Last, but certainly not least I will be talking about Training. I’ll go over our basic outline of our training and what elements were included that made it successful. I’ll also speak about the importance of on-going trainings and user groups.

My co-worker, Ryan Semans, who was a TICT (Technology Integrative Collaborative Teacher) was the main Moodle Trainer. He developed and conducted the Moodle trainings. I was more of the techy Moodle administrator who worked on backend type issues.

Before a user was given course creator rights in our district they were required to be trained in Moodle. This was written into the grant and in my opinion, it’s a very important and beneficial requirement.

Ryan created a Moodle Training course which outlined a 2-day initial Moodle training. He created the course more as a guide instead of a “step by step” this is how you set up a forum, this is how you set up a chat. He focused on the Blended Learning Model and TPCK instead of bogging down the attendees with one way information that they would forget as soon as they walked out of the door anyways.

Outline of the 2-day training

In the morning of the first day the teachers are put into the student role and they enroll and participate like a student. Teachers need to experience and see Moodle like the student will, right? They use forums, watch videos, do online assignments, etc. In the afternoon they get course creator rights and they start exploring the course as a teacher. We go over course settings, activities, resources and see the teacher view of the course. We actually turned off a few activities like Lesson, Workshop and Compose a Text Page. Text Page because it’s the same as Compose a Web Page, but with less functionality. Lesson and Workshop were features we were not familiar with and thought it was a bit advanced for an initial training. You will have to decide which features you want on and off  but we had the feeling of the less users see, the less they worry and feel overwhelmed. Of course, these features can always be enabled in the future.

The second day we go over enrolling their students using separate enrollment keys automatically putting students into groups (this is a must for secondary teachers!) and a few other advanced things. Then the rest of the day is pretty much work time! Giving staff work time (we told them to bring their files, lesson plans, etc.) where they can actually start creating their course is a great idea and use of their time. I think Moodle is the type of tool that you have to keep using and use right away. It does take a lot of up front time to create a course but if you can enable the teacher to leave with a start on their Moodle course and with something relevant that they will use they are more likely to keep using it and remember more than if they were just getting the information and “how tos” told to them.

I think the most important thing about the training is having a trainer that understands how to use Moodle to create a Blended Learning experience. Ryan did an excellent job of creating the Moodle training course as a guide and not having tons of information on the course. Almost all of the training and things he said weren’t from looking at the Moodle training course, but information from his own experiences and knowledge!

While sitting through the dozens of trainings I picked out a few elements that seemed to positively impact the attendees.

Explain to users that Moodle is very robust and has a lot of features. They do not need to learn and use all the features. They should go through the training with a filter. What is your priority? What works for you? Do you only want to use forums for student communication and collaboration? Go ahead! Ryan spoke about this by having them participate in the “If I had to pick..” activity where attendees chose one of three items and we went around the room telling why they chose that item. After, he asked how each person came to their decision. Everyone had to prioritize and think about what worked for them, what was most important. The same thing happens in Moodle. What works for the teacher, what curriculum goals and content do you have? Go through the training with a filter – throw out the stuff you don’t think you’ll need and keep the things you think you will need. Remember, you can always go back and dig deeper once you become comfortable with one feature or function.

Another piece of information to get across to the staff was telling them that there is no wrong way to use Moodle and it’s features. Use the features however you like and sometimes you can accomplish the same task with more than one feature. Ryan never told staff “this is a forum and this is what it’s used for” because forums can be used for many different things – there is no right or wrong way to use it. The same thing goes for a teacher asking “I want to accomplish this task – which tool do I use?” There is no right or wrong answer (even though some people may want a black and white answer!).

Finally, we found that giving staff time to explore in Moodle and start to become more comfortable with Moodle’s interface was important. It’s impossible to train by lecturing and a giving one way information about each and every Moodle function. It would take weeks and it wouldn’t be effective anyways. Allowing staff to start working on their actual course content and letting them explore is a good use of their time and yours, especially if there are trainers there that can answer any questions as they being their exploration!

The last thing I’m going to discuss is the use of on-going trainings and Moodle User Groups. Moodle is the type of tool that needs some type of on-going trainings, work sessions or focused trainings on specific features. Every one of our teachers started off slow, but now have become more confident and comfortable with Moodle. As they became more comfortable with Moodle they were eager to learn more advanced uses and had more specific questions.

