• “So you want to change the world?” – Colin Matheson
• “Climate Change, bigger than the science” – Monica Long
• “Global Warming and Climate Change” – Sigi Jakob Kuhn
• “A Climate for Change” – Kristian Still
• “Project: I can change the world” – Alja Isakovic

Over the pass few weeks, away from my day-to-day duties, I have been either Moodling or in Moodle conversation. Most of my time has been spent investigating and applying the new Moodle features, supported by a very useful purposeful training event lead by the fantastically enthused Mary Cooch. I have spent time reviewing the new Moodle admin tools, learning how to upgrade and adding blocks to Moodle and finally contributing to the Quality Assurance Testing of Moodle 2.1 and visiting the ‘tracker’ listings. The later providing invaluable understanding and broader appreciation of Moodle, to inform our own Moodle roadmap.

Planning the Move to Moodle 2.+

Having made the decision to target Sept 2012 here is our roadmap.

• August 2011 – Fresh installation of Moodle 1.9.11, Install Moodle 2.1 Dev site.
• Sept 2011 – Student Digital Leader training (day workshop plus online course).
• Oct to Dec – Staff focus group meetings. ‘What are the expectations for the VLE?’ Whole school benchmarking for course development, possibly linking to the BSG block. Staff expectations for Moodle 2.+ aligned with UPS Professional Attributes P2 and P7. Share VLE with ‘Parents for Parents’ focus group. Engage ICT and mentor programme to prepare whole school launch for Sept.
• Jan to Feb 2012 – Directors of Learning, Student Services and Mentor Programme meetings to plan and organise course infrastructure, repositories, scales and outcomes.
• Feb to Apr 2012 – Upgrade to Moodle 2.2. Staff advocate training with Student Digital Leaders (blended). DoL meeting – VLE review.
• Feb – Apr  2012 – Department based training programme.
• Apr – Migrate content to 2.2 production site. (Easter break)
• May – Launch ‘NEW’ VLE to staff.
• May – Directed time to developing VLE
• Jun – Reports to DoLs of BSG progress.
• July Upgrade to 2.3 if appropriate.
• Sept – ‘NEW’ VLE to all students through ICT and mentor programme.
• VLE to be added to teaching and learning observations and Performance Management.

There is a learning curve upgrading Moodler knowledge from 1.9 to  Moodle 2.0+. Notably the most anticipated Moodle 2.0 features, conditional activities and course completion, benefits ‘active’ participation (not discounting the impact of many other new features and UI improvements). To that aim I have been writing and road testing ‘Course Design 101‘ a training course for Moodler upgrade.

The course first requires a Moodler to think through course design and ‘blueprint’ a Moodle course over a gradebook framework and examples both conditional activities and course completion.

Second, the course requires a Moodler to build and then lead a course, with other enrolled users acting as their students. As a consequence they experience both ‘teacher and student’ viewpoints, for conditional activities and course completion.

As with many Moodle courses, you learn alongside  the students and I intend to make some revisions and additions over the next few weeks. For example, I am waiting for the new quiz engine, before adding a quiz and I really want to use the new blog feature.

Feel free to enrol and work through the course. Eventually, I aim to make it available for other Moodle institutions so if there is value in that idea, let me know.

Best in Show
“I can change the world” – Alja Isakovic

Runners up
“Surviving the Great iMoot Climate Change” – Drew Mortensen
“Global Warming and Climate Change” – Sigi Jakob-Kühn

The public favourite matched our own:

iMoot Peoples Choice
“I can change the world” – Alja Isakovic

Congrats to all of the winners!  Read more at http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/

While my personal favorite (Kristian Still‘s “A Climate for Change“) did not win, there’s always next year and I hope that Kristian will share his course on the Mooch so others can see how the game components of his design could be easy applied to other course contents and subjects.

Before I get to the ‘Using Feedback as the Lesson’ post, there are a couple of pedagogical reflections / questions I wish to highlight / discuss with you and hopefully, as it’s the holidays, you might comment?

A recent research study by Durham University would suggest that quality feedback from teachers is more effective in raising grades than homework, uniforms and smaller classes. More specifically, it outlined that giving pupils clear and effective feedback was “very high impact for low-cost.” If this is in fact the case, how best to use this feedback?

How do you get students to really read your quality feedback comments and not simply make a bee line for the summative grade?

Do you ever exclude the grade in order to encourage your students to focus on the feedback? (This is an enlightening exercise, I can assure you). If this is the case, when, if at all do you provide the grade?

Is the time it takes you to write quality feedback fully exploited? If so, how is this achieved?

Using Feedback as the Lesson

Here is one technique to get more from the quality feedback you offer using the Moodle Gradebook export feature.

After grading and writing the summative feedback into the Moodle gradebook, select export. Make sure you tick the ‘Include feedback in export’ option, de-select the unwanted assignments and export.

