Generating wider interest

As part of the Moodle training I always mention the fact that its possible to switch the editor into HTML mode and that way if you know a little about web page design, its entirely possible to hard code some features. I mention this because its resulted in a number of requests from staff for some training in HTML, and I wonder if other Moodle installations have begun to witness similar interest from their staff. Anyway I've have added my Website Design course to moodletraining.org.uk, its a bit more than a simple introduction but if demand is for something more light-weight I can always deliver in module form. I also see that we have now clocked up almost 56000 hits since the start of the academic year, with over 2000 during half term itself, bring it on.

More time for teaching

The Assignment hand-in feature in Moodle really came into its own this week, when I used it as a mechanism for collecting assignments, not just because you get to know if work is handed in on-time or even at all for that matter, but because with the particular type of work ‘Software Development’, models are refined until you produce something that logically works OK. With the assignment submitted on-line, I have been able to provide some initial grading impressions and timely hint-n-tip type individual feedback, a welcome improvement all round on the old weekly review slot, which I can now use for teaching, WOW!

Almost a crowd

I had a second request for the Moodle training course to be taken as a self study option yesterday, and when I went along to deliver the notes, cd and introduction to the system this morning, the whole staff room wanted in, so fine with me, instead of one 1 got 5, this is good news actually and if it works out fine.

Moodle learning at a distance

I ran another staff training session this week for Moodle and looking at the enrolments we now have 75 staff on the system, not bad. I beginning to realise however that given he demands on staff time, the opportunities for class cover so that you can attend a morning or afternoons training during term time are limited and with that in mind, next week I am going to try the first distance learning version of my course. When I say distance, I mean someone from the next floor in their own time, if it works, then this may well prove to be a model that I can even rollout beyond the college, we shall see.

Moodle Object posts made easy

I had an email the other day asking what I thought of the Moodle Object module, no idea, but I quickly got to the posting, click here to see, basically its provides an easy means of incorporating nln type materials into the vle, great. I emailed Clive our Moodle system administrator to ask what he thought and he must have been impressed because soon enough it was up and running, though not without the discovery, that it was not happy with our 1.4.2 live version of Moodle, though it runs fine with our 1.5.2 test system; to go live in January, anyway top marks for Clive. Our nln stuff had been Scormed with Reload, so I had to unpack it and ftp the top level folders up to the new repository. Then when you next go in to Moodle, switch Editing On and the Add an activity… drop down has an Object option, just select it and follow the dialog, superb, worked first time, congratulations and thanks to Helen Foster on a first class addition to the Moodle suit.

First light, well maybe

After my last post on the CMS / VLE debate, I have started to get some feedback on new learning materials at long last, this week my level 3 Software Development students currently working through Software Design methods where surprised by the arrival of an assessment (formative) on Tuesday afternoon, the colour did appear to drain from a couple of faces. Anyway following the work they were shown one of my new learning objects, a content only Flash movie that talked them through a model answer that included video and animation, after watching it they filled out a quick questionnaire; I acquired the actual questions from a Becta format, for anyone interested click here for the results. Though this is only a sample of 20, it at least gives me something to work on, anyway stay in touch for further results and please feel free to post any comments.