We started doing Moodle User Groups (MUGs) which were 2-hour, paid, after school sessions consisting of a small group (6-10 users) with two trainers. I talked about MUGs in a previous post but basically they are sessions for already trained users to come and have work time and be more 1-on-1 with someone who can answer their questions. Staff loved MUGs and it actually created a snowball effect when teachers from one department in a school got others from their department to attend and they started collaborating on their courses. It wasn’t only beneficial for users but it was awesome for me as well because I learned about minor and major issues that users were having that they’d probably never take the time to email me about or things they thought that just couldn’t be changed.

Unfortunately these sessions were funded by the grant to pay the teachers for their time. Now that the grant is done we don’t have that luxury. However, in a recent Staff Survey about Moodle in our district we had tons of requests for more MUGs and on-going trainings – possibly on specific features or more advanced things. Even though there is currently no funds for paid sessions I’m currently setting up a few MUGs at buildings with a lot of Moodle users. I truly believe trying to find funds for this type of thing would be well worth it. Users who attended gave great, positive responses and not just because it was paid but because they learned a lot from the trainers and their colleagues. It was cool seeing a majority of the high school department subjects come together and collaborate, sharing ideas.

Key Points

• Focus on the Blended Learning Model and the Pedagogy as well as Moodle’s features and functions.
• Put the staff in a student role, so they know how it looks.
• If possible, give them as much work time as you can.
• Provide on-going Moodle trainings and/or Moodle User Groups.

Related

• “How we implemented Moodle” Preview
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 1 – Idea to Reality
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 2 – Installation and Modules
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 3 – Customization
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 4 – Rollout

Next time on “How we implemented Moodle” – Wrap Up (summary, links to resources and specific tips)

In this post I will be discussing how we put Moodle into the hands of our staff. Who will have access? How was it decided? What was our vision of how Moodle would be used?

First and foremost, we did not force staff to use  Moodle. In my opinion, this was crucial – having people use Moodle and be at Moodle training because they want to not because they have to. My co-worker has this saying “there are 3 types of people at trainings – vacationers, prisoners and learners”. Vacationers – those who just want to get out of the building and don’t really pay attention. Prisoners – those who are there only because they have to and it’s mandatory. Learners – those who truly want to learn about the topic. We want Learners.

For our initial roll out of Moodle we made it available to a certain group of people in a program that we already had in place in our district. This program was the TICT Initiative which consisted of about 500 teachers who applied and were accepted into the program. Without going into too much detail if they were accepted they received equipment (an LCD projector and a wireless mouse and keyboard) and in return they were required to complete 15 hours of training and tech integration learning sessions. The reason we chose this group to be the initial users was because each member had a projector and could project large screen their Moodle course during the school day. We wanted Moodle to be used by teachers in school as well as students having access outside of school.

Our vision of Moodle was not just an online course that students access at home. Yes, we did want to extend the school day and have students work and collaborate outside of school but we wanted our teachers to use Moodle during the school day as well. It could be used for teachers to have all of their links and materials in one spot, showing embedded videos, showing students work, etc.

So TICT cadre members or anyone who supported TICT cadre members were the first to be able to create Moodle courses. Any person in our district’s system could log into Moodle as we use LDAP and active directory for user authentication for Moodle. However, for a user to be able to create a course I would have to give them course creator rights – so it was monitored.

If a staff member was “eligible” to get course creator rights they had to take the initial Moodle training. Mandatory training is very important and it will save you a lot of time answering “how do I” emails from staff. Also, in the training the blended learning model was discussed.  And before I get too far I’m going to abruptly stop because my next post is about training, so more on that later..

As far as the Moodle trainers there was one main Moodle trainer and I was there for more techy type questions. The rollout was further sustained and helped by Moodle Building Leaders. Moodle Building Leaders were staff who wanted to take on the Moodle trainer role for their school. It was voluntary and it was to help create more opportunities to staff to get trained since it was a requirement before creating courses. We made a Moodle Training course template for each school’s MBL and they customized it how they liked. This way there was some sort of consistency in training.

