How might we use the Moodle tools to encourage the participants to act socially while doing the course?
By encouranging one on one communication as well as group exchanges and making of new friends
@Nzioki, yes i too agree that communication is key and will help in socialization.
@Anthony ..you are right one has the opportunity to meet new friends and thus collaboration becomes strong due to diversity of views and ideas.
@Anthony ..you are right one has the opportunity to meet new friends and thus collaboration becomes strong due to diversity of views and ideas.
of course antony moodle platform is one to socialize and gives the participants opportunity to know one another in a more collaborative manner.
Making communication open and allowing exchange of ideas. Respecting each others opinions and views allows for healthy socialization process and this will help people make new friends.
@Leah, yes are on point about respect for each other's opinion. If you have to disagree with it, let it be with respect.
leah the exchange of ideas itself facilitates the learning process during socialization.
Social tools that can be used are the whatsapp, facebook provide instant message for constant motivation. This also offers bonding to members as a cohort. This becomes crucial as they face challenges they view it as a common problem- half solved and builds collaboration
@Patrick. .indeed their are vital when it comes to communicating challenges or reporting hiccups both to the facilitators and fellow learners.
Social tools like whatsapp are actually interesting to use since you are able to get other peoples views instantly and also make your own suggestions
@patrick the social tools in this platform surely enhances collaboration.
Patrick I'm in total agreement with you, and the part that I love most is the aspect that social tools enhances cohesive bonding amongst the cohort of students involved
@Patrick your points almost give it all. Good work
By providing discussion forum where participant can share their experiences and respond to others contributions
@icchai true, besides the chatrooms which bring all participants together at a common time.
very true @jason these forums help a lot in discussions as well as well interacting
Participants can send messages to individual colleagues. There may as well be organized collaborative projects such as a research on Online Course offered by some colleges and how the courses are run.
the messages can be send between the individuals participating and this enhances socialization.
The moodle tools like whatsupp, facebook, Skype, instant messaging among others gives learners the opportunity to share their views on experiences,share personal feelings about the course,exchange ideas on one on one with fellow colleques, know how others are faring on,encourage one another and energize.
The facilitators can also use it to communicate important information concerning the course ,for example,giving reminders for chats and deadlines for uploading assignment.
@Mary with the avenues you've mentioned participants can act socially hence having a common ground to of voicing issues of importance.
@kisach i agree.. imagine the nature of the course without these social platform tools? .......
Mary indeed the moodle tools open up unlimited space for both learners and the facilitator's interaction while sharing information.
To act socially means working collaboratively to a common goal, helping, advising and encouraging each other. In the moodle we have instant messaging services where participants can send messages to each other directly to assist or even encourage each other.
In the facilitators forum the facilitators can or may use it to communicate relevant issues like encourage members, advice members, notify members some important messages. Also the participants can use the same to give feedback on issues of due relevance, hence socializing.
@Stano,, socialization is key in the learning process.. You have done a good explanation here.. Keep it up..
@Stanley great points there instant messaging can help to reach the learner
Whattsapp groups can be used by learners to collaborate and even communicate.
The welcoming note by the facilitator at the beggining of a unit is also a good idea. It gives a brief summary if whatss expected and participants get to raise any unclarifiifed point in the welcoming noteu believe we have all seen that the Moodlethis avenue
@Irene, Social media groups indeed can be useful for socialization as the participants continue with the course. It will be important to keep on sharing our experiences right from the time the course starts till the end.
- By ensuring that the participants are aware of the social tools in the Moodle such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype, wikis, blogs, instant messaging, emails among others. There is need for the facilitators to ensure that group forums are established where all participants converge and share matters relevant to the course.
@josephat indeed you are right since the course really needs such tools for more collaboration. Participants have to a great extent learn from their peers. Only possible with these tools.
I can use forum_an activity where students and teachers exchange ideas asynchronously by posting comments. online discussion can also increase class participation.
Encourage the shy or quite students by texting them later on telling them how much you enjoyed their contribution in the group even if the contribution was minimal
@emily, sure an ordinary text say from the facilitator can pass important information concerning the course. Our phones do a great job.
How to carry out social role:
Before the course begins e-mail the participants of all interaction platforms available for them that they could use to feel the presence of the facilitator.
During the first week of the course prepare a welcoming video to invite participants to feel at ease throughout the course.
During the rest of the course set out a convenient time when you can interact with online participants through Skype.
During the last week of the course engage the participants through What’s Up group to tell you their feeling about the online course.
