How might we use the Moodle tools to mangage the participants who are enrolled for the course?
These tools can be used to reach participants either when not available or when being given some communication e.g. an update
module tools can be used for forum and discussion facilitation, communication and tracking progress made by participants @Nzioki and @Ouko I agree with your input. As management tool forms a basis for control and moderation of the course as a result can be used as an accounting tool.
I think your idea of 'tracking progress' is the key. Once logged in we can track every online movement of a student, follow their digital footprint, more so than in a face to face setting. Moodle allows us to see how far into the course they are... or not. Then we can act appropriately to either find out why they are not engaged or even slow them down if they are going too fast.
@moore tracking students digital steps will enable the facilitator to tell the challenges the student is facing and offer possible solution. I agree with your submission
@Andrew, l noticed the mooodle has plenty of these "progress tracking" areas so much so that you can't fail to realize when you haven't adequately completed your activities... It was so helpful..
@Moore I agree with you and all above the key thing in learning is to establish the need of the learner, strong and weak areas and get away of assisting the learner. As I agree with you sometimes learner are too fast and as a facilitator one can tell and other are too slow hence the need of tracking the progress
participants can be managed by following and contacting them to participate if they are missing.
@Ruth it is true we can create a need to have a scheduled communication between the learner and the facilitator
Give an update of what is expected of them initially and follow up by talking to those who are not keeping up with others and offer assistance and encourage them. It is also important to encourage those who beat deadlines promptly.
@leah true said, however, you seem not to have talked of the management tools available in this moodle, and how they can be used. Probably the facilitators forum can support your argument.Lets keep analysing...
sure leah encouraging those who meet deadline with motivate the participants as well as the others
We can use it to:
provide updated participant progress especially on marks gained in each unit and on timely bases
We can use it to track participant participation in the course.
We can use it to set deadline for submission of projects etc.
@Jason I concur with your points in the moodle keeping track of participants is possible.
Agree!
yes jason an updated progress will help the participants keep track of themselves and check their grades.
Individuals can be reached through messages and reminded of missing assignments e.g portfolio or activities not yet completed. Important activities like chats can also be announced here and participants reminded through emails.
@Ikahu you are spot on sometimes participant assume they have completed sections of the course without being reminded of missing links can go unnoticed, and the nature of individual schedules a reminder can be kind enough.
@Barnabus that's a good explanation you have there.
yes there is also confirmation of work and assignments handed over.
Under the Moodle platform we have different tools which are utilized to manage the entire system. One way to manage the participants is that only the admin can enroll you to fully use the moodle. Well you can log in as a guest but your rights are limited. This means you can filter unwanted participants from interfering with the system.
Once in the system, the admin can manage and track the participants' progress through several ways.
1. Through the participation forums. it shows clearly your participations.
2. Through the chat sessions. The number of relevant post you have made.
3. Once you view a link there's a dotted/plain dialogue box which automatically assigns a command indicating that you have finished the task in the form of a small (TICK)
4. Also you can use the facilitatos forums to communicate to the participants.
5. You can also remove/ add participants as an admin.
6. You can also send messages to pass an information, to caution some errant members at apersonal level in a private way.
What am trying to say is that the Moodle tools are strategically designed to manage not only the participants but also the content through filtering content deactivating and activating some of the links embedded in them.
@Stanley. ..I concur with what you have contributed. ...they are self explanatory.
I agree with you Stanley, I was wondering once a link has been created why would management deactivate it again?
@Patrick thanks. There are some links may have expired, might run irrelevant in due course or some links deny access as some of the cases we encountered, where our facilitators had to chip in and assist in activating and even sometimes giving us participants other links to get the same information.
@stanley indeed you on track and you seem to have studied the course details on the part of management tools. Great.
Don't forget to use the 'Course Completion' tool in the top left hand corner to see progress. As a student you can see your own progress but an online facilitator will see a break down of all individuals in the class.
@Andrew i kind of wondered how a facilitator is able to monitor a learners progress yet one has to log in using a password.
Then the course completion tools is ideal to the facilitator. Whattsapp groups can be uses to track down a participant who seems.to be behind the schedule. At times as a facilitator you may not be able to track the participant, other participants may help you with other ways to manage the said paticipant. And this is what we call collaboration.
You have shed.some light to me.
@stanley well explained and elaborated managerial use of the moodle platform.
The quiz tool can be computer marked giving an opportunity for students to test their own progress. The blog is another tool that can be used in management of a learners progress. The blog allows students to reflect on and communicate what they have learned therefore enabling the facilitator to track and manage the learners progress in the course.
I do agree with you lucy self test make participant decide on way forward whether to proceed to another unit or repeat to read the unit
@Stanley these are brilliant ideas I agree any learning must have away of managing it. Even login in should aquire some points. More so No 6 having away to remind your learner privately on the progress will help keep them on track. agreed
Managerial skills on the moodle platform can vary depending on the nature of the learners bearing in mind the learners with special needs and disabilities.
Messages on how to log in to some sites and how to go about it needs to be communicated in time .
Contacts for those facilitating should be made available for the learners to be contacted in case one is stuck.
One needs to be prompt in updating the online grades in order to motivate the learners.
The facilitator should also communicate how the learners are progressing individually and also collectively.
Through proper managerial skill learners need to be prepared on what they are expected to do before,during and after the training.
