How might we use the Moodle tools to support learning?
Example of moodle tools that can be used for learning are:-
News Forums- It can be used for announcement on key aspects of the course ie course expectations and competencies, dates for the course.
Email:- this can be used for general communication between the facilitator and students or for inquiry purposes, students may also mail their assignments or ask for clarification through email
Discussion forums:- for communication, collaboration and can also be used to receive mail
upcoming events block and calender: used to monitor when certain activities are due, keeps track of other important events
@Etyang, the cited examples of the moodle tools shows how effective the moodle can support learning.
Your right.... in fact we don't struggle for learning tools in Moodle. What we don't use enough is the Journal tool, that allows a non public communication between the student and the facilitator. Everything else about online learning is open but occasionally you do need a private channel. That's when the journal comes in handy.
I agree with you Patrick, Lecturers and learners can communicate and collaborate on Moodle using Forums; the lecturers can create topics or allow learners to create topics where members can post a reply.
I agree with you Lucy and Patrick in the 21st century we must look at skills that will make a learner relevant. skills like collaboration, critical thinking , communication skills and hence discussion forums can help learner achieve this.
@patrick these are good examples you have sited there.
Pedagogy to be complete, effective communication and collaboration need to be key, thus the above tools you have mentioned, plays a major role to ensure learning has taken place. Moodle is a powerful platform, that incorporates many ways of enabling communication and collaboratation to take place.
Patrick these points really support learning like the forums create a good platform for leaning without problem.
To add to what Patrick says in the current generation social media or what we call web 2.0 platform can be the best tool to use to achieve the best result pedagogically. Because it is becoming a necessity and hence can be used for educational purpose.
@ Etyang you have listed them all.
By using it as a platform to deliver content. Moodle allows loading of content on the wall or attachment of content from other apps, use of discussion forums, use of email as tools for teaching and learning
It's true that subject content is clearly displayed in Moodle. The organization of the content makes it easy to read.
@Anthony very true you can add and utilize the content.
yes antony to deliver and also assess and provide feedback. i really agree with you.
Chat groups also plays a very crucial roles in collaboration if I can add to what Antony says.
communicate daily to help maintain rapport using whats app or emails; as learning goes on, identify weak areas and notify students on how best to improve and respond quickly to their questions. Respect the students views and opinions and provide help where needed. Give a clear road map and suggestions on how to complete assignments.
@Leah....you are right.on e-mail... it provides a clear road map on what is expected.
@leah well said through the means you have sited it means that the participants have a readily available help/assistance.
E-mail can also be used to post the contributions of members of the group as a learning base.
WhatsApp for exchange of ideas and knowledge between participants.
very true leah a good facilitator should be able to know his/her students and provide assistance towards achieving the learning objectives
we ca use the tool to;
correct concepts that may have been misunderstood.
provide feed backs and encouragement to the participant.
To review units learnt previously
@Ichai, I agree with you that feed back, which is prompt from the facilitator will motivate the learners.
@Jason very clear points. possibly you could name a few tools to support your points.
Can LMS be used to provide feedback to participants, colleagues?
Yes, it can Mohamed. We are getting feedback from Moodle. eg everytime you post something on forum, you get an email on the same. Facilitators are posting marks and achievement Hats and I believe these are feedback
facilitators could use forums to reframe questions for discussion which are getting out of topic
@ jason exactly one can review and enhance them where necessary.
Presentation of the course materials and conducting discussions through forums and chats.
true barnabus course materials are presented as pedagogical approach
Chats and forums are also good
The facilitators can give learners assignment as zipped files and be resend back for marking.
Instant massaging for example can be used to explain a concept .
Social networks can be used to communicate to enables learners to link up with others around the world ,examples of social links like Twitter, Linkedln,Google+, You-tube among others.
All these should be geared towards opening a world of communication to the participants.
@Mary great points you have there with very clear examples of tools. One really can have an easy time navigating the moodle.