When using moodle the participants can be encouraged to use messages to communicate and collaborate with the other participants and the facilitator. Moodle enables the creation of groups, where the facilitator can group their participants into groups for better and healthy sharing of ideas. In addition creation of chat rooms, however the facilitator needs to collaborate with the participants on how well to moderate postings in the chat room, and the length of the chat room.
For any social event to be healthy, then the facilitator needs to first come up with ground rules that will ensure all the participants use the correct language, tone and netiquette standards to be met. This should be done in collaboration with the participants.
True @Grace. Facilitator has to lay down the chatiqete and should also warmly welcome the participants
Social Facilitation role is paramount ingredient for learning. It might need to socialize , network/interact with others or with other people's pieces of information. The moodle has provided avenues to enable socialization like in the chat-room where members have a few minutes to catch up on each other by way of greetings and welcomes before the main agenda of the day is deliberated upon.
In the discussion forum too, the moodle provides for a resource from which members bring their opinions, views, suggestions and pieces of information as they discuss upon topical activities, helping them to socialize with peers..
In addition, the moodle is endored with various communication tools whose purpose is to create linkage for socialization.. Some of these tools include the Internet, WhatsApp, Skype, email, links to YouTube, lnstant messages among others.. Therefore, the moodle has well addressed the issue of socialization as a facilitation role..
Yes Rock, especially when commenting on other members' posts. This brings out socialization clearly
By encouraging collaboration, sharing of ideas, descriptive introduction of one self, posing of probing questions that can stimulate discussion. Use of chat platform is very efficient for this aspect of socialization.
I agree with Geoffrey and add that we have as a requirement a need to comment on other profile and make sure when one is creating a profile at the background it is requirement to add a picture of where one come from. More so in ones cultural identity. That way we keep the discussion viral.
if the course is preceded by 3 days face-face, then introductions in the meeting room brings about socialization.
The Moodle should have an application for uploading one's image, location and a brief bio at the start or pre-course.This enable participants to identify each other by name and image. This should include contact information.
Activities involving group discussions, chat rooms, collaboration activities and problem-solving through the Moodle ensure social interactions and exchange of knowledge.
The social platforms such as whatsapp can really bring participants together most of the time since they form an open forum for collaboration. Facebook, twitter and even sykpe can also be used as social media tools along side the moodle tools. These avaneus create a conducive environment for participants to share multimedia files as they learn.
As participants, it will also make sense to come up with group email platforms which can be used for more collaboration. This can boost the chatrooms, journals and forums which are found within the moodle for the purposes of socializing as participants learn.
we can use moodle tools to encourage participants to act socially through:
- developing the welcoming introduction and the participants reply in this way you ensure continuous presence.
- giving messages to participants always in every stage and also providing collaborative activities like chattique regularly
I feel Moodle platform is the best to socialize and for us to achieve this we can tag every communication to acquire some points which will add up to the total aggregates even if not exam based. This will motivate the learner to communicate with friends and fellow laerners
We can provide introductory videos for the part we are to cover, organise collaborative activities such as chats and finally providing conclusions for any task undertaken.
This can be done by asking and encouraging good questions which would make learners explore through with the help of activities and resources on the course.
To add to what i said facilitators need to create harmony, group cohesiveness and collective identity. This can be done by encouraging participation, giving learners able feed back, attending to individual concerns and using friendly personal tone.
moodle tools offer a wide range of collaborative activities and they are very important in learning. Learners can exchange ideas, come up with innovative activities and post them for others to see, positively critique and learn from each other so long as there are clear guidelines on what to post and what not to post on these forums.
Moodle provides tools which promote ,interaction and social networking. These tools help facilitate a course in moodle. If you clearly align online activities and assessments with learning outcomes, you can use moodle tools to engage your students and manage their participation and this promotes active learning.
Creating a good climate for learning Janet
Janet, indeed some guidelines must be availed but they need to be simplified and extremely clear that they do not en-up making the contributors feel like they are in prison.
In fact for it to succeed, students should be involved while setting up online forum ettiqate
Express emotion, feelings and mood to connect with participants.Need to interact with participants by reading, attending, understanding and thinking about others' responses
The Moodle platform brings array of social tools like facebook, whatsapp, Moodle chat tool etc that encourage learners to embrace the spirit of collaboration while indulging in the learning process.
Facilitators on the other hand have the latitude of using emails to keep track of their students and also motivate them.
Facebook is one of the most used social network tool and if incorporated to the moodle it can help a lot. Whats app is another tool that can help learning and can also be incorporated into moodle for learning