Systems
Understand that we live and work within systems of cause and effect in which actions may have multiple consequences.
Artifact
Cyber Citizenship 101 – A Moodle Course
For the Moodle course please use enrollment key: CC101
Project Description
This project was my first endeavor into the creation of a course in an LMS system. I created a Moodle course called ‘Cyber Citizenship 101’. The course was created in response to Assembly Bill 307. This bill charges districts in California to “educate pupils and teachers on the appropriate and ethical use of information technology in the classroom, Internet safety, avoiding plagiarism, the concept, purpose, and significance of a copyright so that pupils can distinguish between lawful and unlawful online downloading, and the implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing.” The content of the Moodle was originally created in a Web-Quest format. As I explored this new Moodle tool, I believed that the needs of our teachers in learning this content could be better served through the use of the Moodle system. The fulfillment of a course requirement for EDTEC 700 – Content Management Systems was an additional benefit.
Outcomes
In order to create a Moodle course, I first had to get a Moodle education. Using primarily Atomic Learning and Moodle.org, I was able to figure out what Moodle can and can’t do. I learned how to create different kinds of courses where students work through a shared schedule or where individual students work through at their own pace (synchronous and asynchronous). I have come to understand some, but not all (yet) of the features for managing content, the interactive resources, and how Moodle can support time proven teaching strategies. I found that the support of those strategies couldn’t be found in the Moodle itself; I must create it using the tools that Moodle provides.
Challenges & Opportunities
Our district had been using the Cyber Citizenship web-quest for about a year with our BTSA teachers. It worked well, but after a year-end review, we wanted it to a totally asynchronous course. The use of Moodle will afford us the opportunity to move the content and create a totally asynchronous course. Moving the content was not the challenge. Figuring out how and when to use the features of Moodle as they related to the content, and to do that effectively, without creating cognitive overload, was the challenge. Once started, I became aware of how different on-line learning is from face-to-face classroom learning. They are uniquely different systems. The tools that a teacher uses, the time frame of the entire course, the teaching techniques and the management of a class of learners are very different between these two systems of instructing.
Lessons Learned
In development - As a classroom teacher for twenty years, I had developed certain ‘habits’ as they relate to course development. In course planning, I had always looked at the big picture and developed the details of the course structure as I went along. In a LMS system, I needed to develop all of the instruction and materials beforehand, as the entire course needs to be visible on-line from the introduction to the final session.
In presentation – As I thought about presentation of content, the differences manifested themselves again. In the classroom, the presentations are sequential and verbal. There are time constraints, hourly, and daily. All the students hear the same thing at the same time and usually only once. On-line, presentations are text-based, and can be non-sequential. Learners can review any learning activity and time they choose, and as often as they wish.
In interaction with learners- The interaction between teacher and learner in a classroom is direct, synchronous, verbal, and most of the time, one to many. Students ask questions and receive answers immediately. The teacher can sense the learner’s level of understanding. On-line, interaction can be asynchronous and synchronous, usually among all. These are sometimes hard to follow. I have seen that it can be hard to impose structure to the turn-taking in online discussions.
In synchronous discussions, the typing delay gets in the way of communicating, making the process frustrating. Fortunately, online discussions can be archived and accessed multiple times, helping to clear up confusion.
In interaction with teachers – In the classroom, I only interacted with students when class was in session. An online class allows learners and teachers to interact 24/7 through emails or within the LMS itself.
How to manage an online course is an enormous challenge, one that I am just beginning to understand. As an instructional designer, thinking about the differences between the classroom and online learning systems, I can begin to create content utilizing the convenience of online teaching and learning without feeling overwhelmed, or sacrificing instructional quality and learning outcomes.