@mary Zipped documents can be downloaded and one can read them offline and respond online. Great work
@Pedagogical encompasses approaches that will enable delivery of instructions in online which can be through chats, forum discussions, instant messaging. In all these methohodological approaches will vary but culminate in effective facilitation in the online courses
Sure, @Etyang. They say there are several ways of killing a rat.. The methodologies might vary but the end result should be common.. You are right on this, l agree.
The Moodle allows a numbers of avenues to facilitate learning. One can utilize videolinks, you tube as a means of bringing live teaching into the learning process. Chats and discussion forums give the wider classroom an opportunity to share ideas on a given topic. These can be summarized for further use in the learning process. Via emails, important learning resources can be exchanged. The Moodle allows uploading of information that can be shared too in any format so long as it doesn't exceed the set capacity. Assignments can be given, marked and feed back given to the learners. This motivates them.
@Josphat well said write up. This indicates the many advantages the Moodle can provide.
@Onyacha, you really put up impressive arguments that depict your resourcefulness.. Keep it up bro, your contribution are valid...
Am in agreement with you, @onyancha important feedback can also be collected through these channels eg challenges faced by the learners in course coverage.
sure @josephat video link is another great tool
Moodle can be used when you want to kick off a new discussion.To get a reading response moodle assignments can be used. this will help to assign, collect and review students work. They provide feedback and grades on the assignment quckly and easily hence enable students workhard and formulate thoughts about what they read
@Emily straight to the point very clear points.
Chats and forum disscussions in the Moodle maybe used to facilitate learning. After the chats the moodle also offers a room.for the uploading of the summary for the participants to acess in the process helping those who didnt get a chance to participate in the chat.
In the disscussion forum as participants disscussion the given topic the Moodle provides tools that enable the participants and facilitators to upload images and even documents to support learning.
I have found chats and forums very educative. The ideas from different participants are greatly insightful and bring about perspectives that would be difficult to elicit during presentation of a lesson.
@Iren chat rooms are of great help as you have mentioned up there when summary is uploaded it can serve as a source of well gathered resourceful points.
Moodle is very vital in learning. We can use such tools like Emails where a facilitator can communicate with participants and respond to their needs. The learners can also use this tool to upload their work and also ask questions for clarification. WhatsAp is also another very effective tool that can be used to facilitate learning in a moodle platform. This provides a live chat between colleague participants and the instructor as well. Use of forums in the moodle is also another way of enhancing learning in a moodle platform. Members post their views or suggestions for others to comment. In the process, many people get to learn from one another. Use of video links like in skype is also another way of moodle learning. This enables the facilitatator communicate to the learner face to face though from far distances.
@Geoff I share your points well elaborated, this indicates that Moodle platform is fully loaded with goodies to support learning.
How to carry out pedagogical role:
Before the online course, begins, call the participants for a face to face overview of the course.
During the first week, introduce the course by highlighting main objectives and expectation of the online program through an e-mail.
Throughout the course engage the participants in a insightful discussions which promote competence in a given skill among learners using various collaborative tools.
During the last week of the online cause give a brief summary through video presentation of the whole course and administer the last examination.
Apart from wikis and blogs that have been mentioned as tools that may support learning on the Moodle platform, another tool that may be used is a Moodle quiz. In the Moodle quiz, one can:
- create quizzes with different question types
- randomly generate quizzes from pools of questions
- allow students to re-take quizzes multiple times, and
- Let the software take care of the scoring
This is right Lucy. The quiz will also help motivate the participant to keep on participating in the course.
when talking about pedagogy which also means training/tutoring a lot should be involved. In the Moodle we have a wide range of tools that support learning. we have tool that influence collaboration among members by giving information/instruction to follow, sharing what one has and finally reading what others have. Examples are the Instant messages, the chat room where discussions take place and so on.
The moodle has walls where information has been pasted to guide one through the learning process.
content can also be blended in the modle inform of direct links to the web, where one can also source some information to further his/her studies/research.
Tools like Whatsapp, skype, FB can also be of great through the pedagogical process.
@Stanley very explicit points there the moodle platform is good and it guides one throughout the learning process.
We can use the following moodle tools to support learning.