In this example, I exported included two tasks, a self assessment checklist grade and the assignment grade and feedback. To create the lesson resource, I simply copy and pasted the information into WORD and removed the student name, leaving the checklist and assignment grade and summative feedback comment.

In the next lesson, given a copy of the assignments, students have to decide which feedback comment belongs to which submission, of which, one belongs to them.

The subsequent lesson requires students to read not only their own feedback but also their peers. It calls into action a range of analytical and evaluative skills, that frequently leads to quite emotive learning debate. Significant negotiation and counter-argument skills follow as students vie for the highest grades on offer, in a game show style encounter. Although I have tried differentiated groups, top, middle and bottom grades, I have found mixed grade groups most successful, with the whole process adding real learning value to the time a teacher spends marking.

This used to be highly valuable, but arduous lesson to prepare. Photocopying then marking the assignments, typing up or separating the comments, cross referencing the grades and creating the groups, but now…. with Moodle upload assignment and gradebook export feature it was access the print, grade, export and copy / paste to WORD. With the option to reuse the lesson resource with other groups.

Have you used this technique before? What were your impressions?

Interesting, after this post was published a respected colleague tweeted a question. ‘Do you share scores with all students?’ The answer was no, it was just within the groups however I am not sure the scores need to be included at all? They do stoke the debate but it’s got me thinking?

I have spent a fair amount of time reflecting on course design and why the gradebook is somewhat of a late bloomer, in terms of Moodle core features. I don’t mean to harp on about gradebooks, but if you do think there is something in ‘gradebook inspired Moodle course design’ then here seven course design tips for you to consider.

Effective Course Design in Seven Steps

1. Think about a completed course, not the course you are about to build. What does it look like? Sketch it out. What outcomes do you wish the students to reach (include a total possible points and schedule of assessment so you can better plan how your gradebook will “add up”).
2. Don’t be put off by the gradebook, simply leave all the setting as ‘default’  or set the aggregation to ‘sum of grades.’ It is how many educators calculate grades (this will help #1 ensure your course adds up).
3. Design and build the gradebook, weighting the categories. Add outcomes and scales at this point also, you don’t have to use them if you don’t want to.
4. How will learning be measured? What are the assessments opportunities, for both learner engagement and administration. Where and how can Moodle accelerate learning? Make best use of self, peer and automated assessment (quizzes) and the use of dynamic  content (RSS), collaboration, chats.  If you’re going to give participation/quality points for activities understand that many of the Moodle activities require manually marking of students.
5. Apply an easy marking scheme, e.g. assignments 0/20, learning tasks 0/10 or award marks available as a reflection of time invested. 30 minutes 0/30 and hours task 0/60.
6. Schedule ‘air blocks’ into the course. Opportunities to allow learners to catch up, for revision, to retake quizzes, for diversion or even self-directed learning.
7. Design the learning pathway(s). How will the learn progress through the categories and order the gradebook.

With your gradebook built, your categories ordered, your course frame built, at that point you can apply the best practices for course design and aesthetics.  Planning ahead will allow you to focus on designing great learning assets and engaging learning pathways.

Helpful gradebook links:

• Moodle Advanced Gradebook: Weighted Grades (from Oakland University)
• MoodleDocs Grades
• MoodleDocs Grader Preferences

There were several really great courses designed, each using some of the new features in Moodle 2.0 like conditional activities.  My personal favorite was more about the content than the aesthetic: Kristian Still’s (@kristianstill)  ”A Climate for Change” included game-like course resources and activities where the student was on a mission to save the world.  The course included some really great audio based narration which I found very engaging (and brought me back to my non-computer game based classroom exercises and the excitement that a well executed fantasy scenario can bring to academic content).

Before the challenge was commenced there was also a course design panel featuring many of the most well-known Moodlers internationally: Gavin Henrick, Mary Cooch, Michelle Moore, Mark Drechsler, Julian Ridden, Tomaz Lasic and Joyce Seitzinger.  When it’s available I highly recommend watching the replay.

Below are a few screen shots of my favorite entries (and if you didn’t quite catch it yet, the theme was Climate Change).

Here’s a full list of his postings/recaps:

1. Day one Keynote: Gráinne Conole, Professor of e-Learning at the Open University
2. Day one AM sessions
3. Day one PM sessions
4. Day two Keynote: Martin Dougiamas
5. Day two knowledge cafe

Kristian’s created a great realtime resource for anyone who wants to get a feel for what’s happened on the ground in London at the UK Moot.  Check out his blog and twitter feed for more information: http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/ | @KristianStill.

Moodle resources are rarely inspirational. If anything resources and standard files are uploaded to fill courses. Barely interactive, resources are often used to fill course space.

You said we needed to add content, I added content.

