Moodle 3.x Teaching Techniques - Third Edition: Creative ways to build powerful and effective online courses with Moodle 3.0

Creative ways to build powerful and effective online courses with Moodle 3.0 About This Book • Unleash your teaching talents and develop exciting, dynamic courses • Put together effective online courses that motivate students from all backgrounds, generations, and learning styles • Find powerful insights into developing more successful and educational courses Who This Book Is For If you want to unleash your teaching talents and develop exciting, dynamic courses that really get students moving forward, then this book is for you. Experienced Moodlers who want to upgrade to Moodle 3.0 will find powerful insights into developing more successful and educational courses. What You Will Learn • Create a dynamic learning environment using different techniques • Motivate your students to collaborate and demonstrate what they are learning and to create projects together • Develop materials you can re-use in your future courses • Create online workshops and galleries for your students to make presentations about what they have learned • Engage your students in team work that helps them connect course content with their experiences and prior learning • Develop high-quality courses that will last to create a personal inventory you can use and re-use In Detail Moodle, the world's most popular, free open-source Learning Management System (LMS) has released several new features and enhancements in its latest 3.0 release. More and more colleges, universities, and training providers are using Moodle, which has helped revolutionize e-learning with its flexible, reusable platform and components. This book brings together step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions to leverage the full power of Moodle 3 to build highly interactive and engaging courses that run on a wide range of platforms including mobile and cloud. Beginning with developing an effective online course, you will write learning outcomes that align with Bloom's taxonomy and list the kinds of instructional materials that will work given one's goal. You will gradually move on to setting up different types of forums for discussions and incorporating multi-media from cloud-base sources. You will then focus on developing effective timed tests, self-scoring quizzes while organizing the content, building different lessons, and incorporating assessments. Lastly, you will dive into more advanced topics such as creating interactive templates for a full course by focussing on creating each element and create workshops and portfolios which encourage engagement and collaboration Style and approach With clear, step-by-step instructions, this book helps you develop good, solid, dynamic courses that will last by making sure that your instructional design is robust, and that they are built around satisfying learning objectives and course outcomes. Packed with plenty of screenshots and practical examples, you will get solid understanding of developing courses that are a success in the real world. Cover Credits About the Author www.PacktPub.com Table of Contents Preface Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Chapter 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 Index Creative ways to build powerful and effective online courses with Moodle 3.0Key FeaturesUnleash your teaching talents and develop exciting, dynamic coursesPut together effective online courses that motivate students from all backgrounds, generations, and learning stylesFind powerful insights into developing more successful and educational coursesBook DescriptionMoodle, the world's most popular, free open-source Learning Management System (LMS) has released several new features and enhancements in its latest 3.0 release. More and more colleges, universities, and training providers are using Moodle, which has helped revolutionize e-learning with its flexible, reusable platform and components. This book brings together step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions to leverage the full power of Moodle 3 to build highly interactive and engaging courses that run on a wide range of platforms including mobile and cloud. Beginning with developing an effective online course, you will write learning outcomes that align with Bloom's taxonomy and list the kinds of instructional materials that will work given one's goal. You will gradually move on to setting up different types of forums for discussions and incorporating multi-media from cloud-base sources. You will then focus on developing effective timed tests, self-scoring quizzes while organizing the content, building different lessons, and incorporating assessments. Lastly, you will dive into more advanced topics such as creating interactive templates for a full course by focussing on creating each element and create workshops and portfolios which encourage engagement and collaboration What you will learnCreate a dynamic learning environment using different techniquesMotivate your students to collaborate and demonstrate what they are learning and to create projects togetherDevelop materials you can re-use in your future coursesCreate online workshops and galleries for your students to make presentations about what they have learnedEngage your students in team work that helps them connect course content with their experiences and prior learningDevelop high-quality courses that will last to create a personal inventory you can use and re-useWho this book is forIf you want to unleash your teaching talents and develop exciting, dynamic courses that really get students moving forward, then this book is for you. Experienced Moodlers who want to upgrade to Moodle 3.0 will find powerful insights into developing more successful and educational courses.