The open forum communication tool. This where the admin or facilitator can pose a discussion question and participants are required to respond. In making of their threads, participants are expected to reply to their comrades' posts. This creates a live discussion debate within the forum.
The chatroom tool. At this area all participants are expected to be online and discuss a topic with the help of the facilitators' moderation. This synchroniuos communication tool also provides direct feedback from the facilitators.
The callender which shows upcoming events makes participants aware and hence prepare adeqeately.
For this moodle there is the journal entry where participants can link to their facilitator in a more private case.
Within the moodle, a participant can also custermise notification of post from other participants or even from the facilitators. This enables the participants to follow the discussion even using a smart phone.
Indeed the moodlee is rich enough.
@Joel that's very rich information in-terms of collaboration where all as far as they are they are just like in the same room.
@Joel you are right the moodle is richly loaded and it enhances learning using various modes that suites different information.
@Joel you are right the moodle is richly loaded and it enhances learning using various modes that suites different information.
By use of videos to emphasize on a concept in the content being learnt. In addition videos can be used to explain or describe content that may seem abstract for the participants. The facilitators can create their own videos or they can provide links which will direct the participants to videos they can watch.
Moodle can be used by a facilitator to create a survey or a questionnaire that will enable him or her be in a position to know how much the participants know or do not know about the content, they are preparing to facilitate. This will give the facilitator ideas on how to deliver the content and how to support each participant through the course.
At the end of he course the facilitator can use the same approach of a survey or a questionnaire to gather information, if the participants have learnt, areas of improvement and the strong areas as far as pedagogy is concerned.
The pedagogical facilitation role may involve the various methods/means and techniques of content delivery that might be employed to support learning.
Where possible, initial face-to-face encounters help to encourage/motivate and focus the membership into a single entity team that is geared towards a common course.
The Tools that enhance online collaboration and interactive learning should be embraced by all. The moodle platform should contain a variety of educative links to the web to enable learners access and source for relevant information. Chat-rooms and discussion forums and quiz are very helpful towards pedagogical role as members post their views, opinions, suggestions and information, thus building up on the knowledge bank. Here, learners tend to interact with a lot of information and answers to their questions delivered.
Other tools of communication to pass on information and knowledge may include WhatsApp, Facebook, emails, YouTube, Skype. These could be used to relay information for purposes of learning.
Apart from being a resavour for information and content it can be used as a reference point where learners are allowed to go and get more on Amy topic to be covered. It can also help in scheduling the activities and most important its a way of assessing the learners progress and level of competencies.
I agree with my colleagues about the tools outlined in this forum. In my view, the hardware on which the applications operate are also tools and they support learning through Moodle. Example, the laptop, smart phone or comp I' m using to participate in this course.
video/digital camera in case sound recording and videos are required in the course.
Also audacity, in case sound recording assignment is required.
@mohammed you have said it... without these gadgets, this online course would be difficult to take.
we can support learning using moodle by making sure that the units are improved through assessing of previous learning experiences. we can also do this by providing discussion forums and posing relevant question to engage participants.
we can support learning by providing relevant activities and guidelines to projects as well as give feedback.
Ruth yes it is possible to assess learning a part of pedagogy through this moodle platform
On this role instructors revolve around facilitating understanding of critical concepts, principles and skills. This would encourage students knowledge sharing and knowledge building through interactive discussions.
Moodle tools support student led activities and collaboration. Learners are actively engaged as they have a chance to be creative and innovative and also contribute and participate, there is a wide range of features and resources and also supplementary. Students also get support and share ideas since it is inquiry and discovery based. Facilitators are also not left out as it also has administration tools to support learning
Janet these are very important learner centered strategies that fit online courses
We can use the moodle to seek consensus on issues.Participants are encouraged and acknowledged to sustain chats.The moodle can also be using to resolve any conflicts that may arise in the course of discussions and hence allow for conducive climate of learning
Moodle is great using discussion forums one be able to review the past activities and by giving a well structured statement you can be able to break the ice in a learning group.
As the course progress one can develop a form using moodle to summarize the course content and using the method you can be able to give the learner the feedback at the end of the course.