As a result, resources are rarely discussed in Moodle conversation but just accepted expected to be there somewhere. So, I challenged myself to brighten and repurpose web pages. Webpages I so much more versatile that a WORD document. Copy the text from an office document (CTRL+C), paste it into the search bar (CTLR+V – removes all code), then copy it again (CTRL+A) before pasting into the webpage (CTLR+V again), to format it. The most useful point, if there is an typo, or the information changes, or needs revising, you are just one click away.

So here are my suggestions.

1. Add a splash of colour. Upload a icon pack to your course and regularly use colourful icons to direct student activities. Highlighters, folders, pens, notebooks or group work activity icons.
2. Think big. For this webpage idea I create a slide in Powerpoint, exported as a Jpeg. Uploaded it to Moodle and added it to my webpage. The resource was both the stimulus for the lesson and the lesson plan.

With the class separaget into groups, Alex, Mr Mackie and so on, the webpage was projected onto the whiteboard. As students worked through the task, uncovering key fact, they wrote their answers directly on the the projected image. Some students, even acted out “being the teacher,” which showed me they were enjoying their new role. When the task was conquered students transferred the notes to their work books.

I did learn that the extension activities perhaps need to be moved to the top of the page, but as its a webpage, that is a quick fix. Finally, the helmet icon proved a great puzzler. Only two students managed to make the connection between icon and task title, despite many trying. So, maybe webpages are Moodle’s ugly duckling.

Since writing this post, I have changed the image and text over, I think that works better.

So day two of Moodle Moot 2010 kicked off with a very interesting / reassuring keynote from Martin Dougiamas, Skyping live from New Zealand moot. This was in fact the first ever live link up of Moodle Moots and expectations were was running high following yesterdays very promising start.

@mikallaane: we are live via NZ MoodleMoot, this is gr8 #mootuk10 it’s going to be a fab seesion this morning with Martin Dougiamas

@nrparmar: a historic event is taking place! #mootuk10 and #mootnz10 are linking up live via webcams

Having surveyed the audience to find out that over half of the delegates were attending their first moot, Martin decided to give offer an overview of Moodle’s development to date… (I include the quote in case school Headteachers, college Principals or university Chancellors need convincing).

@thestubbs: 49,000 verified Moodle sites in 210 countries with over 34M users, at least 500 sites have more than 10,000 users #mootuk10

…before getting to what I expect the other half were keenly waiting for, Moodle 2.0. Now I know that ULCC recorded all the keynotes and will be sharing those, so we won’t delve too deeply, but we can safely assure you that we can expect (a raw but useable) Moodle 2.0 Beta release before the end of April (or Martin will cut features).

@nrparmar: @moodler‘s slides are available at http://bit.ly/bBXklQ #mootuk10

Everybody seemed to enjoy the keynote and many delegates shared their excitement for Moodle 2.0 during the Q and A, in conversation and tweets.

@mickelous: Files stored in database…easier to control permissions #mootuk10

@jamesmichie: RT @mberry: @moodler demo-ing image import from Flickr CC collection and licence metadata in Moodle 2.0 file tagging. V. nice. #mootuk10

The second keynote of the day saw James Ballard tackle numerous philosophical questions focusing on the “Lifelong Learning Skills in the context of 21st century learning,” concluded by Philip Butler who again pointed out, as others have done so also, that a VLE is never finished.

@ghymel: #mootuk10 Moodle extends the learning relationship between teacher and student and between students with each other in time and space

Finally, Geoffrey Rebbeck discussed how schools and colleges and other educational institutions are still struggling in their explanation to government bodies that education not longer finishes at the end of the lesson. Perhaps more poignantly for me, as I attended the conference with @Kristianstill and that fact we presented on ‘When technical meets educational,’ Geoff reminded the audience that Moodle is perhaps one of those rare occasions where educators and techies actually work together! For those of you who don’t know either of us that well. I am a techie and Kristian is an ICT teacher / Moodle enthusiast and by his own admission, learning IT networks as fast as he can.

@digitalmaverick: RT @alisonpope: final keynote … teachers and techies partners in providing inspiring learning. awwwwww group hug #mootuk10

So ended the Moodlemoot UK 2010. We hope all moodlers experienced a fulfilling moot and although this post focused on the keynotes, it is important to note that there were many more very informative and friendly workshops. We were fortunate enough to identify some future Moodle projects (@liveedu and a 2^nd review of Mahara e-portfolio) given by practitioners not more than 100 miles from Hamble College, yet who had not appeared on our Moodle radar until the moot.

Making these personal connections for us, has proven invaluable. Our thanks to the Programme Committee, to ULCC and their team, especially to Frank Steiner and Emile Smith – who made everyone genuinely feel, so very welcome.

Kristian Still and Craig Sumner are on location again today at the 2010 Moodle Moot at ULCC.  Check out their coveritlive session while listening to the keynote and join in if you’re on Twitter (Kristian’s blog post: http://kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?p=1562).

Click here to join them now, or click the image to open Coveritlive.