Project Format Repositories for Teacher Collaboration Don Hinkelman & Andrew Johnson Sapporo Gakuin University JALTCALL 2008 Conference, June 1 “A Moodle Repository for Quick Sharing of Paper/Online Packages”

Teaching Program A General English program at a Japanese University (Sapporo Gakuin University) 2000 students –4 required semesters of oral communication –8 majors, grouped by English placement test level 70 general English classes/week –Each class has a Moodle course for attendance –Over half of classes taught in blended learning rooms or computer laboratories –20-25 classes use Moodle LMS for various learning activities

Typical Teaching Scenario A teacher of general English classes at SGU –5 freshman classes / week –5 sophomore classes / week –All in blended learning rooms (as of 2008) –Generally same content in classes (some variations for level) –So a teacher might have 5 Moodle courses with the same content (need to duplicate/transfer online and paper materials among 5 courses) –No textbooks, teacher creates content Paper booklets on themes Online Moodle activities

Booklet Picture

Moodle Picture Get better picture

Questions How do I move and copy materials across my own courses? How do I share my materials with colleagues? How do I get materials from colleagues? How do I “package” pieces of lessons to put together in my own way? How do I “unpackage” whole courses that I can adapt, cut, paste, rearrange?

Answer? Repository

What is a Repository? A Broad Definition “A place where materials are stored in sufficient quantity; a store of information” Metaphor:

Problem with the iTunes Metaphor of a Repository Single file sharing; pieces of a lesson –Sound file: iTunes –Text file: EFL Handout sites –Image file: Flickr –Video file: YouTube

New Metaphor: “Project” Repository Our needs: 1.Single theme package: “Cooking”, “Introductions”, “Japanese Culture” 2.Multi-media packages: Video, sound, text, image together 3.Blended packages Combine online and offline activities Online: quizzes, surveys, assignments Offline: booklets, handouts, games Macro Micro File Project Course

Repository Stages 1.Making do with Moodle ( ) 2.Project Format (2008) 3.Public ( )

Stage 1 Repository: Making Do With Moodle

We uploaded Word files of project booklets in our teacher sharing area – one course. Students could not access this area.

In addition, we had another course to store online activities. For example, I did a unit on Japanese culture. I made these activities (many contain media files). Problem: I want to duplicate them into my 5 courses. With Moodle 1.8, how can we do this? We tried to use standard Moodle to duplicate in four ways.

Duplicating Approaches 1.Import Function 2.Backup / Restore Function 3.Site Files 4.Media Files Course

Course Files are all-or-nothing. No way to bring along just the files needed for the activities selected. 1. Import 2. Back-up & Restore

More Problems with Import All Course files duplicated—huge size Activities and resources are ordered by type—not the teaching topic Browsing teachers will not know which activities go together for the topic

More Problems with Import After import/restore, the activities and resources are scattered around the course page. Permissions – if a media file a quiz uses is in another course, only people with permissions can see it

3. Site Files Moodle A major limitation to using “Site Files” is that only administrators have access. Teachers do not.

4. Media Files Course

Stage 2 Repository: Project Format

The Project Format

What is the “Project Format”? The sections in a Moodle course (topic format or weekly format) are separated. Think in terms of ‘topic boxes’ (we refer to them as ‘project boxes’) Collect activities revolving around a theme in a single project box You can duplicate all the activities in a project box to any other project box on your Moodle site

Features of the Project Format Resource Upload –Saves time, auto-naming Course File Upload –Saves time, bulk selection Backup of a single section –Move/share to another site Import of a single section –Anywhere in the site

Each project box has an associated directory. All media files used in activities are stored in this directory.

Resource Upload: Quick way to upload a file and it automatically becomes a “resource” Course File Upload: Quick way to upload files you want to use in your quizzes, etc.

Import / Export

How to Install Project Format

Hands-on: Try the Project Format Open the browser on your screen Go to: Select the category: JALTCALL 2008 Take a paper with your assigned course –Eg: Course: teacher01 –User ID: teacher01 –Password: teacher01

Stage 3 Repository: Public

Stage 3 Features Version control Multi-level ratings and commenting Moderation and approval Incentives: contribution-based –Download only with contribution—barter economy –Receive points for contributions Standard format: Moodle format, 1.9? –Project format required?

Stage 3 Incentives Amount of points may depend on: Quality of uploaded files Popularity of uploaded files (download “purchases”) Standard format Labor contributed for reviews, moderation Labor contributed for site management

Stage 3 Focus Platform connection? –Independent server? –Moodle Hub server with moodle.org? –MoodleNet with partner schools? Content speciality-based? –English for engineers? –English for …?. Regionally based? –Japan teachers? Pedagogically-based –project-based learning?

Summary Repositories can be –For an individual teacher –For a group of teachers at a school using a common LMS –Global The Project Format allows –Quick sharing of projects

Project Format Repositories for Teacher Collaboration Don Hinkelman & Andrew Johnson Sapporo Gakuin University JALTCALL 2008 Conference, June 1 “A Moodle Repository for Quick Sharing of Paper/Online Packages”