
Moodle's built-in HTML editor allows you to add Files from your
storage area, creating rich text activity resources.
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Learner Management Features ... cont.
Administration
When a teacher or trainer is logged in to their course, an
extensive Moodle Help file is a button click away. Additionally,
each course includes a special Teacher forum, where course
instructors can collaborate on ideas and share certain tasks.
Moodle's built in Teacher Manual provides hand-holding instructions
on all aspects of course and learner management
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Student User Experience
Learners find it easy to navigate a Moodle course
homepage in their browser, intuitive links are always
present. Login occurs on a familiar screen, with initial
account setup being handled by the student.
Navigation bar is always present
Moodle's has its own authentication system, but will integrate with
an external database, POP3, IMAP, LDAP or NNTP, allowing
domain wide login.
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Student User Experience ... cont.
Instructors can require an “enrollment key” to enter a
course, limiting entry and class size. After enrollment an
instructor will e-mail the enrollment key password to
students that are accepted. Courses requiring an
enrollment key are indicated in “Course categories”
description. Instructors can also allow Guest login.
Learners see their courses
on site homepage at Login
Course category displays descriptions of each course listed, and whether
they require an enrollment key. Instructors can allow “Guest” login.
Guests can view activities only. Symbols on description page indicate
when a course requires an enrollment key and allows Guest entry.
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Student User Experience ... cont.
Learners can login any time, anywhere to interact with
coursework. Each user can specify the Time Zone they
are in, and the Language they wish to use. Moodle has
interface support for 34 languages. Students can be
notified by E-mail each time a Forum, which they are
“subscribed” to, has a new posting. Additionally,
instructors can set e-mail notification for Dialogues.
Learners can select from 34
languages at Login
Rich text e-mail is sent to each learner
“subscribed” to different Forums.
Instructors can set private Dialogues to
e-mail notification that comments have
been added.
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Who is Using Moodle?
About 1000 organizations in 74 countries had
registered Moodle sites at http://moodle.org/sites/ by
March 2004. This number is growning by about 10%
each month as educators and trainers learn of the
value proposition that open source Moodle offers.
Moodle is an ideal solution for:
Public and Private Schools
Community Colleges and Universities
Governmental Agencies
Business and Training Organizations
Hospitals and Libraries
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Who Will Help You Use Moodle?
Hundreds of knowledgeable open-source users have
joined with Moodle developers in a community of
learners. Meet a few new friends!
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Why Not Try Moodle Right Now?
If your organization is ready or needs to support an online
learning population, here is an opportunity to take your
research to the next level. These Moodle sites are open for
to explore either as a learner or with permissions, as a
course creator.
Moodle For Language Teaching: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=31
What is Open Source Software: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=30
Using Moodle: http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5
remote-Learner.net for Educators: http://remote-learner.net/hsonline
remoter-Learner.net for Trainers: http://remote-learner.net/moodle
Created by Bryan Williams, modified by Don Hinkelman, 2004.6.4
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