1. flong@knowplace.ca Frances Long What’s Moodle? (Why Should I Care?)

2. flong@knowplace.ca Our Time Together… Ask questions & interrupt

3. flong@knowplace.ca Knowplace & Moodle  Knowplace began in 2001 as a single teach and design online site in partnership with Capilano College (49 courses)  Developed our own open source LMS  Joined with Moodle in 2003 and offer Moodle training & hosting internationally  Developed 6 other sites in 2006 (2 are online conference sites)  Brought together the partners to Host the 1 st MoodleMoot in Canada in 2007 (online and f2f)

4. flong@knowplace.ca Knowplace Environment  Rarely meet in person (if ever)  Rarely hear voices  Very few photos  Talk through typed words  Talk through Internet (VOIP) We Work Entirely Online!

5. flong@knowplace.ca  Choose open source products only when there is a robust programmers community and a robust user community  Choose freeware only when there isn’t a viable open source alternative  Choose proprietary systems only when freeware and opensource don’t meet needs Knowplace Principles

6. flong@knowplace.ca Knowplace Online Facility Requirements Intake  An easy way for people to join our activities  Advertise activities  Calendar  Course Descriptions, dates (visible to guests)  Easy to open new courses  Easy methods to take money Programs, Courses & Activities  Discussions  Group projects  Self directed projects  Polls  Enrolment key protected  Re-use some courses (eg: change dates)  Track participants  Rate activities  Real-time Chats Exit  Quizzes  Assessments  Follow up

7. flong@knowplace.ca Growing exponentially!  200,000 Users World Wide  75 languages  184 countries  27049 sites  697 Canadian sitesCanadian sites Proprietary LMSs are falling out of favour Who Uses Moodle?

8. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle = Modular Object- Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment

9. flong@knowplace.ca What’s Moodle? My simplistic definition?  It’s a Virtual School House!  Everything you can do face- to-face you can do online in Moodle! (well… almost!)

10. flong@knowplace.ca This electronic environment is called….  Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)  Content Management System (CMS)  Learning Management System (LMS)  Learning and Content Management System (LCMS)

11. flong@knowplace.ca There Are Many Different LMSs!

12. flong@knowplace.ca LMS provide…  Information Storage and Retrieval (from anywhere)  Handouts on demand  Share site & course files (Substitute teachers can easily find information)

13. flong@knowplace.ca The ability to talk through forums, chats, and instant messages LMS provide…

14. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is … a software package designed to help educators easily create quality online courses.

15. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is Open Source

16. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is flexible! You can move things around! It’s open source

17. flong@knowplace.ca Open Source?  Free and available programming code that permits others to download the code, install the program and change the code to suit your interests = FLEXIBLE  Need an active programming and user community to support the software eg: Moodle.org  Many upgrades to meet community needs Freeware ?  Programs that are free to use but usually contain ads eg: Yahoo, MSN Proprietary ?  Programs that cost, and you can’t change the code or manipulate them eg: MS Office

18. flong@knowplace.ca Open Source Communities You can take from the community but you should also give back to the community How you give back… is up to you….

19. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Features

20. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle promotes a social constructionist pedagogy (which includes collaboration, activity- based learning, critical reflection, etc)social constructionist pedagogy

21. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is suitable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face- to-face learning

22. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle works with all computers – it has a low-tech browser interface

23. flong@knowplace.ca Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings, journal entries, etc) can be edited using Moodle’s WYSIWYG HTML editor WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get

24. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Courses can support many media formats for posting images, videos and sound files

25. flong@knowplace.ca Courses can be categorised and searched - one Moodle site can support thousands of courses Course listings show descriptions for every course on the server, including accessibility to guests

26. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle (What you can do with it! )

27. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Format/Layout…. The front page of Moodle and each course homepage contains: Moodle is based on three columns (in a table)  Administrative blocks on the left and right  The centre column contains the course content (activities & resources) The front page and the course home page are identical in format/layout

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29. Moodle.Org Home Page

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31. Moodle Blocks Each course homepage generally contains blocks on the left and right with the centre column containing the course content.

32. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Blocks Blocks may be added, hidden, deleted, and moved up, down and left/right when editing is turned on.  Over 16 different block types provide additional information or functionality to the learner by the teacher.  Many non-standard blocks developed by Moodlers that an administrator can add to this list.  Teacher also have a course administration block: backup/restore, enrollments, format, reports, grades, activity logs, files and other useful tools.  Latest News, Blogs, Upcoming Events, and Recent Activity are a few examples.

33. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Activities Activities that you and your students can do online

34. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Activities

35. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Activities  Chats and Forums: Communication and collaboration  Choices: Gain group feedback.  Wikis: Students work together on a project  Assignments or Workshops: Work submitted by students and marked by teachers  Quizzes: Several options for automatic scoring. You can even integrate your Hot Potato quizzes by adding a Hotpot activity.  Lessons & SCORM: Deliver content and offer ways of individualizing your presentation based upon a student's choices.  Glossaries: Key words can be added to by yourself or, if you allow it, your students.  Surveys and Databases are powerful additions to any course.  Many non-standard modules: not part of the official Moodle release

36. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Resources

37. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Resources Include almost any kind of digital content into your courses:  Text page is a simple page written using plain text.  Create a Web page with Moodle's WYSIWYG editor.  Link to an uploaded file or external website such as sound, video, graphics  Display the complete contents of a directory in your course files and let your users pick the file themselves.  Use a label to embed instructions or information in the course section.

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39. Roles & Permissions  Guest  Student  Teacher  Non-editing teacher  Course creator  Administrator  Site-wide  Front page  Course  Activities Create a role for parents to look but not have permission to “touch”

40. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle RoadmapRoadmap  Lists all the planned developments and expected release dates Moodle Playpen  A place to learn about the latest build Where is Moodle Going? Everyone’s excited about the new gradebook for v.1.9

41. flong@knowplace.ca How Moodle Problems Are Handled Tracker.moodle.org  Anyone can put in an issue  Bug priorities are sorted by votes  Third party modules

42. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle Summary

43. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is…. A flexible online learning tool or LMS (Learning Management System)

44. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is…. Used to communicate, collaborate and build communities around learning

45. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is… The most widely used LMS in the world and has been adopted by several leaders in online education

46. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is…. An online course workspace to store course files and build interactive learning activities. These files can be accessed by anyone, anywhere (with the right permissions!)

47. flong@knowplace.ca Moodle is… An easy way for staff and students to use the web for teaching and learning and can be accessed from any internet connection in the world

48. flong@knowplace.ca Continue Your Learning

49. flong@knowplace.ca What’s new today is ancient history in six months ! A single person cannot possibly stay up-to-date. Learning alone online can be confusing Relativity, MC Escher

50. flong@knowplace.ca Teamwork – working together is the key to making things easier and more productive – you should never have to struggle alone!

51. flong@knowplace.ca Look at how others use Moodle Moodle at Royal Roads Moodle School New Zealand South Peace Secondary SD St. Thomas Aquinas Ecole Saint Sacrament http://courses.eciad.ca/course/view.php?id=39 http://courses.eciad.ca/course/view.php?id=40 http://courses.eciad.ca/course/view.php?id=41