And again we get brought back to the training topic so I’ll sum up the Rollout topic. When we rolled out Moodle we started small but we had nice, quality trainings and we knew the staff wanted to be there and learn. We noticed that Moodle had sort of a snowball affect when teachers who had taken the training showed their Moodle work to colleagues. It perked the interest of their colleagues and created some excitement.

That’s it for now!

Key Points

• Don’t force staff to use Moodle.
• Mandatory training will save a lot of “how do I” emails you get.
  

Related

• “How we implemented Moodle” Preview
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 1 – Idea to Reality
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 2 – Installation and Modules
• “How we implemented Moodle” Part 3 – Customization

Next time on “How we implemented Moodle” – Training

In this installment of “How we implemented Moodle” I will talk about a “Blended Learning Model of instruction“, “equipment” and touch on the word “sustainability” as it pertains to equipment.

As I mentioned in my preview post this Moodle implementation was guided by a grant which contained specific objectives, goals, budget outline, timeline, etc. Having a well thought out plan was tremendously helpful and allowed us to assess the implementation at the end.

The first thing done was choosing the right program to create a Blended Learning Model of instruction. Moodle was compared with other LMS and was found to be the best fit. I won’t go into deeper discussion about this decision because this type of implementation plan will work for most other LMS, with maybe a few differences in specifics. In later posts I will touch more on the Blended Learning Model of instruction but let’s move onto how we went from an idea to reality with hardware and equipment.

We decided that purchasing our own hardware (server) and housing it in our district was the best way to go. I was in charge of researching hosting options for Moodle. I looked into several types of off-site hosting options like Moodle Partners and another local company we use for our information systems. There are definitely benefits of those options like the ease of having someone else setup and maintain the physical server, software and dealing with any future problems.

The drawbacks were that we wouldn’t have full control over Moodle or the server. It would be more difficult (or not even possible) to customize and tweak Moodle how we wanted. The second drawback was that we would have to pay each year for hosting until we decided not to use Moodle anymore and not using Moodle anymore was obviously not in our plan! Sure, purchasing the hardware for a server is a lot of money up front, but after years of paying an off-site hosting company it will eventually even out and when that time comes you don’t even own the server, you will still have to pay the hosting company! Also, in our situation the funds for the grant were gone in 2 years and it would be difficult to sustain that type of model. As I mentioned before sustainability was part (a very important part at that) of our goal.

I highly suggest a district to purchase their own server. Of course, each district is in their unique situation and has to weigh their options. Our district, being pretty large (20,000+ students), having sustainability an important goal in the grant and having the funds at the time made our decision easy to purchase a server. We purchased a fairly robust server knowing that we will need this server to handle continued growth. I know purchasing a server for Moodle will not always be an easy option for districts but keep in mind the long term implications before making any quick decisions based on up front costs.

Key Points

• Having a well thought out plan with objectives and goals gives you a nice guide along the way and allows you to assess the implementation.
• Make “sustainability” key. One thing I have learned is that staff hate having a tool and then it be taken away after they spent a lot of time and energy on it. In every training we told staff “Moodle will NOT go away. The software is free and we have already purchased a server for it to run on. The only way Moodle will ‘go away’ is if no one uses it.” This will reassure staff that they are not wasting their time creating something that could be taken away and Moodle does take a lot of up front time.
• When deciding to purchase a server verse off-site hosting think long term.

Related

“How we implemented Moodle” Preview

Next on “How we implemented Moodle” -  Installation and Modules

Our Moodle implementation was funded and guided by a 2-year grant we were awarded. The grant stated: “This grant will provide training, installation, tech support, and equipment, to implement and sustain a Blended Learning Model of instruction for students.”

My co-worker and I were the two main people in charge of the implementation. My co-worker, Ryan Semans, helped write the grant and was the Moodle trainer. I worked with more of the “back-end” and technical tasks.

Over the next few weeks I will be breaking down our implementation experience into main parts. Of course, every district is different and is in a unique situation. We were fortunate enough to have funds provided by a grant. This is in no way the best and only way to implement Moodle but it worked well for us and I hope you are able to take something away from our experience!

Disclosure: These are my personal thoughts and opinions and they in no way represent those of Osseo Area Schools.

Next time on “How we implemented Moodle” – Idea to Reality (a blended learning model, equipment and sustainability)