@Mary that's a good write up you have there. With good management skills we all can benefit and work without prejudice.
- Tracking of what is covered and what is yet to be covered. The Moodle is made in a way that once the learner is done with a given section, it shows a 'YES' while incomplete section is indicated by a 'NO'. One can click on the 'details' to know what area needs to be attended to. The learners need to be made about this.
- Feedback on the assignments can be checked once an assignment has been marked.
- Facilitators' communication forum gives learners an opportunity to get important information from their facilitators.
- Profile settings gives the learner an opportunity to give details that include contacts that the facilitator may use in case he/she needs to have a direct contact over an issue related to the course.
- In nutshell, the moodle has enough management tools to ensure the course is managed sufficiently
The Moodle tools infused to this course really help participants put track of their progress. some of these tools are:
The facilitator communication forum ;where the facilitator posts welcoming note and instructions on how to go about doing a certain activity. The count down of activities done- on the top left corner also helps participants to know how many activities one has done and how many are remaining to complete the course. By doing this, no activity will be left undone.Moreover, the check boxes that should be ticked to affirm the completion of a certain activity does wonders. The facilitator should make all this aware to the participants at this stage for well management.
The communication contacts from the facilitator that include synchronious and asynchronious methods; including the welcome videos gives the students an overview on what they should expect out of the course.
@Joel welcoming video made us feel part of the group and hence I agree with you.
I can use the following tools to manage my participants
-Attendance block :to check participants attendance
-Virtual classroom system:allow complex online interaction
-Calender block:Display sites, courses and groups
-Chat tool:Allow students and teachers to have real time synchronous text based discussion in an online chat room
-Feedback:Student survey tool
-Forum: online discussion board where your student can post messages to each other and keep track on indivitual discussion
-Participants list: used to encourage participants
@emily indeed you are right and the moodle management tools you have highlited are available in this platform.It is upon the facilitator to use them well.
Your managerial tools are great @Emily
How to carry out managerial role:
Before the course commences, send to the online participants an e-mail describing how the course will be administered.
During the first week create facilitator-participants forum for communication for issues affecting participants.
During the rest of the course respond to the issues raised in facilitator-participants forum.
During the last week grade the online students promptly.
You are on point Collins, another activity that a facilitator may carry out before the course starts is to review any feedback that may be available from previous versions of the course. The facilitator should also get the expectations of the learners from the course as well as spell out the objectives of the course to the learners.
Well put Collins.It is good to approach it from phase point of view where there is what to be done at the beginning, during and finalising of the course
Moodle is a powerful tool to manage participants, from the aspect of putting deadlines in assignments, tracking when and how long a participant has been online, checking how active they are in discussions, having a checkbox that automatically becomes active once a participant finishes every activity, among others. In addition, moodle allows a facilitator to post grades for the participants after every assignment and feedback.
Managerial facilitation role may involve the means to incorporate measurements geared towards guiding, controlling regulating or focusing the learners in the desired direction in order to achieve particular objectives.
The moodle platform is enriched with several tools to aid the learners. Some of these include the login password where only the desired group of people can access the the platform, the rest can only access it as guests. This helps in eliminating any distractors.
The participants attendance is easily registered at the "participants online" block where no members can purport/claim to have attempted activities when in reality they did not attend class in the first place..
Progress of completion of activities is also available for the learners to check how far they are from completion of the various activities and tell whether they are on track. For instance, if the there are 15 activities to complete, how many have been attempted so far.
The chats, quizzes and the discussion forums to be covered have automatic ticks in readiness to click on completion of an activity,, this helps the learners to check and keep abreast with coverage of the and completion of activities.
@Peter, You seem to have exhausted sir. I will be repeating if I proceed. But I agree with your points.
As a managerial tool, moodle can be used to monitor the progress of different activities of a Unit. This role also involves guiding and assisting where need be. Guiding may involve reminding participants of the timelines or deadlines.
It also involves reminding students to participate if they are withdrawn, and guarding active learners from getting bored and maintaining a conducive online atmosphere to prevent loss of participants.
Tracking the participants and taking necessary interventions in terms of encouragements.
Dhidha sure, and the managerial skills and are well tailored to manage the students online and allows online community to support each other through collaboration, cooperation and opportunities to interact with the other learners online.
management using moodle tools can be done through:
- Following the progress of the participants and even contacting those missing in forums and activities which acts as motivation and also encourages them.I once experienced the same and was encouraged by this.
- Making sure that the grade book is updated promptly for the participants to get them in time this is also a motivation.
- one should also provide general format of the assignments to be done as well as the criteria.
Provide essential information like requirement for logging in, monitoring the activities of the students, provision of feedback on any given assignment and concluding topic in the course.
The moodle tools can be used to coordinate assignments,managing online discussion forums and handling overall course structure.
- We can use the moodle tools to create and customize roles and even change what a given role can do in each activity. one can also create permission in individual forums where you let students act as a moderators and you retain the role of the moderator throughout the course.
- You can also use groups to create study groups
- One can also assign new roles and permission and manage how participants interact with the course.
Reminding participants on the progress of the course is very important as well as contacting those students who may be inactive finding out what challenges they could be experiencing
- The administrator can reach the missing or inactive student using the moodle tool privately.
- It is very easy to give update on course progress and assignment grade.
- one can be able to provide the general information when needed and get the responce.