Moodle E-Learning Course Development

1. Moodle E-Learning Course Development By: William H. Rice IV Moodle is a free learning management system (LMS) that enables users to create powerful, resourceful, and engaging online learning experiences. Moodle an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Book Review E-Learning Concepts and Techniques Timothy N. Kuhn • Book Information: • 2006 PACKT • ISBN: 1904811299 • 250 pages This book shows Moodlers (Moodle Users) how to use Moodle to enhance their teaching. First this book will determine your student’s requirements and what Moodle can do for them. Next the book will show you how to use different features of Moodle to meet your course objectives. Everyone constructs knowledge through interaction with one another and their learning materials in a social way. This social constructionist learning ideology is key component of Moodle. This book will demonstrate how to add interactive activities, static learning material, and other social features to your courses that will help your students reach their ultimate learning potential. About the Author: William H. Rice IV is a training manager, a technical writer, and a knowledge manager. William lives and works in New York City, and has been helping people to incorporate technology into their work and training processes since graduating with a technical writing degree in 1088. His successes include developing training and documentation for Fortune 100 clients, hospitals, small businesses, and universities. His first book was User Training for Busy Programmers, ISBN 1904811450.

2. Moodle E-Learning Course Development Chapter Summaries Chapter 1: Learn about the Moodle Experience All Learning Management Systems (LMS) have some sort of approach that shapes the user experience and encourages a certain type of behavior and/or usage. Moodle is all about having the ultimate online learning experience. Whether is be web pages that can be explored in any order, courses that have live chats, forums that permit users to rate messages, online workshops that enable students and teachers to collaborate and evaluate one another’s work. Moodle also lets the teacher evaluate what students think of a course’s progress by using impromptu polls. These features and many more are what enables Moodle to create an active learning environment, full of diversity, and interaction. Chapter 2: Install and Configure Moodle In this chapter you will learn that most of the decisions you make while installing and configuring Moodle will affect the end result or Moodle experience. Chapter 2 covers the installation and settings, and assists you with configuring Moodle so that it operates the way you envision. Chapter 3: Create the Framework for your Learning Site Every course belongs to a category in Moodle. In chapter 3 you will learn to create course categories and courses. You will learn the implications of the various course settings which will permit you to create the experience that you want for each course. Towards the end of chapter 3 you will learn about the usage of the various blocks and how to decide which blocks to use for your framework. “This unique book gives you more than just a guide to the Moodle Software; it uses Moodle as a route to better teaching, more motivated students, and more successful courses.”

3. Moodle E-Learning Course Development Chapter Summaries “This book is for anybody who wants to get the most from Moodle.” Chapter 4: Add Basic Course Material Chapter 4 covers adding course material to Moodle. In this chapter you will learn to add web pages, plain-text pages, links, labels, directories, and many other kinds of static course material. And you will learn how to determine when it is appropriate to use these different types of course material. Chapter 5: Make Your Courses Interactive An interactive course is one that creates interaction between the students, teacher, and/or active web pages. Interactive course material consists of surveys posed by the teacher, journals written by the student and read only by the teacher, and lessons that guide students through a defined path based upon their answers to review questions, quizzes, and/or games. In chapter 5 you will learn how to create these interactions and how each benefits the online learning experience. Chapter 6: Make Your Course Social Student-to-student interactions is made possible through social course material such as chats, forums, and/or Wikis. Moodle offers these features and a powerful workshop tool that permits students to view and evaluate each others work. In chapter 6 you will learn how to best use the social features that Moodle has to offer. Implementing these social features encourages students to contribute, share, and evaluate. • “Moodle enables you to add five kinds of static course material.” • A text page • A web page • A link to anything on the Web • A view into one of the course’s directories • A label that displays any text or image.

4. Moodle E-Learning Course Development Chapter Summaries Chapter 7: Create a Welcome for New and Existing Students Having a public face is very important. In chapter 7 you will learn how to create your public face on your Moodle site. You may want to show a Login Page or maybe a Front Page of your Moodle site? You may want to require students to be registered or maybe you want to allow anonymous users? Each of these options affects the kind welcome new and existing students get when they visit your Moodle site. Chapter 7 shows you how to customize your welcome screen for new and existing students to ensure maximum results. Chapter 8: Use Teacher’s Tools to Deliver and Administer Courses To help teachers administer and deliver courses, Moodle offers several tools. Moodle can keep detailed access logs, grading scales, and collaborate in special forums. Chapter 8 will teach you how to use each of these tools. Chapter 9: Extend Moodle Moodle is open source software, which means members of the Moodle community are constantly developing new modules, etc. This book covered Moodle’s core modules and capabilities, however because Moodle is constantly evolving, it is impossible to cover every module that is or will be available. Chapter 9 mentions many of these modules and covers the installation of many of them. The PayPal module is one of these modules. This chapter covers how to use the PayPal module for pay sites and much more. “Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler.”

5. Moodle E-Learning Course Development Reflections I first heard about Moodle in our E-Learning Concepts and Techniques class and was intrigue to know more. So I decided to read Moodle E-Learning Course Development by William Rice IV. After reading and applying what I read, I find that Moodle is an easy to use and feature rich. And the best part is Moodle is open-source software which means Moodle is FREE and I love FREE. I would expect anyone that wishes to get to know the Moodle product would find this book to be of great value. My first impressions of the book were that it was easy to read and was rich with screen shots, and illustrations, making the material easy and obvious to understand. I find the books length of 250 pages appropriate and thorough without being too lengthy. I like the fact that the author, William Rice IV writes in such a way that I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist in order to understand and follow along. I also liked that each chapter has a purpose that builds on the previous chapters. Yes, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Moodle quickly and effectively. Pros The Moodle book is written with a clear explanation of the core principles required to get a full working understanding of Moodle. I particularly enjoyed the many screen shots which made grasping the material easy and obvious. Cons The Moodle book is specific to Moodle and not necessarily Course Management Systems in general, which limits the books value.

6. Moodle E-Learning Course Development Application and Judgments This is a great book packed with practical advice about creating a learning experience with Moodle. I would recommend on using the book early in order to plan out your site implementation. I would also use the book in conjunction with the Moodle help and tutorials that are available online. Be sure to use this book to make appropriate configuration choices for your needs when designing your Moodle site. And most importantly keep this book near and refer to often. In short this book is a great Moodle reference book with some helpful E-Learning ideology. “ One of the benefits of reading a book about a tool you've only explored and used to meet identified workplace needs is that you learn things you needed to know but didn't know you needed to know (e.g. Wikis in Moodle). You also pick up stuff you probably wouldn't have seen as relevant but now do based on the book explanation ”